Harper's Round Table, September 24, 1895

Copyright, 1895, by Harper A Brothers. All Rights Reserved.

The country-week girl came up the lane with her head in the air, so Gideon, who was watching her from the crotch in the old sweet-apple tree, afterwards remarked to little Adoniram.
After some hesitation Gideon dropped down at her feet. Aunt Esther had especially enjoined it upon him to be kind to the country-week girl. Aunt Esther would remember that he used to get under the bed when a girl came to see Phemie; but that was when he was small.
Is this Sweet Apple Hill? Be you Trueworthys? demanded the girl, looking critically at Gideon.
Yes, 'm, said Gideon, and then reddened and scorned himself because he had been overpolite. But the girl was tall for fourteen— Grazella Hickins, aged fourteen, the letter from the Country-week Committee had read—and she wore a wide sash and a scarlet feather in her hat and carried a pink parasol.
Phemie, who came around the corner of the house just then, saw at a glance that the finery was shabby, but Gideon thought that Grazella Hickins was very stylish.
Grazella dropped her bundle upon the grass opposite the front gate and seated herself upon it, meditatively. She did not arise from it as Phemie opened the gate, but she surveyed her with an air of friendly criticism; Phemie was fourteen too.
I like your looks real well, she remarked at length, with a trifle of condescension. Her glance sought Gideon and little Adoniram, who peeped from behind the friendly shelter of the big black-currant bush. I think boys are kind of—middling, she added. It was evident that a more severe adjective than this had been withheld only from motives of politeness. I've got an own relation, though, that's an awful nice boy—awful smart too; you never know what he's going to do next.
Little Adoniram pricked up his ears; Aunt Esther had been known to say that of him without meaning to be complimentary. City standards of behavior seemed to be cheerfully different from those of Bayberry Corner.