“I must return home,” said Mrs. Foster, “but Melvina’s father will expect her to wait here for him; so, Luretta, you and Anna may stay with her until he comes. Here is a clean log where you can sit comfortably, and do not go far from this spot.”
The little girls promised, and Mrs. Foster started for home. Hardly had she turned her back when Melvina clasped Anna by the hand, and exclaimed: “Now you can tell me more about the woods, and the little animals who live in hollow logs or burrow under rocks, and about the different birds and their nests! Oh, begin quickly, for my father may soon return,” and she drew Anna toward the big log that lay near the path.
“Tell her about our rabbits, Danna,” suggested Luretta. “My brother Paul brought me two little gray rabbits from the forest,” she explained; and Melvina listened eagerly to the description of Trit and Trot, and of their cunning ways and bright eyes, and was told that they had already lost their fear of Luretta and Anna.
“I wish I could see them. I have never seen any little animals except kittens,” said Melvina. It seemed to Melvina that Anna and Luretta were very fortunate children. They could run about in old clothes, play on the shore and among the piles of lumber, and they knew many strange and interesting things about the creatures of the forest which she had never before heard. The long lessons that she had to learn each morning, the stint of neat stitches that she had to set each day, and the ceremonious visits now and then, when she always had to take her knitting, and was cautioned by her anxious mother to “remember that she was a minister’s daughter, and behave properly, and set a good example”—all these things flitted through Melvina’s thoughts as tiresome tasks that she would like to escape, and be free as Anna seemed to be.
“Mayn’t I bring the rabbits down here for Melvina to see?” asked Anna. “The box would not be very heavy.”
But Luretta had objections to this plan. Her brother had told her not to move the box from the sunny corner near the shed; and, beside this, she was sure it was too heavy for Anna to lift. “If you should let it fall they might get out and run away,” she concluded. Then, noticing Anna’s look of disappointment, she added: “I know what you may do, Danna. You and Melvina may go up and see the rabbits, and I will wait here for Parson Lyon and tell him where Melvina is, and that we will see her safely home; and then I will hurry after you.”
“Oh! Yes, indeed; that is a splendid plan,” said Melvina eagerly, jumping up from the log. “Let us go now, Anna. And is not Luretta kind to think of it?”
Anna agreed rather soberly. Mrs. Foster had told them to remain near the log, she remembered, but if Melvina saw no harm in Luretta’s plan she was sure it must be right; so taking Melvina’s hand they started off.
“Let’s run, Anna,” urged Melvina; for Anna was walking sedately, in the manner in which she had so often seen Melvina come down the path, and she was a little surprised that her companion had not at once noticed it. But Anna was always ready to run, and replied quickly: “Let’s race, and see who can get to the blacksmith shop first.”
Away went the two little girls, Melvina’s long braids dancing about, and her starched skirts blown back as she raced along; and, greatly to Anna’s surprise, Melvina passed her and was first at the shop.