“I shall skip like the roe upon the mountain-top. I shall sing hallelujahs with all my might, and my soul will take wings to the firmament on high with all the blue ethereal sky.”
“Well, my most emotional and dramatically inclined sister, let me give you one piece of advice. Don’t use high-flown language when you are writing your examination papers, and try to acquire a correct use of words before you do any stunts in English composition.”
Elizabeth looked sober. She was well aware that her use of words was open to criticism, for Miss Jewett was often quite severe upon her, but she did so like to flourish high-sounding words. However, it would be no time for the exercise of likes and dislikes, she well knew, and she determined to make a very earnest effort to curb her imagination when it came to such an important thing as an examination. “Kathie,” she said, very gravely, “I am really going to try just as hard as I can. I am, I am. If you see any way in which you can help me, please do it, and I won’t answer back or anything; I will take it as meekly as a lamb, I will, indeed. All you will have to say if you see signs of rebellion——”
“There, now! stop right there,” cried Kathie. “Couldn’t you say that more simply?”
Elizabeth flushed up. “What must I say? If you see that I don’t like it?”
“Yes, that is better. Well, then?”
“If you see that I don’t like it,” Elizabeth improved still further, “just don’t pay any attention, but go on chiding. Is chiding right?”
“Perhaps it would be better to say: Go on correcting me. Very well, honey, I will help you all I can.”
“What am I going to give Miss Jewett?” asked Elizabeth. “Betsy and I were talking about the wedding presents, mother, and she and Bess are both going to give something very, very nice.”
A little cloud came over Mrs. Hollins’s face. “I wish you, too, could give something very, very nice, but I am sure Miss Jewett will be quite as much pleased with some simple thing. She knows you are fond of her, and she also knows that we cannot afford as much as some of our neighbors.”