“I’m sorry, Emily, that I cannot go out with you, but I really can’t do it. You know my ma requires me to spend my mornings in sewing or reading. I went out this morning without thinking, and without asking her consent. To make up for that, I must sew this afternoon. This evening and to-morrow afternoon, I will play with you as much as you please.”
“I say you are a very ugly creature, and I don’t like you one bit,” retorted Emily, as with pouting lips and flashing eyes she bounced from the room, slamming the door with a loud noise as she went out.
Poor Jessie felt wounded, and the big tears would flow from her eyes in spite of her efforts to restrain them. Smarting under the cruel words of her cousin, she felt an impulse to follow her, but again her eyes fell on the paper, and she resumed her work, saying to herself—
“Jessie Carlton, you must not mind the hard speeches of your cousins. Your resolution is right and good. Uncle Morris said so. Stick to it then, and by the time the quilt and a few other things are done, as Uncle Morris said, the little wizard will find Glen Morris Cottage too hot to hold him. I’ll keep my resolution.”
Just then, smash went some glass somewhere in the rear of the house. The crash was followed by a voice, which Jessie knew to be her cousin’s, saying—
“O Charlie, Charlie! what have you done!”
“I don’t care! It’s only the kitchen window,” was the reply.
Again did Jessie’s impulse move her to put down her work and run out to see what was the matter. But her purpose came to her aid again, and she kept plying her needle and saying:
“No, I won’t go out. It’s only that naughty Charlie throwing stones in at the kitchen window. What a bad boy he is. I’m glad he is going home soon.”
Another quarter of an hour passed without interruption, when the door opened and the bright face of Carrie Sherwood peeped in.