“Mrs. Elliott will never whip you—never,” exclaimed Di.
“Won’t she?” said Mary skeptically. “If I ever find myself in a place where I ain’t licked I’ll think it’s heaven all right. No fear of me telling lies then. I ain’t fond of telling ‘em—I’d ruther not, if it comes to that.”
The day before Mary’s departure from the manse they had a picnic in her honour in Rainbow Valley, and that evening all the manse children gave her something from their scanty store of treasured things for a keepsake. Carl gave her his Noah’s ark and Jerry his second best jew’s-harp. Faith gave her a little hairbrush with a mirror in the back of it, which Mary had always considered very wonderful. Una hesitated between an old beaded purse and a gay picture of Daniel in the lion’s den, and finally offered Mary her choice. Mary really hankered after the beaded purse, but she knew Una loved it, so she said,
“Give me Daniel. I’d rusher have it ‘cause I’m partial to lions. Only I wish they’d et Daniel up. It would have been more exciting.”
At bedtime Mary coaxed Una to sleep with her.
“It’s for the last time,” she said, “and it’s raining tonight, and I hate sleeping up there alone when it’s raining on account of that graveyard. I don’t mind it on fine nights, but a night like this I can’t see anything but the rain pouring down on them old white stones, and the wind round the window sounds as if them dead people were trying to get in and crying ‘cause they couldn’t.”
“I like rainy nights,” said Una, when they were cuddled down together in the little attic room, “and so do the Blythe girls.”
“I don’t mind ‘em when I’m not handy to graveyards,” said Mary. “If I was alone here I’d cry my eyes out I’d be so lonesome. I feel awful bad to be leaving you all.”
“Mrs. Elliott will let you come up and play in Rainbow Valley quite often I’m sure,” said Una. “And you will be a good girl, won’t you, Mary?”
“Oh, I’ll try,” sighed Mary. “But it won’t be as easy for me to be good—inside, I mean, as well as outside—as it is for you. You hadn’t such scalawags of relations as I had.”