"Grannie has promised to write to me, and I'm to write to her. How I shall love her letters! I know just how she'll write—she is so wise and strong, and yet so loving and kind. But what sort of letters shall I write to Grannie?
"Why, of course, I must tell her all my troubles, and how hard I am fighting—so hard! Then she must know everything about the wonderful victories I mean to win. How pleased she will be! I shall have plenty of battles to fight, for home is horrid sometimes—it really is.
"There's Bob; when Bob is in one of his teasing fits it's almost impossible to keep one's temper. But I mean to do it. Bob shall have to own that he can't make me cross.
"Then I do believe Clara is the most trying servant in the whole world. Well, I'm going to teach her that a dirty face and torn apron are a real disgrace, and I'll show her how to keep the kitchen just as Grannie keeps hers.
"I do wish I could persuade mother to keep the sitting-room tidier, and finish her house-work in the morning, and do her hair before dinner. If she'd only let me manage everything, I believe I should get on much better.
"Jennie and Pollie must learn to sew, and Harry to read, and Lucy really must leave her perpetual poring over books and take an interest in her home like other girls. And father—dear old father!—he shall have all his meals at the proper time, instead of scrambling through them at the last minute; and I'll keep his socks mended, and his handkerchiefs ironed. Yes, Grannie's quite right—there are heaps of battles to fight every day. I'll fight them, too; I'll manage everything; I'll be more than conqueror! Oh, how surprised and glad she will be!"
And Betty sinks back in her seat with quite a self-satisfied smile.
And still the fields fly past; they are flatter now; the woods have disappeared, and every now and then the engine rushes screaming through the station of a large town.
Betty eats her lunch of Grannie's apples and home-made cake. She is sad no longer. The battle-field is before her; she is eager for the fight.
"I'm glad now that things are so tiresome at home; there is so much more for me to put right. What a change I'll make in everything!"