A Modern Tomboy | Page 3

and very prim, but that she shouldn't stand much in
their way. And then they paced about in the garden arm-in-arm, and
talked to one another, just, as Lucy said afterwards, as though they had
lived there all their lives.
Poor Lucy in every respect was her mother's opposite. Neither did she
specially take after her gentle, patient father, who was always satisfied
to make the best of things, his motto being peace on any terms, and

who was surprised now when Lucy ran up to him as he was pacing up
and down in the walnut walk at some distance from the house.
"Ah, my little girl!" he said when he saw her approaching. "Why, what
is the matter? How flushed your cheeks are!"
"And no wonder, father," answered Lucy. "If you could flush up at
anything you'd feel hot and indignant now. Oh, father dear, I wish--I
wish we weren't obliged to have those detestable girls!"
"What, Lucy! Have they come?"
"I should think they have. They'll waylay you in a minute or two."
"Oh, no, my dear. I don't specially want to see them now."
"Then let us go straight by this gate into the paddock. I don't suppose
they will find the paddock before to-morrow. Father, I don't think
mother is at all suited to keep a school."
"Lucy, I will not have your dear mother abused. Talk on any other
subject, but I can't stand that."
"I suppose it is very wrong of me."
"It is more than wrong. You can scarcely realize what a good, brave,
and noble woman she is. Who but she would have acted as she has
done lately? She has taken the bull by the horns and saved us from
absolute ruin. By her plucky ways and determination has she not just
kept our heads above water? My dear Lucy, you little know what might
have happened but for your mother's pluck and bravery."
"I know," said Lucy, softened on the spot. "But if she only
wouldn't--wouldn't make so free with them when they come, and if
there might be a little order, and if they could have been postponed till
the resident governesses had arrived. But now they are there, all of
them, as merry and jocular as you like, running about the place, racing
here and there, and devouring all our best fruit, tramping in and out of

the greenhouses and conservatory, and making such a noise just over
your study. It would be much better to give up Sunnyside--anything
would be better than this."
"I don't think so, and you will find after a time that you will like your
school friends. Your education will be finished without any extra cost
whatever. We are being very well paid for these girls, we know they are
all ladies, and your mother will be happy and in her element. How
could you turn your dear mother into a precise, stately woman? It isn't
in her, and you would not wish it to be."
"I don't know," said Lucy. "I think I would. But, father, you always
make me ashamed of myself. You, who suffer so much, are so good, so
patient."
"If I am good and patient it is because of my dear wife and my dear
daughter," said the man sadly. "And now, Lucy darling, go back to
them all and try to help your mother. The governesses will come
to-morrow, and the day after lessons will begin. In a week's time you
will see perfect order arising out of chaos, and you will be surprised at
your present feelings."
Lucy raised her father's hand to her lips. She loved her mother, but she
adored him, with his slight stoop, his scholarly face, his gentle smile,
his kindly eyes. There were few men more beloved than Professor
Merriman. He had given some really great books to the world, and was
a scholar in the truest and best sense of the word. When he instructed
Lucy, which he did now and then, she regarded those moments as the
happiest and most sacred of her life.
"Well, whatever happens, I have got him," she thought as she turned to
go back to the house. "And if it adds any years to his precious life,
surely I can endure anything. But I do hope he won't get to like any of
those girls. Perhaps he will. Perhaps he will even offer to teach some of
them. I sincerely trust none of them are clever. Oh, who is this queer
little creature coming to meet me?"
The queer little creature in question, dressed in brown holland, with a

small brown hat and cotton gloves, was no other than Phyllis Flower.
She ran up to Lucy, and stood in front of her, and said, "Is your