Miss Theodosias Heartstrings

Annie Hamilton Donnell
Miss Theodosia's Heartstrings

by Annie Hamilton Donnell

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Title: Miss Theodosia's Heartstrings
Author: Annie Hamilton Donnell

Release Date: September, 2005 [EBook #8865] [This file was first
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Miss Theodosia's Heartstrings
BY
ANNIE HAMILTON DONNELL
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY
WILLIAM VAN DRESSER

[Illustration: Slowly her delicate fingers undid the ravages of Stefana's
patient endeavors. FRONTISPIECE.]

To MY HUSBAND
WHO COULD WRITE SO MUCH
BETTER A BOOK AND

DEDICATE IT TO
ME!

ILLUSTRATIONS
Slowly her delicate fingers undid the ravages of Stefana's patient
endeavors.
"We've all got beautiful names, except poor Elly"
"If you are thinking of putting me anywhere, put me into a story like
that"
Evangeline established a stage of action outside the window

Miss Theodosia's Heartstrings
CHAPTER I
"Mercy gracious!"
"Well!"
The last utterance was Miss Theodosia Baxter's. She was a woman of
few words at all times where few sufficed. One sufficed now. The child
on her front porch, with a still childlier child on the small area of her
knees, was not a creature of few words, but now extreme surprise
limited speech. She was stricken with brevity,--stricken is the word--to
match Miss Theodosia's.
Downward, upward, each gazed into the other's surprised face. The
childlier child, jouncing pleasantly back and forth, viewed them both
impartially.
It was the child who regarded the situation, after a moment of mental

adjustment, as humorous. She giggled softly.
"Mercy gracious! How you surprised me' 'n' Elly Precious, an' me 'n'
Elly Precious surprised you! I don't know which was the whichest! We
came over to be shady just once more. We didn't s'pose you would
come home till to-morrow, did we, Elly Precious?"
"I came last night," Miss Theodosia replied with crispness. She stood in
her doorway, apparently waiting for something which--apparently--was
not to happen. The child and Elly Precious sat on in seeming calm.
"Yes'm. Of course if you hadn't come, you wouldn't be standin' there
lookin' at Elly Precious--isn't he a darlin' dear? Wouldn't you like to
look at his toes?"
It was Miss Theodosia Baxter's turn to say "Mercy gracious!" but she
did not say it aloud. It was her turn, too, to see a bit of humor in the
situation on her front porch.
"Not--just now," she said rather hastily. She could not remember ever
to have seen a baby's toes. "I've no doubt they are--are excellent toes."
The word did not satisfy her, but the suitable adjective was not at hand.
"Mercy gracious! That's a funny way to talk about toes! Elly Precious's
are pink as anything--an' six--yes'm! I've made consid'able money out
of his toes. Yes," with rising pride at the sight of Miss Theodosia's
surprise, "'leven cents, so far. I only charged Lelia Fling a cent for two
looks, because Lelia's baby's dead. I've got three cents out o' her; she
says five of Elly Precious's remind her of her baby's toes. Isn't it funny
you can't make boys pay to look at babies' toes, even when they's such
a lot? Only just girls. Stefana says it's because girls are ungrown-up
mothers. Mercy gracious! speakin' of Stefana an' mothers, reminds
me--"
The shrill little voice stopped with a suddenness that made the woman
in the door fear for Elly Precious; it seemed that he must be jolted from
his narrow perch.

Miss Theodosia had wandered up and down the world for three years in
be search of something to interest her, only to come home and find it
here upon the upper step of her own front porch. She stepped from the
doorway and sat down in one of the wicker rockers. She had plenty of
time to be interested; there was really no haste for unpacking and
settling
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