"
"And he walked home with you across the field?"
"Yes, Cousin Evelina."
Then the two entered the house, and nothing more was said about the
matter. Young Evelina and Thomas Merriam agreed that their affection
was to be kept a secret for a while. "For," said young Evelina, "I
cannot leave Cousin Evelina yet a while, and I cannot have her
pestered with thinking about it, at least before another spring, when
she has the garden fairly growing again."
"That is nearly a whole year; it is August now," said Thomas, half
reproachfully, and he tightened his clasp of Evelina's slender
fingers.
"I cannot help that," replied Evelina. "It is for you to show
Christian patience more than I, Thomas. If you could have seen poor
Cousin Evelina, as I have seen her, through the long winter days,
when her garden is dead, and she has only the few plants in her
window left! When she is not watering and tending them she sits all
day in the window and looks out over the garden and the naked bushes
and the withered flower-stalks. She used not to be so, but would read
her Bible and good books, and busy herself somewhat over fine
needle-work, and at one time she was compiling a little floral book,
giving a list of the flowers, and poetical selections and sentiments
appropriate to each. That was her pastime for three winters, and it
is now nearly done; but she has given that up, and all the rest, and
sits there in the window and grows older and feebler until spring.
Pages:
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55