What Katy Did by Susan Coolidge (best novels to read in english txt) đ
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âIs there really any fairy?â asked Dorry, who had listened to this narrative with open mouth.
âOf course,â answered Katy. Then bending down toward Dorry, she added in a voice intended to be of wonderful sweetness: âI am a fairy, Dorry!â
âPshaw!â was Dorryâs reply; âyouâre a giraffeâPa said so!â
The Path of Peace got its name because of its darkness and coolness. High bushes almost met over it, and trees kept it shady, even in the middle of the day. A sort of white flower grew there, which the children called Pollypods, because they didnât know the real name. They staid a long while picking bunches of these flowers, and then John and Dorry had to grub up an armful of sassafras roots; so that before they had fairly gone through Toadstool Avenue, Rabbit Hollow, and the rest, the sun was just over their heads, and it was noon.
âIâm getting hungry,â said Dorry.
âOh, no, Dorry, you mustnât be hungry till the bower is ready!â cried the little girls, alarmed, for Dorry was apt to be disconsolate if he was kept waiting for his meals. So they made haste to build the bower. It did not take long, being composed of boughs hung over skipping-ropes, which were tied to the very poplar-tree where the fairy lived who had recommended sassafras tea to the Fairy of the Rose.
When it was done they all cuddled in underneath. It was a very small bowerâjust big enough to hold them, and the baskets, and the kitten. I donât think there would have been room for anybody else, not even another kitten. Katy, who sat in the middle, untied and lifted the lid of the largest basket, while all the rest peeped eagerly to see what was inside.
First came a great many ginger cakes. These were carefully laid on the grass to keep till wanted: buttered biscuit came nextâthree apiece, with slices of cold lamb laid in between; and last of all were a dozen hard-boiled eggs, and a layer of thick bread and butter sandwiched with corn-beef. Aunt Izzie had put up lunches for Paradise before, you see, and knew pretty well what to expect in the way of appetite.
Oh, how good everything tasted in that bower, with the fresh wind rustling the poplar leaves, sunshine and sweet wood-smells about them, and birds singing overhead! No grown-up dinner party ever had half so much fun. Each mouthful was a pleasure; and when the last crumb had vanished, Katy produced the second basket, and there, oh, delightful surprise! were seven little piesâmolasses pies, baked in saucersâeach with a brown top and crisp candified edge, which tasted like toffy and lemon-peel, and all sorts of good things mixed up together.
There was a general shout. Even demure Cecy was pleased, and Dorry and John kicked their heels on the ground in a tumult of joy. Seven pairs of hands were held out at once toward the basket; seven sets of teeth went to work without a momentâs delay. In an incredibly short time every vestige of the pie had disappeared, and a blissful stickiness pervaded the party.
âWhat shall we do now?â asked Clover, while little Phil tipped the baskets upside down, as if to make sure there was nothing left that could possibly be eaten.
âI donât know,â replied Katy, dreamily. She had left her seat, and was half-sitting, half-lying on the low, crooked bough of a butternut tree, which hung almost over the childrenâs heads.
âLetâs play weâre grown up,â said Cecy, âand tell what we mean to do.â
âWell,â said Clover, âyou begin. What do you mean to do?â
âI mean to have a black silk dress, and pink roses in my bonnet, and a white muslin long-shawl,â said Cecy; âand I mean to look exactly like Minerva Clark! I shall be very good, too; as good as Mrs. Bedell, only a great deal prettier. All the young gentlemen will want me to go and ride, but I shanât notice them at all, because you know I shall always be teaching in Sunday-school, and visiting the poor. And some day, when I am bending over an old woman and feeding her with currant jelly, a poet will come along and see me, and heâll go home and write a poem about me,â concluded Cecy, triumphantly.
âPooh!â said Clover. âI donât think that would be nice at all. Iâm going to be a beautiful ladyâthe most beautiful lady in the world! And Iâm going to live in a yellow castle, with yellow pillars to the portico, and a square thing on top, like Mr. Sawyerâs. My children are going to have a play-house up there. Thereâs going to be a spy-glass in the window, to look out of. I shall wear gold dresses and silver dresses every day, and diamond rings, and have white satin aprons to tie on when Iâm dusting, or doing anything dirty. In the middle of my back-yard there will be a pond-full of Lubinâs Extracts, and whenever I want any I shall go just out and dip a bottle in. And I shanât teach in Sunday schools, like Cecy, because I donât want to; but every Sunday Iâll go and stand by the gate, and when her scholars go by on their way home, Iâll put Lubinâs Extracts on their handkerchiefs.â
âI mean to have just the same,â cried Elsie, whose imagination was fired by this gorgeous vision, âonly my pond will be the biggest. I shall be a great deal beautifuller, too,â she added.
âYou canât,â said Katy from overhead. âClover is going to be the most beautiful lady in the world.â
âBut Iâll be more beautiful than the most beautiful,â persisted poor little Elsie; âand Iâll be big, too, and know everybodyâs secrets. And everybodyâll be kind, then, and never run away and hide; and there wonât be any post offices, or anything disagreeable.â
âWhatâll you be, Johnnie?â asked Clover, anxious to change the subject, for Elsieâs voice was growing plaintive.
But Johnnie had no clear ideas as to her future. She laughed a great deal, and squeezed Dorryâs arm very tight, but that was all. Dorry was more explicit.
âI mean to have turkey every day,â he declared, âand batter-puddings; not boiled ones, you know, but little baked ones, with brown shiny tops, and a great deal of pudding sauce to eat on them. And I shall be so big then that nobody will say, âThree helps is quite enough for a little boy.ââ
âOh, Dorry, you pig!â cried Katy, while the others screamed with laughter. Dorry was much affronted.
âI shall just go and tell Aunt Izzie what you called me,â he said, getting up in a great pet.
But Clover, who was a born peacemaker, caught hold of his arm, and her coaxings and entreaties consoled him so much that he finally said he would stay; especially as the others were quite grave now, and promised that they wouldnât laugh any more.
âAnd now, Katy, itâs your turn,â said Cecy; âtell us what youâre going to be when you grow up.â
âIâm not sure about what Iâll be,â replied Katy, from overhead; âbeautiful, of course, and good if I can, only not so good as you, Cecy, because it would be nice to go and ride with the young gentlemen sometimes. And Iâd like to have a large house and a splendiferous garden, and then you could all come and live with me, and we would play in the garden, and Dorry should have turkey five times a day if he liked. And weâd have a machine to darn the stockings, and another machine to put the bureau drawers in order, and weâd never sew or knit garters, or do anything we didnât want to. Thatâs what Iâd like to be. But now Iâll tell you what I mean to do.â
âIsnât it the same thing?â asked Cecy.
âOh, no!â replied Katy, âquite different; for you see I mean to do something grand. I donât know what, yet; but when Iâm grown up I shall find out.â (Poor Katy always said âwhen Iâm grown up,â forgetting how very much she had grown already.) âPerhaps,â she went on, âit will be rowing out in boats, and saving peoplesâ lives, like that girl in the book. Or perhaps I shall go and nurse in the hospital, like Miss Nightingale. Or else Iâll head a crusade and ride on a white horse, with armor and a helmet on my head, and carry a sacred flag. Or if I donât do that, Iâll paint pictures, or sing, or scalpâsculp,âwhat is it? you knowâmake figures in marble. Anyhow it shall be something. And when Aunt Izzie sees it, and reads about me in the newspapers she will say, âThe dear child! I always knew she would turn out an ornament to the family,â People very often say, afterward, that they âalways knew,ââ concluded Katy sagaciously.
âOh, Katy! how beautiful it will be!â said Clover, clasping her hands. Clover believed in Katy as she did in the Bible.
âI donât believe the newspapers would be so silly as to print things about you, Katy Carr,â put in Elsie, vindictively.
âYes they will!â said Clover; and gave Elsie a push.
By and by John and Dorry trotted away on mysterious errands of their own.
âWasnât Dorry funny with his turkey?â remarked Cecy; and they all laughed again.
âIf you wonât tell,â said Katy, âIâll let you see Dorryâs journal. He kept it once for almost two weeks, and then gave it up. I found the book, this morning, in the nursery closet.â
All of them promised, and Katy produced it from her pocket. It began thus:
âMarch 12.âHave resolved to keep a jurnal.
March 13.âHad rost befe for diner, and cabage, and potato and appel sawse, and rice puding. I do not like rice puding when it is like ours. Charley Slackâs kind is rele good. Mush and sirup for tea.
March 19.âForgit what did. John and me saved our pie to take to schule.
March 21.âForgit what did. Gridel cakes for brekfast. Debby didnât fry enuff.
March 24.âThis is Sunday. Corn befe for dinnir. Studdied my Bibel leson. Aunt Issy said I was gredy. Have resollved not to think so much about things to ete. Wish I was a beter boy. Nothing pertikeler for tea.
March 25.âForgit what did.
March 27.âForgit what did.
March 29.âPlayed.
March 31.âForgit what did.
April 1.âHave dissided not to kepe a jurnal enny more.â
Here ended the extracts; and it seemed as if only a minute had passed since they stopped laughing over them, before the long shadows began to fall, and Mary came to say that all of them must come in to get ready for tea. It was dreadful to have to pick up the empty baskets and go home, feeling that the long, delightful Saturday was over, and that there wouldnât be another for a week. But it was comforting to remember that Paradise was always there; and that at any moment when Kate and Aunt Izzie were willing, they had only to climb a pair of barsâvery easy ones, and without any fear of an angel with flaming sword to stop the wayâenter in, and take possession of their Eden.
Mrs. Knightâs school, to which Katy and Clover and Cecy went, stood quite at the other end of the town from Dr. Carrâs. It was a low, one-story building and had
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