If you ate a carload of
watermelons in nine days, what part of a carload would you eat in one
day?"
At the mention of her favorite fruit, Matilda's eyes glistened, her
features relaxed into a broader smile, and almost before the teacher
had finished she had her answer ready and gave a correct analysis.
Watermelons had won.
At last the little clock that ticked away the hours on the teacher's
table pointed to the time for the noon intermission, and with a whoop
and halloo almost deafening, the pupils rushed out with dinner pails
and baskets to eat their luncheon in the shady woods.
Miss Harper led Alice away to her boarding-place across the fields.
Scarcely taking time to taste the different kinds of jams, jellies,
grape-butter, and other sauces set out by the hostess in special honor
of the young visitor, Alice hastily dispatched her dinner and was soon
back at the playground, where she found a bevy of girls seated on a big
grapevine which one of the larger girls was swinging backward and
forward amid shouts of glee. Nearby two gingham sunbonnets bobbed up
and down as their owners bent their heads to watch a speckled lady-bug
crawl up a twig.
"Lady-bug, lady-bug, fly away home,
Your house is on fire, your children will roam,"
repeated Esther in a low monotone.
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