But he had
scarcely seated himself in the rocking-chair before Miss Macy appeared,
carrying with both hands a large tin basin of unshelled peas.
"There," she said pantingly, placing her burden in his lap, "if you
really want to help, there's something to do that isn't very fatiguing.
You may shell these peas."
"SHELL them--I beg pardon, but how?" he asked, with smiling earnestness.
"How? Why, I'll show you--look."
She frankly stepped beside him, so close that her full-skirted dress
half encompassed him and the basin in a delicious confusion, and,
leaning over his lap, with her left hand picked up a pea-cod, which,
with a single movement of her charming little right thumb, she broke at
the end, and stripped the green shallow of its tiny treasures.
He watched her with smiling eyes; her own, looking down on him, were
very bright and luminous. "There; that's easy enough," she said, and
turned away.
"But--one moment, Miss--Miss--?"
"Macy," said louise.
"Where am I to put the shells?"
"Oh! throw them down there--there's room enough."
She was pointing to the canyon below. The veranda actually projected
over its brink, and seemed to hang in mid air above it. Mainwaring
almost mechanically threw his arm out to catch the incautious girl, who
had stepped heedlessly to its extreme edge.
Pages:
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29