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nydus/Little WomenPublic

The story of how four young sisters grow to adulthood.

Page 414 of 653
Table of Contents

XXXI

compliments,’ on the card. Wasn’t that fun, girls? I like travelling. “I never shall get to London if I don’t hurry. The trip was like riding through a long picture-gallery, full of lovely landscapes. The farmhouses were my delight; with thatched roofs, ivy up to the eaves, latticed windows, and stout women with rosy children at the doors. The very cattle looked more tranquil than ours, as they stood knee-deep in clover, and the hens had a contented cluck, as if they never got nervous, like Yankee biddies. Such perfect color I never saw⁠—the grass so green, sky so blue, grain so yellow, woods so dark⁠—I was in a rapture all the way. So was Flo; and we kept bouncing from one side to the other, trying to see everything while we were whisking along at the rate of sixty miles an hour. Aunt was tired and went to sleep, but uncle read his guidebook, and wouldn’t be astonished at anything. This is the way we went on: Amy, flying up⁠—‘Oh, that must be Kenilworth, that gray place among the trees!’ Flo, darting to my window⁠—‘How sweet! We must go there some time, won’t we, papa?’ Uncle, calmly admiring his boots⁠—‘No, my dear, not unless you want beer; that’s a brewery.’ “A pause⁠—then Flo cried out, ‘Bless me, there’s a gallows and a man going up.’ ‘Where, where?’ shrieks Amy, staring out at two tall posts with a crossbeam and some dangling chains. ‘A colliery,’ remarks uncle, with a twinkle of the eye. ‘Here’s a lovely flock of lambs all lying down,’ says Amy. ‘See, papa, aren’t they pretty!’ added Flo sentimentally. ‘Geese, young ladies,’ returns uncle, in a tone that keeps us quiet till Flo settles down to enjoy The Flirtations of Capt. Cavendish , and I have the scenery all to myself.

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