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The front door was open, and before she reached the house she heard someone crying, and when she stood on the doorstep she realized that it was Luretta, and that Mrs. Foster was endeavoring to comfort her. "The rabbits are much happier to be free to run back to the woods.
"Well, Luretta Foster, I am surprised!" she said, and then clasping Luretta's hand she started to run down the path, saying: "Let's hurry, so I can take off this dress; then we will walk a little way toward the forest to see if Father and Paul are coming. Will you truly; give me the rabbit if Paul captures one?"
"And, Danna, perhaps Melvina has never seen the birds we call clams?" she suggested. Melvina looked from Anna to Luretta questioningly. These little girls could not be laughing at her, she thought, recalling with satisfaction that it was well known that she could spell the names of every city in Europe, and repeat the list of all England's kings and queens.
"Tell her about our rabbits, Danna," suggested Luretta. "My brother Paul brought me two little gray rabbits from the forest," she explained; and Melvina listened eagerly to the description of Trit and Trot, and of their cunning ways and bright eyes, and was told that they had already lost their fear of Luretta and Anna. "I wish I could see them.
"Let us hasten; the tide is coming in now, and Luretta will have taken our things up from the beach," said Anna, taking Melvina's hand and hurrying her along over the ledges. "I am glad indeed, Melvina, that we are better acquainted, and we will often wade together." But Melvina shook her head dolefully. "My mother does not like me to play out-of-doors," she said.
Melvina would balance herself on the very edge of the bluff, when she and Rebby, often followed by a surprised and unhappy Luretta, went for a morning walk. Or on their trips to the lumber yard for chips Melvina would climb to the top of some pile of timber and dance about as if trying to make Rebby frightened lest she fall.
"Do you think, Anna, that Luretta is quite sure to have my things clean and nice?" The two little girls had now come in sight of the place where they had left Luretta.
Anna had not intended to be rude or cruel when she first began her game of letting Luretta see that Melly and her possessions were of no importance, but Melvina's ignorance of the common things about her, as well as her neatly braided hair, her white stockings and kid shoes, such as no other child in the village possessed, made Anna feel as if Melvina was not a real little girl, but a dressed-up figure.
"I cal'late your ma didn't care much for the board at Luretta Smalley's," he observed. He couldn't help thinking the remark an odd one to make to a child. "Oh, I don't think she meant Mrs. Smalley's," explained Barbara. "She liked Mrs. Smalley's pretty well, well as any one can like boarding, you know," this last plainly another quotation.
"And are those not big alder trees, Melly?" she continued, pointing to a group of fine pine trees near by. Again Melvina's eyes followed the direction of Anna's pointing finger, and again the minister's little daughter replied politely that the trees were indeed very fine alders. Luretta was now laughing without any effort to conceal her amusement.
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