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What branches of the road to shun, which trails to choose, possibly, for gaining time, what places to water a famishing horse all these and more she learned with feverish interest. "Now a man would do this," and "a man would do that," said Billy time after time, till a new, fantastic notion came bounding full-fledged into Beth's anxious brain and almost made her laugh with delight.
Only the youngest Horton boy, in whose susceptible heart Beth's image was firmly enshrined, refused to change his allegiance; but in truth the girl enjoyed herself more genuinely in the society of one loyal cavalier than when so many were clamoring for her favors.
His utterance promptly ceased, together with his abominable activities and primping in the window. Van, who did not know that this creature had been Beth's particular annoyance, had crossed the room without a sound and laid his grip on Culver's collar. "You cur!" he said quietly, and choking the man he flung him down against the floor and wall as if he had been the merest puppet.
Who, for instance, could have supposed that a good striped jacket Jim had outgrown, and Mrs. Caldwell's love of grey, would have had much effect upon Beth's career? And yet these trifles were epoch-making. Mrs. Caldwell thought grey a ladylike colour, and therefore bought Beth a carmelite dress of a delicate shade for the summer.
Up to this time, Beth's reminiscences jerk along from incident to incident, but now there come the order and sequence of an eventful period, perfectly recollected. The date is fixed by a change of residence.
The rainwater barrel, half sunken in the ground, was at one of the rear corners of the house. "We are not allowed to play in that, I think," said Elizabeth uneasily. "That doesn't mean me, I'm older'n you. Here, give me the doll without a wig." Down went the beloved "bawheady" with a thud that carried desolation to Beth's tender heart.
"Looks like a river, I admit," he said, eying the placid stream. "That's a graveyard there quicksand all the way across." Beth's heart felt a shock at the thought of what could occur to a traveler here, unacquainted with the treacherous waters. "Good gracious!" she said. She added generously: "Couldn't I walk a little now, and share the horse?"
Can I do it?" asked Beth, a few weeks after that eventful call of his. "Yes, dear. It will please him very much, and be a nice way of thanking him. The girls will help you about them, and I will pay for the making up," replied Mrs. March, who took peculiar pleasure in granting Beth's requests because she so seldom asked anything for herself.
Beth's father had something to do with the firing of big guns, and she connected this with the gathering gloom, stories of God striking wicked people down with thunder and lightning for their sins, and her own naughtiness, and felt considerably awed. Presently a little boy was carried down the street on a bed. His face looked yellow against the sheets.
When they had laughed at Beth's story, they asked their mother for one, and after a moments thought, she said soberly, "As I sat cutting out blue flannel jackets today at the rooms, I felt very anxious about Father, and thought how lonely and helpless we should be, if anything happened to him.
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