"Say, do these guys make you put on airs like this all the time?" she
asked incredulously of her table-companion.
"Like what?"
"Like eatin' with a fork, an' washin' every day, an' doin' yer hair over
whether it needs it or not?"
"If I had hair as grand as yours, they wouldn't have to make me fix it,"
said the close-cropped little girl enviously.
Nance looked at her suspiciously. Once before she had been lured by that
bait, and she was wary. But the envy in the eyes of the short-haired girl
was genuine.
Nance took the first opportunity that presented itself to look in a
mirror. To her amazement, her tight, drab-colored braids had become
gleaming bands of gold, and there were fluffy little tendrils across her
forehead and at the back of her neck. It was unbelievable, too, how much
more becoming one nose was to the human countenance than two.
A few days later when one of the older girls said teasingly, "Nance
Molloy is stuck on her hair!" Nance answered proudly, "Well, ain't I got
a right to be?"
At the end of the first month word came from Mrs. Purdy that she had
succeeded in obtaining Dan's release, and that he was back at work at
Clarke's, and on probation again. This news, instead of making Nance
restless for her own freedom, had quite the opposite effect. Now that her
worry over Dan was at an end, she resigned herself cheerfully to the
business of being reformed.
The presiding genius of Forest Home was Miss Stanley, the superintendent.
Pages:
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118