Page:Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1903).djvu/34

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16
REBECCA

heartened. "That 's pretty good," she said encouragingly. "You 're warm but not hot; there 's a brook, but not a common brook. It has young trees and baby bushes on each side of it, and it 's a shallow chattering little brook with a white sandy bottom and lots of little shiny pebbles. Whenever there's a bit of sunshine the brook catches it, and it 's always full of sparkles the livelong day. Don't your stomach feel hollow? Mine does! I was so 'fraid I 'd miss the stage I could n't eat any breakfast."

"You 'd better have your lunch, then. I don't eat nothin' till I get to Milltown; then I get a piece o' pie and cup o' coffee."

"I wish I could see Milltown. I suppose it's bigger and grander even than Wareham; more like Paris? Miss Ross told me about Paris; she bought my pink sunshade there and my bead purse. You see how it opens with a snap? I 've twenty cents in it, and it 's got to last three months, for stamps and paper and ink. Mother says aunt Mirandy won't want to buy things like those when she 's feeding and clothing me and paying for my school-books."

"Paris ain't no great," said Mr. Cobb disparagingly. "It 's the dullest place in the State o' Maine. I 've druv there many a time."

Again Rebecca was obliged to reprove Mr. Cobb, tacitly and quietly, but none the less surely, though