Page:Dream Life - Mitchell - 1899? Altemus.djvu/68

 58 DREAM-LIFE.

feels, what a boy can never know, the dis interested and abiding affection of a sister.

All this, that I have set down, comes back to you long afterward, when you recall with tears of regret, your reproachful words, or some swift outbreak of passion.

Little Madge is a friend of Nelly's a mischievous, blue-eyed hoyden. They tease you about Madge. You do not of course care one straw for her, but yet it is rather pleasant to be teased thus. Nelly never does this ; oh no, not she. I do not know but in the age of childhood, the sister is jealous of the affections of a brother, and would keep his heart wholly at home, until suddenly, and strangely, she finds her own wandering.

But after all, Madge is pretty ; and there is something taking in her name. Old people, and very precise people, call her Margaret Boyne. But you do not : it is only plain Madge ; it sounds like her very rapid and mischievous. It would be the most absurd thing in the world for you to like her, for she teases you in innumerable ways : she laughs at your big shoes ; (such a sweet little foot as she has !) and she pins strips of paper on your coat collar; and time and again she has worn off your hat in triumph, very well knowing that you, such a quiet body, and so much