Page:George Weston--The apple-tree girl.djvu/47

 speak to Charlotte. I feel so ashamed I don't know what to do."

"What's the matter now?" asked her patient mother.

"Matter? Mmh! You know that ragged Neil Kennedy, the boy who delivers papers? Well, Charlotte's gone and fell in love with him!"

Whereupon, Micah's apples or no Micah's apples, Charlotte showed such a bright, sparkling glow of temper that Margaret shrank back and, not knowing what else to do, she burst into tears. At this Charlotte's temper went cool again and she stared at her pretty cousin, her beaky little nose so curly with disgust that it would have done you good to see it. "Yes," she gravely nodded to herself that night, "that's our beautiful heroine!" But she tried her best not to make Neil blush again, although she spoke to him whenever she saw him.

"It's too ridiculous!" she thought. "There I used to think that a rich young