Page:Leah Reed--Brenda's summer at Rockley.djvu/235

Rh People have to come gradually to take an interest in such things.”

“It’s very good in you, Julia, to be willing to pay the expense of getting the flowers to town.”

“Oh, no, it is n’t. You know that I have money to spare, and I love to spend it in such ways as this. Before you spoke, I was thinking about those children and the  flowers, and it made me feel quite melancholy that we  were going back to the seashore where it is so green  and beautiful, and so cool compared with the city. Another summer, perhaps we can plan to do more for the poor little things who have so little to enjoy.”

The train had now gone far beyond the bridges near the mouth of the Charles and the Mystic, past Charlestown, where the grim walls of the State-prison and the  gray spire of Bunker Hill Monument were seen fairly  near at hand. They had passed through the outskirts of one or two less interesting suburbs, and now they were  skirting the broad Lynn marshes, bounded far to the west  by woods and distant hills, and again, looking toward  the east, they had glimpses of the cool, blue sea. Yet Julia, delightful though she found the scenery through  which the swift express passed, still had a feeling of  dissatisfaction with herself. Why should it be her lot to have in prospect the delights of a summer by the  sea, when all those poor, pinched little children must  spend the long, hot weeks in the worst streets of a crowded  city.

“Julia,” cried Nora, “you look as if you were dreaming.