Page:Wiggin--Marm Lisa.djvu/84

72 month towards Lisa’s board. Untold gold could never pay for what my pride has suffered in having her, and if she hadn’t been so useful I couldn’t have done it,—I don’t pretend that I could. She’s an offense to the eye."

"Not any longer," said Mary proudly.

"Well, she was up to a few months ago; but she would always do anything for the twins, and though they are continually getting into mischief she never lets any harm come to them, not so much as a scratch. If I had taken a brighter child, she would have been for ever playing on her own account and thinking of her own pleasure; but if you once get an idea into Lisa’s head of what you expect her to do, she will go on doing it to the end of the world, and wild horses couldn’t keep her from it."

"It’s a pity more of us hadn’t that virtue of obedience to a higher law."

"Well, perhaps it is, and perhaps it isn’t; it’s a sign of a very weak mind."

"Or a very strong one," retorted Mary.

"There are natural leaders and natural followers," remarked Mrs. Grubb smilingly, as she swayed to and fro in Mary’s rocking-chair. Her smile, like a ballet-dancer’s,