"You remember you haven't told me what you sent me for the Bible to show
me that unhappy--no, happy time--I broke the picture," reminded Marjorie,
leading the way to the dining-room.
VII.
UNDER THE APPLE-TREE.
"Never the little seed stops in its growing."--_Mrs. Osgood._
Linnet moved hither and thither, after the dinner dishes were done, all
through the house, up stairs and down, to see that everything was in
perfect order before she might dress and enjoy the afternoon. Linnet was
pre-eminently a housekeeper, to her mother's great delight, for her
younger daughter was not developing according to her mind in housewifely
arts.
"That will come in time," encouraged Marjorie's father when her mother
spoke faultfindingly of some delinquency in the kitchen.
"I should like to know _what_ time!" was the sharp reply.
It was queer about Marjorie's mother, she was as sharp as she was
good-humored.
"Linnet has no decided tastes about anything but housekeeping and
fancy-work, and Marjorie has some other things to be growing in," said
her father.
"I wish she would grow to some purpose then," was the energetic reply.
"As the farmer said about his seed before it was time for it to sprout,"
laughed the children's father.
This father and mother could not talk confidentially together five
minutes without bringing the "children" in.
Their own future was every day; but the children had not begun to live in
theirs yet; their golden future, which was to be all the more golden
because of their parents' experiences.
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