Eight Cousins
Chapter 1 - Two Girls Rose sat all alone in the big best parlor, with her little handkerchief laid ready to catch the first tear, for she was thinking of her troubles, and a shower was expected. She had retired to this room as a good place in which to be miserable; for it was dark and still, full of ancient furniture, sombre curtains, and hung all around with portraits of solemn old gentlemen in wigs, severe-nosed ladies in top-heavy caps, and staring children in little bob-tailed coats or short-waisted frocks. It was an excellent place for woe; and the fitful spring rain that pattered on the window-pane seemed to sob, "Cry away: I'm with you." Rose really did have some cause to be sad; for she had no mother, and had lately lost her father also, which left her no home but this with her great-aunts. She had been with them only a week, and, though the dear old ladies had tried their best to make her happy, they had not succeeded very well, for she was unlike any child they had ever seen, and they felt very much as if they had the care of a low-spirited butterfly.
_great_ Audubon."
"Would Miss Cobb let me see these drawings?" I asked, eagerly.
"She might; but she prizes them as much as if they were stray leaves
out of the only Bible in the world."
As Sylvia turned inside out this pocket of her mind, there had
dropped out a key to her sister's conduct. Now I understood her
slighting attitude towards my knowledge of birds. But I shall
feel some interest in Miss Cobb from this time on. I never dreamed
that she could bring me fresh news of that rare spirit whom I have
so wished to see, and for one week in the woods with whom I would
give any year of my life. Are they possibly the Henderson family
to whom Audubon intrusted the box of his original drawings during
his absence in Philadelphia, and who let a pair of Norway rats rear
a family in it, and cut to pieces nearly a thousand inhabitants of
the air?
There are two more days of June. Since the talk with Sylvia I have
called twice more upon the elder Miss Cobb. Upon reflection, it
is misleading to refer to this young lady in terms so dry, stiff,
and denuded; and I shall drop into Sylvia's form, and call her
simply Georgiana. That looks better--Georgiana! It sounds well,
too--Georgiana!
Chapter 1 - Two Girls Rose sat all alone in the big best parlor, with her little handkerchief laid ready to catch the first tear, for she was thinking of her troubles, and a shower was expected. She had retired to this room as a good place in which to be miserable; for it was dark and still, full of ancient furniture, sombre curtains, and hung all around with portraits of solemn old gentlemen in wigs, severe-nosed ladies in top-heavy caps, and staring children in little bob-tailed coats or short-waisted frocks. It was an excellent place for woe; and the fitful spring rain that pattered on the window-pane seemed to sob, "Cry away: I'm with you." Rose really did have some cause to be sad; for she had no mother, and had lately lost her father also, which left her no home but this with her great-aunts. She had been with them only a week, and, though the dear old ladies had tried their best to make her happy, they had not succeeded very well, for she was unlike any child they had ever seen, and they felt very much as if they had the care of a low-spirited butterfly.