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RANDY AND HER FRIENDS
by
AMY BROOKS
Author Of _Randy's Summer_, _Randy's Winter_,
_A Jolly Cat Tale_, _Dorothy Dainty_
With Illustrations by the Author
Boston
Lee and Shepard
1902
Norwood press
J.S. Cushing & Co.--Berwick & Smith
Norwood, Mass. U.S.A.
Popular Stories
BY AMY BROOKS.
Each Beautifully Illustrated by the Author.
THE RANDY BOOKS.
THREE VOLUMES READY. 12MO. CLOTH. STRIKING
COVER DESIGN BY THE AUTHOR.
RANDY'S SUMMER. Price $1.00
RANDY'S WINTER. Price 1.00
RANDY AND HER FRIENDS. Price 80 cents, net
For Younger Readers.
A JOLLY CAT TALE. Large 12mo. Cloth.
Profusely Illustrated. Price $1.00
DOROTHY DAINTY. Large 12mo. Cloth.
Cover Design by the Author. Set in large
English type. Price 80 cents, net
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
Through the Fields
CHAPTER II
A Cheerful Giver
CHAPTER III
Gossip
CHAPTER IV
The District School
CHAPTER V
Randy's Journey
CHAPTER VI
New Friends
CHAPTER VII
The Little Travelers
CHAPTER VIII
Just a Rose
CHAPTER IX
A Scotch Linnet
CHAPTER X
The Party
CHAPTER XI
Timotheus and His Neighbors
CHAPTER XII
Home
ILLUSTRATIONS
Randy and Snowfoot (Frontispiece)
"I'll tell you just one thing more," said Randy
As she looked from the window and saw the flying landscape
As the smoke flew backward the flaming torch revealed the
sleeping children
Randy urges Polly to sing
Randy and Prue sat under the shadow of the blossoming branches
CHAPTER I
THROUGH THE FIELDS
The sunniest place upon the hillside was the little pasture in which the
old mare was grazing, moving slowly about and nipping at the short grass
as if that which lay directly under her nose could not be nearly as choice
as that which she could obtain by constant perambulation.
A blithe voice awoke the echoes with a fragment of an old song. The mare
looked up and gave a welcoming whinny as Randy Weston, Squire Weston's
daughter, crossed the pasture, her pink sunbonnet hanging from her arm by
its strings.
"Glad to see me, Snowfoot?" asked Randy as she laid a caressing hand upon
the mare's neck and looked into the soft eyes which seemed to express a
world of love for the girl who never allowed a friendly whinny to pass
unnoticed.
"My! but this August sun is hot," said Randy, vigorously wielding her
sunbonnet for a fan.
"And before we can turn 'round it will be September, and then there'll be
lessons to learn, yes, and plenty of work to be done if I mean to keep the
promise I made myself when I won the prize in June.
"A five dollar gold piece for being the best scholar, Snowfoot, and to
think that I haven't yet decided what to do with it!
"I've spent it, in my mind a dozen times already, and to-day I'm no nearer
to knowing _just_ what I'd rather do with it than on the day it was given
me. Did you ever know anything so silly?"
The horse sneezed violently, as if in derision, and Randy laughed gaily at
having her plainly expressed opinion of herself so forcibly confirmed.
Leaving Snowfoot to crop the grass and clover, Randy crossed the field
and followed a well trodden foot-path which led to a little grove and
there in the cool shade she paused to look off across the valley, and
again her thoughts reverted to the shining gold piece. Once more she
wondered what it could buy which would give lasting satisfaction.
"If I were in the city," she mused, "I should probably see something which
I'd like to have in the first store I came to, and I could buy it at
once."
A moment later she laughed softly as it occurred to her that in the large
city stores of which she had heard it would be more than probable that a
dozen pretty things would attract her, and her bewilderment would thus be
far greater than it had been at home with only a choice of imaginary
objects.
"If old Sandy McLeod who gave the prize could know what a time I've had
deciding what to do with it, I believe he would laugh at me and say in
that deep voice of his,
"'Hoot, lass! Since the gold piece troubles ye, I wonder if ye're glad ye
won it?'"
Randy in her pink calico gown, her sunbonnet still hanging from her arm,
her cheeks flushed by the hot summer breeze, and the short ringlets
curling about her forehead, made a lovely picture as she stood at the
opening of the little grove and looked off across the valley to the
distant hills.
She was thinking of the school session which would open so soon, when with
her classmates she would be eagerly working to gain knowledge; of her
longing for more than the "deestrict" school could give, of her father's
promise that she should have all the education she wished for, and the
light of enthusiasm shone in her merry gray eyes.
"I shall work with all my heart this season," thought Randy, "and if I
could do two years' work in one, I should indeed be pleased. I believe
I'll ask the teacher to plan extra work for me, and if she will, I'll--"
but just at this point she heard a clear voice calling,
"Randy! Randy!"
Turning she saw Belinda Babson running along the little foot path, her
long yellow braids shining in the sun, and her round blue eyes showing her
pleasure at sight of her friend.
"Why Belinda! Where did you come from?" cried Randy, "I'd no idea that
anyone was near me."
"I've been sitting on the top rail at the further side of the pasture, and
just watching you, Randy Weston," said Belinda, laughing.
"I was on the way up to your house when I met your little sister Prue, and
she said that you were out here, so I turned this way, and just as I
reached the bars I spied you a looking off at nothing and a thinking for
dear life."
"I _was_ thinking," admitted Randy, "and I was just wondering if I could
do two years of school work in one, when you called me."
"Well what an idea!" gasped Belinda, "you don't catch me doing more than
one year's work if I can help it, and I wouldn't do _that_ if pa didn't
set such a store by education.
"Why, Randy," she resumed a moment later, "what makes you in such a drive
'bout your lessons, anyway?"
"I'm sixteen this summer," Randy replied, "and I've no idea of waiting
forever to fit myself for something better than a district school."
Belinda looked aghast, and her round face seemed longer than one could
have believed possible.
"Randy Weston!" she ejaculated, "if you're planning to work like that the
whole duration time you won't have a single minute for fun, and how we'll
miss you!"
"Oh, don't imagine that I shall lose all the winter's pleasures, Belinda,"
Randy answered slipping her arm about her friend's waist. "I can study in
the long evenings and I think that I shall be able to join you all in the
'good times' which you plan and yet be able to do the extra work at
school."
"Well, I wish you joy," said Belinda, "but I, for one, get all the school
work I want in a year as it is, and as to extra work, I guess I'll get it
fast enough this winter, although it won't be lessons I'll be attending to
in my spare time.
"Ma got a letter last night when she rode over to the Centre, and Aunt
Drusilla writes that she's coming to make us a three months' visit, and
she's going to bring little Hi with her. And yesterday morning pa said
that Grandma Babson was a coming to make her home with us, so you might
guess, Randy, that Jemima and I'll have to step lively and help ma a bit."
"You will indeed have to help," Randy answered, "but won't it be fun to
see little Hi again?
"Do you remember, Belinda, when he was here last summer, he tried to
harness the hens and wondered why they didn't like it?"
"I had forgotten that," said Belinda, "but Jemima reminded me this morning
of the day that pa lost his spectacles. Every one in the house hunted for
those glasses, and at last Jemima ran out into the door-yard, and there
was little Hi with the spectacles on his nose, a peering into the rain
water barrel and holding onto those specs to keep them from tumbling off
into the water. He said that pa said there were critters in any water, and
as he couldn't see 'em he ran off with the glasses to see if they would
help him. He tied our old Tom to the mouse trap because he said that he
wanted the cat to be on hand when the mice ran in. He carried a squash pie
out to the brindle cow because he thought she must be tired of eating
nothing but grass, and if he and Grandma Babson have got to spend three
months under the same roof, I b'lieve he'll drive her crazy, for she
hates boys and don't mind saying so, and he can think of more mischief in
one day than any other child could in a week."
Both girls laughed as they thought of little Hi's pranks and Randy said,
with a bright twinkle in her eyes,
"At least, you and Jemima will be amused this winter."
"I guess we shall be in more ways than one," assented Belinda, "for I'm
pretty sure that Grandma Babson and that small boy will be enemies from
the start."
Belinda's habitually jolly face wore such a comical look of anxiety that
Randy refrained from laughing, and to change the subject asked for a
schoolmate whom she had not recently seen. "Where is Molly Wilson?" she
questioned.
"Oh, Molly is so hard at work now it's only once in a while that I see
her. Her baby sister is ill, and Molly has no time for anything but
helping around home. Her mother says that she intends to have her go back
to school if she can spare her, but whatever do you suppose Molly meant?
"She said to me, 'Belinda, even if mother can spare me, I may not go to
school. You can't think how anxious I am to be at work at my lessons
again, but I'm afraid I shan't look fit and father's had such a hard
summer, the farm hasn't paid for working it, he says, that I couldn't ask
him for anything for myself if I never had it.'
"And oh, I never thought, Randy, I promised Molly I would not tell what
she said. I didn't mean to. Whatever made me forget?"
"Never mind," said Randy, an odd little smile showing the dimples at the
corners of her mouth.
"I will not tell a single girl you may be very sure, but you and I who
know it will be extra kind to Molly."
"Indeed we will," assented Belinda. "I'll go over this afternoon and see
if I can help her. The baby is a sweet little thing and she likes me, so
perhaps I shall be some help. Oh, there's Jemima calling at the bars, I
guess ma wants me. My! I wonder if some of our company has arrived?
"Remember not to tell what I told you," cried Belinda to Randy, who stood
looking after her friend, as she ran across the pasture to join Jemima.
They turned to wave their hands to Randy, who responded, then, as they
disappeared behind a clump of trees, she turned her eyes toward the sunny
valley and with her hands loosely clasped seemed to be watching the
shimmering sunlight on the winding river below.
She had long been standing thus when a gentle whinny made her turn to
offer the caress for which old Snowfoot was hinting.
The horse laid a shaggy head against Randy's shoulder and edged nearer as
the girl patted her nose, then walking over to a large rock she stood
close beside it and began to neigh, at the same time looking fixedly at
Randy.
"Oh you cunning old thing," said Randy with a laugh.
"You're inviting me to ride, just as you always do, by walking up to that
big flat rock so that I can mount. Well you old dear," she continued as
she stepped upon the rock and prepared to seat herself upon Snowfoot's
back,
"I've found out what to do with that precious gold piece, and I'm going to
do it."
Then without saddle or bridle, but with a firm grasp upon the shaggy mane
she chirped to her steed and the horse pricking up her ears at the sound,
bounded forward, and proud of her charge carried her across the pasture to
the bars where little Prue stood waiting to meet her.
It was evident that the little sister had wonderful news to tell, for her
brown eyes were very wide open and she could hardly wait for Randy to slip
down from Snowfoot's back before beginning to tell what so excited her.
"Oh, what do you think!" she began when with her hand in Randy's they
trudged along towards home.
"My Tabby's caught a mouse, and father's just come back from the Centre
and he's brought the cloth for a new dress for you'n me, 'n I picked holes
in the bundles, an' one's blue an' one's red an' which do you s'pose is
mine? And Aunt Prudence is comin' to see us next week, an' there's goin'
to be a new spout to our rain water barrel, an' I guess that's all."
"Well if all that happened while I've been out in the pasture," said
Randy, laughing, "I guess I'll have to stay in for a while and see what
happens next."