"Sorensen, Virginia - Plain Girl" - читать интересную книгу автора (Sorensen Virginia)

before. Now she was sorry. There was all that quiet sitting in church between Friday and Monday. No pink girl would be sitting in front of her, but only
children in black and gray and purple and dark brown. Her own Sunday dress was the color of dead leaves that had lain under snow all winter long.

She sat on the step to wait, exactly where she had sat at recess a while before. The leaves glowed brighter as the sun lowered. And there seemed to be another
glow besides, where Mary had sat bouncing the ball. Being kind. There were kind good people, then, who wore pink. And blue. And red. All colors . . .

She stood up as she heard the buggy coming. Her heart beat fast as if she had been discovered at a mischief. Or with something she had stolen and must hide
away.

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SWEET WATER-AND BITTER

This Sunday the meeting was to be held at Esther's own house. On Saturday it was necessary to go into the town for supplies for the dinner. Mother always
walked just behind Father, who bought everything. Esther always walked just behind Mother and helped carry the bundles.

Walking past the shop windows toward the grocery store, Esther noticed something in the Five-and-Ten. There were always hundreds of interesting little things
in those windows. She had stood looking with Dan several times when Father was busy. But today she saw something special, so special that she forgot to
go on walking behind Mother. Besides many other things, there were piles of jackstones in the window, exactly like Mary's. Esther could not have counted
how many there were if she had stood by the window all day. Some were the color of new pennies. But some were red and some were green. There were also
piles of bright red rubber balls to do the bouncing.

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"If only I could have some of my own!" she thought. Only eight out of all those hundreds, that was all she needed. And one little ball. Then she could practice
bouncing and picking up. Soon she might learn to do harder things, like "eggs in the basket."

Suddenly, behind her, Father spoke. She had been so interested in the window she hadn't heard him come back where she stood. He said, "Cheap! Cheap!" like
an angry sparrow.

As they walked on again, he kept her carefully beside him on the street. And on the way home, after the groceries were bought and piled in the back of the
buggy, he suddenly burst out, "Trash!" His voice was like the falling of a tree.

There was a great deal to do for the Meeting, even though many came in to help. The front of the house was made with partitions which could be opened so
the rooms ran together. Furniture was taken out and benches set in rows. Dinner was cooked for everybody, besides little pies for the children to eat during
the long speaking.

It wasn't hard for Esther to sit still to the end of the speaking. To sit still was one of the first things she ever learned. It was strange to her, at
school, how the rows of children wiggled and shook and reached

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and stuck their feet out and in. The teacher often said, "For goodness* sakes, don't you know how to sit still?" Of course she never said it to Esther.
Esther could sit in her chair exactly like a stone. She had learned how to do that before she even knew she was a girl. Before she knew she was Esther,
a person of her own. She had never thought about how to sit still. It was maybe like being a frog on a green rock; she was part of the stillness. Or a
woodcock on a nest in the grass. In a way, you simply pretended you were not there at all.

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SWEET WATER -AND BITTER