A SUMMER S PIPPIN 



over trying to be &quot; smart.&quot; Isn t there some 

 kind of intimation of this in the communications 

 that are said to come from the other side ? 



But there was Gabe s niece, such a graceful 

 sapling coming up from the roots of this old 

 stump. Very pretty the girl was, with health and 

 vigour and a lot of fine qualities that were looking 

 out of her face and wondering what they were 

 made for. As the weeks rolled on, I grew to 

 admire her very loyally, as a well-disciplined mas 

 culine sense should, and I felt also very grateful 

 to her. It was really as if some one had come 

 every day and hung a Fortuny in our hut, just 

 for fun, as the children say. Her unconscious 

 animal grace, so wholly independent of any arti 

 ficial aid, was not unlike a simple melody. These 

 unsophisticated, long-limbed Hebes of the field 

 have a priority of command which we never ques 

 tion, and I think it oftenest expresses itself in 

 motion. Griselle swished about in the little 

 k : tchen, making grace audible, and to the acute 

 ear it had a finer nuance than that purely textile 

 swish that is purchasable in society by the yard. 

 I noticed her running on the wire grass, and she 

 had an unsuspected regnant swagger that is in the 

 bones, not in the mind. She did not walk she 

 bounded. Her animal economy exulted and gave 

 her head a fine toss. She seemed to be making 

 billows of emotion and crossing them without 

 ever knowing it. One morning she came over 

 and caught me unawares, bellowing a matinee 

 hymn out of sheer thankful exuberance, because 



75 



