A JOURNEY TO NATURE 



that she kept out of her words, but they got into 

 that little toss of her head, and she looked quite 

 Florentine as she stood in the doorway with her 

 dress lifted ready for flight. Sometimes I thought 

 Rossetti could have written her. He never could 

 have painted her, she wouldn t stand still long 

 enough. 



Evidently circuses did not lure her, and she 

 had promised the Rev. Mr. Hanks or Janks or 

 somebody to take care of a contingent of &quot;young 

 ones &quot; and keep them away from the circus. 



Come to think it all over, she was right, and I 

 told her so. A clean-minded little fellow like 

 Charlie, starting out to avoid my pitfalls, would be 

 better off with her at a picnic, eating some of the 

 jelly-cake that everybody was sure to bring, than 

 at the circus, getting his clothes all stained with 

 pink lemonade. 



&quot; Perhaps,&quot; suggested Griselle, &quot; you d be better 

 off yourself.&quot; I acknowledged to her that I had 

 a real curiosity to see a country picnic. I could 

 not for the life of me understand the raison d etre 

 of it. Why men and women who lived in the 

 country all the year round and were pretty well 

 saturated with it should suddenly take it into 

 their heads to enjoy it by the card, was beyond 

 me. It really looked to me as though Farmer 

 Jones, when he wanted to express his mad exu 

 berance, went over and ate his dinner on Farmer 

 Smith s field. I could understand folk in the city 

 going slumming and getting up vivisection clubs, 

 and when thoroughly blase taking nitrous oxide 



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