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103 pages

English

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Description

Younger readers will fall in love with this charming tale about a 12-year-old girl, Keineth. When her father is called upon to undertake a potentially dangerous but vitally important mission, Keineth has to decide where to stay in his absence: in the luxe comfort of her somewhat formal and cold aunt's home, or with a family whom she doesn't know but immediately feels a kinship with. Will she make the right choice?

Sujets

Children's

Informations

Publié par	The Floating Press
Date de parution	01 mai 2015
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781776589555
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0134€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

KEINETH
* * *
JANE D. ABBOTT

*
Keineth First published in 1918 Epub ISBN 978-1-77658-955-5 Also available: PDF ISBN 978-1-77658-956-2 © 2014 The Floating Press and its licensors. All rights reserved. While every effort has been used to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the information contained in The Floating Press edition of this book, The Floating Press does not assume liability or responsibility for any errors or omissions in this book. The Floating Press does not accept responsibility for loss suffered as a result of reliance upon the accuracy or currency of information contained in this book. Do not use while operating a motor vehicle or heavy equipment. Many suitcases look alike. Visit www.thefloatingpress.com
Contents
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Chapter I - Keineth's World Changes Chapter II - Keineth Decides Chapter III - Overlook Chapter IV - Keineth Writes to Her Father Chapter V - Pilot Comes to Overlook Chapter VI - The Music the Fairies Put in Her Fingers Chapter VII - Alice Runs Away Chapter VIII - A Page from History Chapter IX - The Captive Maiden Chapter X - Pilot in Disgrace Chapter XI - Pilot Wins a Home Chapter XII - A Letter from Daddy Chapter XIII - Camping Chapter XIV - The Tennis Tournament Chapter XV - Not on the Program! Chapter XVI - Aunt Josephine Chapter XVII - School Days Chapter XVIII - Christmas Chapter XIX - When the Christmas Spirit Worked Overtime Chapter XX - Shadows Chapter XXI - Pilot Goes Away Chapter XXII - Keineth's Gift Chapter XXIII - Surprises Chapter XXIV - Mr. President Chapter XXV - The Castle of Dreams
*
TO ALL THE LITTLE GIRLS I KNOW THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED
Chapter I - Keineth's World Changes
*
Keineth Randolph's world seemed suddenly to be turning upside down!
For the past three days there had been no lessons. Keineth had lessonsinstead of going to school. She had them sometimes with Madame Henri,or "Tante" as she called her, and sometimes with her father. If the sunwas very inviting in the morning, lessons would wait until afternoon;or, if, sitting straight and still in the big room her father calledhis study, Keineth found it impossible to think of the book before her,Tante would say in her prim voice:
"Dreaming, cherie?" and add, "the books will wait!"
Or, if father was hearing the lessons, he would toss aside the book andbeckon to Keineth to sit on his knee. Then he would tell a story. Itwould be, perhaps, something about India or they would travel togetherthrough Norway; or it would be Custer's fight with the Indians or thewanderings of the Acadians through the English Colonies in America, asportrayed in Longfellow's Evangeline.
But for three days Keineth had had neither lessons nor stories—she hadnot even wanted to go out into the park to walk. For her dear Tante,with a very sad face, was packing her trunks and boxes, and Daddy hadgone out of town.
To-morrow the little woman was going to sail on a Norwegian boat forEurope. The trip seemed to Keineth to be particularly unusual becauseTante and Daddy had talked so much about it and Tante had waited untilDaddy had gotten her some papers which would take her safely intoEurope. So much talk and the important papers made it seem as thoughshe was going very far away. Perhaps she did not expect to come back toAmerica—she stopped so often in her work to kiss Keineth!
Keineth could not remember her own mother, she had died when Keinethwas three years old; and as far back as she could remember Tante hadalways taken care of her. These three, the golden-haired delicatechild, the serious-faced Belgian gentlewoman, who had given up aposition in one of New York's schools to go into John Randolph'shousehold, and the father himself, living for his work and hisdaughter, led what might seem to others a very strange life. The manhad kept his home in the old brick house on Washington Square in lowerNew York even after the other houses in the square around it graduallychanged from pleasant, neat homes to shabby boarding-houses or roominghouses with broken windows and railless steps; to dusty lofts; tocellars where Jews kept and sorted over their filthy rags; to dingyattic spaces where artists made their studios, turning queer,dilapidated corners into what they called their homes. The third storyof the Randolph house had been let for "light housekeeping apartments";Keineth herself had helped tack the little black and gilt sign at thedoor. The tenants used the side door that let into the brick-pavedalley. Keineth had always felt a great pride in their home—it wasalways neatly painted, their steps shone, and there were no paperscollected behind their iron gratings. Even across the park she couldsee the bright geraniums blooming in the windows under Madame Henri'sloving care.
Keineth and Tante had two big sleeping rooms facing the square andDaddy had a smaller room in the back. Dora, the colored maid who keptthe house in order and cooked breakfast and lunch, went away at night.The rooms were very large, with high ceilings. The windows were longand narrow and hung with heavy, dusty curtains. The furniture was veryold and very dull and dark, but Keineth loved the great chairs intowhich she could curl herself and read for hours at a time.
There were few children in the square for her to play with. Next doorwas an Italian family with eight girls and boys, and Keineth sometimesjoined them in the park. Their father kept a fruit stall in thebasement on one of the streets running off from the square. Francesca,one of the girls, sang very sweetly, often standing on the corner ofthe square and singing Italian folk-songs until she had gathered quitea crowd around her and had collected considerable money. Keineth lovedto listen to her. But Daddy had asked Keineth never to go alone outsideof the square nor out of sight of the windows of their own home, andKeineth, all her life, had always wanted to do exactly as her fatherasked her.
The evenings to Keineth were the happiest, for, after his work wasfinished, Daddy always took her out somewhere for dinner. Sometimesthey would go into queer, small places; rooms lighted by gas-jets,where they ate on bare tables from off thick white plates. She wouldsit very quietly listening while her father talked to the people hemet. It seemed to her that her father knew everybody. Other times theywould go up town on the bus, Keineth clinging tightly to her father'shand all the way, and they would find a corner in a brightly lightedhotel dining-room, where the silver and glass sparkled before Keineth'seyes, where an orchestra, hidden behind big palms, played wonderfulmusic as they ate, where the air was sweet with the fragrance offlowers like Joe Massey's stall on the square, and where all the womenwere pretty and wore soft furs over shimmering dresses of lovelycolors. Sometimes Tante went with them, looking very prim in hertailor-made suit of gray woolen cloth and her small gray hat. On thesepicnic dinners, as Daddy called them, Daddy was always in rollickingspirits, keeping up such a torrent of nonsense that Keineth was oftenquite exhausted from laughing. Then, when they were back in the oldhouse, Daddy would pull his big chair close to the lamp, Tante wouldtake her knitting from the basket in which it was always neatly laid,and Keineth would sit down at the piano to play for her father "whatthe fairies put in her fingers." This had been a little game betweenthem for a long time—ever since her music lessons with Madame Henrihad begun.
Now—as the child sat balanced on the edge of an old rocker watchingTante tenderly and carefully placing her books into a heavy box—shefelt that this beloved order of things was changing before her eyes.For, with Tante gone, who was to take care of her? And heavy on thechild's heart lay the fear that it might be Aunt Josephine.
Aunt Josephine was her very own aunt, her father's sister, and lived ina very pretentious home at the other end of the city, overlooking theHudson River. At a very early age Keineth had guessed that AuntJosephine did not approve of the way her Daddy lived; of the tenants onthe third floor; of the sign at the door; of Tante and thehappy-go-lucky lessons; and most of all, her intimacy with the Italianchildren. Twice a year Keineth and her Daddy spent a Sunday with AuntJosephine, and Keineth could always tell by the way Daddy clasped herhand and ran down the steps that he was very glad when the day was overand they could go home. However, Aunt Josephine was pretty and worelovely clothes like the women in the big hotels uptown and was reallyfond of Daddy, so that Keineth loved her—but she did not want to livewith her!
"Why do you go away from us?" Keineth asked Madame Henri for thehundredth time.
The little woman dropped a book to kiss the child—also for thehundredth time.
"I have an old mother, and a sister, and six nephews and nieces overthere—they need me now, more than you do, cherie!"
Keineth knew that she was very unhappy and refrained from asking hermore questions. Daddy had read to her of the suffering in Europe as aresult of the great war, but it seemed hard to picture prim Tante inthe midst of it—perhaps working in the fields and factories, as Daddysaid some of the women and children were doing. Tante had read themparts of a letter telling of the wounding of her sister's husband atthe battle front and of his death in an English 'hospital, but that hadseemed so very far away that Keineth had not thought much about it. Nowit seemed nearer as she pictured the six little nephews and nieces, thepoor old grandmother—perhaps all hungry and homeless! Keineth suddenlythought how good it was of Tante to leave their comfortable home andtheir jolly dinners and Dora's steaming pancakes to go back to Belgiumto help!
Then—as if the whole day was not queer and different enough, Keinethsuddenly heard her father's quick step on the stairway. He had said hewould not be home until that night! She sprang to the door in time torush into his arms as he came down the