NELLY’S FIRST SCHOOL-DAYS

CHICKENS AND “POETRY.” Page 111.

THE MARTIN AND NELLY STORIES.

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NELLY’S FIRST SCHOOLDAYS.

BY

JOSEPHINE FRANKLIN.
AUTHOR OF “NELLY AND HER FRIENDS.”

BOSTON:
FRED’K A. BROWN & CO., Publishers,
29 CORNHILL.
1862.

LIST OF THE

“MARTIN AND NELLY STORIES.”

• Nelly and her Friends.
• Nelly’s First Schooldays.
• Nelly and her Boat.
• Little Bessie.
• Nelly’s Visit.
• Zelma.
• Martin.
• Cousin Regulus.
• Martin and Nelly.
• Martin on the Mountain.
• Martin and the Miller.
• Trouting, or Gypsying in the Woods.

CONTENTS.

PAGE
CHAPTER I.
Milly	7
CHAPTER II.
“Melindy”	25
CHAPTER III.
Comfort’s Neffy	51
CHAPTER IV.
“Let’s make Friends!”	72
CHAPTER V.
Chickens and “Poetry”	109
CHAPTER VI.
Getting Lost	129

NELLY’S FIRST SCHOOL-DAYS.

CHAPTER I.

MILLY.

Not very far from Nelly’s home, stood a small, time-worn, wooden house.

It was not a pleasant object at which to look. A few vines that had been trained over one of the front windows, and a stunted currant-bush which stood by the door, were the only green things within the broken fence. In summer, the cottage looked bald and hot, from its complete exposure to the sun (no trees grew near to shade it), and in winter, the rough winds rattled freely around its unprotected walls.

In this house lived a family by the name of Harrow. It consisted of the widowed mother, a woman who had once moved in a far higher sphere of life, and her two daughters, Milly and Elinor. There was a son, too, people said, but he did not live at home, having had the ingratitude, some time before the Harrows moved to the village, to desert his home and run away to sea.

Mrs. Harrow and her children were very poor. No one knew but themselves how hard they found it to get work enough to earn their daily bread. The neighbors, among whom they were much respected, had long supposed from many outward signs that the family had no means to spare, but they were far from conjecturing that often, the mild, patient-looking Mrs. Harrow, and her two gentle girls, were losing their strength from actual famine. The little money they had, came to them through their own exertions; their needle-work was celebrated far and near for its delicacy and exquisite finish. In that small neighborhood, however, the sewing which was brought to them to undertake, did not amount to much, and the prices, too, were low, and provision-rates very high.

At last, just as despair was dawning on the household, Elinor, the eldest daughter, heard of a situation as domestic in the family of a farmer, who lived over the mountains, near Nancy’s old home. The poor girl’s pride was dreadfully wounded at the thought of applying for such a place, she a lady born and bred, but necessity knew no law, and a few days only elapsed before pretty Miss Elinor was located at the farm as a servant. It was a hard trial; mournful tears forced themselves from her eyes whenever she gave herself time to think about such a state of affairs.

The farmer was a poor, hard-working, painstaking man, and his wife was quite as thrifty and industrious, so that between them they managed to lay by a little money, every year, in the Savings Bank.

When Elinor came to them, the bustling farmer’s wife could not realize that the tall, pale, elegant-looking creature was not quite as able to rub and scrub from morning to night as she was herself. She did not take into consideration that the girl was unaccustomed to much hard labor, and that her frame was not equal to the burdens that were put upon it.

The consequence was that when Elinor went to her room at night, she was too completely worn out to sleep, and in the mornings, rose feeling sick and weary. She did not complain, however,