Merry 's , though the simplest , was the daintiest of the three , being pale blue , trimmed with delicate edging , and beautifully made . Mrs. Minot had been reading from Miss Strickland 's `` Queens of England '' while the girls worked , and an illustrated Shakspeare lay open on the table , as well as several fine photographs of historical places for them to look at as they went along . The hour was over now , the teacher gone , and the pupils setting the last stitches as they talked over the lesson , which had interested them exceedingly . `` I really believe I have got Henry 's six wives into my head right at last . Two Annes , three Katherines , and one Jane . Now I 've seen where they lived and heard their stories , I quite feel as if I knew them , '' said Merry , shaking the threads off her work before she folded it up to carry home . '' ` King Henry the Eighth to six spouses was wedded , One died , one survived , two divorced , two beheaded , ' was all I knew about them before . Poor things , what a bad time they did have , '' added Jill , patting down the red braid , which would pucker a bit at the corners . `` Katherine Parr had the best of it , because she outlived the old tyrant and so kept her head on , '' said Molly , winding the thread round her last button , as if bound to fasten it on so firmly that nothing should decapitate that . `` I used to think I 'd like to be a queen or a great lady , and wear velvet and jewels , and live in a palace , but now I do n't care much for that sort of splendor . I like to make things pretty at home , and know that they all depend on me , and love me very much . Queens are not happy , and I am , '' said Merry , pausing to look at Anne Hathaway 's cottage as she put up the picture , and to wonder if it was very pleasant to have a famous man for one 's husband . `` I guess your missionarying has done you good ; mine has , and I 'm getting to have things my own way more and more every day . Miss Bat is so amiable , I hardly know her , and father tells her to ask Miss Molly when she goes to him for orders . Is n't that fun ? '' laughed Molly , in high glee , at the agreeable change . `` I like it ever so much , but I do n't want to stay so all my days . I mean to travel , and just as soon as I can I shall take Boo and go all round the world , and see everything , '' she added , waving her gay sack , as if it were the flag she was about to nail to the masthead of her ship . `` Well , I should like to be famous in some way , and have people admire me very much . I 'd like to act , or dance , or sing , or be what I heard the ladies at Pebbly Beach call a ` queen of society . '
But I do n't expect to be anything , and I 'm not going to worry I shall not be a Lucinda , so I ought to be contented and happy all my life , '' said XXXXX , who was very ambitious in spite of the newly acquired meekness , which was all the more becoming because her natural liveliness often broke out like sunshine through a veil of light clouds .
Beach Hathaway Henry Jill Katherines Molly Shakspeare Strickland days missionarying