So , you see , Lucinda was not so very miserable after all . '' `` Well , if I could not be as I was , I 'd like to be a woman like that . Only , I hope I shall not ! '' answered Jill , thoughtfully at first , then coming out so decidedly with the last words that it was evident the life of a bedridden saint was not at all to her mind . `` So do I ; and I mean to believe that you will not . Meantime , we can try to make the waiting as useful and pleasant as possible . This painful little back will be a sort of conscience to remind you of what you ought to do and leave undone , and so you can be learning obedience . Then , when the body is strong , it will have formed a good habit to make duty easier ; and my Lucinda can be a sweet example , even while lying here , if she chooses . '' `` Can I ? '' and Jill 's eyes were full of softer tears as the comfortable , cheering words sank into her heart , to blossom slowly by and by into her life , for this was to be a long lesson , hard to learn , but very useful in the years to come . When the boys returned , after the Latin was recited and peace restored , Jack showed her a recovered stamp promptly paid by Frank , who was as just as he was severe , and Jill asked for the old red one , though she did not tell why she wanted it , nor show it put away in the spelling-book , a little seal upon a promise made to be kept . Chapter VIII . Merry and Molly Now let us see how the other missionaries got on with their tasks . Farmer Grant was a thrifty , well-to-do man , anxious to give his children greater advantages than he had enjoyed , and to improve the fine place of which he was justly proud . Mrs. Grant was a notable housewife , as ambitious and industrious as her husband , but too busy to spend any time on the elegancies of life , though always ready to help the poor and sick like a good neighbor and Christian woman . The three sons -- Tom , Dick , and Harry -- were big fellows of seventeen , nineteen , and twenty-one ; the first two on the farm , and the elder in a store just setting up for himself . Kind-hearted but rough-mannered youths , who loved Merry very much , but teased her sadly about her `` fine lady airs , '' as they called her dainty ways and love of beauty . Merry was a thoughtful girl , full of innocent fancies , refined tastes , and romantic dreams , in which no one sympathized at home , though she was the pet of the family . It did seem , to an outsider , as if the delicate little creature had got there by mistake , for she looked very like a tea-rose in a field of clover and dandelions , whose highest aim in life was to feed cows and help make root beer . When the girls talked over the new society , it pleased Merry very much , and she decided not only to try and love work better , but to convert her family to a liking for pretty things , as she called her own more cultivated tastes .
`` I will begin at once , and show them that I do n't mean to shirk my duty , though I do want to be nice , '' thought she , as she sat at supper one night and looked about her , planning her XXXXX move .
Frank Jack Jill Lucinda Merry Tom elegancies first tea-rose years