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 Jill , 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 . If the three girls could have looked forward ten years they would have been surprised to see how different a fate was theirs from the one each had chosen , and how happy each was in the place she was called to fill . Merry was not making the old farmhouse pretty , but living in Italy , with a young sculptor for her husband , and beauty such as she never dreamed of all about her . Molly was not travelling round the world , but contentedly keeping house for her father and still watching over Boo , who was becoming her pride and joy as well as care . Neither was Jill a famous woman , but a very happy and useful one , with the two mothers leaning on her as they grew old , the young men better for her influence over them , many friends to love and honor her , and a charming home , where she was queen by right of her cheery spirit , grateful heart , and unfailing devotion to those who had made her what she was . If any curious reader , not content with this peep into futurity , asks , `` Did Molly and Jill ever marry ? '' we must reply , for the sake of peace -- Molly remained a merry spinster all her days , one of the independent , brave , and busy creatures of whom there is such need in the world to help take care of other peoples ' wives and children , and do the many useful jobs that the married folk have no time for . Jill certainly did wear a white veil on the day she was twenty-five and called her husband Jack . Further than that we can not go , except to say that this leap did not end in a catastrophe , like the first one they took together . That day , however , they never dreamed of what was in store for them , but chattered away as they cleared up the room , and then ran off ready for play , feeling that they had earned it by work well done . They found the lads just finishing , with Boo to help by picking up the windfalls for the cider-heap , after he had amused himself by putting about a bushel down the various holes old Bun had left behind him . Jack was risking his neck climbing in the most dangerous places , while Frank , with a long-handled apple-picker , nipped off the finest fruit with care , both enjoying the pleasant task and feeling proud of the handsome red and yellow piles all about the little orchard . Merry and Molly caught up baskets and fell to work with all their might , leaving Jill to sit upon a stool and sort the early apples ready to use at once , looking up now and then to nod and smile at her mother who watched her from the window , rejoicing to see her lass so well and happy . It was such a lovely day , they all felt its cheerful influence ; for the sun shone bright and warm , the air was full of an invigorating freshness which soon made the girls ' faces look like rosy apples , and their spirits as gay as if they had been stealing sips of new cider through a straw .
Jack whistled like a blackbird as he swung and bumped about , Frank orated and joked , Merry and XXXXX ran races to see who would fill and empty fastest , and Jill sung to Boo , who reposed in a barrel , exhausted with his labors .
Beach Lucinda Molly days futurity independent left masthead meekness spinster