Mrs. Page cried bitterly over that letter and took sad counsel with herself . To let Dorinda stay with her aunt for the summer really meant , she knew , to let her stay altogether . Mrs. Page was finding it harder and harder to get along ; there was so little and the children needed so much ; Dorinda would have a good home with her Aunt Mary if she could only prevail on her rebellious mother heart to give her up . In the end she agreed to let Dorinda stay for the summer -- and Dorinda had never been home since . But now Dorinda had come back to the little white house on the hill at Willowdale , set back from the road in a smother of apple trees and vines . Aunt Mary had died very suddenly and her only son , Dorinda 's cousin , had gone to Japan . There was nothing for Dorinda to do save to come home , to enter again into her old unfilled place in her mother 's heart , and win a new place in the hearts of the brothers and sisters who barely remembered her at all . Leicester had been nine and Jean seven when Dorinda went away ; now they were respectively fourteen and twelve . At first they were a little shy with this big , practically brand-new sister , but this soon wore off . Nobody could be shy long with Dorinda ; nobody could help liking her . She was so brisk and jolly and sympathetic -- a real Page , so everybody said -- while the brothers and sisters were Carter to their marrow ; Carters with fair hair and blue eyes , and small , fine , wistful features ; but Dorinda had merry black eyes , plump , dusky-red cheeks , and a long braid of glossy dark hair , which was perpetually being twitched from one shoulder to another as Dorinda whisked about the house on domestic duties intent . In a week Dorinda felt herself one of the family again , with all the cares and responsibilities thereof resting on her strong young shoulders . Dorinda and her mother talked matters out fully one afternoon over their sewing , in the sunny south room where the winds got lost among the vines halfway through the open window . Mrs. Page sighed and said she really did not know what to do . Dorinda did not sigh ; she did not know just what to do either , but there must be something that could be done -- there is always something that can be done , if one can only find it . Dorinda sewed hard and pursed up her red lips determinedly . `` Do n't you worry , Mother Page , '' she said briskly . `` We 'll be like that glorious old Roman who found a way or made it . I like overcoming difficulties . I 've lots of old Admiral Page 's fighting blood in me , you know .
The first step is to tabulate just exactly what difficulties among our many difficulties must be ravelled out XXXXX -- the capital difficulties , as it were .
Admiral Dorinda Japan Jean Leicester Page Willowdale afternoon braid first