He looked up at his tall , girlish niece with a smile of pleasure . `` You 're a good girl , Prissy , and a kind-hearted one too , or you 'd never have come up here to cook a dinner for a crabbed old uncle who deserved to eat cold dinners for his stubbornness . It made me cross today when folks wished me a happy New Year . It seemed like mockery when I had n't a soul belonging to me to make it happy . But it has brought me happiness already , and I believe it will be a happy year all the way through . '' `` Indeed it will ! '' laughed Prissy . `` I 'm so happy now I could sing . I believe it was an inspiration -- my idea of coming up here to cook your dinner for you . '' `` You must promise to come and cook my New Year 's dinner for me every New Year we live near enough together , '' said Uncle Richard . And Prissy promised . White Magic One September afternoon in the year of grace 1840 Avery and Janet Sparhallow were picking apples in their Uncle Daniel Sparhallow 's big orchard . It was an afternoon of mellow sunshine ; about them , beyond the orchard , were old harvest fields , mellowly bright and serene , and beyond the fields the sapphire curve of the St. Lawrence Gulf was visible through the groves of spruce and birch . There was a soft whisper of wind in the trees , and the pale purple asters that feathered the orchard grass swayed gently towards each other . Janet Sparhallow , who loved the outdoor world and its beauty , was , for the time being at least , very happy , as her little brown face , with its fine , satiny skin , plainly showed . Avery Sparhallow did not seem so happy . She worked rather abstractedly and frowned oftener than she smiled . Avery Sparhallow was conceded to be a beauty , and had no rival in Burnley Beach . She was very pretty , with the obvious , indisputable prettiness of rich black hair , vivid , certain colour , and laughing , brilliant eyes . Nobody ever called Janet a beauty , or even thought her pretty .
She was only seventeen -- five years younger XXXXX Avery -- and was rather lanky and weedy , with a rope of straight dark-brown hair , long , narrow , shining brown eyes and very black lashes , and a crooked , clever little mouth .
about as at beyond for in like near than through