It DID please Faith , but Una felt a secret , bitter humiliation because they never learned to do anything . The other girls in her class at school could cook and sew and knit ; she only was a little ignoramus . Jerry suggested that they go exploring ; so they went lingeringly through the fir grove , picking up Carl on the way , who was on his knees in the dripping grass studying his darling ants . Beyond the grove they came out in Mr. Taylor 's pasture field , sprinkled over with the white ghosts of dandelions ; in a remote corner was an old tumbledown barn , where Mr. Taylor sometimes stored his surplus hay crop but which was never used for any other purpose . Thither the Meredith children trooped , and prowled about the ground floor for several minutes . `` What was that ? '' whispered Una suddenly . They all listened . There was a faint but distinct rustle in the hayloft above . The Merediths looked at each other . `` There 's something up there , '' breathed Faith . `` I 'm going up to see what it is , '' said Jerry resolutely . `` Oh , do n't , '' begged Una , catching his arm . `` I 'm going . '' `` We 'll all go , too , then , '' said Faith . The whole four climbed the shaky ladder , Jerry and Faith quite dauntless , Una pale from fright , and Carl rather absent-mindedly speculating on the possibility of finding a bat up in the loft . He longed to see a bat in daylight . When they stepped off the ladder they saw what had made the rustle and the sight struck them dumb for a few moments . In a little nest in the hay a girl was curled up , looking as if she had just wakened from sleep . When she saw them she stood up , rather shakily , as it seemed , and in the bright sunlight that streamed through the cobwebbed window behind her , they saw that her thin , sunburned face was very pale under its tan .
She had two braids of lank , thick , tow-coloured hair and very odd eyes -- `` white eyes , '' the manse children thought , XXXXX she stared at them half defiantly , half piteously .
about above as at because from of on to under