Carl was lovingly poring over a strange beetle he had found ; Una was trying to make a doll 's dress , and Faith , leaning back on her slender brown wrists , was swinging her bare feet in lively time to the jew 's - harp . Jerry had his father 's black hair and large black eyes , but in him the latter were flashing instead of dreamy . Faith , who came next to him , wore her beauty like a rose , careless and glowing . She had golden-brown eyes , golden-brown curls and crimson cheeks . She laughed too much to please her father 's congregation and had shocked old Mrs. Taylor , the disconsolate spouse of several departed husbands , by saucily declaring -- in the church-porch at that -- `` The world IS N'T a vale of tears , Mrs. Taylor . It 's a world of laughter . '' Little dreamy Una was not given to laughter . Her braids of straight , dead-black hair betrayed no lawless kinks , and her almond-shaped , dark-blue eyes had something wistful and sorrowful in them . Her mouth had a trick of falling open over her tiny white teeth , and a shy , meditative smile occasionally crept over her small face . She was much more sensitive to public opinion than Faith , and had an uneasy consciousness that there was something askew in their way of living . She longed to put it right , but did not know how . Now and then she dusted the furniture -- but it was so seldom she could find the duster because it was never in the same place twice . And when the clothes-brush was to be found she tried to brush her father 's best suit on Saturdays , and once sewed on a missing button with coarse white thread . When Mr. Meredith went to church next day every female eye saw that button and the peace of the Ladies ' Aid was upset for weeks . Carl had the clear , bright , dark-blue eyes , fearless and direct , of his dead mother , and her brown hair with its glints of gold . He knew the secrets of bugs and had a sort of freemasonry with bees and beetles . Una never liked to sit near him because she never knew what uncanny creature might be secreted about him . Jerry refused to sleep with him because Carl had once taken a young garter snake to bed with him ; so Carl slept in his old cot , which was so short that he could never stretch out , and had strange bed-fellows . Perhaps it was just as well that Aunt Martha was half blind when she made that bed . Altogether they were a jolly , lovable little crew , and Cecilia Meredith 's heart must have ached bitterly when she faced the knowledge that she must leave them .
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