



Produced by Meredith Minter Dixon and Melissa Reid




[Frontispiece:  Going to Barbara's Wedding]


Little Prudy Series -------------------

LITTLE PRUDY'S COUSIN GRACE

BY

SOPHIE MAY

BOSTON: LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO.

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1864, by

LEE & SHEPARD,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of
Massachusetts.

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COPYRIGHT, 1892, BY REBECCA S. CLARKE.

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LITTLE PRUDY'S COUSIN GRACE


CONTENTS.

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I.  THE CUP AND SAUCER

II.  THE RUBY SEAL

III. THE PRIZE

IV. A SNAKE IN THE GRASS

V. FORTUNES

VI. MISFORTUNES

VII. THE REGARD-RING

VIII. PRUDY PARLIN

IX. BARBARA'S WEDDING

X. WHO GETS THE PRIZE?

XI. THE CHILDREN'S FAIR


COUSIN GRACE
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CHAPTER I.

THE CUP AND SAUCER.

Grace Clifford and Katharine Hallock were such dear friends, and spent
so much time together, that you could not think of one without
thinking of the other, and people linked their names together, and
spoke of "Grace and Cassy," just as one speaks of a "cup and saucer"
or a "hook and eye."

Yet they were not in the least alike.  There was something very eager
and vivid about Grace, with her bright blue eyes, auburn curls, and
brilliant color.  She had an ecstatic way of laughing, and a wild,
agonized way of weeping.  She clapped her hands for joy, or wrung them
for grief.  Her tears fell in showers, but afterward the sun was sure
to shine out clearly.

Cassy, on the other hand, was a gentle, brown-eyed little maiden, with
long lashes sweeping her cheeks, and brown hair lying quietly behind
her ears.  She never stormed nor raved.

It was a very rare thing for the girls to disagree.  They had such a
dear love for each other that they decided never to marry, but to live
together in a charming cottage adorned with woodbine, and keep
chickens, pigeons and a cat.

At the beginning of our story they were nearly twelve years old, and
closer friends than ever.  They had exchanged rings as pledges of
everlasting fidelity.  The ring which Cassy gave Grace was set with
gems--ruby, emerald, garnet, amethyst, ruby, and diamond--the initials
spelling the word "Regard."  This regard-ring had once belonged to
Mrs. Hallock; but after being broken and mended it was too small for
her, and she had given it to Cassy.

In exchange, Grace put on her friend's third finger a pretty emerald,
which had been a good-by present from Mr. Augustus Allen.

One day in March these two Hoosier girls were walking hand in hand
down Vine Street, where there was always a fine shade in the summer.
Now the trees were leafless, and the bright sun shadowed forth little
flickering pictures of their branches on the girls' shawls and hats.

"Why, Cassy Hallock," said Grace, shading her face with one hand,
"this sun is bright enough to blind an eagle."

"But it doesn't blind _me_," laughed Cassy.  "I can almost look at it
without winking."

"Then you must be a half-eagle, Cassy.  Why, you don't mind the
weather, or any of the bothers!  You never fly out of patience!  O,
Cassy Hallock, I think you're splendid!"

As this was not the first time Cassy had been eulogized as "splendid,"
she was by no means astonished, but continued to move quietly along,
with her usual composure.  Grace Clifford seemed a little nervous.
Every now and then she would drop her friend's hand, and gather a few
blades of grass, or pick up a pebble, then seize Cassy's hand again,
and walk on.  Cassy watched her companion with some curiosity.  "Now,
Gracie Clifford," said she at last, "you're keeping something to
yourself; I just know you are."

"What if I am?" said Grace, tossing an orange into the air and
catching it as it fell; "I needn't tell you every single thing,
Cassy!"

"Yes, you must, Gracie Clifford," was the firm reply.  "I'm your
dearest friend, and am I not going off next week visiting?"

"Well, I've nothing to tell, any way, but just thoughts," said Grace,
pocketing her orange, and taking Cassy's hand again, while they each
hopped on one foot like happy little robins.  "I've a great many
thoughts whizzing in my mind all the time, Cassy.  I've been thinking
lately about-- I mean, I've been wishing, for ages and ages, that I'd
been born a boy; but it's silly, and so I never say it."

"Why, Gracie Clifford, I've heard you say it five hundred times!  I'd
as soon be a girl, because I _am_, and