



Produced by Annie McGuire








Two Little Women


Carolyn Wells




BY THE SAME AUTHOR

       *       *       *       *       *

PATTY SERIES

  PATTY FAIRFIELD
  PATTY AT HOME
  PATTY IN THE CITY
  PATTY'S SUMMER DAYS
  PATTY IN PARIS
  PATTY'S FRIENDS
  PATTY'S PLEASURE TRIP
  PATTY'S SUCCESS
  PATTY'S MOTOR CAR
  PATTY'S BUTTERFLY DAYS
  PATTY'S SOCIAL SEASON
  PATTY'S SUITORS
  PATTY'S ROMANCE


MARJORIE SERIES

  MARJORIE'S VACATION
  MARJORIE'S BUSY DAYS
  MARJORIE'S NEW FRIEND
  MARJORIE IN COMMAND
  MARJORIE'S MAYTIME
  MARJORIE AT SEACOTE

       *       *       *       *       *


[Illustration: IT TOOK A LONG TIME TO SATISFY THE BOYS'
APPETITES.--_Page_ 199]




TWO LITTLE WOMEN


BY
CAROLYN WELLS

AUTHOR OF
THE PATTY BOOKS,
THE MARJORIE BOOKS, ETC.


ILLUSTRATIONS BY
E. C. CASWELL


GROSSET & DUNLAP
PUBLISHERS
NEW YORK


COPYRIGHT, 1915
BY DODD, MEAD & COMPANY




CONTENTS


       CHAPTER                                                      PAGE

    I  THE GIRL NEXT DOOR                                              1
   II  DOTTY ROSE AND DOLLY FAYRE                                     15
  III  THE NEW ROOMS                                                  29
   IV  THE BIRTHDAY MORNING                                           43
    V  THE DOUBLE PARTY                                               57
   VI  ROLLER SKATING                                                 71
  VII  TWO BIG BROTHERS                                               87
 VIII  CROSSTREES CAMP                                               103
   IX  DOLLY'S ESCAPE                                                118
    X  HIDDEN TREASURE                                               133
   XI  A THRILLING EXPERIENCE                                        150
  XII  WHO WAS THE TALL PHANTOM?                                     167
 XIII  THAT LUNCHEON                                                 186
  XIV  THE CAKE CONTEST                                              201
   XV  WHO WON THE PRIZE?                                            215
  XVI  A WALK IN THE WOODS                                           231
 XVII  SURFWOOD                                                      250
XVIII  DOLL OVERBOARD!                                               260
  XIX  SPENDING THE PRIZE MONEY                                      276
   XX  GOOD-BYE, SUMMER!                                             288




CHAPTER I

THE GIRL NEXT DOOR


Summit Avenue was the prettiest street in Berwick. Spacious and
comfortable-looking homes stood on either side of it, each in its
setting of lawn and shade trees. Most of these showed no dividing fences
or hedges, and boundaries were indiscernible in the green velvety sward
that swept in a gentle <DW72> to the sidewalk.

Of two neighbouring houses, the side windows faced each other across two
hundred feet of intervening turf. The windows of one house were duly
fitted with window-screens, holland shades and clean, fresh white
curtains; for it was May, and Berwick ladies were rarely dilatory with
their "Spring-cleaning." But the other house showed no window dressings,
and the sashes were flung open to the sunny breeze, which, entering,
found rugless floors and pictureless walls.

But at the open front doors other things were entering; beds, chairs,
tables, boxes and barrels, all the contents of the great moving vans
that stood out at the curb. Strong men carried incredibly heavy burdens
of furniture, or carefully manoeuvred glass cabinets or potted palms.

From behind the lace curtains of the other house people were watching.
This was in no way a breach of good manners, for in Berwick the
unwritten law of neighbours' rights freely permitted the inspection of
the arriving household gods of a new family. But etiquette demanded that
the observers discreetly veil themselves behind the sheltering films of
their own curtains.

And so the Fayres, mother and two daughters, watched with interest the
coming of the Roses.

"Rose! what a funny name," commented Dolly Fayre, the younger of the
sisters; "do you s'pose they name the children Moss, and Tea and things
like that?"

"Yes, and Killarney and Sunburst and Prince Camille de Rohan," said
Trudy, who had been studying Florists' catalogues of late.

"Their library furniture is mission; there goes the table," and Mrs.
Fayre noted details with a housekeeper's eye. "And here comes the piano.
I can't bear to see men move a piano; I always think it's going to fall
on them."

"I'm tired of seeing furniture go in, anyway," and Dolly jumped up from
her kneeling position. "I'd rather see the people. Do you s'pose
there's anybody 'bout my age, Mums?"

"I don't know, Dolly. Your father only said their name was Rose, and not
another word about them."

"There's a little girl, anyway," asserted Trudy; "they took in a big
doll's carriage some time ago."

Trudy was nineteen and Dolly not quite fifteen, so the girls, while
chummy as sisters, had few interests in common. Dolly wandered away,
leaving the other two to continue their appraisal of the new neighbours.
She went to her own room, which also looked out toward the Roses' house.
Idly glancing that way from her window, she saw a girl's face in a
window next door. She seemed about Dolly's age, and she had a pretty
bright face with a mop of curly black hair.

She wore a red dress and a red hair-ribbon, and she made a vivid
picture, framed in the open window.

Dolly looked through the scrim of her bedroom curtain, and then to see
better, moved the curtain aside, and watched the black-haired girl.

Dolly, herself, could not be seen, because of the dark wire window
screen, and she looked at the stranger with increasing interest.

At last the new girl put one foot over the window sill and then the
other, and sat with her feet crossed and kicking against the side of the
house. It was a first floor window, and there was little danger of her
falling out, but she stretched out her arms and held the window frame on
either side.

Dolly judged the girl must be about her own age, for she looked so, and
too, her dress came nearly but not quite to her shoetops, which was the
prescribed length of Dolly's own.

It was a pleasant outlook. If this new neighbour should be a nice girl,
Dolly foresaw lots of good times. For most of her girl friends lived at
some distance; the nearest, several blocks away. And to have a chum next
door would be fine!

But was she a nice girl? Dolly had been punctiliously brought up, and a
girl who sat in a window, and swung her feet over the sill, was a bit
unconventional in Berwick.

Dolly was seized with a strong desire to meet this girl, to see her
nearer by and to talk with her. But Dolly was timid. Beside her careful
education in deportment, she was naturally shy and reticent. She was
sure she never could make any advances to become acquainted with this
new girl, and yet, she did want to know her.

She went back to her mother and sister.

"There's an awful big picture," Trudy was saying; "it's all burlapped
up, so you can't tell what it is. It's easy to judge people from their
pictures."

Trudy had graduated the year before from a large and fine girls' school
and she knew all about pictures.

"I think you can tell more by chairs," Mrs. Fayre said; "their easy
chairs are very good ones. I think they're very nice people."

"Have you seen the girl in the window?" asked Dolly. "She's just about
my size."

"So she is," said Mrs. Fayre, glancing at Dolly, and then returning to
her study of the chairs.

"When can I go to see her, Mother?"

"Oh, Trudy and I will call there in a fortnight or so, and after that
you can go to see the little girl