2
rls.
BETTY LEICESTER'S CHRISTMAS. Illustrated.
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY BOSTON AND NEW YORK
[Illustration]
BETTY LEICESTER
A STORY FOR GIRLS
BY
SARAH ORNE JEWETT
BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
The Riverside Press Cambridge
COPYRIGHT, 1889, BY SARAH ORNE JEWETT
COPYRIGHT, 1917, BY MARY R. JEWETT
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
The Riverside Press
CAMBRIDGE · MASSACHUSETTS
PRINTED IN THE U.S.A.
WITH LOVE TO
M. G. L.
ONE OF THE FIRST OF BETTY'S FRIENDS
CONTENTS.
PAGE I. AS FAR AS RIVERPORT 1 II. THE PACKET BOAT 17 III. A BIT OF COLOR 28 IV. TIDESHEAD 40 V. AT BECKY'S HOUSE 50 VI. THE GARDEN TEA 60 VII. THE SIN BOOKS 72 VIII. A CHAPTER OF LETTERS 93 IX. BETTY'S REFLECTIONS 108 X. UP-COUNTRY 137 XI. THE TWO FRIENDS 158 XII. BETTY AT HOME 171 XIII. A GREAT EXCITEMENT 185 XIV. THE OUT-OF-DOOR CLUB 209 XV. THE STARLIGHT COMES IN 221 XVI. DOWN THE RIVER 239 XVII. GOING AWAY 276
BETTY LEICESTER.
I.
AS FAR AS RIVERPORT.
TWO persons sat at a small breakfast-table near an open window, high up in Young's Hotel in Boston. It was a pleasant June morning, just after eight o'clock, and they could see the white clouds blowing over; but the gray walls of the Court House were just opposite, so that one cannot say much of their view of the world. The room was pleasanter than most hotel rooms, and the persons at breakfast were a girl of fifteen, named Betty Leicester, and her father. Their friends thought them both good-looking, but it ought to be revealed in this story just what sort of good looks they had, since character makes the expression of people's faces. But this we can say, to begin with: they had eyes very much alike, very kind and frank and pleasant, and they had a good fresh color, as if they spent much time out-of-doors. In fact, they were just off the sea, having come in only two days before on the Cat