so quickly that by the time school began she
could speak as well as any of us.

I was jealous of Tony's admiration for
Charley Harling. Because he was always first
in his classes at school, and could mend the
water-pipes or the door-bell and take the clock
to pieces, she seemed to think him a sort of
prince. Nothing that Charley wanted was too
much trouble for her. She loved to put up
lunches for him when he went hunting, to
mend his ball-gloves and sew buttons on his
shooting-coat, baked the kind of nut-cake he
liked, and fed his setter dog when he was away
on trips with his father. Antonia had made
herself cloth working-slippers out of Mr.
Harling's old coats, and in these she went
padding about after Charley, fairly panting
with eagerness to please him.

Next to Charley, I think she loved Nina
best. Nina was only six, and she was rather
more complex than the other children. She
was fanciful, had all sorts of unspoken prefer-
ences, and was easily offended. At the slight-
est disappointment or displeasure her velvety
brown eyes filled with tears, and she would
lift her chin and walk silently away. If
we ran after her and tried to appease her, it

[[177]]

p176 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p177w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p178

v?