The Girls and I A Veracious History   By: Mrs. Molesworth (1839-1921)

[Illustration: 'We ran over the fields by a short cut to a stile on to the road, where we could see her pass, and there we shouted out again all our messages.' c. xi. p. 168.]

THE GIRLS AND I: A Veracious History

[Illustration]

BY MRS MOLESWORTH

Illustrated by L. Leslie Brooke

London Macmillan & Co. MDCCCXCII

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I OURSELVES 1

CHAPTER II THE DIAMOND ORNAMENT 16

CHAPTER III WORK FOR THE TOWN CRIER 30

CHAPTER IV AT THE DANCING CLASS 46

CHAPTER V RODNEY SQUARE 63

CHAPTER VI THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW 79

CHAPTER VII FOUR 'IF'S' AND A COINCIDENCE 95

CHAPTER VIII MOSSMOOR FARM 110

CHAPTER IX SPYING THE LAND 125

CHAPTER X A LONG AGO ADVENTURE 140

CHAPTER XI MISCHIEF IN THE AIR 157

CHAPTER XII MISS CROSS AT FIRST'S FUR CAPE 173

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

'JACK, DO HELP ME TO FASTEN THIS BRACELET' 24

'I'D GIVE ANYTHING, I'D ALMOST GIVE MYSELF, TO FIND IT' 48

'THE DOOR OPENED A LITTLE WIDER, AND TWO FACES APPEARED' 74

'I JUST STOOD STILL ... AND LOOKED WELL ROUND AT THE VIEW AND EVERYTHING' 130

'HER GRANDMOTHER ... WENT QUIETLY OUT OF THE PEW WITHOUT A NOTION BUT THAT THE CHILD WAS BESIDE HER' 153

'WE RAN OVER THE FIELDS BY A SHORT CUT TO A STILE ON TO THE ROAD, WHERE WE COULD SEE HER PASS, AND THERE WE SHOUTED OUT AGAIN ALL OUR MESSAGES' 168

'WE ALL THREE SAT LISTENING AND LISTENING' 175

CHAPTER I

OURSELVES

I'm Jack. I've always been Jack, ever since I can remember at least, though I suppose I must have been called 'Baby' for a bit before Serena came. But she's only a year and a half younger than me, and Maud's only a year and a quarter behind her, so I can scarcely remember even Serena being 'Baby'; and Maud's always been so very grown up for her age that you couldn't fancy her anything but 'Maud.'

My real name isn't John though, as you might fancy. It's a much queerer name, but there's always been one of it in our family ever since some grandfather or other married a German girl, who called her eldest son after her own father. So we're accustomed to it, and it doesn't seem so queer to us as to other people. It's 'Joachim.' 'Jock' seems a better short for it than 'Jack,' doesn't it? and I believe mother once meant to call me 'Jock.' But when Serry and Maud came I had to be Jack, for with Anne and Hebe in front of me, and the two others behind, of course I was 'Jack in the middle.' There's never been any more of us, and even if there had I'd have stayed Jack, once I'd got settled into it, you see.

I'm eleven. I'm writing this in the holidays; and if I don't get it finished before they're done I'll keep adding on to it till I've told all there is to tell.

It's a sort of comfort to me to write about everything, for one way and another I've had a good deal to put up with, all because of girls . And I have to be good tempered and nice just because they are girls. And besides that, I'm really very fond of them; and they're not bad. But no one who hasn't tried it knows in the least what it is to be one boy among a lot of girls, 'specially when some of them are rather boy ey girls, and when you yourself are just a little perhaps just a very little the other way.