E-text prepared by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer. The source
was a Sunday-school prize presented in 1920 to Lily Richardson by theUnited Methodist Church, Regent Street, Stockton.
by
I. Fate and a Rusty Nail.
II. The News, and how they received it.
III. A Drive and a Slice of Cake.
IV. Storms at Home and Abroad
V. In Wenmere Woods.
VI. Tea at the Farm.
VII. The "Rover" takes them Home.
VIII. A Bad Beginning.
IX. The Coming of Anna.
X. Lessons, Alarms, and Warnings.
XI. Poor Kitty!
XII. Those Dreadful Stockings.
XIII. An Exciting Night.
XIV. Mokus and Carrots
XV. Missing!
XVI. Banished.
XVII. "Good in Everything".
XVIII. Threatening Clouds.
XIX. Betty's Escapade.
XX. Kitty's Hands are Full.
XXI. The Last.
On such an afternoon, when all the rest of the world lay in the fierceglare of the scorching sun, who could blame the children for choosing toperch themselves on the old garden wall, where it was so cool, andshady, and enticing? And who, as Kitty often asked tragically in thedays and weeks that followed, could have known that by doing so "theywere altering their fates for ever"?
The four of them talked a great deal in those days of their "fates;"it sounded so mysterious and grand, and so interesting too, for, ofcourse, no one could know what lay in store for them all, and the mostwonderful and surprising events might happen. They did happen to somepeople, and why not to them?
"I am quite sure something will happen to me some day," said Betty, witha very wise and serious look.
"I shouldn't be surprised," said Dan with mock seriousness,"if something did."
"I mean something wonderful, of course," added Betty. "Don't," with asuperior air, "be silly, Dan. Things must happen to somebody, or therewould never be any."
Later that same day they realized for the first time that small eventscould be interesting and important too, and that while they werethinking of their "fates" as something to be spun and woven in themysterious future, the shuttle was already flying fast.
As I said before, the old wall was particularly cool andtempting-looking that sunny afternoon, for the high, untrimmed laurelhedge on the other side of the path behind them threw a deep broadshadow over the flat top of it, and shade was what one appreciated moston that hot day. All the ground in Gorlay sloped, for Gorlay was builton two hills, while the gardens of all the houses on either side slopedeither up or down another and a steeper hill. Dr. Trenire's house wason the left-hand side of the street, as one walked up it, and it was thesteep slope up of the garden behind it that made the old wall sofascinating.
To reach the garden from the house one had to pass through a cobbledyard, with the back wing of the house and a stable on one side of it,and a coach-house and anoth