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Ray, Anna Chapin, 1865-1945

"Half a Dozen Girls"

But the
ancestor had been several sizes larger than his nineteenth century
descendant, and the uniform lay in generous folds over the back
and shoulders, and was turned up at wrist and ankle, while the
great cocked hat, pushed back to show the yellow hair in front,
rested on the boy's shoulders behind. However, a truer, tenderer,
more valiant heart never beat in old-time captain, than was
throbbing in Alan's breast that day, when he held forlorn little
Dicky Morris on his knee.
But Polly! In arranging her costume, the girls had let their
individual tastes have full sway, and beyond the general notion
that Indians like bright color, they had paid no attention to the
traditional ideas of dress among the noble red men. Pocahontas, as
she is usually pictured in her quill-embroidered tunic and dull,
heavy mantle, would have laughed outright at the appearance of
this vision of silk and satin, of purple and scarlet and vivid
green, which was solemnly parading up and down the room, in all
the enjoyment of her finery.
"'Tis splendid, isn't it, Alan?" she asked, turning, with a purely
feminine delight, to survey her long red satin train as it swept
about her feet.
Alan looked at her doubtfully.


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