E-text prepared by Al Haines
by
New York
The Christian Herald
Bible House
Copyright, 1919, by Eleanor H. Porter
All Rights Reserved
Contents
The stories in this volume are here reprinted by the courteous
permission of the publishers of the periodicals in which they first
appeared,—Lippincott's Magazine, The Metropolitan Magazine, McCall's
Magazine, Harper's Magazine, The American Magazine, Progress Magazine,
The Arena, The Christian Endeavor World, The Congregationalist and
Christian World, The Housewife, Harper's Bazar [Transcriber's note:
Bazaar?], Judge's Library Magazine, The New England Magazine, People's
Short Story Magazine, The Christian Herald, The Ladies' World.
The Tangled Threads
A Delayed Heritage
When Hester was two years old a wheezy hand-organ would set her eyes tosparkling and her cheeks to dimpling, and when she was twenty the"Maiden's Prayer," played by a school-girl, would fill her soul withecstasy.
To Hester, all the world seemed full of melody. Even the clouds in thesky sailed slowly along in time to a stately march in her brain, ordanced to the tune of a merry schottische that sounded for her earsalone. And when she saw the sunset from the hill behind her home, therewas always music then—low and tender if the colors were soft andpale-tinted, grand and awful if the wind blew shreds and tatters ofstorm-clouds across a purpling sky. All this was within Hester; butwithout—
There had been but little room in Hester's life for music. Her days werean endless round of dish-washing and baby-tending—first for her mother,later for herself. There had been no money for music lessons, no timefor piano practice. Hester's childish heart had swelled with bitter envywhenever she saw the coveted music roll swinging from some playmate'shand. At that time her favorite "make-believe" had been to play at goingfor a music lesson, with a carefully modeled roll of brown papersuspended by a string from her fingers.
Hester was forty now. Two sturdy boys and a girl of nine gave her threehungry mouths to feed and six active feet to keep in holeless stockings.Her husband had been dead two years, and life was a struggle and aproblem. The boys she trained rigorously, giving just measure of loveand care; but the girl—ah, Penelope should have that for which sheherself had so longed. Penelope should take music lessons!
During all those nine years since Penelope had come to her, frequentdimes and quarters, with an occasional half-dollar, had found their wayinto an old stone jar on the top shelf in the pantry. It had been adreary and pinching economy that had made possible this horde of silver,and its effects had been only too visible in Hester's turned and mendedgarments, to say nothing of her wasted figure and colorless cheeks.Penelope was nine now, and