Evening bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1895-1912, 1905-11-18
THE DEAREST LITTLE STORY
THAT HAS BEEN WRITTEN.
"REBEccA OF SUNNYBRook
FARM.

No critic Of the 10th thousand copy
of book like this can very well have
an original or individual opinion about
1t unless he is willing to sacrifice the
that have been said must be repeated,
or added to or said in some other way
to the same effect, for this Is the dear.
est little story that has been written
for many and many a day.
II is so simply true, so absolutely
without literary or other affeCtation.
The stage coach was rumbling
along the dusty road that runs from
MapIewood to Riverboro." and Rebec.
ca was in It; Rebecca with eyes which
were like Faith, the substance of
things hoped for, the evidence of
things not seen"
MIR. jeremiah Cobb the mail carrier,
told his wife that whenever the child
looked at him she knocked him gal.
lley-west."
Rebecca was going to live with her
, maiden aunts and attend the River
boro schOol-"a small. dark.haired
person in glossy buff calico dress. She
was so slender and so stiffly starched
that she slid from space to space, on
the leather cushions, though she brac'
ed herself against the middle seat with
her feet and extended her cotton.glov
ed hands on each side in order to
maintain some sort of balance"
"Good.by mother. don't worry" she
says, consolingly. as they leave; you
know 1t isn't as II I hadn't Travelled
before. It was travelling" she
urges when her mother demonstrates
1T was leaving the farm. and putting
up lunch in a basket, and a little rid
ing and a little steam cars, and We
carried our night gowns"
Dear innocent, sweet grille; how
little she could understand the neces
sity of the reproof, you mustn't tall
about night gowns and such things
when the men folks are around"
Then, 1t is all so daintily told-how
Rebecca gets up on the front seat
with Mr.. Cobb, whom she embarrasses
with her talk and perfect composurc
Does It cost more to ride up there
with your" ITS a good growing day
isn't it," 1T is certain; too hot most
Why don't you put up your parasol?'
"Oh, dear no. never put 1t VI
when the sun shines; pink fades aw
fully, you know, and | only carry it tc
meetin cloudy Sundays. It's tn,
dearest thing in life to me, but it's al
awful care"
After telling Mr.. Cobb about he
brothers and sisters. she assures hin
that the famlly's all finished. And t.
further enlighten Mr. Cobb's dull I'M
Outstanding. she adds: II mean they're
all over and done with our family
finished Mother says so aud she al
ways keeps her promises"
How the adventurer reaches he
Aunt Mirandy's Is received, how sh,
lives there and goes to school, is toll
with deepening interest. There is M
plot, of course. Not a line of tragedy
thrilling adventure. Observation-Disclosures
but more real interest in one chapte
like mir. Aladdin" than there Is in
dozen thrilling novels"
There are touches OF genuine path
os. too, which moisten the eye with
out leaving a sense of being impose
on (which the average man resents)
and, If the reader is what he ought T.
be, he will wish himself in the plac
OF Mr.. Aladdin many times.
What a true man he was, and hoy
good and pure and unusual the stor
is really, to end without marrying hir
, to Rebecca.
1t was so much nicer all around t
know by intuition that RebecCa woul