Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. Excerpt from book: Section 3CHAPTER III A DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE " TT'S ever so much prettier than the scarlet beans textit{*- or the hop-vine," and the child, from her low seat upon the threshold of the back door, paused for a moment from her chopping to look up lovingly at the graceful clematis framing the rough doorway in a wreath of delicate, fairy-like blossoms. " David said 't wa' n't nothin' but a weed, and made fun of me for diggin' it up and settin' it out here, and Jotham said he 'd tell father that I was litterin' the yard up with wild things. But now it's grown so big and pretty, they like to sit in the shade of it as well as anybody." « She laughed, such a sweet, wholesome, gay little laugh, that her sad-faced mother looked up from her bread kneading with a smile of tender satisfaction that faded the next instant, as she said, apprehensively : " Yes, 't is pretty, and it shades the door nicely for you to sit there when you 're choppin' the curd or shellin' peas. But I 'm afraid," with a little catch in her voice, as she glanced at the unsuspecting little face, bright with childhood's unreasoning gladness, " that your father won't let it stay there. He said only the other day that it was the worst thing to scatter its seeds that he ever saw, and he wouldn'thave weeds coaxed to grow in his yard, when there was enough that he could n't get rid of." "What?" and the childish face flamed up angrily " Do you s'pose that he'd pull up my own vine, that I got in the woods, and planted here my own self ? If he did, 'twould be meaner'n dirt, and — " " There ! there! That will do." Mrs. Hadlock spoke with a sternness that she was far from feeling. For years unquestioning submission and obedience had been the rule of her own life, and the quick, independent temper of her little daughter kept her in a state...