SUE, A LITTLE HEROINE***
E-text prepared by Roger Frank and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net/)
SUE A LITTLE HEROINE
by
L. T. MEADE
Author of "A Girl from America," "The Princess of the Revels," "Polly, a New-Fashioned Girl," "A Sweet Girl Graduate," etc.
New York The New York Book Company 1910
BIOGRAPHY AND BIBLIOGRAPHY
L. T. Meade (Mrs. Elizabeth Thomasina Smith), English novelist, was born at Bandon, County Cork, Ireland, 1854, the daughter of Rev. R. T. Meade, Rector of Novohal, County Cork, and married Toulmin Smith in 1879. She wrote her first book, _Lettie's Last Home_, at the age of seventeen and since then has been an unusually prolific writer, her stories attaining wide popularity on both sides of the Atlantic.
She worked in the British Museum, living in Bishopsgate Without, making special studies of East London life which she incorporated in her stories. She edited _Atlanta_ for six years. Her pictures of girls, especially in the influence they exert on their elders, are drawn with intuitive fidelity; pathos, love, and humor, as in _Daddy's Girl_, flowing easily from her pen. She has traveled extensively, being devoted to motoring and other outdoor sports.
Among more than fifty novels she has written, dealing largely with questions of home life, are: _David's Little Lad_; _Great St. Benedict's_; _A Knight of To-day_ (1877); _Miss Toosey's Mission_; _Bel-Marjory_ (1878); _Laddie; Outcast Robbin, or, Your Brother and Mine_; _A Cry from the Great City_; _White Lillie and Other Tales_; _Scamp and I_; _The Floating Light of Ringfinnan_; _Dot and Her Treasures_; _The Children's Kingdom: the Story of Great Endeavor_; _The Water Gipsies_; _A Dweller in Tents_; _Andrew Harvey's Wife_; _Mou-setse: A Negro Hero_ (1880); _Mother Herring's Chickens_ (1881); _A London Baby: the Story of King Roy_ (1883); _Hermie's Rose-Buds and Other Stories_; _How it all Came Round_; _Two Sisters_ (1884); _Autocrat of the Nursery_; _Tip Cat_; _Scarlet Anemones_; _The Band of Three_; _A Little Silver Trumpet_; _Our Little Ann_; _The Angel of Love_ (1885); _A World of Girls_ (1886); _Beforehand_; _Daddy's Boy_; _The O'Donnells of Inchfawn_; _The Palace Beautiful_; _Sweet Nancy_ (1887); _Deb and the Duchess_ (1888); _Nobody's Neighbors_; _Pen_ (1888); _A Girl from America_ (1907).
CONTENTS
I. BIG BEN'S VOICE. 1 II. A SERVANT OF GOD. 3 III. GOOD SECURITY. 7 IV. SOLITARY HOURS. 9 V. EAGER WORDS. 10 VI. DIFFERENT SORT OF WORK. 12 VII. SHOPPING. 21 VIII. COMPARISONS. 26 IX. A TRIP INTO THE COUNTRY. 31 X. THE RETURN TO LONDON. 35 XI. A NEW DEPARTURE. 44 XII. LEFT ALONE. 48 XIII. PETER HARRIS. 60 XIV. THE SEARCH. 66 XV. CONCENTRATION OF PURPOSE. 69 XVI. PICKLES. 74 XVII. CINDERELLA. 78 XVIII. THE METROPOLITAN FIRE BRIGADE. 79 XIX. A SAINTLY LADY. 83 XX. CAUGHT AGAIN. 87 XXI. SAFE HOME AT LAST. 94 XXII. NEWS OF SUE. 105 XXIII. AMATEUR DETECTIVE. 109 XXIV. MOTHER AND SON. 112 XXV. ABOUT RONALD. 113 XXVI. TWO CUPS OF COFFEE. 124 XXVII. DELAYED TRIAL. 127 XXVIII. CINDERELLA WOULD SHIELD THE REAL THIEF. 130 XXIX. A LITTLE HEROINE. 132 XXX. WHAT WAS HARRIS TO HER? 134 XXXI. A STERN RESOLVE. 136 XXXII. AN UNEXPECTED ACCIDENT. 137 XXXIII. A POINTED QUESTION. 138 XXXIV. PICKLES TO THE FORE AGAIN. 141 XXXV. THE WINGS ARE GROWING. 142 XXXVI. A CRISIS. 143 XXXVII. THE HAPPY GATHERING. 151
SUE: A LITTLE HEROINE.
CHAPTER I.
BIG BEN'S VOICE.
Sue made a great effort to push her way to the front of the crowd. The street preacher was talking, and she did not wish to lose a word. She was a small, badly made girl, with a freckled face and hair inclined to red, but her eyes were wonderfully blue and intelligent. She pushed and pressed forward into the thick of the crowd. She felt a hand on her shoulder, and looking up, saw a very rough man gazing at her.
