"Emiline, where have you been?" Susan asked. There was a long distance of road between her and her friend, but in a moment, she reached the girl's side and took both of Emma's hands in her own. "I haven't seen you for two whole days! What happened? You could have at least dropped by for tea!"
Emiline cast her a pouty look. "I couldn't," she said sadly. "Grandma wouldn't let me."
"What?" Susan's glittery eyes widened with shock. "Why not?" She slipped her arm through Emma's comfortingly and looked at her with pity.
Emma let out a sigh and tried to think of the best way to answer. They had both gone on a walk that Monday morning, half hoping that they would meet. Now they headed down the main road together.
The rain began to drizzle as they went, but they were safe and dry beneath two big umbrellas. They hadn't gone far, and Emiline had only just begun telling her story, when they saw someone walking ahead of them. It made Emma pause and then gasp in horror.
"Oh, Susan!" she exclaimed. "That's Dotty! And she's getting soaked!"
The poor little girl hadn't brought an umbrella. The weather had been very hard to predict. One minute, the sun would shine, and the next minute, the clouds would come back to pour out their raindrops.
Susan's heart filled with pity. "Dorothy!" she called loudly. "Come and walk with us!"
The girl ahead of them turned around in surprise. Then her face lit up with delight. She ran as quickly as she could, but with her enormous, half-broken shoes, that wasn't very fast. In a matter of minutes, she had ducked beneath her friends' sheltering umbrellas.
"Oh thank you!" she exclaimed. "I was getting so wet!"
Emma pulled the girl closer and wrapped an arm around her to keep her warm. As the three walked on, Dotty kept staring up at her friends with a thankful smile. She looked like a rejected puppy whose master had finally said a kind word to it.
Susan fidgeted with her lacy gloves in a nervous way. Somehow the gratitude in Dorothy's eyes made her feel strange. Scrambling to escape her guilt, she broke the silence and turned to Emiline.
"Emma, why wouldn't your Grandmother let you come to my house?" the girl pressed.
"Well, I guess she didn't mean to keep me away," Emiline answered. "But she wouldn't give me a moment's peace. She kept saying that her back hurt and asking me to get things for her. I've never seen anyone drink as much tea as she does!"
Dorothy's face softened with sympathy. "Oh, your poor Grandma!" she said. "Will she be alright?"
Emiline looked at the girl in surprise. This wasn't supposed to be a pity party for Grandma Adler; it was supposed to be all for her. "I...suppose she will," Emma answered slowly.
"When Papa's back hurts," Dotty went on, "he drinks a cup of willow tea. Do you think that would help her?"
Emiline looked at her friend's face and studied it thoughtfully. There was such a look of sweetness in her eyes; such a look of care. Suddenly, Emma's heart felt pricked with shame. There was something very wrong about the way she had been acting. She hadn't been showing Grandma Adler much respect, and she hadn't been worried about the way the old woman felt.
I guess I should be kinder to Grandma. After all, she doesn't feel well. She bit her lip and held her breaking pride together. Then, speaking aloud, she said, "I know that Grandma's back hurts. But I still don't understand why I have to be her nursemaid. There are a lot of people who don't feel well, and they still manage to do things for themselves. Mrs. Winston walks with a limp, but she even goes into town to help other people. Couldn't Grandma Adler make her own tea?"
"I think that would be fair," Susan agreed. "After all, you practically do everything as it is! You milk the cow and clean the house. You even help make dinner. I would think your grandmother could show a little bit of gratitude."
For an instant, Emiline felt like agreeing wholeheartedly. But a glance at Dorothy made her guilt return. Dotty's kind smiles had faded away. Now she looked miserable and uneasy. Emma could guess her thoughts. She was feeling sad because she knew that her friends weren't being right. Emiline knew that too, but she kept fighting the truth away.
After that, the girls had a happy walk. They put Grandma Adler and ruined picnics out of their minds and began talking about other things. Everything was changing quickly. The leaves on the trees were getting big, and the streams were rushing with icy water from the mountains' melting snow. The forest was full of spring's beauty. As the girls carried on down the road, another changing thing met their eyes. It was a little brown house not too far from the road.
"That must be where the new family moved," Emma noted curiously. "What were their names again?"
"I wouldn't know," Susan answered. "I'm sure Mother met them at church, but I wasn't paying attention."
They drew nearer and nearer to the building. Soon their question was answered. In the yard a man stood nailing a sign to a tree. Emiline stopped to read it, "Gray's Shoe Shop".
That was the man's name, Ebenezer Gray. He was a good looking fellow with dark eyes and a broad chin. As the girls stood watching, he looked over at them and smiled.
"Good afternoon, can I help you?" he asked.
Emma felt awkward for staring. With a deep blush she shook her head. "We were just looking at your sign," she explained.
"Well, you're welcome to do that," the man said pleasantly. "You're welcome to have a look in the shop as well."
"Really?" Emiline exclaimed. She looked at Susan, as if begging for permission to go.
"That would be fun," Susan said. So the girls followed the shoemaker to the front door of his new shop.
As they crossed the threshold, the smell of leather and wood welcomed them. Sitting on several tall shelves, they could see all of the wonderful shoes which the man had made. There were simple, heavy men's boots, common work shoes, and the prettiest high heels Emiline had ever seen. For a moment, she gazed in awe and silence.
As they shut the door behind them, a woman poked her head out of a doorway to see who had come. "Well hello there, ladies," she said brightly. "What are you three doing today?"
"Just looking," Susan replied.
"I'm glad you dropped by. Would you like a muffin? I made them fresh this morning!" The girls gladly accepted the treat. Then they went around looking at one shoe and then another.
It was a beautiful building, half a shop and half a home. Mrs. Gray had decorated the front room with bright curtains and vases full of flowers. Through one door, they could see the family's kitchen. To their right, a narrow staircase led to an upper floor. And then, there was a back room.
Emiline hadn't given that room much thought. It was nothing spectacular, and it was almost too dark to see into. But in a moment, she heard a slight scuffling noise and caught a glimpse of a blonde-haired boy inside. As soon as he saw her look at him, he disappeared into the shadows of the room.
I wonder who he is? she thought. She hadn't gotten a good look at him, but she guessed that he was about her . Curiosity filled the girl. What kind of a boy was Mr. Gray's son? The family seemed well dressed and well mannered. They weren't rich like Susan, but everything they had looked nice and new. It was obvious that they had come from the city, and city boys were bound to be kinder and more gentlemanly than country ones.
She smiled to herself. She was bound to meet the boy someday. Surely she would see him at church or in town. And then, in the autumn, he would be sure to go to school. Then she would be able to know more about him.
Susan was less interested in the boy. And really, she wasn't very interested in the shoes either. She had seen dozens of shops before. And she had more shoes than she needed.
Dorothy, on the other hand, studied each shoe with delight and secret yearning. Mr. Gray glanced up at her face and then let his eyes drop down to her muddy, broken shoes.
"Looking for a pair of shoes, young lady?" he asked.
Dorothy smiled. "Oh, I don't know," she answered. She tucked her hands into her pinafore pockets and stared down at the floor bashfully.
"May I see the ones you're wearing?" the man asked. Dorothy gave an awkward smile. Then she slipped her feet out of the soggy shoes and handed him the old boots. For a moment, Mr. Gray turned them all around in his hands. Then he jotted down a few notes on a piece of paper and handed the boots back to the girl.
"Well," he began, "when you get home, be sure to tell your parents about my shop. I could fix those shoes of yours in no time at all. Or, better yet, I could make you a real pretty new pair."
Dorothy put her feet back into the wet leather and wriggled her muddy toes. She wished in her heart that she could have bought one of those beautiful pairs of shoes; but she knew that she couldn't. Her father was too poor. With a feeling of disappointment, she gave Mr. Gray a quiet "thank you" and then wished she could leave.
Emiline looked at her sadly. I wish I could buy Dotty some new shoes, she thought. Poor Dorothy. Emma had a little tin full of shiny pennies which Mrs. Winston had given her, but she still didn't have enough money to buy anything great. Maybe someday, she thought with a sigh.
When the three girls got to their homes, they each had a lot to tell their families about Mr. Gray's beautiful shoe shop. In a day or two, many other people had gone to pay the new family a visit, and the whole town was abuzz with news and rumors and notions about the shoemaker.
"Such a charming family!" Mrs. Bufford said. If she had ever had suspicions about them before, her feeling of caution was gone. Now she could only see good things about Mr. and Mrs. Gray.
"And their son!" she exclaimed in amazement. "Why, he's everything a young man should be. I can tell he's going to grow up to be a skilled gentleman just like his father. Have you seen the way he dresses?" The boy really did look smart. His clothes were always ironed, and they reflected the fashionable city which he had left. There were all kinds of exciting things to discover about Ebenezer's family.