A Little Maid of Ticonderoga

								

its pretty head. "I named it 'Bounce' because it never seems to walk.
It just bounces along."
Esther smiled again, but she did not speak. Faith noticed that she was
very thin, and that her hands looked almost like little brown shadows.
"Are you tired?" she asked, suddenly remembering that she had heard
her father say that "Mr. Eldridge's little maid was not well, and he
thought the change would do her good."
Esther nodded. "Yes, I'm always tired," she answered, sitting down in
the low wooden rocker beside the light stand.
"For pity's sake, child, we must see to it that you are soon as strong
and well as Faith," said Mrs. Carew, untying the broad scarlet ribbon
and taking off Esther's hat. She smoothed back the dark hair with a
tender hand, remembering that Esther's own mother was not well, and
resolving to do her best for this delicate child.
"I think the pumpkin is cooked by this time, Faithie. I'll set it in
the window to cool and then you can take out the pulp and I'll make
the cakes," said Mrs. Carew.
Bounce jumped up in Esther's lap, and Faith sat down on the braided
rug beside her.
"I'm going to make the pumpkin shell into a work-basket for you," said
Faith. "Did you ever see a pumpkin-shell work-basket?"
Esther shook her head. She did not seem much interested. But she asked
eagerly: "Are the pumpkin cakes sweet?"
"Yes, indeed. You shall have one as soon as they are baked; may she
not, mother dear?"
"Why, yes; only if Esther is not well it may not be wise for her to
eat between meals," responded Mrs. Carew.
"Oh! But I eat cakes whenever I want them," declared Esther, "and I
love sweets. I had a fine cake when I left home and I ate it all
before we got to Lake Dunmore."
Mrs. Carew thought to herself that she did not wonder Esther was
always tired and not strong. Esther did not say that the "fine cake"
had been sent as a gift to Faith. But her face flushed a little, and
she added, "I meant to bring the cake as a present; but I was hungry."
"Of course you were," agreed Faith quickly. "Is not the pumpkin cool
enough to cut, mother dear?" asked Faith.
"Yes," replied her mother, setting the yellow pumpkin on the table.
"Come and see me do it, Esther," said Faith, and Esther, with a little
sigh, left the comfortable chair and came and leaned against the
table.
With a sharp knife Faith cut a circle about the stem of the pumpkin
and took it off, a little round, with the stem in the center. "That
will be the work-box cover," she explained, laying it carefully on a
wooden plate. Then she removed the seeds and the pulp, putting the
pulp in a big yellow bowl, and scraping the inside of the pumpkin
shell. "There! Now when it dries a bit 'twill be a fine work-box, and
it is for you, Esther," she said; but Esther was watching Mrs. Carew,
who was beating up eggs with the pumpkin pulp.
"Do you put spices in the cakes?" she questioned eagerly. "How long