then go to church. Their faces were rosy with excitement. This was a wonderful red-letter day, for the stork had brought not only the baby sister, but all sorts of presents as well. How tre-mendously strong the stork must be, to carry all that! There was a new seal-skin school-bag for Tom, a big doll for An-tonie, that had real hair--imagine that!--for Christian a com-plete toy theatre, with the Sultan, Death, and the Devil; and a book with pictures for demure Clothilde, who accepted it with thanks, but was more interested in the bag of sweeties that fell to her lot as well. They kissed their mother, and were allowed a peep under the green curtains of the baby's bed. Then off they went with their father, who had put on his fur coat and taken the hymn book. They were folio-wed by the piercing cry of the new member of the family, who had just waked up.
CHAPTER II
EARLY in the summer, sometimes as early as May or June, Tony Buddenbrook always went on a visit to her grandpar-ents, who lived outside the Castle Gate. This was a great pleasure. For life was delightful out there in the country, in the luxurious villa with its many outbuildings, servants' quarters and stables, and its great parterres, orchards, and kitchen-gardens, which ran steeply down to the river Trave. The Kr�s lived in the grand style; there was a difference be-tween their brilliant establishment and the solid, somewhat heavy comfort of the paternal home, which was obvious at a glance, and which impressed very much the young Dem-oiselle Buddenbrook. Here there was no thought of duties in house or kitchen. In the Mengstrasse, though her Mother and Grandfather did not seem to think it important, her Father and her Grand-mother were always telling her to remember her dusting, and holding up Clothilde as an example. The old feudal feeling of her Mother's side of the family came out strongly in the little maid: one could see how she issued her orders to the footman or the abigail--and to her Grandmother's servants ana her Grandfather's coachman as well. Say what you will, it is pleasant to awake every morning in a large, gaily tapestried bed-chamber, and with one's first movements to feel the soft satin of the coverlet under one's hand; to take early breakfast in the balcony room, with the sweet fresh air coming up from the garden through the open glass door; to drink, instead of coffee, a cup of chocolate handed one on a tray--yes, proper birthday chocolate, with 57 a thick slice of fresh cup-cake! True, she had to eat her breakfast alone, except on Sundays, for her grandparents never came down until long after she had gone to school. When she had munched her cake and drunk her chocolate, she would snatch up her satchel and trip down the terrace and through the well-kept front garden. She was very dainty, this little Tony Buddenbrook. Un-der her straw hat curled a wealth of blonde hair, slowly dark-ening with the years. Lively grey-blue eyes and a pouting upper lip gave her fresh face a roguish look, borne out by the poise of her graceful little figure; even the slender legs, in their immaculate white stockings, trotted along over the ground with an unmistakable air of ease and assurance. People knew and greeted the young daughter of Consul Buddenbrook as she came out of the garden gate and up the chestnut-bordered avenue. Perhaps an old market-woman, driving her little cart in from the village, would nod her head in its big flat straw hat with its light green ribbons, and call out "Mornin', little missy!" Or Matthiesen the porter, in his wide knee-breeches, white hose, and buckled shoes, would respect-fully take off his hat as she passed. Tony always waited for her neighbour, little Julie Hagen-strum; the two children went to school together. Julie was a high-shouldered child, with large, staring black eyes, who lived close by in a vine-covered house. Her people had not been long in the neighbourhood. The father, Herr Hagen-str�had married a wife from Hamburg,
Kara Thomas
Kathleen Duey
K. A. Applegate
Tom Epperson
Paula Wiseman
Ron Foster
Tony Healey
Robert Ludlum
Mary Oliver
Adrienne Wilder