Blowing In the Wind

I have no clever segue or snappy patter to preface my writing tonight. I'm tired and just happy I did it.


March 24--English School, Princess Elizabeth, second daughter of Charles I, at the ages of 3, 5, and 6. Emma hated to clean in the main dining room of the country house where her mother was the housekeeper. There were five or six girls who walked up to the house from the village a mile down the valley. Mama said she didn't trust "those girls" not to break the crystal epergne that centered the table so the dining room was all Emma's. Over the fireplace behind Mr. Guthrie's chair was the creepiest painting she had ever seen. At first glance it was a big painting of three little sisters all dressed alike and holding hands. When you looked at it more closely, which Emma couldn't help when she dusted the ornate gilt frame, you realized that it was either a picture of a set of triplets with very different growth rates or it was a picture of the same little girl at three different ages. Who would do that? It was bad enough that it looked like the girl's dress grew with her but to have her holding her own hands was just creepy. Emma was tempted to drape a sheet over the frame each time she cleaned in there. She was convinced the three pairs of eyes followed her around the room looking for anything she missed. They looked like real tattletales too.

Good night.
--Barbara