Rainbow Cottage by Grace Livingston Hill Read Free Book Online

soundest sleep she had known for weeks.
    When she woke, the sea was a shimmer of pink and gold and green, and the little white sails on the horizon seemed to slant eagerly as if they were striding home hastily before the night caught them and detained them from their goal. The rose in the crystal bud vase had opened its leaves halfway and was sending out a delightful fragrance, and just at the very first Sheila wondered if it wasn’t heaven after all that she had inadvertently stumbled into, and wouldn’t Mother be hovering around somewhere? Then she remembered that she was still on earth and must live out her life and meet a lot of problems before she got there, if there really was a heaven anywhere.
    She drew a deep sigh and brushed her hand softly, appreciatively, across the fineness of the sheet. What would her grandmother think if she knew that the only sheets she had known for years were made out of flour sacks pieced together carefully! But they had been clean and sweet even if they were coarse and rough, and the memory of the bed her mother had always furnished for her was precious and brought the tears.
    Then she saw Grandmother coming in the door, after a gentle tap, with her arms full of bright garments.
    “I’ve been rummaging!” she announced. “I thought maybe it might rest you to have something new to put on that you had not worn before. I don’t want you unpacking tonight and getting your memories all stirred up and sorrowful. I want you to get rested first. And I found several dresses and some under things that Jessica left here. She said they were too short for her and she didn’t want them anymore. I think one little dress hasn’t even been worn. Jessica is wasteful that way. She buys a thing, and then if she doesn’t like herself in it she won’t wear it, no matter how much it cost. But I really believe you could wear this, you are so tiny. See!” And Grandmother spread out a little blue handmade voile on the bed. It was scattered over with blue embroidered butterflies. It had a smocked yoke and skirt and little smocked puffed sleeves.
    “Oh, isn’t that lovely!” said Sheila, rising up to look at it and feel the butterflies. “Why, that’s the prettiest dress I ever saw!” she said happily, reaching over to lay an appreciative finger on one of the silken butterflies. “Do you mean I’m to put it on?”
    “Yes, if it fits you. Here are several others. You might use anything you like. There are some under things, too. And over in the closet across the hall there are several pairs of shoes. Some are Jessica’s; some belong to Rosalie and Annabelle. I don’t know whether any of them will fit you, but you might try them. There are blue ones and white ones and silver ones and black. Take your choice; wear any you can. I’ve got to give them away to someone. They are just cluttering up the place. I meant to get rid of them before, only it was lonely here and it seemed kind of nice to leave them around. It seems as if some of the girls might run in any minute when I see their things, only of course I know they can’t this summer.”
    “Oh, Grandmother, how wonderful!” said Sheila. “It gets more and more like a storybook.”
    “Well, are you rested enough to get up for dinner, or would you rather just have a tray up here and then go on sleeping till morning?”
    “Oh, I’m very rested!” declared the girl. “I want to get up. I’ve missed a whole afternoon of the wonderful sea and the flowers. I want to see the sun set. But I really don’t need any dinner. Why, I had a great dinner before I went to sleep! I had more than I ever had before in one single day in my whole life.”
    “Well, you’ve got to eat some dinner, too. It’s time you made up on some of the lost meals. I’m sure your mother would want that for you. You are as thin as a breath of air, and I don’t want you to blow away now I’ve found you. Come, be brisk and come down or the sun will be set and you’ll