Marjorie's Vacation

In the Maynards' side yard at Rockwell a swingful of children was slowly swaying back and forth. The swing was one of those big double wooden affairs that hold four people so the Maynards just filled it comfortably. It was a lovely soft summer day in the very beginning of June; the kind of day that makes anybody feel happy but a little bit subdued. The kind of day when the sky is so blue and the air so clear that everything seems dreamy and quiet. But the Maynard children were little if any affected by the atmosphere and though they did seem a trifle subdued it was a most unusual state of things and was brought about by reasons far more definite than sky or atmosphere. Kingdon Maynard the oldest of the four and the only boy was fourteen. These facts had long ago fixed his position as autocrat dictator and final court of appeal. Whatever King said was law to the three girls but as the boy was really a mild-mannered tyrant no trouble ensued. Of late though he had begun to show a slight inclination to go off on expeditions with other boys in which girls were not included. But this was accepted by his sisters as a natural course of events for of course if King did it it must be all right.