Free Katharine's Yesterday by Grace Livingston Hill

Summer's End

    Katharine Bowman stood at the front gate of her father’s house, looking drearily down the road at nothing in particular. The air was crisp and clear, and the sun shine of the early morning was making everything dance and sparkle. All the brilliant red leaves, with their dew-covered faces, came fluttering down with a frosty air. They clanked and clattered against one another, as if to pretend that fall was well on its way and winter would soon be here. Nothing could have looked more enticing that October morning; the air, the sunshine, the leaves, and the very grass seemed full of delightful possibilities. Katharine saw them all: the little whirls of white dust down the road; the purple and blue mists on the distant hills at the end of the street; the big hill, or “mountain” as it was called, which loomed up before her just across the meadows. She had climbed it in company with a party of young-people only a few days before. A little brisk black-and-tan dog moved along the sidewalk in a lively manner, and the cheerful little sparrows that hopped in the road did not care whether winter came or not, but none of them gave Katharine any pleasure or sense of joy.
    The truth was, the world looked pretty dark to her that morning. She ha d just come from the depot, where she had watched the morning express whizz out of sight, carrying with it half a dozen young people, who had been all in all to her the whole summer. They had played tennis and croquet together, had read and sung, walked and talked, gone on picnics, taken rides, and, in short, done all the delightful things that a party of congenial, bright young people can think up to do during a long summer in a country village.
    The last delegation of them had gone away this morning; and now only Katharine was left, surrounded by all the pleasant places where they had enjoyed themselves together. How dreary they looked to her now. What was that great hill now, with its waving scarlet foliage and its stores of autumn brilliance? Nothing but a hill, which she would not climb alone. What was the tennis court, with its clean-shaven smoothness and its clear, white lines, over which played the mirthful sunshine and occasionally a yellow-and-brown leaf? Nothing but a desolate reminder of happy days all gone.
    Yes, the summer was over and the winter had begun, a whole long winter, full of work and disagreeableness. She remembered the old brown cashmere dress that lay on her table this morning. Her mother had put it there, reminding her that it should be ripped, sponged, and pressed, to be made over. How she hated made-over things! She glanced down at the stylish street suit she had on. It would have to be put away and kept only for special occasion, now that there was no more company. Her pretty tennis suit, too, would have no use. Then there was a pile of mending, that had been accumulating during the months when she had given herself over to good times. What else was there not to be done, day in and day out, this long, barren winter?
    In the house a pile of dishes was awaiting her attention. The servant had gone away for a day or two, and Katharine knew that the dishes would be left until she returned from the station, as her mother was very busy with the dressmaker. Still she lingered at the gate, dreading to go in and begin the winter. She thought miserably of the other happy girls who had left her, some to spend their winters in boarding school, others in their city homes, and the young men, most of them in college or in business, and not have to poke at home and wash dishes. She wishes she could go to school this winter. Why was it that her father’s business could not have been as good this particular winter, just when she would have so enjoyed going to the seminary with Mabel and Fannie?
    She drew a long sigh, and turned away from the gate, drawing off her gloves as she moved slowly toward the house. She would not look at the tennis court as she passed it, and