The Pool of Stars

Elizabeth Houghton sat on a big stone beside the road, just where the highway forked, her school books still tucked under her arm. Her round blue eyes stared straight before her, as she tried, with one last effort, to make up her mind. For a whole week she had been attempting to reach a decision: that very morning she had told herself sternly that the matter must be settled to-day, yet still she had kept on debating inwardly, hour after hour, saying, one moment, “I will,” and the next, “I won’t.” In the late afternoon she had set out for Aunt Susan’s to announce her decision, but here she was pausing at the turn of the way, still irresolute.