The Story Girl

When their father was sent to work in Rio de Janeiro, brothers Beverley and Felix could not go with him.Instead, they were sent to Prince Edward Island, to live with Uncle Alec and Aunt Janet on the old family homestead.Their nervous housekeeper worried the whole way about two energetic boys traveling alone by train and boat.

Yet the moment they reached the weathered old King farmhouse, both boys felt strangely as if they had always belonged there.Their cousins Dan, Felicity, and Cecily ran out to greet them, all talking at once.Behind the house stood a famous old orchard, planted long ago by their grandfather, its trees heavy with apples.

"You should have come yesterday," said Felicity. "Then you could have met the Story Girl too.""Who is the Story Girl?" asked Felix, curious at once."That's our cousin Sara," said Cecily. "Everyone calls her that because she can tell the most wonderful stories in the world."

"She was so disappointed she missed you," Dan added. "She wanted to be here the very first minute you arrived."Beverley found himself strangely eager to meet this cousin he had never seen, just from hearing her described that way.That night, the two brothers climbed to the small bedroom that had once belonged to their own father as a boy.

Through the open window came the steady, cheerful singing of frogs from the swamp below the orchard."Father used to listen to these very same frogs," Felix said quietly, lying in the dark.Beverley nodded, feeling closer to their far-away father than he had all day.

Just before sleep took him, he wondered whether the mysterious Story Girl would like the two of them.Outside, the old orchard rustled gently in the night wind, as if it, too, were waiting to see what stories this summer would bring.