I exclaimed incredulously . `` Yes , he did , '' said the Story Girl triumphantly . `` I met him one day last week back in the maple woods when I was looking for ferns . He was sitting by the spring , writing in his brown book . He hid it when he saw me and looked real silly ; but after I had talked to him awhile I just asked him about it , and told him that the gossips said he wrote poetry in it , and if he did would he tell me , because I was dying to know . He said he wrote a little of everything in it ; and then I begged him to read me something out of it , and he read me the story of Ursula and Kenneth . '' `` I do n't see how you ever had the face , '' said Felicity ; and even Cecily looked as if she thought the Story Girl had gone rather far . `` Never mind that , '' cried Felix , `` but tell us the story . That 's the main thing . '' `` I 'll tell it just as the Awkward Man read it , as far as I can , '' said the Story Girl , `` but I ca n't put all his nice poetical touches in , because I ca n't remember them all , though he read it over twice for me . '' CHAPTER II . A WILL , A WAY AND A WOMAN `` One day , over a hundred years ago , Ursula Townley was waiting for Kenneth MacNair in a great beechwood , where brown nuts were falling and an October wind was making the leaves dance on the ground like pixy-people . '' `` What are pixy-people ? '' demanded Peter , forgetting the Story Girl 's dislike of interruptions . `` Hush , '' whispered Cecily . `` That is only one of the Awkward Man 's poetical touches , I guess . '' `` There were cultivated fields between the grove and the dark blue gulf ; but far behind and on each side were woods , for Prince Edward Island a hundred years ago was not what it is today . The settlements were few and scattered , and the population so scanty that old Hugh Townley boasted that he knew every man , woman and child in it . `` Old Hugh was quite a noted man in his day . He was noted for several things -- he was rich , he was hospitable , he was proud , he was masterful -- and he had for daughter the handsomest young woman in Prince Edward Island .
`` Of course , the young men were not blind to her good looks , and she had so many lovers XXXXX all the other girls hated her -- '' `` You bet ! ''
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