CHAPTER II.
THE BELLE OF RICE CORNER.
Yes, Rice Corner had a belle, but it was not I.Oh, no, nobody ever mistook _me_ for a belle, or much of anything else, in fact; _I_ was simply "Mary Jane," or, if that was not concise enough, "Crazy Jane" set the matter all right.

The belle of which I speak was a _bona fide_ one--fine complexion, handsome features, beautiful eyes, curling hair, and all.

And yet in her composition there was something wanting, something very essential, too; for she lacked soul, and would at any time have sold her best friend for a flattering compliment.
Still Carrie Howard was generally a favorite.

The old people liked her because her sparkling eye and merry laugh brought back to them a gleam of youth; the young people liked her, because to dislike her would seem like envy; and I, who was nothing, liked her because she was pretty, and I greatly admired beauty, though I am not certain that I should not have liked a handsome rosebud quite as well as I did Carrie Howard's beautiful face, for beautiful she was.
Her mother, good, plain Mrs.Howard, was entirely unlike her daughter.
She was simply "Mrs.Captain Howard," or, in other words, "Aunt Eunice," whose benevolent smile and kindly beaming eye carried contentment wherever she went.

Really, I don't know how Rice Corner could have existed one day without the presence of Aunt Eunice.