Jump to new as of October 16, 1999
Posted on Wednesday, 8 September 1999, at 4 : 05 a.m.
LIZZY!!...JANE!!...where are those girls?!
Mrs. Bennet's piercing screech could be heard throughout Longbourn as she hunted high and low for her two eldest girls. "Hurry Jane," Elizabeth gasped. "If we can just make it to the orchard, Mama will never see us in there..."
"Yes, but Lizzy, I don't think I can run anymore," Jane groaned, "And really we should go back and see Mama, she might need us for something important."
"Jane, please, we can't go back there...she'll just make me do something terrible! PLEASE Jane..."
Longbourn's Orchard was virtually unused now, briefly Mr. Bennet had entertained the hope of making a small profit on the one and twenty trees located there by selling the orchard's sweet tasting fruit, but his interest had soon waned for the comfort of his library and books.
Look Jane, we are here! Lizzy selected, what looked to Jane to be the tallest tree in the entire orchard with the thickest branches, and slowly began climbing it...
Part II
Lizzy had managed with some dexterity on her part, to slowly but surely climb the great Apple tree in but a few minutes. Its gnarled and moss-ridden branches had been tightly woven together as if against her, they could force her back to the ground below, defeated. But Elizabeth's stubborn streak, which her father often informed her was given to her by her mother, would not allow her to give up and with all the strength Elizabeth could muster she pulled apart some particularly thickly woven branches with the effect that dozens upon dozens of the rather tall Apple tree's orange and yellow tinted leaves escaped and drifted softly passed Elizabeth, slowly making their descent to the awaiting ground below. Now, with the way clear Lizzy pushed her way past the startled branches and up, up to the clear view that she was certain was awaiting her. With one last push and parting of leaves the branches gave way, defeated leaving just Lizzy and clear blue-sky above.