Growing Up Downton

April 1927

Sybbie climbed up onto her fathers lap and squinted at the sun. It was the annual garden party. Lord Grantham was giving the big speech to begin the fun.

Sybbie didnt want to listen to her grandfather, she was too distracted by the games. There was ring toss, rubber duck fishing, tug of war, everything! Her father was playing in the cricket later on.

Sybbie was instructed not to get her fine dress mucky. The dress code was white and ivory. Sybbie had been dressed in a frock she hated; she would have preferred to be wearing play clothing, or even trousers, like George!

Unfortunately, it wasn't proper for little ladies to wear pants. Mary had picked out an ivory dress with lavender flowers on the collar. To make it much worse, Marigold was dressed in the same outfit as her, both of them with bows at the back of their hair.

"How precious!" People had exclaimed.

This was going to be a long day.

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Sybbie stood in a large potato sack at the beginning of the line. She was racing against her father, both aunts, and Anna, to win an ice cream cone.

Mr. Carson hit the gong.

"Go!" He cried.

They began jumping, and almost instantly, Tom fell over. Sybbie tripped over him, and broke out into giggles. Mary pulled ahead, but Edith pushed her over.

"Hey!" Mary cried, but they both ended up laughing.

Sybbie jumped back up, and hopped as fast as she could to catch up to Anna.

"I'll beat you!" She said to Anna.

Anna began to hop faster, leaving Sybbie in the dust. Sybbie knew it was cheating, but she climbed out of her bag and began to run to the finish line, dodging muddy areas.

She flew past Anna, who was laughing at the child's effort. Carson held out two cones of vanilla flavoured ice cream.

"One for you miss, and one for Anna." He smiled.

Sybbie carefully carried her ice cream over to George, who hadn't won anything yet.

"I won this for you George. I cheated for it, but it's for you."