Part 6 (1/2)

Sally sat down and began thinking in half wonder. ”Now what, oh, what, makes me to have thoughts like that?” she asked, in perplexity. ”Are there very truly two Sallys inside my skin?”

She was too much in earnest to laugh as she went on: ”All is, if there be, we must help each other. Thankful should I be to rise in the world, and great, great joy would it be if some good Fairy could come and live with me, helping me to rise. Listen, listen will I for your voice, good Fairy, and run wherever you send, and do whatever you bid.”

Then Sally heard many voices, and the rustle of silken garments, and she knew that a soft swish of fine muslins and delicately shod feet were coming over the lawn.

She dared one peep at the gay company. There was Corniel, in all his glory, viewing the table he had spread so finely, and Sam Spruce, with a high head and knowing air, directing the waiters by signs and nods. The company was a mixed show of splendid coats, gowns, and s.h.i.+mmering laces, but the peep was a short one, and Sally was seated again.

A great chattering, mixed with joyous laughter, floated across the wall, but a ”mocker,” the lovely mocking-bird of the South, mingled his notes with it all, and Sally could hear nothing distinctly in the pleasant confusion.

Then the charming bird-notes hushed, as some one asked plainly a question of the Fairy Prince.

”To which university do you go, Master Lionel, to Oxford or to Cambridge?”

”I hie me to England in the early fall, to be tutored a year for Oxford.

It is to the older university I would go.”

”And how old may Oxford be?” asked a young voice.

”It was founded by Alfred the Great, 'way back in the ninth century, 872,” came in the firm, a.s.sured voice of the Fairy Prince.

”And Cambridge?” asked some one else.

”In 1257,” came the quick reply.

”And you go in the _Belle Virgeen_?”

”In the _Belle Virgeen_, most surely.”

”What will be the whole course?” was the next question.

”Five years if I finish. Affairs may be such as to prevent my finis.h.i.+ng.”

”Oh! Ah! Indeed!” cried a voice of mock surprise. ”Five years to fit a lad, who already hath somewhat in his noddle, to do a man's work?”

”And but twenty-one will I be then,” answered the Fairy Prince. ”Youth is the time for study.”

”And is so very much learning needed?” asked a womanish voice which yet was a man's, ”for the young gentleman who will have lands and servants of his own whenever he wants them?”

”No man can properly care for houses, lands, or servants, who hath not a fair stock of the right kind of learning,” said Lionel, stoutly.

”Besides,” he added, ”they say that there are troublous times ahead in our fine new country, and one must have a clear understanding of history, laws, and rules of government in order to act wisely. The colonists may have to act with great decision before long, and a man should be equipped 'to follow the right side.'”

”And well prepared you will be, lad, when that time comes!” cried the hearty voice of Captain Rothwell.

The foppish voice asked again, in tones that all at the table could not hear, nor could Sally have heard only that the young man was seated close by the wall:

”And what will comfort the sister and our fair Lady Rosamond, meantime?

Eh? eh? eh? And our fair Lady Rosamond, prithee?”