Part 12 (2/2)

Ah, what a delicate, tasteful muslin cape was folded away! And there were letters in one corner. Sally spelled them over, and thought they made a name, but if so it was a strange one. There lay a letter.

”Oh, no, no!” cried the Fairy, as Sally took it in her hands.

”I will take but a teeny-weeny peep, good Fairy,” said Sally, ”but I feel as though it might be as well for me to see some things that I will never be told of.”

But the letter gave no light to Maid Sally. Only toward the end she read: ”I have done my best, but my health is failing. Should I not live there will be something for the one I leave.” Then there was that strange name again at the very end, the same as was on the cape. Sally spelled it over and over, merely because it was so curious.

Goodman Kellar was moving away, and Sally ran softly to her room.

”Such a queer jumble of letters,” she said to herself, still amused over the name, that, if it really was a name, Sally could not have p.r.o.nounced. They still grouped themselves in her mind.

”Put them on paper,” said her Fairy.

”I will,” cried the merry maid, and with a pin she p.r.i.c.ked the letters on a piece of paper. This she put in a box where she kept a few childish treasures, not any of them worth much.

Then came another great day that Sally knew all about. She had heard it talked of at the store, and the hired men had mentioned it.

The _Belle Virgeen_ was coming up to the quay,--they called it ”kee,”--and a gay company was to meet, and a fine supper to be served on the green at Ingleside, after the proud vessel arrived, bringing back her Fairy Prince.

Sally had made up her mind not to go over by the hedge when the supper should be spread. She would be near the quay as the s.h.i.+p came in, and perhaps would get a look at her Fairy Prince, but something held her back from trying to see or hear anything that night at Ingleside.

”I am twelve years old now,” she said to herself.

A neatly clad child watched eagerly as the _Belle Virgeen_ came slowly sailing in. Caps flew into the air, old straw ones going high aloft, and cries and cheers went up, as strong ropes made the vessel fast to the quay.

What! was that tall young man the Fairy Prince? He was tall when he went away, but now, at seventeen, he looked almost a man as he stepped ash.o.r.e and was immediately seized upon by glad, loving hands.

Again the Lady Gabrielle was not in the throng. She would greet her boy in the retirement of home, but others from the Ingleside household were on hand to give welcome.

And after a few moments a rolling figure limped forward, and Lionel held Mammy Leezer's dark hands and looked smilingly down into her face while she told how ”done lonesome” she had been without her ”babby.”

Maid Sally did not know how she herself had grown during the year past.

Her splendid hair had been brought into fluffy order, which was all that was really needed. Her face had filled out a little, and the dimples in her brown cheeks were deeper. Her chin was rounding to a finer curve, and the cleft grown more decided. Her eyes were like stars and her teeth perfect.

Dame Maria Kent had one day given her a little brush, telling her to take it to the spring each day and use it on her teeth. And Sally was surprised to see what a small brush and clean water would do for a maiden's teeth. And Sally forgot nothing she once learned in the way of a useful lesson.

The maid was changing in a way. She was growing more and more shy of being seen by those she felt were above her. It was just as great a joy to catch a sight of her day-dream-Prince as it had ever been, but she would run away or hide anywhere sooner than risk meeting him or having him really see her.

One sweet morning she had gone to the pines, her beloved history in her hands. Back from the other trees, and on the other side of what had become a forest path, was a queer gnarled oak, that stood a solitary tree of its kind. And not far up was a complete seat, formed by the crossing of two large boughs. But so thick was the foliage that nimble Sally could be completely hidden, while learning her history by heart.

She was repeating again, with the usual pleasure, all about the discovery of America, when voices and hoof-beats smote upon her ear. And she sat like an image as Lionel Grandison and Rosamond Earlscourt came cantering along, their eyes bright with exercise and the horses tossing their fine manes as if enjoying the merry run as much as their riders.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ”WHEN VOICES AND HOOF-BEATS SMOTE UPON HER EAR.”]

How grand and manly looked her Prince on his high mount; yet she saw at a glance that he did not ride Hotspur. And ah, how proud and handsome looked the young Lady Rosamond as, with curls flying under her high, peaked hat, she sat the Lady Grace with stately air and held her with a firm, yet easy rein. But her fair face was turned smilingly toward her tall cousin.

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