Captain January | Page 4

and said, "Now, Daddy, I want a story."
"Story before supper?" asked the Captain, meekly, looking at the
saucepan, which was fairly lifting its lid in its eagerness to be attended
to. A fresh access of remorseful hugging followed.
"You poor darling!" said Star; "I forgot all about supper. And it's
stewed kidneys, too! But oh! my dress!" and she glanced down at her
velvet splendour. "I must go and take it off," she said, sadly.
"Not you, Honeysuckle," said the old man, rising and setting the child
down carefully in the chair. "Sit you there, and be a real princess, and I
will be your steward, and get supper this time. I like to see you in your
fine clothes, and 'twould be a shame to take 'em off so soon."

She clapped her hands again, and settling herself cosily in the great
chair, arranged her train with a graceful sweep, and pushed back her
cloudy golden hair.
"Shall I really act princess?" she asked,--and without waiting for an
answer, she began to give orders in lofty tones, holding her head high
in the air, and pointing hither and thither with her tiny hands. "Take up
the golden chafing-dish, Grumio!" she cried. "The kidneys--I mean the
capons--are quite ready now. And the milk--no! the sack--is in the
silver flagon!" she pointed to an ancient blue jug which stood on the
dresser.
The obedient Captain hastened to take up the saucepan, and soon the
frugal supper was set out, and princess and steward were doing ample
justice to it.
"You didn't say 'Anon! anon! Madam' when I ordered you about," said
the Princess, thoughtfully. "You ought to, you know. Servants always
do in the book."
"Wal, I didn't think on't," the steward admitted. "I wa'n't brought up to
the business, you see, Princess. It always seemed to me a foolish thing
to say, anyhow: no disrespect to W. Shakespeare. The hull of the
word's 'anonymous,' I believe, and the dictionary says that means
'wanting a name.' So, altogether, Star Bright, I haven't been able to
make much sense out o' that answer."
"Oh, never mind!" said the Princess, tossing her head. "I don't like the
dictionary. It's a wretch!"
"So 'tis, so 'tis," assented the Captain, with servile alacrity. "Have some
more milk then, Sunshine."
"It isn't milk! it's sack," said the child, promptly, holding out her small
yellow mug with a royal air. "Are the capons good, Grumio?"
"They are, my lamb, they are," replied the Captain. "Oncommon good
they are, to be sure, and me not knowin' to this day what capons was. A
little more? Yes, Pigeon Pie, I will take a little more, thank ye kindly."
"I don't _think_, Grumio, that you ought to call me lambs and pigeon
pies just now," remarked the Princess, judiciously. "Do you think it's
respectful? they don't in Shakespeare, I'm sure."
"I won't do it again, Honey--I mean Madam;" said the Captain, bowing
with great humility. "I beg your honourable majesty's pardon, and I
won't never presume to--"

"Yes, you will!" cried the Princess, flinging herself across the table at
him, and nearly choking him with the sudden violence of her embrace.
"You shall call me pigeon pie, and anything else you like. You shall
call me rye porridge, though I hate it, and it's always full of lumps. And
don't ever look that way again; it kills me!"
The Captain quietly removed the clinging arms, and kissed them, and
set the half-weeping child back in her place. "There, there, there!" he
said, soothingly. "What a little tempest it is!"
"Say 'delicate Ariel,'" sobbed Star. "You haven't said it to-day, and you
always say it when you love me."
"Cream Cheese from the dairy of Heaven," replied the Captain; "if I
always said it when I loved you, I should be sayin' it every minute of
time, as well you know. But you are my delicate Ariel, so you are, and
there ain't nothin' in the hull book as suits you better. So!" and his
supper ended, the good man turned his chair again to the fire, and took
the child, once more smiling, upon his knee.
"And now, Ariel, what have you been doin' all the time I was away?
Tell Daddy all about it."
Star pondered a moment, with her head on one side, and a finger
hooked confidentially through the Captain's buttonhole. "Well," she
said, "I've had a very interesting time, Daddy Captain. First I cleaned
the lamps, of course, and filled and trimmed them. And then I played
Samson a good while; and--"
"And how might you play Samson?" inquired the Captain.
"With flies!" replied Star, promptly. "Heaps upon heaps, you know;
'With the jaw-bone of an ass have I slain a thousand men.' The flies
were the