Laddie | Page 3

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LADDIE A TRUE BLUE STORY
To LEANDER ELLIOT STRATTON "The Way to Be Happy Is to Be Good"
Contents
CHAPTER I.
Little Sister II. Our Angel Boy III. Mr. Pryor's Door IV. The Last Day in Eden V. The First Day of School VI. The Wedding Gown VII. When Sally Married Peter VIII. The Shropshire and the Crusader IX. "Even So" X. Laddie Takes the Plunge XI. Keeping Christmas Our Way XII. The Horn of the Hunter XIII. The Garden of the Lord XIV. The Crest of Eastbrooke XV. Laddie, the Princess, and the Pie XVI. The Homing Pigeon XVII. In Faith Believing XVIII. The Pryor Mystery
LADDIE
CHARACTERS
LADDIE, Who Loved and Asked No Questions. THE PRINCESS, From the House of Mystery. LEON, Our Angel Child. LITTLE SISTER, Who Tells What Happened. MR. and MRS. STANTON, Who Faced Life Shoulder to Shoulder. SALLY and PETER, Who Married Each Other. ELIZABETH, SHELLEY, MAY and Other Stanton Children. MR. and MRS. PRYOR, Father and Mother of the Princess. ROBERT PAGET, a Chicago Lawyer. MRS. FRESHETT, Who Offered Her Life for Her Friend. CANDACE, the Cook. MISS AMELIA, the School Mistress. Interested Relatives, Friends, and Neighbours.
CHAPTER I
Little Sister
"And could another child-world be my share, I'd be a Little Sister there."
Have I got a Little Sister anywhere in this house?" inquired Laddie at the door, in his most coaxing voice.
"Yes sir," I answered, dropping the trousers I was making for Hezekiah, my pet bluejay, and running as fast as I could. There was no telling what minute May might take it into her head that she was a little sister and reach him first. Maybe he wanted me to do something for him, and I loved to wait on Laddie.
"Ask mother if you may go with me a while."
"Mother doesn't care where I am, if I come when the supper bell rings."
"All right!" said Laddie.
He led the way around the house, sat on the front step and took me between his knees.
"Oh, is it going to be a secret?" I cried.
Secrets with Laddie were the greatest joy in life. He was so big and so handsome. He was so much nicer than any one else in our family, or among our friends, that to share his secrets, run his errands, and love him blindly was the greatest happiness. Sometimes I disobeyed father and mother; I minded Laddie like his right hand.
"The biggest secret yet," he said gravely.
"Tell quick!" I begged, holding my ear to his lips.
"Not so fast!" said Laddie. "Not so fast! I have doubts about this. I don't know that I should send you. Possibly you can't find the way. You may be afraid. Above all, there is never to be a whisper. Not to any one! Do you understand?"
"What's the matter?" I asked.
"Something serious," said Laddie. "You see, I expected to have an hour or two for myself this afternoon, so I made an engagement to spend the time with a Fairy Princess in our Big Woods. Father and I broke the reaper taking it from the shed just now and you know how he is about Fairies."
I did know how he was about Fairies. He hadn't a particle of patience with them. A Princess would be the Queen's daughter. My father's people were English, and I had heard enough talk to understand that. I was almost wild with excitement.
"Tell me the secret, hurry!" I cried.
"It's just this," he said. "It took me a long time to coax the Princess into our Big Woods. I had to fix a throne for her to sit on; spread a Magic Carpet for her feet, and build a wall to screen her. Now, what is she going to think if I'm not there to welcome her when she comes? She promised to show me how to make sunshine on dark days."
"Tell father and he can have Leon help him."
"But it is a secret with the Princess, and it's HERS as much as mine. If I tell, she may not like it, and then she won't make me her Prince and send me on her errands."
"Then you don't dare tell a breath," I said.
"Will you go in my place, and carry her a letter to explain why I'm not coming, Little Sister?"
"Of course!" I said stoutly, and then my heart turned right over; for I never had been in our Big Woods alone, and neither mother nor father wanted me to go. Passing Gypsies sometimes laid down the fence and went there to camp. Father thought all the wolves and wildcats were gone, he hadn't seen any in years, but every once in a while some one said they had, and he was not quite sure yet. And that wasn't the beginning of it. Paddy Ryan had come back from the war wrong in his head. He