Maid Sally Part 6

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?"

"There will be homeward trips in the summer," Lionel replied; "no one will need forget me."

"Well, maids must weep when swains desert," lisped the silly young man, whom no one answered.

Then the mocker trilled again, the talk became confused, coming in fragments across the wall. But Sally's eyes were big with a kind of sorrow, and there had come a fast rising and falling at the bosom of her faded little gown.

"He is going away!" she sighed. "My Fairy Prince is going away. The fall will come soon, and away will he go to make the difference between us greater still. Ah! ah! why did the fine voice arise within me, only to show the great distance that lieth between the rich and the poor, those who can learn, and those who know naught?"

"Oh, be quiet, child, and cease repining," cried the good Fairy. "Bestir yourself! Watch your Fairy Prince while you may, as it comforts you, and when he goeth forth to study, go you forth also, and seek out ways to learn yourself. There lieth five years between your age and that of the Fairy Prince, feel you not within your heart that very much might be learned in five years if with a strong will you do your best for Maid Sally?"

"The will is strong enough," whispered Sally, "the will is not wanting, but the way, dear Fairy, who will show me the way?"

"Watch!" cried the Fairy. "Keep the will, and watch for the way. It will come! Did not the Fairy Prince himself say so? There is a mind within you. Stir it up! Jump over hindrances, Sally Dukeen, and find for yourself a way. It is _there_!"

"I will do my best to obey thee, dear Fairy," said poor little Sally.

But down deep in her "heart-place," a pain was tugging, a new pain she did not in the least understand.

A foppish voice kept sounding in her ears: "Eh? eh? eh? And our fair Lady Rosamond, prithee?"

CHAPTER VII.

SALLY SAYS, "I WILL!"

Sally knew all about the brave _Belle Virgeen_. In those days the Virginia gentleman was not only lord of his house and lands, but up the river came the vessels that bore the tobacco straight from his fields or sheds to far distant sh.o.r.es.

The black men planted, cut, and packed tobacco, then acted as porters in carrying it to the vessels. And Sir Percival owned a part of the _Belle Virgeen_, which twice a year came back from the old country, laden with silks, woollens, laces, ribbons, stockings, and many other things which had been sent for by a few Southern traders.

Many a time had the child watched the lading and the unlading of the _Belle Virgeen_, and, indeed, half the town was likely to be on hand watching the s.h.i.+p go and come.

But for some reason Sally always kept out of sight when the people from the great house were around. And if the Fairy Prince had ever seen her, it would have been such a mere glimpse he had obtained that he surely would never have known her again.

Now in three months more, _Belle Virgeen_ would spread her sails, and away she would glide to another part of the world, and with her would go the Fairy Prince. Then the weak voice mocked her again:

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

"The Lady Rosamond has money and beauty, friends, fine clothes, and many things to please her," grieved Sally, "what need has she of the Fairy Prince for company? She can read books, ride in the family coach, sit at a fine table; but when the vessel sails away, what other comfort will I find with his voice gone from the arbor, and in all Ingleside I can find him not?"

"There is work to do, learning to get, many things to seek after," cried her good Fairy. "Up and away! Be ashamed to brood and sorrow over what you cannot help. There is much good to be found if you will but search for it."

"Is there?" asked Sally, her eyes no longer drooping, but opening wide.

"Prithee, why not?" questioned the Fairy. "How oft must I tell thee?"

A few nights after this, when July had come, and the black people, bare-footed, bare-armed, dressed in but one or two cotton garments, went sluggishly about their work, when gauzy-winged creatures droned midst clumps of sweet flowers and heavy garden scents, when rich blossoms hung in trailing abundance and the paths were carpeted with wild flowers, when birds sang far into the twilight, Maid Sally more slowly than usual went over to her rocky seat.

Some one was asleep in the arbor, for she could hear the hard breathing of one in slumber. Then a book fell to the floor. Soon there was a turning of leaves, and soon again some one else entered the arbor.