when sally heard the order for the supper company the next night, she at once decided that her own simple meal must be quickly eaten, as she must see something of the fine things at ingleside.

by standing on the rocks it would be easy to peep through the thin tangle near the arbor just above her head and close by the wall. it would not do to take long peeps, but she could take several for a moment at a time. yet she must beware: a sudden gust of wind might part the slight brush, show her bright eyes, then, alas, the pleasure it might take from her!

oh, but it was wonders she did with the old brush, the same that the groom had thrown[pg 66] away at ingleside! she did not wait until evening to try it, but during the afternoon, with the bit of looking-glass propped up before her, she patiently brushed and brushed, until something like a parting appeared along the middle of her well-shaped head.

at that she took a stout pin, and running it down the uneven seam, made a beautiful even parting, the thick, ruddy hair standing high on each side of it.

"my, how pretty that looks!" innocently murmured the child. then again she brushed and brushed, until the ripply mass shone like unto burnished gold. and now, instead of a matted mop, it lay row upon row of soft, loose, orderly ringlets, so careless yet neat in arrangement that sally awoke right there to a knowledge of the extreme beauty of her luxurious hair.

she gurgled with laughter, saying, in the pretended new voice:

"you will find out considerable about yourself, maid sally, what you can do, and maybe[pg 67] what you can be, if only you follow what i teach. high time it is you waked up."

then replied a forlorn young voice:

"yes, but what good doth it do a poor thing like me to wake up? it is only to find out how mean and soiled is my dress, how brown are my hands and feet, and worst of all, that no matter how hard i might long for it, learning is not for a maid of my quality."

"prithee, be patient!" cried the new sally, cheerily. "thou hast already made of thyself a more seemly looking maid; still better things may come ere long."

new words came into sally's mind as she talked to her other self, and her language became more proper, sure sign that somewhere within her a truly fine nature was hidden away.

when she appeared at supper that afternoon, mistress cory ann exclaimed:

"oh, good peter! do look at the young one's head, will you? now have you been meddling with my comb to-day?" she asked, sharply.

"i found an old brush that i washed and[pg 68] used, mistress," sally answered, "and i think it were time my hair should be made decent."

"now don't go wasting time trying to get up smart looks," said mistress cory ann; for, truth to tell, it was sorry she felt to see the great change and improvement in sally's appearance. and what was more, she had noticed that the useful child was growing careful and thoughtful in a way she did not at all desire she should. because, if sally began making the most of herself, what might it not lead to, pray?

she was through her supper so soon that mistress brace again said, tartly:

"if you take not time to eat your victuals, seeing you are let off after supper, it is to the table you will stay until the rest of us are through."

sally thought to herself, "i will tarry longer at the table to-morrow night," but now, off she flew, and in a trice was through the hedge, on the stones, and peeping with great care at a wonderful table, such as she had never dreamed of in her brightest of fancies.

[pg 69]the long board gleamed with shining, spotless linen. glass and silver dishes covered the table. sprays of green, and bright, choice flowers lay around, and in between the plates and glasses, with charming color and taste.

corniel, in white clothes, with several colored girls about him, who were to assist in waiting, was flourishing about, placing food at proper spaces, setting chairs, and giving orders in a pompous way sally thought he must enjoy.

mammy leezer's cookery was indeed most beautiful to look upon. the porcupine marmalade, on two separate platters of white china ware edged with gilt, was a thick jam made from plums or prunes, then turned out from long oval moulds, and stuck all over with small spikes of cocoanut meat, standing straight and stiff, looking in very truth like the quills of the little animal called the porcupine.

the melon puff was a splendid-looking mass, heaped high in a tall glass dish, and appearing as if made from strained melon pulp, and the whipped whites of eggs with powdered sugar.

[pg 70]the peach tart was a form of pie with golden-looking sauce peeping up between crisscross strips of rich puff paste. and pandowdy with sorghum foam had the look, in a deep glass dish, of being apple sauce and pie-crust mixed, with a delicious pyramid of golden-colored whipped sugar standing in a point on the top.

chicken salad, in other long white and gilt platters, was beautifully ornamented with white and yellow rings of hard-boiled eggs, having sprigs of green run through the rings in a way to form fancy garlands above the crisp whitey-green bordering of lettuce leaves.

"oh, it is the food of the fairies! it is the food of the gods!"

sally whispered in soft delight to herself, not noticing or scarcely knowing what she was saying. all her soul was steeped in wonder at the fine, the beautifully fine, things spread before her.

"but they are not for me," she sighed. "oh, no, never can they be for me!"

"why not?" asked the cheery voice that[pg 71] sally was beginning to listen for, and to like much to hear.

"i'm so poor," answered sally, with the usual downward look at frock, hands, and feet.

"lift yourself up," said the voice, that seemed ever determined to help and comfort poor sally.

"i will try," she replied. then, in a sparkling, sunshiny way, she said to herself:

"oh, you shall be my good fairy, you new voice! why not! i will call you the fairy whenever you speak."

"very well, then. you can call me the good fairy, and master lionel can be your fairy prince."

"oh! oh! oh!" gasped sally. "how dreadful! how ever can i dare!"

she almost tumbled from her perch, so great appeared her presumption in allowing the thought of coming so near to the fairy prince even in imagination.

but the hopeful voice was talking again:

"do not put yourself down all the time; there[pg 72] may be no reason why you should not rise, if you will!"

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[pg 73] waiters by signs and nods. the company was a mixed show of splendid coats, gowns, and shimmering 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, assured voice of the fairy prince.

"and cambridge?" asked some one else.

[pg 74]"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 finishing."

"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[pg 75] 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[pg 76] 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,[pg 77] "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?"