The Little Colonel's Hero

by Annie F. Johnston

  CHAPTER VIII.

  WITH BETTY AND EUGENIA

  When the Little Colonel reached the hotel, the omnibus was leaving thedoor to go to the railroad station, a few blocks away. Thinking that Bettyand Eugenia might be on the coming train, she went into the parlour towait for the return of the omnibus. She had bought a box of chocolatecreams at the cake shop on the corner to divide with Hero.

  Fidelia had wandered down to the parlour in her absence, and now seated atthe old piano was banging on its yellow keys with all her might. Sheplayed unusually well for a girl of her age, but Lloyd had a feeling thata public parlour was not a place to show off one's accomplishments, andher nose went up a trifle scornfully as she entered.

  Then she caught sight of herself in the mirror over the mantel, and herexpression changed instantly.

  "For mercy sakes!" she said to herself. "I look like one of the proud andhaughty sistahs in 'Cindahella,' as if I thought the earth wasn't goodenough for me to step on. It certainly isn't becoming, and it would makeme furious if anybody looked at me in such a cool, scornful way. I knowthat I feel that way inside whenevah I talk to Fidelia. I wondah if shesees it in my face, and that's what makes her cross and scratchy, like acat that has had its fur rubbed the wrong way. Just for fun I believe I'llpretend to myself for ten minutes that I love her deahly, and I'll smilewhen I talk to her, just as if she were Betty, and nevah pay any attentionto her mean speeches. I'll give her this one chance. Then if she keeps onbein' hateful, I'll nevah have anything moah to do with her again."

  So while Fidelia played on toward the end of the waltz, purposelyregardless of Lloyd's presence, Lloyd, sitting behind her, looked into themirror, and practised making pleasant faces for Fidelia's benefit.

  The music came to a close with a loud double bang that made Lloyd start upfrom her chair with a guilty flush, fearing that she had been caught ather peculiar occupation. Before Fidelia could say anything, Lloyd walkedover to her with the friendliest of her practised smiles, and held out thebox of chocolate creams.

  "Take some," she said. "They are the best I've had since I left Kentucky."

  "Thanks," said Fidelia, stiffly, screwing around on the piano-stool, andhelping herself to just one. But feeling the warmth of Lloyd's cordialtone, urging her to take more, she thawed into smiling friendliness, andtook several. "They are delicious!" she exclaimed. "You got them at thecake shop on the corner, didn't you? There are two awfully nice Americangirls stopping at this hotel who took me in there one day for some.They've been in Kentucky, too. The one named Elizabeth lives there."

  "Why, it must be Betty and Eugenia!" cried Lloyd. "The very girls we camehere to meet. Do _you_ know them?"

  "Not very well. We've only been here a few days. But I dearly love the oneyou call Betty. She came into my room one night when I had the tooth-ache,and brought a spice poultice and a hot-water bag. Mamma was at a concert,and Fanchette was cross, and I was so miserable and lonesome I wanted todie. But Elizabeth knew exactly what to do to stop the pain, and then shestayed and talked to me for a long time. She told me about a house partyshe went to last year, where the girls all caught the measles at a gypsycamp, and she nearly went blind on account of it."

  "That was _my_ house pahty," exclaimed the Little Colonel, "and my mothahis Betty's godmothah, and Betty is goin' to live at my house all nextwintah, and go to school with me."

  Fidelia swung farther around on the piano-stool, and faced Lloyd insurprise. "And are _you_ the Little Colonel!" she cried. "From whatElizabeth said, I thought she was pretty near an angel!" Fidelia's toneimplied more plainly than her words that she wondered how Betty couldthink so.

  A cutting reply was on the tip of Lloyd's tongue, but the sight of herface in the mirror checked it. She only said, pleasantly, "Betty iscertainly the loveliest girl in the world, and--"

  "There she is now!" interrupted Fidelia, nodding toward the door as voicessounded in the hall and footsteps came out from the office.

  "Oh, they'll be so surprised!" said Lloyd, looking back with a radiantface as she ran toward the door. "We came two whole days earlier than theyexpected!"

  Fidelia heard the joyful greeting, the chorus of surprised exclamations asLloyd flew first at Betty, then at Eugenia, with a hug and a kiss, thenturned to greet her Cousin Carl.

  "Betty will never look at me again," Fidelia thought, with a throb ofjealousy, turning away from the sight of their happy meeting, andbeginning to strike soft aimless chords on the piano. "I wish I were oneof them," she whispered, with the tears springing to her eyes. "I hate tobe always on the edge of things, and never in them. We never stay in aplace long enough at a time to make any real friends or have any goodtimes."

  Chattering and laughing, and asking eager questions, the girls hurried upthe stairs to Mrs. Sherman's room. Almost a year had gone by since Eugeniaand Lloyd had parted on the lantern decked lawn at Locust, the last nightof the house party. The year had made little difference in Lloyd, butEugenia had grown so tall that the change was startling.

  "Really, you are taller than I," exclaimed Mrs. Sherman, in the midst ofan affectionate greeting, as she held her off for a better view.

  "And doesn't she look stylish and young ladyfied, with her skirts down toher ankles," added Lloyd. "You'd nevah think that she was only fifteen,would you?"

  "I had to have them made long," explained Eugenia, much flattered byLloyd's speech. It was her greatest wish to appear "grown up." "Papa saysthat I am probably as tall now as I shall ever be, and really I'd lookridiculous with my dresses any shorter."

  Mrs. Sherman noticed presently, with a smile, that Eugenia seemed to havegained dignity with her added height. There was something amusinglypatronising in her manner toward the younger girls. She answered Lloydseveral times with an "Oh, no, child" that was almost grandmotherly in itstone.

  "But here is somebody who has come back just as sweet and childlike asever," thought Mrs. Sherman, twisting one of Betty's brown curls aroundher finger. Then she said aloud. "Was the trip as delightful as youdreamed it would be, my little Tusitala?"

  "Oh, _yes_, godmother," sighed Betty, blissfully. "It was a thousand timesbetter! And the best of it is my eyes are as well as ever. I needn't beafraid, now, of that 'long night' that haunted me like a bad dream."

  All during dinner Fidelia kept looking across at the merry party sittingat the next table, and wished she could be with them. She could not helphearing all they said, for they were only a few feet away, and there wasno one talking at the table where she sat. The boys were in the children'sdining-room with Fanchette, and her mother was spending the evening withsome friends at the new hotel across the way.

  "I'm going to make believe that I'm one of them," the lonely child said toherself, smiling as she caught a friendly nod from Betty. So she listenedeagerly to Mr. Forbes's account of their visit to Venice, and to thevolcano of Vesuvius, and laughed with the others over the amusingexperiences Betty and Eugenia had in Norway with a chambermaid who couldnot understand them, and in Holland with an old Dutch market-woman, theday they became separated from Mr. Forbes, and were lost for severalhours.

  Fidelia's salad almost choked her, there was such an ache in her throatwhen she heard them planning an excursion for the next day. She had no oneto make plans with, and when she was taken sightseeing it was by a Frenchteacher, more intent on improving her pupil's accent than in giving her ahappy time.

  As they were finishing their dessert, Mr. Sherman suddenly remembered thathe had a letter in his pocket for Lloyd, which he had forgotten to giveher.

  "It is from Joyce," she said, looking at the post-mark. "Oh, if she wereonly heah, what a lovely time we could have! It would be like havin'anothah house pahty. May I read it now at the table, mothah? It is to allof us."

  Fidelia almost held her breath. She was so afraid that Mrs. Sherman wouldsuggest waiting until they went to the parlour. There she could no longerbe one of them, no matter how hard she might pretend. She wanted theinteresting play to go on as long as possib
le. She did not know that sheought not to listen. There were many things she had never been taught.Lloyd began to read aloud.

  "DEAR GIRLS:--You will be in Tours by the time this letter reaches you, and I am simply wild to be there with you. Oh, if I could be there only one day to take you to all the old places! Do please go to the home of the 'Little Sisters of the Poor,' and ask for Sister Denisa. Give her my love, and tell her that I often think of her. And do go to that funny pie shop on the Rue Nationale, where everybody is allowed to walk around and help themselves and keep their own count. And eat one of those tiny delicious tarts for me. They're the best in the world.

  "I can't think of anything else to-day, but that walk which you will be taking soon without me. I can shut my eyes and see every inch of the way, as it used to look when we went home just after sunset. There is the river Loire all rosy red in the after-glow, and the bridge with the soldiers marching across it; and on the other side of the river is the little old village of St. Symphorian with its narrow, crooked streets. How I love every old cobblestone! You will see the fat old women rattling home in their market carts, and hear the clang and click of wooden shoes down the streets. Then there'll be the high gate of customs in the old stone wall that fences in the village, and the country road beyond. You'll climb the hill with the new moon coming up behind the tall Lombardy poplars, and go on between the fields, turning brown in the twilight, till the Gate of the Giant Scissors looms up beside the road like a picture out of some fairy tale. A little farther on you'll come to Madame's dear old villa with the high wall around it, and the laurel hedges and lime-trees inside.

  "I wonder which of you will have my room with the blue parrots on the wall-paper. Oh, I'm _homesick_ to go back. Yet, isn't it strange, when I was there I used to long so for America, that many a time I climbed up in the pear-tree at the end of the garden for a good cry. Don't forget to swing up into that pear-tree. There's a fine view from the top.

  "When you see Jules, ask him to show you the goats that chewed up the cushions of the pony cart, the day we had our Thanksgiving barbecue in the garden. I fairly ache to be with you. Please write me a good long letter and tell me what you are doing; and whenever you hear the nightingales in Madame's garden, and the cathedral bells tolling out across the Loire, think of your loving JOYCE."

  "Let's do those things to-morrow," exclaimed Lloyd, as she folded theletter and slipped it back into its envelope. "I don't want to waste timeon any old chateaux with the Gate of the Giant Scissors just across theriver, that we haven't seen yet."

  "I have heard about that gate ever since we left America," said Mr.Forbes, laughingly. "Nobody has taken the trouble to inform me why it isso important, or why it was selected for a meeting-place. Somebody owes mean explanation."

  "It's only an old gate with a mammoth pair of scissors swung on amedallion above it," said Mr. Sherman. "They were put there by ahalf-crazy old man who built the place, by the name of _Ciseaux_. JoyceWare spent a winter in sight of it, and she came back with some wonderfultale about the scissors being the property of a prince who went arounddoing all sorts of impossible things with them. I believe the girls haveactually come to think that the scissors are enchanted."

  "Oh, Papa Jack, stop teasin'!" said the Little Colonel. "You know wedon't!"

  "If it is really settled that we are to go there to-morrow, I want to hearthe story," said Cousin Carl. "I make a practice of reading the history ofa place before I visit it, so I'll have to know the story of the gate inorder to take a proper interest in it."

  "Come into the parlour," said Mrs. Sherman rising. "Betty will tell us."

  As she turned, she saw Fidelia looking after the girls with wistful eyes,and she read the longing and loneliness in her face.

  "Wouldn't you like to come too, and hear the fairy tale with us?" sheasked, kindly holding out her hand.

  A look of happy surprise came over Fidelia's face, and before she couldstammer out her acceptance of the unlooked-for invitation, Mrs. Shermandrew her toward her and led her into the little circle in one corner ofthe parlour.

  "Now, we are ready, Tusitala," said Mrs. Sherman, settling herself on thesofa, with Fidelia beside her. Shaking back her brown curls, Betty beganthe fairy tale that Joyce's Cousin Kate had told one bleak November day,to make the homesick child forget that she was "a stranger in a strangeland."

  "Once upon a time, in a far island of the sea, there lived a king withseven sons."

  Word for word as she had heard it, Betty told the adventures of theprinces ("the three that were dark and the three that were fair"), andthen of the middle son, Prince Ethelried, to whom the old king gave noportion of his kingdom. With no sword, nothing but the scissors of theCourt Tailor, he had been sent out into the world to make his fortune.Even Cousin Carl listened with close attention to the prince's adventureswith the Ogre, in which he was victorious, because the grateful fairy whomhe had rescued laid on the scissors a magic spell.

  "Here," she said, giving them into his hands again, "because thou wastpersevering and fearless in setting me free, these shall win for thee thyheart's desire. But remember that thou canst not keep them sharp andshining unless they are used at least once each day in some unselfishservice." After that he had only to utter his request in rhyme, andimmediately they would shoot out to an enormous size that could cut downforests for him, bridge chasms, and reap whole wheat fields at a singlestroke.

  Many a peasant he befriended, shepherds and high-born dames, lords andlowly beggars; and at the last, when he stood up before the Ogre to fightfor the beautiful princess kept captive in the tower, it was their voices,shouting out their tale of gratitude to him for all these unselfishservices, that made the scissors grow long enough and strong enough to cutthe ugly old Ogre's head off.

  "So he married the princess," concluded Betty at last, "and came into thekingdom that was his heart's desire. There was feasting and merrymakingfor seventy days and seventy nights, and they all lived happily everafter. On each gable of the house he fastened a pair of shining scissorsto remind himself that only through unselfish service to others comes thehappiness that is highest and best. Over the great entrance gate he hungthe ones that served him so valiantly, saying, 'Only those who belong tothe kingdom of loving hearts can ever enter here'; and to this day theyguard the portal of Ethelried, and only those who belong to the kingdom ofloving hearts may enter the Gate of the Giant Scissors."

  "Go on," said Mr. Forbes, as Betty stopped. "What happened next? I want tohear some more."

  "So did Joyce," said Betty. "She used to climb up in the pear-tree andwatch the gate, wishing she knew what lay behind it, and one day she foundout. A poor little boy lived there with only the care-taker and anotherservant. The care-taker beat him and half starved him. His uncle didn'tknow how he was treated, for he was away in Algiers. Joyce found thislittle Jules out in the fields one day, tending the goats, and they got tobe great friends She told him this story, and they played that he was theprince and she was the Giant Scissors who was to rescue him from theclutches of the Ogre. She made up a rhyme for him to say. He had only towhisper:

  "'Giant Scissors, fearless friend, Hasten, pray, thy aid to lend,'

  and she would fly to help him. She really did, too, for she played ghostone night to frighten the old care-taker, and she told Jules's uncle, whenhe came back, how cruelly the poor little thing had been treated.

  "Then the little prince really did come into his kingdom, for all sorts oflovely things happened after that. The gate had been closed for years onaccount of a terrible quarrel in the Ciseaux family, but at last somethingJoyce did helped to make it up. The gate swung open, and the oldwhite-haired brother and sister went back to the home of their childhoodtogether, and it was Christmas Day in the morning. They had been kept fromgoing through the gate all those years, because the Giant Scissorswouldn't let them pass. Only those who belong to
the kingdom of lovinghearts can enter in."

  "Some day you must put that all in a book, Betty," said Cousin Carl, whenshe had finished. "When we go to see the gate, I'll take my camera, andwe'll get a picture of it. Now I feel that I can properly appreciate it,having heard its wonderful history."

  There was a teasing light in his eyes that made Lloyd say, "Now you'relaughin' at us, Cousin Carl, but it doesn't make any difference. I'drathah see that gate than any old chateau in France."