A dull red flamed in her cheeks and her lips closed tight.One second she sat very still,then a dancing light leaped sparkling into her eyes;a flock of dimples chased each other around her lips like swallows circling their homing place at twilight.
"What about that wonderful pie?"she asked me.
I ran to the nearest fence corner,and laid the shingle on the gnarled roots of a Johnny Appleseed apple tree.Then I set one foot on the arch of the Princess'instep and held up my hands.
One second I thought she would not lift me,the next I was on her level and her lips met mine in a touch like velvet woven from threads of flame.Then with a turn of her stout little wrist,she dropped me,and a streak went up our road.Nothing so amazing and so important ever had happened to me.It was an occasion that demanded something unusual.To cry,"Praise the Lord!"was only to repeat an hourly phrase at our house;this demanded something out of the ordinary,so I said just exactly as father did the day the brown mare balked with the last load of seed clover,when a big storm was breaking--"Jupiter Ammon!"When I had calmed down so I could,I climbed the fence,and reached through a crack for the pie.As I followed the cool,damp furrow,and Laddie's whistle,clear as the lark's above the wheat,thrilled me,I was almost insane with joy.Just joy!
Pure joy!Oh what a good world it was!--most of the time!Most of the time!Of course,there WERE Paget men in it.But anyway,THIS couldn't be beaten.I had a message for Laddie from the Princess that would send him to the seventh heaven,wherever that was;no one at our house spent any time thinking farther than the first one.I had her kiss,that I didn't know what would do to him,and I also had a big piece of juicy rhubarb pie not yet entirely cold.If that didn't wipe out the trouble I had made showing the old crest thing,nothing ever could.I knew even then,that men were pretty hard to satisfy,but I was quite certain that Laddie would be satisfied that morning.As I hurried along I wondered whether it would be better to give him my gift first,or the Princess'.I decided that joy would keep,while the pie was cold enough,with all the time I had stopped;and if I told him about her first,maybe he wouldn't touch it at all,and it wasn't so easy as it looked to carry it to him and never even once stick in my finger for the tiniest lick--joy would keep;but I was going to feed him;so with shining face,I offered the pie and stood back to see just how happy I could get.
"Mother send it?"asked Laddie.
People were curious that morning,as if I had a habit of stealing pie.I only took pieces of cut ones from the cellar when mother didn't care.So I explained again that Candace gave it to me,and I was free to bring it.
"Oh I see!"said Laddie.
After nearly two weeks of work,the grays had sobered down enough to stand without tying;so he wound the lines around the plow handle,sat on the beam,and laid aside his hat,having a fresh flower in the band.Once he started a thing,he just simply wouldn't give up.He unbuttoned his neckband until I could see his throat where it was white like a woman's,took out his knife and ate that pie.Of course we knew better than to use a knife at the table,but there was no other way in the field.He ate that pie,slowly and deliberately,and between bites he talked.
I watched him with a wide grin,wondering what in this world he WOULD say,in a minute.I don't think I ever had quite such a good time in all my life before,and I never expect to again.He was saying:"Talk about nectar and ambrosia!Talk about the feasts of Lucullus!Talk about food for the Gods!"I put on his hat,sat on the ground in front of him,and was the happiest girl in the world,of that I am quite sure.When the last morsel was finished,Laddie looked at me steadily.
"I wonder,"he said,"I wonder if there's another man in the world who is blest with quite such a loving,unselfish little sister as mine?"Then he answered himself:"No!By all the Gods,ant half-Gods,I swear it--No!"It was grand as a Fourth of July oration or the most exciting part when the Bishop dedicated our church.I couldn't hold in another second,I could hear my heart beat.
