"Until she does,then,do you think it would be quite manly and honourable to make decisions for her?You say you never thought of anything except a pleasant time with her;possibly she feels the same.Unless she changes,I would scarcely let a boy's foolish tongue disturb her pleasure.Moreover,as to the matter of wealth,your father may be as rich as hers;but they have one,we have many.If what we spend on all our brood could be confined to one child,we could easily duplicate all her luxuries,and I think she has the good sense to realize the fact as quickly as any one.I've no doubt she would gladly exchange half she has for the companionship of a sister or a brother in her lonely life."Laddie turned to father,and father's smile was happy again.
Mother was little but she was mighty.With only a few words she had made Leon feel how unkind and foolish he had been,quieted Laddie's alarm,and soothed the hurt father's pride had felt in that he had not been able to furnish her with so fine a turnout as Pryors had.
Next morning when the excitement of gifts and greetings was over,and Laddie's morning work was all finished,he took a beautiful volume of poems and his popcorn ball and started across the fields due west;all of us knew that he was going to call on and offer them to the Princess,and ask to take her to the spelling bee.I suppose Laddie thought he was taking that trip alone,but really he was surrounded.I watched him from the window,and my heart went with him.Presently father went and sat beside mother's chair,and stroking her hand,whispered softly:"Please don't worry,little mother.It will be all right.Your boy will come home happy.""I hope so,"she answered,"but I can't help feeling dreadfully nervous.If things go wrong with Laddie,it will spoil the day.""I have much faith in the Princess'good common sense,"replied father,"and considering what it means to Laddie,it would hurt me sore to lose it."Mother sat still,but her lips moved so that I knew she was making soft little whispered prayers for her best loved son.But Laddie,plowing through the drift,never dreamed that all of us were with him.He was always better looking than any other man I ever had seen,but when,two hours later,he stamped into the kitchen he was so much handsomer than usual,that I knew from the flush on his cheek and the light in his eye,that the Princess had been kind,and by the package in his hand,that she had made him a present.He really had two,a beautiful book and a necktie.I wondered to my soul if she gave him that,so she could fix it!I didn't believe she had begun on his ties at that time;but of course when he loved her as he did,he wished she would.
It was the very jolliest Christmas we ever had,but the day seemed long.When night came we were in a precious bustle.The wagon bed on bobs,filled with hay and covers,drawn by Ned and Jo,was brought up for the family,and the sleigh made spick-and-span and drawn by Laddie's thoroughbred,stood beside it.Laddie had filled the kitchen oven with bricks and hung up a comfort at four o'clock to keep the Princess warm.
Because he had to drive out of the way to bring her,Laddie wanted to start early;and when he came down dressed in his college clothes,and looking the manliest of men,some of the folks thought it funny to see him carefully rake his hot bricks from the oven,and pin them in an old red breakfast shawl.I thought it was fine,and I whispered to mother:"Do you suppose that if Laddie ever marries the Princess he will be good to her as he is to you?"Mother nodded with tear-dimmed eyes,but Shelley said:"I'll wager a strong young girl like the Princess will laugh at you for babying over her.""Why?"inquired Laddie."It is a long drive and a bitter night,and if you fancy the Princess will laugh at anything I do,when I am doing the best I know for her comfort,you are mistaken.At least,that is the impression she gave me this morning."I saw the swift glance mother shot at father,and father laid down his paper and said,while he pretended his glasses needed polishing:"Now there is the right sort of a girl for you.No foolishness about her,when she has every chance.Hurrah for the Princess!"It was easy to see that she wasn't going to have nearly so hard a time changing father's opinion as she would mother's.It was not nearly a year yet,and here he was changed already.Laddie said good-bye to mother--he never forgot--gathered up his comfort and bricks,and started for Pryors' downright happy.We went to the schoolhouse a little later,all of us scoured,curled,starched,and wearing our very best clothes.My!but it was fine.There were many lights in the room and it was hung with greens.There was a crowd even though it was early.On Miss Amelia's table was a volume of history that was the prize,and every one was looking and acting the very best he knew how,although there were cases where they didn't know so very much.
Our Shelley was the handsomest girl there,until the Princess came,and then they both were.Shelley wore one of her city frocks and a quilted red silk hood that was one of her Christmas gifts,and she looked just like a handsome doll.She made every male creature in that room feel that she was pining for him alone.May had a gay plaid frock and curls nearly a yard long,and so had I,but both our frocks and curls were homemade;mother would have them once in a while;father and I couldn't stop her.
But there was not a soul there who didn't have some sort of gift to rejoice over,and laughter and shouts of "Merry Christmas!"filled the room.It was growing late and there was some talk of choosers,when the door opened and in a rush of frosty air the Princess and Laddie entered.Every one stopped short and stared.
