would have been hard to give away a word that Mammy had
said.

"Now I'll tote 'long," said Mammy, making lunges toward getting up from
the stump, "and I ain't meant to say a word I hadn't orter, but my ole
heart's berry sore 'cause my young Mars' Lion, he goin' fur away come
Septem'er, and no knowin' when I'll eber see my babby 'gain."

Mammy should not have told family matters, and Sally should not have
listened, but both were innocent as to some things, and no harm was
done.

Sally kept on to the pine grove, going over in her mind what she had
heard. But she thought most of what Mammy had asked about herself, and
what she had said about her father. She repeated in her own way of
speaking:

"How do you know what you were born to? You don't belong to Slipside
Row. I've heard of your father. If he had lived you would be getting
learning all this time. You ought to be getting it now."

Then Sally listened, hoping her good Fairy would have something to say,
and at once it began to speak.

"You feel in your heart that what Mammy said may be true. It may be
_because_ your father was a gentleman and your mother a lady that you
begin to want to study and to learn as they would have wished you to.
Look around. Do not give up. Be determined to see a way to lift
yourself. You can find the way!"

Sally stood still. "I will help myself," she said, stoutly. "I will! I
will!"

"Oh! oh! oh!" she cried, softly, "that is the same thing my Fairy Prince
said, 'I will'!"

She whispered, with her small brown hand before her mouth:

"And we were both talking about getting learning!"

CHAPTER VIII.

A LONG GOOD-BY

August flew by with its sultry air, and the grand house lay warm and
quiet until supper time, no one venturing out until the heat of the day
was past.

A disappointment it was to Sally that so little time was spent by the
young people in the arbor, for it was not easy for her to see or hear
them anywhere else.

Then came there a day in September when all the place was stirred as by
some great and important event. Captain Rothwell was at the dock or on
the deck giving swift orders, the sailors were hurrying to and fro, and
the brave _Belle Virgeen_ stood ready winged for sailing.

Sally a little while before had begged of Mistress Brace a piece of gray
and white print, out of which, being exceeding deft with her needle,
she had made for herself a neat gown.

Then the hired men had each agreed to pay h