ace, because one of the girls eloped, and we
were all in such trouble about it that we vowed we'd be old maids.
Afterward it was the cause of our forming another club that we called
the 'Ordah of Hildegarde.' I'll give you a sawt of an outline now, if
you'll promise to read the entiah thing aftahward."

"I'll promise," agreed Phil.

"Then, this is it. Once there were three maidens, of whom it was written
in the stahs that each was to wed a prince, provided she could weave a
mantle that should fit his royal shouldahs as the falcon's feathahs fit
the falcon. Each had a mirror beside her loom like the Lady of Shalott's
in which the shadows of the world appeahed.

"One maiden wove in secret, and falling in love with a page who daily
passed her mirror, imagined him to be a prince, and wove her web to fit
his unworthy shouldahs. Of co'se when the real prince came it was too
small, and so she missed the happiness that was written for her in the
stahs.

"The second squandahed her warp of gold first on one, then anothah,
weaving mantles for any one who happened to take her fancy--a shepherd
boy and a troubador, a student and a knight. When her prince rode by
she had nothing left to offah him, so she missed _her_ life's happiness.

"But the third had a deah old fathah like Papa Jack, and he gave her a
silvah yahdstick on which was marked the inches and ells that a true
prince ought to be. And he warned her like this:

"'Many youths will come to thee, each begging, "Give _me_ the royal
mantle, Hildegarde. _I_ am the prince the stahs have destined for thee."
And with honeyed words he'll show thee how the mantle in the loom is
just the length to fit his shouldahs. But let him not persuade thee to
cut it loose and give it to him as thy young fingahs will be fain to do.
Weave on anothah yeah and yet anothah, till thou, a woman grown, can
measuah out a perfect web, moah ample than these stripling youths could
carry, but which will fit thy prince in faultlessness, as the falcon's
feathahs fit the falcon.'

"Then Hildegarde took the silvah yahdstick and said, 'You may trust me,
fathah. I will not cut the golden warp from out the loom, until I, a
woman grown, have woven such a web as thou thyself shalt say is worthy
of a prince's wearing.' (That's what I promised Papa Jack.)

"Of co'se it turned out, that one day with her fathah's blessing light
upon her, she rode away beside the prince, and evah aftah all her life
was crowned wi