s wonderful how the sound of my own voice gave me courage, even if
it did seem a little strange. So I hurried to the beech, knelt and
slipped the letter in the box, and put back the bark and stone. Laddie
had said that nothing could hurt me while I had the letter, so my
protection was gone as soon as it left my hands.

There was nothing but my feet to save me now. I thanked goodness I was
a fine runner, and started for the pawpaw thicket. Once there, I
paused only one minute to see whether the way to the stream was clear,
and while standing tense and gazing, I heard something. For an instant
it was every bit as bad as at the dry creek. Then I realized that this
was a soft voice singing, and I forgot everything else in a glow of
delight. The Princess was coming!

Never in all my life was I so surprised, and astonished, and
bewildered. She was even larger than our Sally; her dress was pale
green, like I thought a Fairy's should be; her eyes were deep and dark
as Laddie had said, her hair hung from a part in the middle of her
forehead over her shoulders, and if she had been in the sun, it would
have gleamed like a blackbird's wing. She was just as Laddie said she
would be; she was so much more beautiful than you would suppose any
woman could be, I stood there dumbly staring. I wouldn't have asked
for any one more perfectly beautiful or more like Laddie had said the
Princess would be; but she was no more the daughter of the Fairy Queen
than I was. She was not any more of a Princess. If father ever would
tell all about the little bauble he kept in the till of his big chest,
maybe she was not as near! She was no one on earth but one of those
new English people who had moved on the land that cornered with ours on
the northwest. She had ridden over the roads, and been at our meeting
house. There could be no mistake.

And neither father nor mother would want her on our place. They didn't
like her family at all. Mother called them the neighbourhood mystery,
and father spoke of them as the Infidels. They had dropped from
nowhere, mother said, bought that splendid big farm, moved on and shut
out every one. Before any one knew people were shut out, mother,
dressed in her finest, with Laddie driving, went in the carriage, all
shining, to make friends with them. This very girl opened the door and
said that her mother was "indisposed," and could not see callers.
"In-dis-posed!" That's a good word that fills your m