love to trust him the same as he did Laddie. He wouldn't
always prove himself trustworthy, but he envied Laddie.

"You think you'll take the Princess to the spelling bee, don't you?" he
sneered.

"I mean to ask her," replied Laddie.

"Maybe you think she'll ride in our old homemade, hickory cheesebox,
when she can sail all over the country like a bird in a velvet-lined
cutter with a real buffalo robe."

There was a quick catch in mother's breath and I felt her hand on my
chair tremble. Father's lips tightened and a frown settled on his
face, while Laddie fairly jumped. He went white to the lips, and one
hand dropped on the table, palm up, the fingers closing and unclosing,
while his eyes turned first to mother, and then to father, in dumb
appeal. We all knew that he was suffering. No one spoke, and Leon
having shot his arrow straight home, saw as people so often do in this
world that the damage of unkind words could not easily be repaired; so
he grew red in the face and squirmed uncomfortably.

At last Laddie drew a deep, quivering breath. "I never thought of
that," he said. "She has seemed happy to go with me several times when
I asked her, but of course she might not care to ride in ours, when she
has such a fine sleigh of her own."

Father's voice fairly boomed down the length of the table.

"Your mother always has found our sleigh suitable," he said.

The fact was, father was rarely proud of it. He had selected the
hickory in our woods, cut it and hauled it to the mill, cured the
lumber, and used all his spare time for two winters making it. With
the exception of having the runners turned at a factory and iron-bound
at a smithy, he had completed it alone with great care, even to
staining it a beautiful cherry colour, and fitting white sheepskins
into the bed. We had all watched him and been so proud of it, and now
Leon was sneering at it. He might just as well have undertaken to
laugh at father's wedding suit or to make fun of "Clark's Commentaries."

Laddie appealed to mother: "Do you think I'd better not ask her?"

He spoke with an effort.

"Laddie, that is the first time I ever heard you propose to do any one
an injustice," she said.

"I don't see how," said Laddie.

"It isn't giving the Princess any chance at all," replied mother
"You've just said that she has seemed pleased to accompany you before,
now you are proposing to cut her out of what promises to be the most
delightful evenin