hop dedicated our church. I couldn't hold in another second, I
could hear my heart beat.

"Oh Laddie!" I shouted, jumping up, "that pie is only the beginning of
the good things I have brought you. I have a message, and a gift
besides, Laddie!"

"A message and a gift?" Laddie repeated. "What! More?"

"Truly I have a message and a gift for you," I cried, "and Laddie--they
are from the Princess!"

His eyes raised to mine now, and slowly he turned Sabethany-like.

"From the Princess!" he exclaimed. "A message and a gift for me,
Little Sister? You never would let Leon put you up to serve me a
trick?"

That hurt. He should have KNOWN I wouldn't, and besides, "Leon feels
just as badly about this as any of us," I said. "Have you forgotten he
offered to plow, and let you do the clean, easy work?"

"Forgive me! I'm overanxious," said Laddie, his arms reaching for me.
"Go on and tell carefully, and if you truly love me, don't make a
mistake!"

Crowding close, my arms around his neck, his crisp hair against my
lips, I whispered my story softly, for this was such a fine and
splendid secret, that not even the shining blackbirds, and the pert
robins in the furrows were going to get to hear a word of it. Before I
had finished Laddie was breathing as Flos does when he races her the
limit. He sat motionless for a long time, while over his face slowly
crept a beauty that surpassed that of Apollo in his Greek book.

"And her gift?"

It was only a breath.

"She helped me up, and she sent you this," I answered.

Then I set my lips on his, and held them there a second, trying my
level best to give him her very kiss, but of course I could only try.

"Oh, Laddie," I cried. "Her eyes were like when stars shine down in
our well! Her cheeks were like mother's damask roses! She smelled
like flowers, and when her lips touched mine little stickers went all
over me!"

Then Laddie's arms closed around me and I thought sure every bone in my
body was going to be broken; when he finished there wasn't a trace of
that kiss left for me. Remembering it would be all I'd ever have. It
made me see what would have happened to the Princess if she had been
there; and it was an awful pity for her to miss it, because he'd sober
down a lot before he reached her, but I was sure as shooting that he
wouldn't be so crazy as to kiss her hands again. Peter wasn't a
patching to him!

That night Laddie rode to Pryors'. When he brought Flo