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Maid Sally
By HARRIET A. CHEEVER
Author of "Little Mr. Van Vere of China," "Ted's Little
Dear," "Strange Adventures of Billy Trill," etc.
ILLUSTRATED
_Boston_ Dana Estes
& Company _Publishers_
_Copyright, 1902_
BY DANA ESTES & COMPANY
_All rights reserved_
MAID SALLY
Published, July, 1902
Colonial Press
Electrotyped and Printed by C. H. Simonds & Co.
Boston, Mass., U. S. A.
TO "Muggins"
SUNNY-HAIRED, BELOVED CHILD OF NURSERY DAYS
WHO NEVER TIRED OF A STORY
THIS BOOK IS LOVINGLY
DEDICATED
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. HEARD AT INGLESIDE 11
II. THE GREAT HOUSE 20
III. THE END OF FAIRY TOWN 28
IV. THE FAIRY PRINCE 43
V. THE NEW SALLY 53
VI. THE SUPPER COMPANY 65
VII. SALLY SAYS, "I WILL!" 78
VIII. A LONG GOOD-BY 90
IX. THE PARSON 103
X. PROGRESS 116
XI. FACE TO FACE 129
XII. WHO WAS SHE? 142
XIII. TWO YEARS 155
XIV. HOME AGAIN 169
XV. A COLONIAL BALL 177
XVI. "I CAN'T BUY TEA" 187
XVII. THE SOLDIER'S CARD 198
XVIII. THE BREAKING OF THE STORM 212
XIX. ONE NIGHT 220
XX. IN CAMPAIGN 233
XXI. THE QUEER NAME 244
XXII. THE BATTLE OF GREAT BRIDGE 254
XXIII. MAID SALLY AND HER FAIRY PRINCE 265
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
IT IN TRUTH MUCH CHEERED HER TO SEE MAMMY
LEEZER COME TRUNDLING ALONG _Frontispiece_
'GOOD EVENING, LITTLE MAID,' SHE SAID, PLEASANTLY 96
SALLY STOOD AGAINST A TREE AND SANG WITHOUT
A THOUGHT OR CARE 120
WHEN VOICES AND HOOF-BEATS SMOTE UPON HER EAR 134
MORE THAN ONE BRITISH SOLDIER STATIONED IN
THE TOWN HAD LOOKED SHARPLY INTO THE
DEPTHS OF HER SUN-BONNET 171
FOR SALLY NEITHER DREW REIN NOR DID HOTSPUR
ONCE BREAK HIS LONG, SPLENDID STRIDE 225
THE BATTLE AT GREAT BRIDGE 262
MAID SALLY BECAME A FREQUENT GUEST AT INGLESIDE 277
MAID SALLY
CHAPTER I.
HEARD AT INGLESIDE
"And the Fairy sang to the poor child, and stroked its tangled hair, and
smoothed its puckered cheeks.
"And it sang and sang until the little face that had been full of
trouble grew bright with the cheer of heartsease.
"And still the Fairy sang and sang until, from very peacefulness, the
child's eyes began to droop and softly close, just as the flowers droop
and hang their pretty heads at twilight-song.
"And the Fairy sang on and on until the little creature in its arms had
floated into Dreamland, and then had passed far beyond Dreamland into
Fairy Town. And the child skipped through green fields and grassy
meadows, went dancing through beds of flowers, and flying in and out of
bushes full of sweetest scents. It drank the honey-drops the bees love,
and sipped syrup of flowers, the humming-bird's food. And it heard
ripples of music, such as are heard only in Fairy Town, and saw lovely
little objects with wings of gauze, and eyes like sparks of light.
"And the Fairy sang and sang, and the child dreamed and dreamed, until
every shadow of its life had faded away. And still it dreamed and
dreamed--"
* * * * *
"Sally! Sally!"
The little girl that had been listening under the hedge close to the
stone wall, jumped at the sound of her name.
Oh, dear! _must_ she go back to Slipside Row, and hear the scolding
voice of Mistress Cory Ann Brace, after being lifted almost into the
clouds, and having a tiny peep into Fairy Town?
Could she come back to earth again, and cook, and scrub, and sew, and do
all kinds of hard things, after hearing that wonderful scrap of glory
about the dear, beautiful creatures called the Fairies?
"Sally! Sally!"
"Yes, Mistress Cory Ann, I'm coming."
Swiftly back through Shady Path and Lover's Lane ran Sally, her frowsly
head full of the strange, sweet fragment of fairy song that she had
heard.
"Now, where've you been?" cried Mistress Cory Ann, as Sally came panting
into the Row. "Not up to Ingleside, I hope! I had to run way up the path
to make you hear. Haven't I told you more'n a hundred times you'd better
keep away from there? Just let the people up at the big house catch you
pokin' around, and back you'll come faster'n ever you went. Do you hear,
Sally Dukeen?"
Strange it would have been had not Sally heard, for Mistress Cory Ann's
voice was loud enough to have reached way across Lover's Lane. But Sally
answered truthfully.
"Yes, I hear, Mistress Cory Ann, and I have not been on the Ingleside
grounds at all."
No, she only had been roaming on the borders of the beautiful place,
then hiding close to the stone wall.
A poor, hard-worked little girl it was that had raced back to Slipside
Row. And no one to glance at her would have thought her pretty at all.
The people who lived in the row of houses were poor, but they all liked
Sally. Yet all they knew about her was that her father had boarded with
his little girl at Mistress Cory Ann Brace's house, when Mistress Brace
lived in another town, and in a much finer house than any at Slipside
Row. But he soon died, leaving his little girl, and some money, in
Mistress Brace's care.
No one knew about the money, however, except Mistress Brace herself, but
had it been used as it should have been, there would have been enough
to have lasted some time, paying for the child's coming needs. But
Mistress Brace hid it away, meaning to do with it exactly as she
pleased, while she still kept Sally, because, being a smart and willing
child, she could be of great use. Then Mistress Brace moved to a place
called "The Flats," where she lived three years; now she had lived three
more years at Slipside Row.
The mistress was not really cruel to Sally, neither was she kind. And
very constantly at work she kept her, sweeping, cooking, sewing; in
fact, doing anything that a growing child of eleven years could do. And
if ever Sally grew tired, and was not brisk as usual, Mistress Brace
would say that it was to the Town House she must go.
Now Sally had seen old Gran'ther Smithers and Aunt Melindy Duckers, who
lived at the Town House, and she often had seen the old building itself,
set far back in a grassy road that was not at all unpleasant, but so
dreadful was the thought of ever having to go there herself, that no
matter what Mistress Brace required of her, she tried her best to do it.
But one great help and comfort was coming to good little Sally. An
ignorant woman was Mistress Brace, for indeed she could scarcely more
than read and write, and she cared more for money and show than she did
for better things, such as learning and filling the mind with useful
knowledge.
People who know but little are likely to be superstitious; they are very
quick to believe foolish and untrue sayings, or things that in the least
alarm them, perhaps having in them something to dread.
One day, who should come along but a kind old colored woman, who
sometimes passed the corner house of Slipside Row, and noticed how much
work the little girl who lived there always had to do. On this
particular day, the next one after Sally had listened to the Fairy
story, as Mammy Leezer saw her scrubbing the steps, she said to
Mistress Brace, who was standing at a little distance:
"And when do lil Missy go outen to play?"
"Children have no need to waste time in playing," snapped Mistress
Brace, and she glanced around, hoping Sally could not hear. "Don't you
go a-talking! Sally's out o' doors nearly all the time; what more can
she want, I should like to know?"
The old black woman shook her head several times, and looked sly and
knowing, as she said in her sweet old voice:
"Jus' you keep lil Missy at work all de time and see what happen!
Chillerns should have a good long play hour eb'ry day. Chillerns should
hab their suppers right early, an' de chile dat have to work affer de
supper's down her frote, doan't you go a-asting me what happen to de
pusson dat makes her do de work! Doan't you go a-asting me dat!"
Mammy rolled her eyes, tossed up her dusky hands, and away she trundled
as if things too dreadful to be spoken were in her mind. And Mistress
Cory Ann for once forgot to scold, because of a creepy feeling that
seemed travelling up her spine. She did not say a word then, neither was
there danger that she might forget what Mammy Leezer had said.
Mammy lived in her cabin at "the quarters," at Ingleside, but was
getting old and lame, and but little work was required of her. A famous
cook and nurse she had been in her day, but now she had "de rheumatiz"
in her "jints," and a touch of "de asthmy" often at night.
So beyond doing fancy cooking, when there was company at the mansion, or
now and then tending some one who was ill, Mammy sat serenely smoking
her pipe at the cabin door, while knitting socks "for de men folkses."
And she declared herself "a berry comforable ole pusson," in spite of
her aches and pains.
Oh, wonder of wonders! That night, to Sally's astonishment and great
delight, did Mistress Cory Ann tell the child that "for reasons" she
would herself wash the supper dishes, and she added:
"After this, whenever you have worked well through the day, I reckon I
don't care what you do with yourself after supper, only that you need
not stray far away; I might be wanting you."
Supper at Mistress Cory Ann's was not much of an affair, but as she
boarded two or three hired men, plenty of dishes there always were to be
washed, and nearly bedtime it would be before Sally could get cleared
up.
But, now, oh, joy! as soon as that meal was over, Sally was to be free,
free! Up she rushed to her cubby of a room in the attic, caught up a
piece of looking-glass she had found one lucky day up by the great
house, and peering at her own queer little image in the bit of mirror,
she piped, in tones of great glee:
"Did you hear _that_, Sally Dukeen? Did'st hear that, little Mistress
Sally!"