MAID SALLY AND HER FAIRY PRINCE
While she was making ready, Sally kept saying:
"I am coming, Fairy Prince, I am coming!"
And a sweet bird of hope was singing in her ears that all would yet be
well with the brave Dream lad of her girlish years.
"I will serve the others too," she said, "for in good faith I love my
country well."
At Great Bridge all was bustle and confusion. But the wounded had been
carried into a long, low building, really a tobacco warehouse, now
turned into hospital barracks.
Doctor Hancocke, who had knowledge of diseases and wounds as well as of
drugs and medicines, made himself both useful and welcome. He soon found
Lionel among the badly wounded, his hurt having come through a spent
ball that hurled the young man against a gun-carriage with such force
that his back was injured and one shoulder put out of joint. Then, as
fever had set in, the young man was in a bad way.
Sally could well have both laughed and cried at Mammy Leezer when they
told her Lionel's case was thought to be serious.
She put on her most dragoon-like air, and seemed defying the whole army
to tell her that again.
"Who say dat dat boy am hurt powerful bad?" she sniffed. "Ain't they
done been tole his ole Mammy am come? What's goin' to be de matter with
my Mars' Lion once I gets to nussin' 'im? They better stop cackling, de
whole caboodle ob dem, and leave my Mars' Lion 'lone with me!"
They were only too glad to have the capable old woman around. And in
truth, so jealous was Mammy Leezer of her charge that she would allow no
one to assist her day or night except Sally, even attending to the
wounded shoulder herself, which Doctor Hancocke felt satisfied she was
treating with skill.
Sally was glad to see in how many ways she could make herself useful.
She showed fine nerve and fettle, even helping to wind the bandages
around a wound, and being left in charge of certain sick ones while
older nurses attended to those who were more helpless.
For a few days she was allowed to sit by her Fairy Prince only while
Mammy Leezer made his gruel and steeped certain herbs she had brought
with her. Then Mammy trusted her to watch him while she stole away about
ten minutes at a time to indulge in a comforting little smoke.
Lionel was said to be doing well, although he lay with closed eyes and
did not seem to know any one. His father rode to Great Bridge on Lord
Rollin, but did not long remain. He was not welcome in camp; there was
nothing he could do, so he went away telling Mammy Leezer he should come
soon again.
It was Sally's best hour of the day when Mammy Leezer went to the
cook-room to prepare gruel and she was left alone with her Fairy Prince.
One rosy afternoon in late December, she bent over him and gently pushed
a lock back from his forehead. It would not stay, and for a moment she
held the fair lock back.
To her surprise she all at once looked into the deep blue eyes, which
were open and looking directly into her own.
"Who is it?" he whispered.
Sally flushed, dimpled, smiled; but for an instant could not turn her
eyes away.
"Who is it?" asked a weak voice.
"A Fairy," she said, in a spirit of mischief.
"Who is it?" came in a little stronger tone.
Just then Mammy came back, and the question reached her quick ear.
"I think he has come to himself," said Sally, as she made way for the
delighted old woman.
"Who is it?" Lionel kept repeating, "who is it? What is the Fairy's
name?"
"Now, honey, what you talkin' 'bout?" said Mammy, comfortably stirring
the gruel she held. "Jus' you keep quiet and drink this, and your ole
Mammy have you hoppin' about as spry as a skeeter in de twinklin' ob an
eye."
"No, no, Mammy," cried the young man, in a weak voice, but masterful
way, "who was it bent over me? I must know. They always thought me
wandering in mind after my fall in the pine woods. I saw a Fairy face
bending over me, and a fair creature gave me water. I saw the Fairy
again, just a glimpse, and once more, just now. I'll take neither bite
nor sup till I see her again!"
Sally had disappeared. She grew frightened at thought of having the
Fairy Prince try to find her out, and off she ran as Mammy went up to
the cot.
She was quietly feeding a man whose right arm was in a sling, when Mammy
Leezer's plump, rolling figure came toward her.
"Yo'll done hev to come and see Mars' Lion," said Mammy, "he's comin'
'roun' all right shor', for he's pert as a two-year-ole rooster! He
won't take de grool from his ole Mammy, nor anyting, till he see de
Fairy he done gone crazy 'bout. You better get some un else to feed dat
man, and tote ober to Mars' Lion."
The feeding was really through with, and Sally, trembling and flushing,
went back to the side of her Fairy Prince.
He held out his hand, and Sally put hers into it.
"Let me look at you," he said.
Sally went nearer.
"Yes, it is the very face! The one that bent over me in the woods. Tell
me," he said, "did you not give me water when I lay stunned one day near
Lover's Lane?"
"Yes," said Sally.
"And tell me," he asked again, his face getting flushed and his voice
rising, "have I not seen your face since, just for an instant? But the
eyes, the dimples, the mouth are the same. When was it?"
He was getting wrought up, and Mammy grew anxious.
"Do fo' de goodness sake tell 'im ebberyting you know, and hab done with
it!" she said, in a low tone, twitching Sally's sleeve. "It won't do to
cross 'im nohow; he'll be down with de fever jinks, first ting we know."
Sally bent over him, her dark eyes meeting his blue ones.
"They told of your being a prisoner," she said, simply, "and I thought
it a shame. I wanted to help the country, so I brought you Hotspur. You
saw me hiding in a tree. Now please let me go," and she tried to draw
away her hand.
But the Fairy Prince took the hand in both his own and softly kissed it.
His face paled, and he calmed down as he said:
"Promise me you will not go away."
"I promise not to go away until I must," said Maid Sally.
Then Mammy fed her "babby," and gave him a soothing dose of steeped
skullcap, which drowsy herb soon had him in a quiet sleep.
Sally went about in a Fairy-like dream.
The back of her right hand seemed to have been touched with a golden
wand where the Fairy Prince had kissed it.
Yet she was puzzling over the question how best to answer when her
Prince would seek to know more about her, as he surely would.
Tell her own story she never could, at least not the first part of it.
At length she murmured:
"Oh, my good Fairy, please tell me once more what had I better do?"
And the Fairy answered:
"Why not tell Mammy Leezer the truth about the pine woods, and let her
repeat it? She loves the Fairy Prince with all her heart, and would
dress up the story in rosiest colors.
"What if you were a poor little girl then, or thought to be? Mammy knew
you had a fine father, and will say so. And what if the Fairy Prince
finds out that twice you were in a tree when he needed help? Fairies are
supposed to lurk in forests and midst trees and flowers.
"Mammy can begin the story, you must finish it. Tell him of your love
for Ingleside, but not of the rocky seat. It would not be maidenly or
needful. Tell him your name, and hide not the fact of his relationship."
Maid Sally took her good Fairy's advice, and at the story Mammy Leezer
cried, "Sho' now!" and "Bress yo' dear lil heart!" and "Lorr de massy
sakes alive!" until Sally knew how her music-full voice and flowery
speech would set forth all that she would pour into the ears of the
listening Prince.
Then for several days, the young Lionel, who never tired of the whole
pleasing story, was set and determined to have Maid Sally near him every
moment that he could.
But good Parson Kendall had talked and prayed with hurt and troubled
men, while Doctor Hancocke had given medicines and good advice, and
nursing dames of kind hearts and willing hands had waited on the sick.
Now a fortnight had slipped away since the battle of Great Bridge, the
wounded men were doing well, a number had been taken to their homes,
and Parson Kendall and Doctor Hancocke were about to return homeward.
The Fairy Prince, still too weak for removal, rebelled at thought of
missing the sweet face of his dear Fairy Girl.
But Parson Kendall was firm as a rock.
In vain Mammy Leezer said, with rolling eyes and fearful air:
"I dunno what de consekens will be, ef dat lil missy go 'way!"
The good parson believed that Sally had gone forth in time of need, and
now that she was no longer really needed, she should return to other
duties. And Sally knew that he was right.
So, very early one morning, Sally threw her Fairy Prince a kiss when he
was sleeping and nobody saw, for Mammy had advised that he should know
nought of her going until she must tell him she had gone, and long after
midnight she was back with Goodwife Kendall, who received her with a
warm embrace, so truly glad was she to have the maiden back again.
It was a week later that Parson Kendall said to Sally, as he again met
her in the hall:
"My dear young damsel, I have but just parted from Sir Percival
Grandison, who hath been here to make inquiries concerning thyself.
"He declareth, doth Sir Percival, that you have bewitched his son, and
that nought will do but thou must repair to Ingleside and sit beside
him. The young man hath been brought by easy stages to his home, but
wearies all the time for his 'Fairy Girl.'
"Beshrew me, but I fear thou mayest be in very truth a kind of witch!"
The parson's mouth twitched with a smile he tried to keep back. Then he
added:
"I have laid thy whole story before Sir Percival, part of which he
already knew, and right pleased hath he been to find that the young maid
who has so drawn the fancy of his son is of good mind, a lady born, and
of kinship with his wife, the Lady Gabrielle.
"So prepare thyself, Maid Sara Duquesne, and in an hour the coach will
come to bear thee to Ingleside."
* * * * *
And to fair Ingleside went Maid Sally.
The doors opened wide to receive her. For the Lady Gabrielle Grandison
said that no lack of welcome should be shown one of her own name and
family.
The Lady Rosamond Earlscourt received her but coldly, but Lucretia was
kind and gentle in her greeting.
Never before that she could remember had Sally entered so grand a room
as the one in which sat the Fairy Prince well wrapped about with gaily
flowered comforters, the wide arm-chair drawn up before a great blazing
fire.
Sir Percival Grandison arose from a seat near his son as Sally came
forward, nor did he longer wonder that the warm-hearted Southern lad,
who was almost a man, had lost his heart to the lovely, blushing maiden.
Goodwife Kendall knew what she was doing in arraying Maid Sally in a
skirt of crimson bombazine, an overdress of rich silk, and a crimson
velvet bodice laced over quillings of white muslin, when she went forth
to meet her relatives.
Like a ripe, tropical flower looked the maid as she bowed before Sir
Percival.
The Fairy Prince again took her hand in both of his and kissed it.
* * * * *
And while the struggle went on between king's men and colonists, fair
Maid Sally became a frequent guest at Ingleside.
[Illustration: "MAID SALLY BECAME A FREQUENT GUEST AT INGLESIDE."]
The Fairy Prince _would_ have it so.
She knew that when the spring should come, he would go forth under him
who was to be the great commander-in-chief, George Washington, to again
do battle for his beloved country. Nor would she have him stay.
And then came a brave, welcome day, when Sir Percival Grandison became
convinced that the colonists were right in resisting the king's rule,
and boldly said so.
The character of Washington, too, so calm, so grand, and determined, was
that of a man to be trusted, and Sir Percival took his stand with the
American cause, once and for all.
In February, Lady Rosamond Earlscourt took her departure for England,
intending to remain there.
Early in June the Fairy Prince was to join a company under the
commander-in-chief.
Ah, but that month of May! sweet, sweet May!
The birds sang as never before. The garden bloomed as never bloomed a
garden before since the world was young.
Day after day the arbor held the Fairy Prince, and beside him sat his
Fairy Girl.
Once Sally peered over the wall. The upper stone of her rocky seat had
fallen to the ground.
"I shall want it no more," she thought.
There was a fine party and feast at Ingleside shortly before Lionel was
to go away.
Mammy Leezer did her best. There was porcupine marmalade, sorghum foam,
salads, nut and cheese cakes, macaroon paste, floating-island, syllabub,
and sangaree.
Sally was all in white, white blossoms in her red gold hair, white
blossoms at her breast.
As she roamed with Lionel about the lawn after the other guests had
gone, and they stopped for a moment at the summer-house, the young man
said:
"I think of you always, dear, as my Fairy Girl."
And Maid Sally replied:
"I saw you in this garden once and called you my Fairy Prince."
"Promise me you will never have any Fairy Prince in your heart but me!"
he cried.
"I promise I will never have any Fairy Prince in my heart but you," said
Maid Sally.
THE END.