"Our Katharine is very much in earnest. I know you agree with me that
"little Prudy's" eldest daughter is a golden girl!"
The "play-school" closed a few days later, and it was Henry Small who
received the medal for good spelling. He wasn't so much of a cry-baby
nowadays and the boys had stopped calling him "Chicken Little."
The Dunlee party went home the last week in August, declaring they had
had delightful times at Castle Cliff.
"Only I never went down that mine in a bucket," said Lucy. "How could I
when the men were blowing up rocks just like an earthquake?"
"And I wanted to wait till they found that vein," said Jimmy.
A few days before they left, Uncle James went hunting and shot a deer. I
wish there were space to tell of the barbecue to which all the
neighbors were invited a little later.
As it is, my young readers are not likely to hear any more of the
adventures of the "bonnie Dunlees," either at home or abroad.
But during their stay in the mountains that summer Lucy begged Aunt Vi
to write some stories, with the little friends, Bab and Lucy, for the
heroines.
"Some 'once-upon-a-time stories,' Auntie Vi. Make believe we two girls
go all about among the fairies, just as Alice did in Wonderland; only
there are two of us together, and we shall have a better time!"
"Oh, fie! How could I take real live little girls into the kingdom of
the elves and gnomes and pixies? I shouldn't know how!"
But she was so obliging as to try. The week before they left for home
she had completed a book of "once-upon-a-time stories," which she read
aloud to all the children as they clustered around her in the
"air-castle." She called it "Lucy in Fairyland," though she meant Bab
just as much as Lucy. If the little public would like to see this book
it may be offered them by and by; together with the comments which were
made upon each story by the whole Dunlee family,--Jimmy, wee Lucy, and
all.
[Illustration: LITTLE PRUDY SERIES
Specimen illustration from "Sister Susie"]
[Illustration: LITTLE PRUDY SERIES
Specimen illustration from "Dotty Dimple"]
[Illustration: LITTLE PRUDY SERIES
Specimen illustration from "Cousin Grace"]
[Illustration: LITTLE PRUDY'S CHILDREN SERIES
Specimen illustration from "Wee Lucy's Secret"]