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THE LITTLE COLONEL'S HERO
By ANNIE FELLOWS JOHNSTON
AUTHOR OF "THE LITTLE COLONEL," "TWO LITTLE KNIGHTS OF KENTUCKY," "BIG
BROTHER," "ASA HOLMES," "THE LITTLE COLONEL'S HOUSE PARTY," "THE LITTLE
COLONEL'S HOLIDAYS," ETC.
FRONTISPIECE BY ETHELDRED B. BARRY
L.C. PAGE & COMPANY BOSTON PUBLISHERS
_Copyright, 1902_
BY THE PAGE COMPANY
_All rights reserved_
Made in U.S.A.
Twenty-seventh Impression, June, 1925
Twenty-eighth Impression, February, 1926
Twenty-ninth Impression, January, 1928
Thirtieth Impression, June, 1929
Thirty-first Impression, October, 1930
Thirty-second Impression, March, 1932
Thirty-third Impression, February, 1934
Thirty-fourth Impression, August, 1935
Thirty-fifth Impression, July, 1937
PRINTED BY THE COLONIAL PRESS INC.,
CLINTON, MASS., U.S.A.
TO
ALL THE FRIENDS OF THE "LITTLE COLONEL"
TO WHOSE LETTERS
THE AUTHOR COULD NOT REPLY,
THIS BOOK IS OFFERED IN ANSWER TO
THEIR MANY QUESTIONS
THE LITTLE COLONEL'S
(Trade Mark)
HERO
THE LITTLE COLONEL BOOKS
=by
Annie Fellows Johnston=
Limited popular editions, each, cloth 12 mo. Illustrated
=Three Titles--=
The Little Colonel's House Party $1.00
The Little Colonel's Holidays $1.00
The Little Colonel's Hero $1.00
* * * * *
Regular Trade Edition
=The Little Colonel Series=
(Trade Mark, Reg. U.S. Pat. Of.)
Each one vol., large 12 mo, bound in rose silk cloth; illust.
The Little Colonel Stories $2.00
(Containing the three stories, "The Little Colonel,"
"The Giant Scissors," and "Two Little
Knights of Kentucky.")
The Little Colonel Stories--Second Series $2.00
(Containing the three stories, "The Three Tremonts,"
"The Little Colonel in Switzerland,"
and "Ole Mammy's Torment.")
The Little Colonel's House Party $2.00
The Little Colonel's Holidays 2.00
The Little Colonel's Hero 2.00
The Little Colonel at Boarding-School 2.00
The Little Colonel in Arizona 2.00
The Little Colonel's Christmas Vacation 2.00
The Little Colonel: Maid of Honor 2.00
The Little Colonel's Knight Comes Riding 2.00
The Little Colonel's Chum: Mary Ware 2.00
Mary Ware in Texas 2.00
Mary Ware's Promised Land 2.00
The above 13 vols., boxed, as a set 26.00
[Illustration: "'SPIN, WHEEL, REEL OUT THY GOLDEN THREAD'"]
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. HER TWELFTH BIRTHDAY 11
II. THE WONDER-BALL BEGINS TO UNWIND 25
III. LLOYD MEETS HERO 41
IV. HERO'S STORY 55
V. THE RED CROSS OF GENEVA 67
VI. THE WONDER-BALL'S BEST GIFT 79
VII. IN TOURS 102
VIII. WITH BETTY AND EUGENIA 121
IX. AT THE GATE OF THE GIANT SCISSORS 136
X. ON THE WING 147
XI. HOMEWARD BOUND 161
XII. HOME AGAIN 179
XIII. "THE RESCUE OF THE PRINCESS WINSOME" 197
XIV. IN CAMP 234
XV. THE SENTRY'S MISTAKE 249
XVI. "TAPS" 262
THE LITTLE COLONEL'S HERO
(Trade Mark)
CHAPTER I.
HER TWELFTH BIRTHDAY
"Oh, Tarbaby! _Everybody_ has forgotten that it is my birthday! Even Papa
Jack has gone off to town without saying a word about it, and he nevah did
such a thing befo' in all his life!"
As she spoke, the Little Colonel put her arm around her pony's neck, and
for a moment her fair little head was pressed disconsolately against its
velvety black mane.
"It isn't the presents I care about," she whispered, choking back a
heart-broken sob; "but oh, Tarbaby, it's the bein' forgotten! Of co'se
mothah couldn't be expected to remembah, she's been so ill. But I think
grandfathah might, or Mom Beck, or _somebody_. If there'd only been one
single person when I came down-stairs this mawnin' to say 'I wish you
many happy returns, Lloyd, deah,' I wouldn't feel so bad. But there
wasn't, and I nevah felt so misah'ble and lonesome and left out since I
was bawn."
Tarbaby had no words with which to comfort his little mistress, but he
seemed to understand that she was in trouble, and rubbed his nose lovingly
against her shoulder. The mute caress comforted her as much as words could
have done, and presently she climbed into the saddle and started slowly
down the avenue to the gate.
It was a warm May morning, sweet with the fragrance of the locusts, for
the great trees arching above her were all abloom, and the ground beneath
was snowy with the wind-blown petals. Under the long white arch she rode,
with the fallen blossoms white at her feet. The pewees called from the
cedars and the fat red-breasted robins ran across the lawn just as they
had done the spring before, when it was her eleventh birthday, and she had
ridden along that same way singing, the happiest hearted child in the
Valley. But she was not singing to-day. Another sob came up in her throat
as she thought of the difference.
"Now I'm a whole yeah oldah," she sighed. "Oh, deah! I don't want to grow
up, one bit, and I'll be suah 'nuff old on my next birthday, for I'll be
in my teens then. I wondah how that will feel. This last yeah was such a
lovely one, for it brought the house pahty and so many holidays. But this
yeah has begun all wrong. I can't help feelin' that it's goin' to bring me
lots of trouble."
Half-way down the avenue she thought she heard some one calling her, and
stopped to look back. But no one was in sight. The shutters were closed in
her mother's room.
"Last yeah she stood at the window and waved to me when I rode away,"
sighed the child, her eyes filling with tears again. "Now she's so white
and ill it makes me cry to look at her. Maybe that is the trouble this
yeah is goin' to bring me. Betty's mothah died, and Eugenia's, and
maybe"--but the thought was too dreadful to put into words, and she
stopped abruptly.
"Mom Beck was right," she whispered with a nod of her head. "She said that
sad thoughts are like crows. They come in flocks. I wish I could stop
thinkin' about such mou'nful things."
A train passed as she cantered through the gate and started down the road
beside the railroad track. She drew rein to watch it thunder by. Some
child at the window pointed a finger at her, and then two smiling little
faces were pressed against the pane for an eager glimpse. It was the
prettiest wayside picture the passengers had seen in all that morning's
travel--the Little Colonel on her pony, with the spray of locust bloom in
the cockade of the Napoleon cap she wore, and a plume of the same graceful
blossoms nodding jauntily over each of Tarbaby's black ears.
As the admiring faces whirled past her, Lloyd drew a long breath of
relief. "I'm glad that I don't have to do my riding in a smoky old car
this May mawnin'," she thought. "It is wicked for me to be so unhappy when
I have Tarbaby and all the othah things that mothah and Papa Jack have
given me. I know perfectly well that they love me just the same even if
they have forgotten my birthday, and I won't let such old black crow
thoughts flock down on me. I'll ride fast and get away from them."
That was harder to do than she had imagined, for as she passed Judge
Moore's place the deserted house added to her feeling of loneliness. Andy,
the old gardener, was cutting the grass on the front lawn. She called to
him.
"When is the family coming out from town, Andy?"
"Not this summer, Miss Lloyd," he answered. "It'll be the first summer in
twenty years that the Judge has missed. He has taken a cottage at the
seaside, and they're all going there. The house will stay closed, just as
you see it now, I reckon, for another year."
"At the seashore!" she echoed. "Not coming out!" She almost gasped, the
news was so unexpected. Here was another disappointment, and a very sore
one. Every summer, as far back as she could remember, Rob Moore had been
her favourite playfellow. Now there would be no more mad Tam O'Shanter
races, with Rob clattering along beside her on his big iron-gray horse. No
more good times with the best and jolliest of little neighbours. A summer
without Rob's cheery whistle and good-natured laugh would seem as empty
and queer as the woods without the bird voices, or the meadows without the
whirr of humming things. She rode slowly on.
There was no letter for her when she stopped at the post-office to inquire
for the mail. The girls on whom she called afterward were not at home, so
she rode aimlessly around the Valley until nearly lunch-time, wishing for
once that it were a school-day. It was the longest Saturday morning she
had ever known. She could not practise her music lesson for fear of making
her mother's headache worse. She could not go near the kitchen, where she
might have found entertainment, for Aunt Cindy was in one of her black
tempers, and scolded shrilly as she moved around among her shining tins.
There was no one to show her how to begin her new piece of embroidery;
Papa Jack had forgotten to bring out the magazines she wanted to see;
Walker had failed to roll the tennis-court and put up the net, so she
could not even practise serving the balls by herself.
When lunch-time came, it was so lonely eating by herself in the big
dining-room, that she hurried through the meal as quickly as possible, and
tiptoed up the stairs to the door of her mother's room. Mom Beck raised
her finger with a warning "Sh!" and seeing that her mother was still
asleep, Lloyd stole away to her own room, her own pretty pink and white
nest, and curled herself up among the cushions in a big easy chair by the
window.
It was the first time in her memory that her mother had been ill. For more
than a week she had not been able to leave her room, and the lonely child,
accustomed to being with her constantly, crept around the house like a
little stray kitten. The place scarcely seemed like home, and the days
were endless. Some unusual feeling of sensitiveness had kept her from
reminding the family of her birthday. Other years she had openly counted
the days, for weeks beforehand, and announced the gifts that she would be
most pleased to receive.
Here by the window the dismal crow thoughts began flocking down to her
again, and to drive them away she picked up a book from the table and
began to read. It was a green and gold volume of short stories, one that
she had read many times before, but she never grew tired of them.
The one she liked best was "Marguerite's Wonder-ball," and she turned to
that first, because it was the story of a happy birthday. Marguerite was a
little German girl, learning to knit, and to help her in her task her
family wound for her a mammoth ball of yarn, as full of surprise packages
as a plum cake is of plums. Day by day, as her patient knitting unwound the
yarn, some gift dropped out into her lap. They were simple things, nearly
all of them. A knife, a ribbon, a thimble, a pencil, and here and there
a bonbon, but they were magnified by the charm of the surprise, and they
turned the tedious task into a pleasant pastime. Not until her birthday
was the knitting finished, and as she took the last stitches a little
velvet-covered jewel-box fell out. In the jewel-box was a string of pearls
that had belonged to Marguerite's great-great-grandmother. It was a precious
family heirloom, and although Marguerite could not wear the necklace until
she was old enough to go to her first great court ball, it made her very
proud and happy to think that, of all the grandchildren in the family,
she had been chosen as the one to wear her great-great-grandmother's
name that means pearl, and had inherited on that account the beautiful
Von Behren necklace.
When the knitting was done there was a charming birthday feast in her
honour. They crowned her with flowers, and every one, even the dignified
old grandfather, did her bidding until nightfall, because it was _her_
day, and she was its queen.
Closing the book Lloyd lay back among the cushions, smiling for the
twentieth time over Marguerite's happiness, and planning the beautiful
wonder-ball she herself would like to have, if wonder-balls were to be had
for the wishing. It should be as big as a cart-wheel, and the first gift
to be unwound should be a tiny ring set with an emerald, because that is
the lucky stone for people born in May. She already owned so many books,
and trinkets, that she hardly knew what else to wish for unless it might
be a coral fan chain and a mother-of-pearl manicure set. But deep down in
the heart of the ball she would like to find a wishing-nut, that would
grant her wishes like an Aladdin's lamp whenever it was rubbed.
She must have fallen asleep in the midst of her day-dreaming, for it
seemed to her that it was only a minute after she closed her book, that
she heard the half-past five o'clock train whistling at the station, and
while she was still rubbing her eyes she saw her father coming up the
avenue.
All day she had had a lingering hope that he might bring her something
when he came out from the city. "If it's nothing but a bag of peanuts,"
she thought, "it will be better than having a birthday go by without
anything, 'specially when all the othahs have been neahly as nice as
Christmas."
She peeped out between the curtains, scanning him eagerly as he came
toward the house, but there was no package in either hand, and no
suggestive parcel bulged from any of his pockets.
"I'll not be a baby," Lloyd whispered to herself, winking her eyelids
rapidly to clear away a sort of mist that seemed to blur the landscape.
"I'm too old to care so much."
Still, it was such a disappointment, added to all the others that the day
had brought, that she buried her face in the cushions and cried softly.
She could hear her father's voice in the next room, presently. It seemed
quite loud and cheerful; more cheerful than it had sounded since her
mother's dreadful neuralgic headaches had begun. A few minutes later she
heard her mother laugh. It was such a welcome sound, that she hastily
dried her eyes and started to run in to see what had caused it, but she
paused as she passed the mirror. Her eyes were so red that she knew she
would be questioned, and she concluded it would be better to wait until
she was dressed for dinner.
So she sat looking out of the window till the big hall clock struck six,
and then hastily bathing her eyes, she slipped into a fresh white dress,
and looking carefully at herself in the mirror, concluded that she had
waited long enough. To her surprise, she found her mother sitting up in a
big Morris chair by the window. Maybe it was the pink silk kimono she wore
that brought a faint tinge of colour to her cheeks, but whatever it was,
she looked well and natural again, and for the first time in six long days
the neuralgic headache was all gone, and the lines of suffering were
smoothed out of her face.
The wide glass doors opening on to the balcony were standing open, and
through the vines stole the golden sunset light, the chirping of robins,
the smell of new-mown grass, and the heavy sweetness of the locust
blooms. Lloyd rubbed her eyes, thinking she surely must be dreaming. There
on the vine-covered balcony stood a table all set as if for a "pink
party." There were flowers and bonbons in the silver dishes, and in the
centre Mom Beck was proudly placing a mammoth birthday cake, wreathed in
pink icing roses, and crowned with twelve pink candles ready for the
lighting.
"Oh, mothah!" she cried. "I--I thought--"
She did not finish the sentence, but something in her surprised tone, the
sudden flushing of her face, and the traces of tears still in her eyes,
told what she meant.
"You thought mother had forgotten," whispered Mrs. Sherman, tenderly, as
Lloyd hid her face on her shoulder.
"No, not for one minute, dear. But the pain was so bad this morning, when
you came to my room, that I couldn't talk. Then you were out riding so
long this morning, and when I wakened after lunch and sent Mom Beck to
find you, she said you were asleep in your room. Papa Jack and I have been
planning a great surprise for you, and he did not want to mention it until
all the arrangements were completed. That is why there was no birthday
surprise for you at breakfast. But you'll soon be a very happy little
girl, for this surprise is something you have been wanting for more than a
year."
How suddenly the whole world had changed for the Little Colonel! The
sunshine had never seemed so golden, the locust blooms so deliciously
sweet. Her birthday had not been forgotten, after all. Mrs. Sherman's
chair was wheeled to the table on the balcony, and Lloyd took her seat
with sparkling eyes. She wondered what the surprise could be, and felt
sure that Papa Jack would not tell her until the cake was cut, and the
last birthday wish made with the blowing of the birthday candles.
He had intended to save his news to serve with the dessert, but when he
questioned Lloyd as to how she had spent the day, and laughed at her for
reading the old tale of Marguerite's wonder-ball so many times, his secret
escaped him before he knew it. Turning to Mrs. Sherman he said, "By the
way, Elizabeth, our birthday gift for Lloyd might be called a sort of
wonder-ball." Then he looked at his little daughter with a teasing smile,
as he continued, "I wonder if you can guess my riddle. At first your
wonder-ball will unroll a day and night on the cars, then a drive through
a park where you rode in a baby-carriage once upon a time, but through
which you shall go in an automobile this time, if you wish. There'll be
some shopping, maybe, and after that flags flying, and bands playing, and
crowds of people waving good-bye."
He had intended to stop there, but the wondering expression on her face
carried him on further. "I can't undertake to say how much your
wonder-ball can hold, but somewhere near the centre of it will be a
meeting with Betty and Eugenia, and perhaps a glimpse of the Gate of the
Giant Scissors that you are always talking about."
As Lloyd listened a look of utter astonishment crept over her face. Then
she suddenly sprang from her chair, and running to her father put a hand
on each shoulder. "Papa Jack," she cried, breathlessly, "look me straight
in the eyes! Are you in earnest? You don't mean that we are going abroad,
do you? It _couldn't_ be anything so lovely as that, could it?"
For answer he drew an envelope from his pocket and shook it before her
eyes. "Look for yourself," he said. "This is to show that we are listed
for passage on a steamer going to Antwerp the first of June. You may begin
to pack your trunk next week, if you wish."
It was impossible for Lloyd to eat any more after that. She was too
excited and happy, and there were countless questions she wanted to ask.
"It's bettah than a hundred house pahties," she exclaimed, as she blew out
the last birthday candle. "It's the loveliest wondah-ball that evah was,
and I'm suah that nobody in all Kentucky is as happy as I am now."