long golden hair, dainty dress, and lofty ways, for the little
“Princess,” as they called her, allowed no one to kiss her, but sat
smiling down upon them, and graciously patting their heads with
her little, white hands. They all adored her, especially Rob, who
considered her a sort of doll, and dared not touch her lest she
should break, but worshipped her at a respectful distance, made
happy by an occasional mark of favor from her little highness. As
she immediately demanded to see Daisy’s kitchen, she was borne
off by Mrs. Jo, with a train of small boys following. The others, all
but Nat and Demi, ran away to the menagerie and gardens to have
all in order; for Mr. Laurie always took a general survey, and
looked disappointed if things were not flourishing.
Standing on the steps, he turned to Dan, saying like an old
acquaintance, though he had only seen him once or twice before,
“How is the foot?”
“Better, sir.”
“Rather tired of the house, aren’t you?”
“Guess I am!” and Dan’s eyes roved away to the green hills and
woods where he longed to be.
“Suppose we take a little turn before the others come back? That
big, easy carriage will be quite safe and comfortable, and a breath
of fresh air will do you good. Get a cushion and a shawl, Demi,
and let’s carry Dan off.”
The boys thought it a capital joke, and Dan looked delighted, but
asked, with an unexpected burst of virtue,
“Will Mrs. Bhaer like it?”
“Oh, yes; we settled all that a minute ago.”
“You didn’t say any thing about it, so I don’t see how you could,”
said Demi, inquisitively.
“We have a way of sending messages to one another, without any
words. It is a great improvement on the telegraph.”
“I know it’s eyes; I saw you lift your eyebrows, and nod toward the
carriage, and Mrs. Bhaer laughed and nodded back again,” cried
Nat, who was quite at his ease with kind Mr. Laurie by this time.
“Right. Now them, come on,” and in a minute Dan found himself
settled in the carriage, his foot on a cushion on the seat opposite,
nicely covered with a shawl, which fell down from the upper
regions in a most mysterious manner, just when they wanted it.
Demi climbed up to the box beside Peter, the black coachman. Nat
sat next Dan in the place of honor, while Uncle Teddy would sit
opposite, to take care of the foot, he said, but really that he might
study the faces before him both so happy, yet so different, for
Dan’s was square, and brown, and strong, while Nat’s was long,
and fair, and rather weak, but very amiable with its mild eyes and
good forehead.
“By the way, I’ve got a book somewhere here that you may like to
see,” said the oldest boy of the party, diving under the seat and
producing a book which make Dan exclaim,
“Oh! by George, isn’t that a stunner?” as he turned the leaves, and
saw fine plates of butterflies, and birds, and every sort of
interesting insect, colored like life. He was so charmed that he
forgot his thanks, but Mr. Laurie did not mind, and was quite
satisfied to see the boy’s eager delight, and to hear this
exclamations over certain old friends as he came to them. Nat
leaned on his shoulder to look, and Demi turned his back to the
horses, and let his feet dangle inside the carriage, so that he might
join in the conversation.
When they got among the beetles, Mr. Laurie took a curious little
object out of his vest-pocket, and laying it in the palm of his hand,
said,
“There’s a beetle that is thousands of years old;” and then, while
the lads examined the queer stone-bug, that looked so old and
gray, he told them how it came out of the wrappings of a mummy,
after lying for ages in a famous tomb. Finding them interested, he
went on to tell about the Egyptians, and the strange and splendid
ruins they have left behind them the Nile, and how he sailed up the