Maid Sally Part 16

Parson Kendall looked pleased.

"When could'st thou find time for another study?" he asked. "It is no such simple thing to master a strange tongue."

"I could, sir," was all Maid Sally said in reply.

The parson smiled.

"Could'st which?" he asked. "Find the time or master the language?"

"I meant, sir, I could learn the language, but Mistress Brace might have much to say if I asked for more time, and I must in some way work for the one who teaches me anything new."

"Thou hast the right idea about some things," said the parson, kindly, "but go home now, and fret not about knowing another tongue at present; it is not needed so early in life. But that which is greatly desired sometimes cometh to pa.s.s."

There was a twinkle in the good man's eye when he last spoke that Sally liked to see.

"He is wise and kind," she said, as the parson pa.s.sed on, "and I must wait for learning French until comes the right time for it, but learn it I must some day."

"Think no more about it, but do the best you can with the fine teaching you have already," advised her Fairy.

And Sally tried to heed the advice.

It was but the next week on Wednesday afternoon, when Mistress Kent returned from visiting her sister, that she said to Sally:

"I met our good parson but just now, and he would like seeing you at his house on your way home. I hope he hath good tidings for you."

Sally trembled with hope as she went toward the parson's house, and it may have been that he feared lest the little maid might find it hard to use the great bra.s.s knocker on the front-door, for there he was in the garden as Sally entered the gate.

"It hath all been arranged, dear maiden," he said, in so father-like a tone that Sally felt tears starting to her eyes. "I deemed it best to see Mistress Brace before saying more to thee about the French lessons, but the use of one morning is to be given thee. Come on Thursday by nine o'clock, and an hour and a half will I give thee.

"No payment will be required save that one or two simple rules must be observed. No more than half an hour a day at present must be given to French. This will make progress slow, but it is of more importance that figures, history, geography, and thy native speech should be well learned than that thou shouldst know a foreign tongue while so young.

"And so, see to it that other studies are not neglected for this new one with a new teacher. This is all."

When Sally began, to thank Mistress Cory Ann for her kindness in allowing her to go of a morning to the parson, sharp words arose to the mistress's lips, but she kept them back.

Sally was yet a great help to her. And a maid whom the parson would take pains to teach the French language was not to be too harshly treated. So she only said:

"Ah, well, it seems not strange to me that one who thinks not much of our king should want to get able to talk with the French some day. So I told the parson he was welcome to teach you all the queer stuff he chose to, as I am sure he is."

Mistress Cory Ann Brace did not speak to Parson Kendall in that way at all, and Sally knew it. She curtseyed and bobbed and tried at first to pretend that she could not spare Sally during a morning.

But when the parson said, quietly, "Very well, then we must try some other plan," she came around as if the word "burgesses" was again sounding in her ears, and said that after all she reckoned that on Thursdays she could let the girl off for a couple of hours in the morning, and so it was settled without more ado.

Before spring again gave place to summer, the parson said to Goodwife Kendall:

"It doth astonish me, the way in which the Maid Sally Dukeen taketh her French! I have of late granted her an hour a day at the study, she so desired it. She hath verbs, accent, the speech itself to a degree that will soon enable her to speak and write it correctly. And to-day the pretty wench asked if in the fall she could drop geography and take up Greek!"

"I bethink me she must have come of a race strong of will, keen of intellect, and quick to learn. I would that we knew more of the maid."

Did Sally grieve that no Fairy Prince would come sailing home on the _Belle Virgeen_ when June would be rich with flowers and song?

Yes, and no. Down deep in her heart was a little murmur of pain. But her Fairy had cried as if in scorn:

"And what, prithee, have you to do with the comings and the goings of the Fairy Prince? If it be the will of his father that he should stick to his studies and not mix at all with the strife, and, it may be, the peril of these days, why should it cause you sorrow? Dream, if you must, of the lad that is far away, but concern not yourself with the course that is marked out for him."

And Sally was ashamed to mourn or sigh over her Dream Prince, except so far down in her heart that even her own inner Fairy could scarcely know it.

CHAPTER XIV.

HOME AGAIN

As the next fall came on, there were clouds and a coming tempest in the air. British soldiers in gay uniforms were seen about the roads, and Mistress Kent's dame school did not open as usual.

The parents of young children did not like to send them out every day, even with a servant to look after them. The blacks were easily alarmed and might not prove faithful.

The tobacco was cut and stored in sheds, but when it would be s.h.i.+pped was uncertain. And Sir Percival Grandison was anxious because the _Belle Virgeen_ did not come sailing back on time.

The Fairy Prince was nearing home at last, and a tall, shy maid in her teens was glad that he was on the way.

Sally would soon be fourteen, and it was doubtful if another so young a maiden in all Williamsburg, even the well-taught daughters of the rich planters, knew more or as much of that which comes through books, as did the young maid, Sally Dukeen.

She had learned as if by magic, and kept learning every day. And by paying attention to sc.r.a.ps of conversation that floated to her ears, and getting hold of a newspaper now and then, she knew all about the conflict or struggle that was almost on between what men had fondly called "the mother country" and the American colonies.

And now the Fairy Prince at nineteen was on his way home midst all the trouble and din. Would he fight? He was under age, but Sally had heard him speak of such manly things as "duty" and "putting down wrong and holding up the right."

One thing she felt was certain. No one could keep him out of the trouble if he felt it his duty to stay and help his country in her hour of need.

And now there was rejoicing when the _Belle Virgeen_ came slowly up to the quay after having to pick her way midst unfriendly vessels that would gladly have swooped down upon her, taking her cargo and capturing her crew, had they quite dared.

This time the vessel arrived in the night, so there were only family friends to greet and welcome the few pa.s.sengers she had borne back to their homes.

And so many were coming and going, the roads beyond Shady Path were so full, and every one so excited that Sally, now a tall, blooming maiden, could not race about as when she was younger, nor did she wish to.

More than one British soldier stationed in the town had looked sharply into the depths of her sun-bonnet when Mistress Brace sent her on an errand to the store.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "MORE THAN ONE BRITISH SOLDIER STATIONED IN THE TOWN HAD LOOKED SHARPLY INTO THE DEPTHS OF HER SUN-BONNET."]

One great joy remained to her. She studied French and Latin with Parson Kendall for a teacher. But as he thought it better that her other studies should be kept up, she recited but twice a week.

And so a month had gone by, and she had not caught so much as a glimpse of her Fairy Prince.

One afternoon, early in November, she was on her way home from the parson's, and had left the road leading to Ingleside, when Mammy Leezer's round figure appeared in the road.

"Laws, honey!" exclaimed the old Mammy, "how you does grow! Why, bress yo' heart, I haven't catched a sight o' you in an age, and here yous most a woman grown. Makes me tink ob how dat young Mars' Lion have com'd up to be a man all to onct.