The Princess Idleways Part 8

CHAPTER XII.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "SHE WAS NOW ALLOWED TO SIT BESIDE KATHIE AND READ A LITTLE TO HER."]

At last Kathie was p.r.o.nounced able to leave her room. The summer had ripened into autumn, and the leaves, which had turned crisp and brown, had fallen, making the branches bare. The air was sharp and frosty.

Great logs burned in the fireplaces, delighting Laura with their cheerful blaze, and keeping her busy in the twilight finding pictures in the flames. She was now allowed to sit beside Kathie and read a little to her, a few verses, a hymn, or a Bible story. And to Laura was given the pleasant task of telling Kathie she was soon to see her father. It happened this way. Kathie had been carried out for fresh air in Nannette's arms, and was resting on cus.h.i.+ons; it was the middle of the day, and the sunlight streamed through the broad windows. Laura was roasting chestnuts, and as she drew them from the ashes she said,

"Kathie, if I were a fairy and you had a wish, what should I turn this nut into for you?--a pot of gold?"

"No, dear Laura. I do not want a pot of gold."

"But I know what you do want, and what you shall have."

"Ah, Laura, you are too good to me, and I am ashamed to say I want anything."

"But it is not _anything_, it is _somebody_, you want; and there is mamma at the window, all wrapped up in a shawl, beckoning me out to see a soldier who has just gotten down from a horse, and he looks enough like you, Kathie, to be your father." With which rather sudden announcement Laura ran out of the room, and soon came back ushering in a tall man with bronzed cheeks and heavy mustache and a kind eye like Kathie's; and Kathie was next in his arms, and her face hidden on his breast.

Not many days after, with grateful words and kindest thanks, the soldier and his little girl went to their home in the woods. The forester had received his discharge from the army through Laura's papa.

Laura often went to visit Kathie in her own home, which Lady Idleways had made bright and sweet; and Kathie could never do enough for Laura to prove her grat.i.tude. Stockings of softest and whitest wool knit by Kathie, with delicious cheeses and cakes she had made, were sent to the castle. The forester carved beautiful toys and footstools and picture-frames and crosses for the kind friends of his little girl.

As a parting gift Laura had bestowed upon Kathie the young bear she had befriended in the woods, and which, chained in the stable-yard, had grown large and fat and tame. Laura had found it a rather awkward pet, less tractable to her teachings than she had supposed it would be; but the forester promised that the animal should have the best of care, and be taught all that a tame bear ought to know.

So many people settled in the villages near, and so many houses and factories were to be found after a while, that the good fairy and Grim had to take their departure. The elves, too, disappeared, leaving behind them only their garden beds of bitter herbs.

Laura, however, lost none of the good lessons the fairy had taught her, and was never happier than when doing some kind act for those who had less to make them comfortable and thankful than had the Princess Idleways.

THE END.