The Little Colonel's Hero Part 24

A square white stone stands now under the locust where the Little Captain sounded taps at the close of that September day. On it gleams the Red Cross, in whose service all of Hero's lessons had been learned. But the daily sight of it from her bedroom window no longer brings pain to the Little Colonel. Hero is only a tender memory now, and she counts the Red Cross above him as another talisman, like the little ring and the silver scissors, to remind her that only through unselfish service to others can one reach the happiness that is highest and best.

Time flies fast under the locusts. Sometimes to Papa Jack it seems only yesterday that she clattered up and down the wide halls with her grandfather's spurs buckled to her tiny feet. But if he misses the charm of the baby voice that called to him then, or the childish mischievousness of his Little Colonel, he finds a greater one in the flower-like beauty of the tall, slender girl who stands beside the gilded harp, and sings to him softly in the candle-light. And it is Betty's song of service that is oftenest on her lips:

"My G.o.dmother bids me spin, That my heart may not be sad; Sing and spin for my brother's sake, And the spinning makes me glad."

She knows that she can never be a Joan of Arc or a Clara Barton, and her name will never be written in America's hall of fame, but with the sweet ambition in her heart to make life a little lovelier for every one she touches, she is growing up into a veritable Princess Winsome.

Often as she sings, Betty closes her book to listen, thrilled with the old feeling that always comes with the music of the harp. It is as if she were "away off from everything, and high up where it is wide and open, and where the stars are." The strange, beautiful thoughts she can find no words for still dance on ahead, like s.h.i.+ning will-'o-the-wisps, but she knows that she shall surely find words for them some day, and that many besides the Little Colonel will sing her verses and find comfort in her songs.

To both Betty and Lloyd the land of Someday and the happy land of Now lie very close together in their day-dreams, as side by side they go to school these bright October mornings, or stroll slowly homeward in the golden afternoons, under the shade of the friendly old locusts.

THE END.

Selections from L.C. Page & Company's Books for Girls

=THE BLUE BONNET SERIES=

A TEXAS BLUE BONNET BY CAROLINE E. JACOBS.

BLUE BONNET'S RANCH PARTY BY CAROLINE E. JACOBS AND EDYTH ELLERBECK READ.

BLUE BONNET IN BOSTON BY CAROLINE E. JACOBS AND LELA HORN RICHARDS.

BLUE BONNET KEEPS HOUSE BY CAROLINE E. JACOBS AND LELA HORN RICHARDS.

BLUE BONNET--DeBUTANTE BY LELA HORN RICHARDS.

BLUE BONNET OF THE SEVEN STARS BY LELA HORN RICHARDS.

BLUE BONNET'S FAMILY BY LELA HORN RICHARDS.

"Blue Bonnet has the very finest kind of wholesome, honest, lively girlishness and cannot but make friends with every one who meets her through these books about her."--_Chicago Inter-Ocean._

"Blue Bonnet and her companions are real girls, the kind that one would like to have in one's home."--_New York Sun._

THE LITTLE COLONEL BOOKS

(Trade Mark)

BY ANNIE FELLOWS JOHNSTON

THE LITTLE COLONEL STORIES

(Trade Mark)

Being three "Little Colonel" stories in the Cosy Corner Series, "The Little Colonel," "Two Little Knights of Kentucky," and "The Giant Scissors," in a single volume.

THE LITTLE COLONEL STORIES:

Second Series (Trade Mark)

Tales about characters that appear in the Little Colonel Series. "Ole Mammy's Torment," "The Three Tremonts," and "The Little Colonel in Switzerland."

THE LITTLE COLONEL'S HOUSE PARTY (Trade Mark)

THE LITTLE COLONEL'S HOLIDAYS (Trade Mark)

THE LITTLE COLONEL'S HERO (Trade Mark)

THE LITTLE COLONEL AT BOARDING SCHOOL (Trade Mark)

THE LITTLE COLONEL IN ARIZONA (Trade Mark)

THE LITTLE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS VACATION (Trade Mark)

THE LITTLE COLONEL, MAID OF HONOR (Trade Mark)

THE LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING (Trade Mark)

THE LITTLE COLONEL'S CHUM, MARY WARE (Trade Mark)

MARY WARE IN TEXAS

MARY WARE'S PROMISED LAND

THE BOYS STORY OF THE RAILROAD SERIES

BY BURTON E. STEVENSON