Clair. "But I"ll find your Evelyn. I"ll go for a horse. I"ll take this child back. Don"t cry, little girl. I won"t rest till I find your Evelyn;" and he rushed from the house, almost knocking down several children in the pa.s.sageway--the Stimpcett children; for Obadiah, Debby, and little Cordelia had been awakened by the noise, and had come down in their night-gowns.
But the lost Evelyn was near, and coming nearer every moment. You will remember that Maggie"s mother, Mrs. Brien, was to send for Maggie to come and visit her. The man whom she sent went back and told her that he could not find Maggie, and that her grandmother was afraid she had been stolen from the station. Mrs. Brien hired a horse and wagon, and drove to the station, and inquired of the station-master. A stable-boy who stood near told her he saw a little girl who looked like Maggie riding off in a buggy with a man, and that the man hired the buggy to go to Gilead.
"The wretch!" cried Mrs. Brien; "to be stealing away my child! I will keep on to Gilead. I will follow him up."
"I wish you would let this little girl ride with you to Gilead," said the station-master. "She has been waiting a long time for some one to call and take her to Mr. Stimpcett"s, and Mr. Stimpcett will help you find your Maggie." He then brought out a slender, flaxen-haired little girl, and placed her in Mrs. Brien"s wagon. This child was Evelyn Odell, and Mrs. Brien took her to Gilead.
It happened that they reached Mr. Stimpcett"s just as Moses was driving into the yard with his father"s horse and cart, and they three, Mrs.
Brien, Moses, and Evelyn, went into the house together.
Scarcely had they entered before Mr. Stimpcett, and then Mr. St. Clair, arrived in haste, each with a horse and wagon. Mr. Stimpcett rushed in to get his wife, and Mr. St. Clair to get Maggie. There they found Mrs.
Stimpcett with her arms around Moses, Mrs. Odell with hers around Evelyn, and Mrs. Brien with hers around Maggie; and there were huggings and kissings and laughings and cryings, and it was, "Oh, you dear!" and, "Oh, you darling!" and "Oh, my child!" and, oh other things! Grandma held the Sudden Remedy bottle, looking at Moses"s legs as if not quite sure yet that they did not need some of it rubbed on, while Obadiah, and Deborah, and little Cordelia stood staring and sniffling and smiling, now and then wiping their eyes with their night-gown sleeves.
"Will n.o.body hug me?" cried Mr. Stimpcett. Upon this little Cordelia climbed into his arms, and they two hugged each other.
Mr. St. Clair told his part of the story, Moses his part, and Mrs. Brien her part.
"After all," said Mr. Stimpcett, "Mr. St. Clair did not bring back the meal!"
THE FAIRY PAINTERS.
The Fairy Queen had built herself a palace of gold and crystal. The rooms were hung with tapestry of rose leaves, and the floors were carpeted with moss. The great hall was the grandest part of all. The ceiling was made of mother-of-pearl, and the walls of ivory, and the lights which hung from the roof sparkled with diamonds. These ivory walls were to be covered with paintings; so the Queen called the fairy artists, and bade them all paint a picture for her by a certain day. "He whose picture is best," she said, "shall paint my hall, to his everlasting renown, and I will raise him, besides, to the highest fairy honors." The youngest of the fairy painters was Tintabel. He could draw a face so exquisite, that it was happiness only to gaze at it, or so sad that no one could see it without tears. No fairy longed as he did for the glory and renown of painting the Queen"s palace.
He wandered out into the wood to dream his idea into loveliness before he wrought it with his hand. "Never shall be picture like my picture,"
he said aloud; "I will steal the colors of heaven, and trace spirit forms." But Orgolino, that wicked fairy, heard him. Now Orgolino painted very grandly. He could draw wild and strong and terrible beings, which thrilled the gazer with wonder and awe. Of all his rivals he feared Tintabel only. So, when he saw him alone in the wood, he rejoiced wickedly, and said, "Now I will rid myself of a foe;" and he flew down upon the poor Tintabel, and being a more powerful fairy, he caught him, and pinned his wings together with magic thorns, and fastened him down with them among the fungus and toad-stools of the damp wood. Then he flew away exulting, and painted day and night. It was a magnificent picture, with stately figures, powerful and triumphant, and Orgolino"s heart swelled with pride at his work, and he said to himself, "I might have left that poor wretch alone. The weakling could do nothing like this."
Meanwhile Tintabel cried bitterly, because his hope was lost, his praise would never be heard among the fairies, and the beauty he had hoped to create he should never see. The elf that lived in the toad-stool looked up as the tears fell upon him, and gathered them up from his fungous coat, where they sparkled like dew.
"What sweet water!" he said.
"Alas!" sighed Tintabel--"alas for my vanished hopes! Oh! how lovely should my picture have been, and now I am bound down here to uselessness;" and he could not feel the pain of his bruised and bound wings because of the pain at his heart. The elf in the toad-stool looked up and said,
"Fairy, paint me a picture, here on the smooth surface of the toad-stool, for I have never seen one."
Tintabel stopped his wailing to think how wretched was the elf who had never seen a picture.
"Ah! elf," he said, "I have neither pencil nor colors. How can I paint?"
But the elf pointed to one of the thorns which fastened Tintabel"s wings. The end was long, so that the fairy could reach it.
"There is a pencil," said the elf; and the artist"s longing came upon the fairy, and he seized the thorn. Poor hurt wings! how they quivered and pained as the point of their fastenings pressed hither and thither over the surface of the toad-stool, and crushed and dragged and rent them in its course! But the thorn had a magic in it, and Tintabel found it possessed more than fairy power. The sharper his pain, the more perfect the stroke he could make. As the delicate film of the wing was torn, the rainbow tints dropped off, and gave him lovelier colors than the hues of heaven; and the elf held up his tears as water for the painting. He painted his remembrance of fairy-land and his weariness of earth.
When the appointed day came, the Fairy Queen called her painters together. The great hall was filled with them, but of all the pictures none was so great as Orgolino"s. He had painted "The Triumph of Strength." Then said the Queen, "Where is Tintabel?" and no one knew.
"He has not cared to obey your Majesty"s command," said Orgolino.
But the Queen looked at him steadily, and said, "Tintabel must be found."
Then all the fairies went in search of him. Soon one returned and said, "Tintabel is bound in the wood among the fungus and toad-stools, and before him is a picture more beautiful than any fairy ever saw."
"Come," said the Queen; and her subjects followed her to the wood.
There, on the white toad-stool"s top, was a tiny picture, lovelier and grander at once than any fancy could dream, and it showed "The Triumph of Pain."
Then Orgolino was turned out into the wood among the cold and creeping things, and Tintabel was taken to great honor.
A WIDE-AWAKE RUSSIAN SENTRY.
BY DAVID KER.
Eighty or ninety years ago, when the Russians had a good many wars upon their hands, their best general was Marshal Alexander Suvoroff, whose name is still famous in Russia. Any old soldier you meet there will tell you plenty of stories about him, and strange enough stories too, for he was a very curious kind of man. In the coldest weather, when even the hardiest soldiers were wrapping themselves up, he would go about in his shirt sleeves just as if it were summer; and very often he would be up before any one else in the camp was astir, and startle the first officer whom he saw coming out of his tent by crowing like a rooster as loud as he could, just as if to say, "You ought to have been out before." Then, too, Count and General though he was, dining with the Empress herself almost every week, and going about the palace as he pleased, he dressed as plainly as any peasant, and slept on straw like a common soldier.
Once or twice the palace servants, seeing this untidy little fellow coming up to the grand entrance, took him for a tramp, and wanted to drive him away; but they soon found out that _that_ would not do.
Another of his queer ways was to try and puzzle any one he met by asking him all sorts of strange questions, such as how many stars there were in the sky, how many drops of water in the sea, and so forth. He _did_ puzzle a good many people in this way, but once or twice he got an answer quite as smart as his questions, and that was just what he liked.
One day a soldier came to him with a dispatch, and Suvoroff, seeing that he was quite a young, simple-looking fellow, thought it would be good fun to try his hand upon _him_.
"How many fish are there in the sea?" he asked.
"Just exactly as many as haven"t been caught yet," answered the lad at once.
The General was rather taken aback, but he went on, nevertheless:
"If you were in a besieged town, without food, how would you supply yourself?"
"From the enemy."
"How far is it from here to the moon?"
"Two of your Excellency"s forced marches."
Suvoroff smiled and looked pleased, for he was very proud of being able to move his men so quickly, and had won many a victory by it.
"Which of your officers do you like best?" was the next question.
"Captain Masloff."
Now this Captain Masloff happened to be a very handsome young fellow, while Suvoroff himself was frightfully ugly, so he thought he would catch the soldier in a trap by asking him, "What"s the difference between your captain and myself?"
"Why," said the soldier, looking slyly at him, "my captain can"t make me a corporal, but your Excellency has only to say the word."