"And they didn"t say a word about my jumping out of the window," thought she, with deep satisfaction. "Wait till I grow up, just wait till I grow up, and as true as I live I"ll be something and do something in this world!"
She did not say this aloud, you may be sure; but there was a look on her face of high resolve.
Uncle James had often said to Aunt Vi:--
"Our Katharine is very much in earnest. I know you agree with me that "little Prudy"s" eldest daughter is a golden girl!"
The "play-school" closed a few days later, and it was Henry Small who received the medal for good spelling. He wasn"t so much of a cry-baby nowadays and the boys had stopped calling him "Chicken Little."
The Dunlee party went home the last week in August, declaring they had had delightful times at Castle Cliff.
"Only I never went down that mine in a bucket," said Lucy. "How could I when the men were blowing up rocks just like an earthquake?"
"And I wanted to wait till they found that vein," said Jimmy.
A few days before they left, Uncle James went hunting and shot a deer. I wish there were s.p.a.ce to tell of the barbecue to which all the neighbors were invited a little later.
As it is, my young readers are not likely to hear any more of the adventures of the "bonnie Dunlees," either at home or abroad.
But during their stay in the mountains that summer Lucy begged Aunt Vi to write some stories, with the little friends, Bab and Lucy, for the heroines.
"Some "once-upon-a-time stories," Auntie Vi. Make believe we two girls go all about among the fairies, just as Alice did in Wonderland; only there are two of us together, and we shall have a better time!"
"Oh, fie! How could I take real live little girls into the kingdom of the elves and gnomes and pixies? I shouldn"t know how!"
But she was so obliging as to try. The week before they left for home she had completed a book of "once-upon-a-time stories," which she read aloud to all the children as they cl.u.s.tered around her in the "air-castle." She called it "Lucy in Fairyland," though she meant Bab just as much as Lucy. If the little public would like to see this book it may be offered them by and by; together with the comments which were made upon each story by the whole Dunlee family,--Jimmy, wee Lucy, and all.
[Ill.u.s.tration: LITTLE PRUDY SERIES Specimen ill.u.s.tration from "Sister Susie"]
[Ill.u.s.tration: LITTLE PRUDY SERIES Specimen ill.u.s.tration from "Dotty Dimple"]
[Ill.u.s.tration: LITTLE PRUDY SERIES Specimen ill.u.s.tration from "Cousin Grace"]
[Ill.u.s.tration: LITTLE PRUDY"S CHILDREN SERIES Specimen ill.u.s.tration from "Wee Lucy"s Secret"]