Every one began talking again,and wondering if the minister wouldn't come soon,and some one went out to see.There was mother standing only a few feet from the Princess,and I thought of something.I had seen it done often enough,but I never had tried it myself,yet I wanted to so badly,there was no time to think how scared I would be.I took mother's hand and led her a few steps farther and said:"Mother,this is my friend,Pamela Pryor."I believe I did it fairly well.Mother must have been surprised,but she put out her hand.
"I didn't know Miss Pryor and you were acquainted.""It's only been a little while,"I told her."I met her when Iwas on some business with the Fairies.They know everything and they told me her father was busy"--I thought she wouldn't want me to tell that he was plain CROSS,where every one could hear,so I said "busy"for politeness--"and her mother not very strong,and that she was a good girl,and dreadfully lonesome.Can't you do something,mother?""Well,I should think so!"said mother,for her heart was soft as rose leaves.Maybe you won't believe this,but it's quite true.
My mother took the Princess'arm and led her to Sally and Shelley,and introduced her to all the girls.By the time the minister came and mother went back to her seat,she had forgotten all about the "indisposed"word she disliked,and as you live!
she invited the Princess to go home with us to dinner.She stood tall and straight,her eyes very bright,and her cheeks a little redder than usual,as she shook hands and said a few pleasant words that were like from a book,they fitted and were so right.
When mother asked her to dinner she said:"Thank you kindly.I should be glad to go,but my people expect me at home and they would be uneasy.Perhaps you would allow me to ride over some week day and become acquainted?"Mother said she would be happy to have her,and Shelley said so too,but Sally was none too cordial.She had dark curls and pink cheeks herself,and every one had said she was the prettiest girl in the county before Shelley began to blossom out and show what she was going to be.Sally never minded that,but when the Princess came she was a little taller,and her hair was a trifle longer,and heavier,and blacker,and her eyes were a little larger and darker,and where Sally had pink skin and red lips,the Princess was dark as olive,and her lips and cheeks were like red velvet.Anyway,the Princess had said she would come over;mother and Shelley had been decent to her,and Sally hadn't been exactly insulting.It would be a little more than you could expect for her to be wild about the Princess.I believe she was pleased over having been invited to dinner,and as she was a stranger she couldn't know that mother had what we called the "invitation habit."I have seen her ask from fifteen to twenty in one trip down the aisle on Sunday morning.She wanted them to come too;the more who came,the better she liked it.If the hitching rack and barnyard were full on Sunday she just beamed.If the sermon pleased her,she invited more.That morning she was feeling so good she asked seventeen;and as she only had dressed six chickens--third table,backs and ham,for me as usual;but when the prospects were as now,I always managed to coax a few gizzards from Candace;she didn't dare give me livers--they were counted.Almost everyone in the church was the happiest that morning they had been in years.When the preacher came,he breathed it from the air,and it worked on him so he preached the best sermon he ever had,and never knew that Leon made him do it.
Maybe after all it's a good thing to tell people about their meanness and give them a stirring up once in a while.
