Aunt Jane's Nieces
Kenneth, also came daily to the sick room for a visit, and Patsy had
a way of drawing the boy out and making him talk that was really
irresistible. After his fairy gift arrived he could not help telling
the girls all about it and then he brought the things down and
displayed them, and promised Patsy he would make a picture of the
garden for her.
Then, after the girl got better, he brought his easel down to her
room, where she could watch him work, and began upon the picture,
while the cousins joined him in speculations as to who the mysterious
donor could he.
"At first," said Kenneth, "I thought it was Mr. Watson, for he's alway
been very good to me; but he says he knows nothing about it. Then I
though it might be Uncle John; but Uncle John is too poor to afford
such an expensive present."
"I don't believe he has a penny in the world," said Louise, who sat by
with some needle-work.
"All he owns," remarked Beth, with a laugh, "is an extra necktie,
slightly damaged."
"But he's a dear old man," said Patsy, loyally, "and I'm sure he would
have given all those things to Kenneth had he been able."
"Then who was it?" asked the boy.
"Why, Aunt Jane, to be sure," declared Patsy.
The boy scowled, and shook his head.
"She wouldn't do anything to please me, even to save her life," he
growled. "She hates me, I know that well enough."
"Oh, no; I'm sure she doesn't," said Patsy. "Aunt Jane has a heap
of good in her; but you've got to dig for it, like you do for gold.
'Twould be just like her to make you this present and keep it a
secret."
"If she really did it," replied the boy, slowly, "and it seems as if
she is the only one. I know who could afford such a gift, it stands to
reason that either Uncle John or Mr. Watson asked her to, and she did
it to please them. I've lived here for years, and she has never spoken
a kindly word to me or done me a kindly act. It isn't likely she'd
begin now, is it?"
Unable to make a reassuring reply, Patsy remained silent, and the boy
went on with his work.
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There was once a king who was very powerful. He had great influence over the wild beasts and animals. Now the tortoise was looked upon as the wisest of all beasts and men. This king had a son named Ekpenyon, to whom he gave fifty young girls as wives, but the prince did not like any of them. The king was very angry at this, and made a law that if any man had a daughter who was finer than the prince's wives, and who found favour in his son's eyes, the girl herself and her father and mother should be killed.
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