“We have seen more than that, Miss Deland,” said Beth solemnly and impressively. “We have seen and know a prince, _the_ prince! Do you think he ever will be king?” “It isn’t likely,” smiled Miss Deland. “There are three brothers older than he, but of course there’s no saying!” “Well, he’s the king’s son anyway,” declared Beth. “He’s a real king’s son, and he talked about making believe and things just like--anybody!” “There you are! He is like anybody!” cried republican and unromantic Dirk. “He’s a trump, something like Bob Leonard; not a bit nifty; he’s all right.” CHAPTER XVII THE RIDE DOWN THE QUIET ROAD “How do you keep Easter at home, Beth? I mean how _did_ you keep Easter in your old home, Beth? We intend this to be home to you now and henceforth, you know.” Mrs. Cortlandt smiled at Beth over a book which she held, but which, plainly, did not engage her attention. “Keep Easter?” echoed Beth searching her memory for the right answer. “Why, I don’t know. We----Sometimes the daffodils are out, sometimes they’re not. Janie and I color eggs; just a few. Aunt Rebecca never likes me to use many. She thinks the colors and pictures hurt the eggs for eating, but they really don’t. When Easter comes in April hens are apt to be setting, so eggs are rather scarce. But coloring them doesn’t do a bit of harm, if only Aunt Rebecca thought so. She says it takes away her appetite to see red rabbits, and rabbits in coats, and blue stripes, and pink flowers, on her breakfast egg. I asked her to scramble it, or poach it, so she wouldn’t see the decorations. She thought I was saucy, but I didn’t once think of being. You can get lovely designs and colors in a package, eight colors and a hundred pictures for five cents, and you can make shaded colors and change around a lot with the eight sheets. I’d like to fix eggs for everybody, but it’s no use!” Beth shook her head over the unreasonableness of Aunt Rebecca. “Janie and I do them for each other, though, and we fix up a strawberry basket nest with tissue papers and leave it on each other’s back porch. A German girl showed us about it; the Easter rabbit lays the eggs there, you see! It’s quite nice. We don’t do anything else special, unless it is to wear our straw hat for the first time, and open our collection boxes in Sunday-school. Oh, yes! We all get a growing geranium slip, or some plant in Sunday-school that day.” “Well, that doesn’t sound exciting!” laughed Alys.