Families -- Fiction; Girls -- Conduct of life -- Fiction; Young women -- Conduct of life -- Fiction
"She won't come down unless she wants to," Charlie grumbled.
Sally was recovering, in a measure, from her fit of chuckling. She
leaned far forward, below the screen of leaves.
"Oh, yes, I will," she called, in a low, clear voice. "Besides, I want
to. Charlie was mistaken about the saw-horse. He meant saurus. And I
was a flying lizard and this was a coal tree. From the top of the tree
you can't see anything but treetops and swamps. It's millions of years
ago, you know. And father's got the skeleton of this very lizard up in
his room, and he said that it used to fly right up in the topmost
branches of the coal trees and he told me about the sauruses that used
to be." She had dropped to the ground. "Oh, it's very interesting."
"It must be," the young man smilingly replied; "and I should suppose
that it must be rather interesting for your father to have such a
pupil."
"It isn't," Sally returned. "That is--father only told me those things
the other day."
The young man laughed. "I guess you must be Professor Ladue's little
girl."
"Yes," said Sally, "we are. That is, I am, and this is my brother
Charlie."
"The only and original saw-horse. You, I suppose, were a--we'll call
it a gynesaurus--"
Sally clapped her hands and gave a little laugh of delight.
"And this," he continued, laying his hand affectionately upon the
small head beside him, "is my small sister, Henrietta Sanderson, who
would be happy to be any kind of a beast that you tell her about. She
is ten years old and she dotes on being strange beasts."
"Oh," cried Sally, "and I'm ten years old, too. Would Henrietta like
to come over the wall now? There's a gate farther along."
"Henrietta despises gates. But does your invitation include her
brother? I'm Fox Sanderson and I was on my way to see your father."
"Father isn't at home to-day," said Sally; "and, if you could come
over, too--"
At that, Fox Sanderson put his hands on the top of the wall and
vaulted lightly over. He turned to help Henrietta.
"Now," he said, when she was safely on the right side, "here we all
are. What'll we do?"
Henrietta had her brother's hand. "Fox tells lovely stories," she
remarked.
"Does he?" asked Sally. "What about?"
"About any kind of a thing that you ask him," answered Henrietta.
"About sauruses?" Sally asked eagerly, turning to him.
"All right," he agreed, smiling; "about sauruses. But I'm afraid it's
just a little too cold for you youngsters to sit still and listen to
stories. I'll have to keep you moving a bit."
Sally told her mother about it that night. She thought that she never
had had such a good time in all her life. Fox Sanderson! Well, he told
the most wonderful stories that ever were.
"And, mother," said Sally, all interest, "he had me be a gynesaurus
and Henrietta was a---- But what are you laughing at?"
For Mrs. Ladue had burst out laughing. "My dear little girl!" she
cried softly. "My dear little girl! A gynesaurus! This Fox Sanderson
must be interesting, indeed."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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