Fairy Prince and Other StoriesAbbott, Eleanor Hallowell
General
Fairy Prince and Other Stories
Abbott, Eleanor Hallowell
Children -- Fiction; Families -- Fiction; Villages -- Fiction
He opened his hands. There were some little teeny-tiny pieces of plain
glass in his hands. Little round knobs like beads they were. Very
shining. They made a nice jingle.
When Annie Halliway saw them she screamed! And snatched them in her
hand! And threw them away just as far as she could! All over the grass
she threw them!
"I will not!" she screamed. "_I will not! I will not!_" Her tears were
awful.
When she got through screaming her face looked like a wet cloth that had
everything else wrung out of it except shadows.
"Where--is--Harry?" said Old Man Smith. He said it very slowly. And then
all over again. "Where--is--Harry?--You wouldn't have dar'st not tell
him if you'd known."
Annie Halliway started to pick up some blue glass again. Then she
stopped and looked all around her. It was a jerky stop. Her jaw sort of
dropped.
"Harry--is--in--prison!" she said. Even though she'd said it herself she
seemed to be awfully surprised at the news. She shook and shook her head
as though she was trying to wake up the idea that was asleep. Her eyes
were all scrunched up now with trying to remember about it. She dragged
the back of her hands across her forehead. First one hand and then the
other. She opened her eyes very wide again and looked at Old Man Smith.
"Where--is--Harry?" said Old Man Smith.
Annie Halliway never took her eyes from Old Man Smith's face.
"It--It was the night we crossed the border from France to Spain," she
said. Her voice sounded very funny and far away. It sounded like
reciting a lesson too. "There were seven of us and a teacher
from the Paris art school," she recited. "It--It was the March
holiday.----There--There--was a woman----a strange woman in the next
compartment who made friends with me.--She seemed to be crazy over my
hair.--She asked if she might braid it for the night."
Without any tears at all Annie Halliway began to sob again.
"When they waked us up at the Customs," she sobbed, "Harry came running!
His face was awful! 'She's braided diamonds in your hair!' he cried. 'I
heard her talking with her accomplice! A hundred thousand dollars' worth
of diamonds! Smugglers and murderers both they are!--Everybody will be
searched!'--He tore at my braids! I tore at my braids! The diamonds
rattled out! Harry tried to catch them!--He pushed me back into the
train! I saw soldiers running!--I thought they were going to shoot him!
He thought they were going to shoot him!--I saw his eyes!--He looked
so--so surprised!--I'd never noticed before how blue his eyes were!--I
tell you I saw his eyes!--I couldn't speak!--There wasn't anybody to
explain just why he had his hands full of diamonds!--I _saw_ his eyes! I
tell you I couldn't speak!--I tell you I _never_ spoke!--My tongue went
dead in my mouth! For months I never spoke!--I've only just begun to
speak again!--I've only just----"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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