Fairy Prince and Other StoriesAbbott, Eleanor Hallowell
General
Fairy Prince and Other Stories
Abbott, Eleanor Hallowell
Children -- Fiction; Families -- Fiction; Villages -- Fiction
"What is it?" said my Mother. It sounded pretty mumbly through my
Father's shoulder.
"Oh this one is very important," I said. "It's about _colors_."
"Colors?" said my Father. He didn't seem to care nearly as much as you'd
have thought he would.
"C--Colors," mumbled my Mother.
"Somewhere in a book," I explained, "we read about a man who wanted his
memory 'kept green?'--Why _green?_ Why not pink?--Why not blue?--Or
even red with a cunning little white line in it?"
"_Eh?_" said my Father.
"If you were going away," I explained.
My Mother's hands clutched at his coat. She gave a queer little shiver.
"Oh not--'away'!" she protested.
"For ever and ever," I explained.
My Mother's face came peering out from the shadow of my Father's
shoulder. She started to laugh. And made a little sob instead. "Oh not
for----ever----and _ever_?" she said.
We all sat and looked at each other. I felt awful queer in my stomach.
Carol kicked me in the shins. He wrote something quick on a piece of
paper and shoved it across the table at me.
"_China_ was the place that Carol meant!" I explained. "Oh he didn't
mean--at all--what you thought he meant!--If you were going away to--to
_China_--for ever and ever--and ever--and gave your Best Friend a whole
lot of money like twenty-five dollars to remember you by--what color do
you _hope_ he'd keep your memory?"
"Oh--yes--why of course!" said my Father quite quickly. "It's a jolly
one after all, isn't it!--Color--Color?--Let me see!--For twenty-five
dollars you say? Yes Yes!--The very thing! _Yellow_ of course! I hope my
Best Friend would have wit enough to buy a _Lamp_!--Nothing fancy you
know but something absolutely reliable.--Daytimes to be sure your memory
wouldn't be much use to him. But nights--the time everybody needs
everybody the most,--Nights I say,--looking back from--from _China_, was
it that you designated?--Nights it would be rather pleasant I think to
feel that one lived on and on--as a yellow glow in his friend's life."
My Father reached out and pinched my ear.
"How about it, Ruthy?" he asked.
"Oh that's all right," I admitted. "But if _I_ gave my Best Friend
twenty-five dollars to remember me by--I hope he'd buy a Blueberry
Bush!--Just _think_ of all the colors it would keep your memory!--White
in blossom-time! And blue in fruit-season! And red as blood all the
Autumn! With brown rabbits hopping through you!--And speckled birds
laying--goodness knows _what_ colored eggs! And--"
Somebody banged the front door. Somebody scuffled on the threshold.
Somebody shouted "Hello--Hello--Hello--!" It was the Old Doctor.
We ran to see if he had peppermints in his pocket.
He had!
After the Old Doctor had given us all the peppermints he thought we
ought to have--and seven more besides, he sat down in the big cretonne
chair by the window, and fanned his neck with a newspaper. He seemed to
be pretty mad at the people who had made his collars.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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