Witch Winnie Part 6

Milly's face brightened; all unconsciously she was doing as great a kindness to herself as to Jim, and the pure maple sugar was a good subst.i.tute for the unwholesome concoctions of the confectioner; it satisfied her craving for sweets, and did not poison her appet.i.te.

The rest of us added our small contributions, but the aggregate only amounted to three dollars a week, and we were unable to learn of any boarding-school to which Jim could be sent at those rates.

Winnie had communicated Madame Celeste's offer to Mrs. Halsey. "It would be just the thing if I were alone," she replied, "but what would Jim do without me?"

"Perhaps you can board him somewhere," Winnie suggested; and she told of the sum which we girls had promised.

"If I knew of any respectable place where he would have good influences, I would accept your kindness, as a loan, for a little while," Mrs.

Halsey replied, "for my first earnings must go for clothes. I have friends in Connecticut; perhaps they will take Jim."

But Mrs. Halsey found that her friends had moved West. She thanked us for our interest, but said that there seemed nothing better to do than to continue as they were.

"I can't bear to tell Madame Celeste that she declines her offer," said Adelaide. "_We_ must find a place for that boy."

"I don't see how," replied Winnie; but she saw, that afternoon; it came to her all by a sudden inspiration during our botany lesson.

CHAPTER V.

LITTLE PRINCE DEL PARADISO.

[Ill.u.s.tration: {Drawing of the little Prince del Paradiso.}]

That day the botany cla.s.s found their teacher in a flutter of excitement. There was a fresh, pink glow in the faded cheeks, and an unusual sparkle in the kindly eyes. She seated herself in the episcopal chair, lifted her lorgnette, and began to arrange the specimens for the day's lesson, but her hand trembled so that she could scarcely adjust the microscope, and the papers on which her notes were written sifted through her fingers and were strewn in confusion on the floor.

"Are you ill, Miss Prillwitz?" Adelaide asked, in alarm.

"No, Miss Armstrong," replied the princess, "it is not a painful in my system, and it is not a sorry; it is a pleasant. I shall expect to myself a company, and this is to me so seldom that I find myself _egare_--what you call it?--scatter? sprinkled?--as to my understanding."

We all looked our interest, and Winnie ventured to ask--"One of your relations, Miss Prillwitz?"

"Yes," replied the little lady; "he is of my own family, though to see him I have never ze pleasure. It ees ze little Prince del Paradiso."

We girls pinched each other under the table, while Milly murmured, "A prince! How perfectly lovely!"

"Yes," replied Miss Prillwitz; "ze birthright to ziss little poy is one great, high, n.o.bilitie, _la plus haute n.o.blesse_, but he know nossing of it, nossing whateffer. He haf ze misfortune to be exported from his home when one leetle child; he haf been elevated by poor peoples to think himself also a poor. He know nossing of ze estates what belong his family, and better he not know until he make surely his t.i.tle, and he make to himself some education which shall make him suit to his position."

"How did you know about this little stolen prince?" Emma Jane asked.

"I receive message from his older bruzzer to take him to my house _provisionellement_, till his rights and his--his--what you call--his sameness?"

"You mean his ident.i.ty?"

"Yes, yes, his die ent.i.ty can be justly prove."

"It seems to me," said Witch Winnie, impulsively, "that he can't be a very kind elder brother to be so indifferent."

"My dear child, you make my admiration with what celeritude you do arrive always at exactly ze wrong conclusion. Ze prince haf made great effort to recover his little bruzzer, but he must guard himself from ze false claimants, ze impostors."

"Then the little boy who is coming to you," said Emma Jane, "may not be the real prince, after all?"

"That is a possible," Miss Prillwitz admitted, "but it is not a probable. Somesing a.s.sure me zat he s'all prove his n.o.bility."

"How very interesting," said Milly. "Was he stolen away from home by gypsies?"

"No, my child, he was not steal. He wandered himself away from his fazzer's house and was lost."

"How old is he now?"

"Twelve year."

Witch Winnie started; that was just Jim Halsey's age, and what a difference in the destiny awaiting the two boys! One the son of a king, the other of a criminal.

"Will you to see ze little chamber of ze pet.i.t prince?" asked Miss Prillwitz.

We were all overjoyed by the suggestion, and the eager little woman led us to a room just under the roof, with a dormer-window looking out upon the roof of the church.

Milly ran directly to this window, and drawing aside the curtains looked out, but started back again half frightened, for a carved gargoyle under the eaves was very near and leered at her with a malicious, demoniacal expression. He was a grotesque creature with bat wings, lolling tongue, and long claws, but harmless enough, for the doves perched on his head and preened their iridescent plumage in the sunshine. The church roof just here was a wilderness of flying b.u.t.tresses and pinnacles; the chimes were still far overhead, and rang out, as we entered the chambers, my favorite hymn--"Sun of my soul, thou Saviour dear."

I have not yet described the room itself. We all exclaimed at its quaint beauty as we entered.

It was papered with an old-fashioned vine pattern, the green foliage twined about a slender trellis, and this gave the room, which was really quite small, the effect of an arbor with s.p.a.ce beyond. There was a patch of dark green carpet with a mossy pattern before the bed, which was very simple and dressed in white. In the window recess was a dry-goods box, upholstered in a fern-patterned chintz of a restful green tint, and serving, with its cushions, both as a divan and as a chest for clothing.

There was a little corner wash-stand with a toilet set decorated with water-lilies and green lily-pads, and there was a little sliding curtain of green China silk with a shadow-pattern at the window, while through the uncurtained upper s.p.a.ce one saw, beyond the church roof, the trees of the park.

"O Miss Prillwitz!" I exclaimed, "it is just Aurora Leigh's room over again. You modeled it on Mrs. Browning's description, did you not?--

"'I had a little chamber in the house, As green as any privet-hedge a bird Might choose to build in ...

... the walls Were green, the carpet was pure green; the straight Small bed was curtained greenly, and the folds Hung green about the window, which let in A dash of dawn dew from its greenery, the honeysuckle.'"

"I haf nefer ze pleasure to know zat room," said Miss Prillwitz, her eyes kindling.

"How perfectly sweet!" exclaimed Adelaide. "It is like 'a lodge in some vast wilderness.' I didn't know that there was a place in New York so like the country."

"Will the prince study botany with us?" Milly asked, as we descended the stairs.

"I fear he is not ready for ze botany. His education haf been neglect.

But you s'all see him oftenly. I must beg you not to tell him zat he is a prince; zis must not divulge to him until ze proper time."

"And then," added Emma Jane, "it would be cruel to excite hopes which may be doomed to disappointment."

The princess smiled. "I do not fear zat," she said. "And now, young ladies, I must make you my excuse, and beg Miss Armstrong she s'all hear ze cla.s.s ze remains of ze hour; I must go to ze market for prepare ze young prince his supper."

She hurried away, and we attempted to turn our minds to our lesson.

Adelaide had just exclaimed that in botany the term _hop_ signified small, and _dog_ large, but she broke off the statement with the exclamation, "And do you see, girls, what this proves?"