Laddie. Stratton-Porter Gene

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Laddie - Stratton-Porter Gene


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       Gene Stratton-Porter

      Laddie

      A True Blue Story

      Published by Good Press, 2021

       [email protected]

      EAN 4057664653659

       CHAPTER I

       Little Sister

       CHAPTER II

       Our Angel Boy

       CHAPTER III

       Mr. Pryor's Door

       CHAPTER IV

       The Last Day in Eden

       CHAPTER V

       The First Day of School

       CHAPTER VI

       The Wedding Gown

       CHAPTER VII

       When Sally Married Peter

       CHAPTER VIII

       The Shropshire and the Crusader

       CHAPTER IX

       "Even So"

       CHAPTER X

       Laddie Takes the Plunge

       CHAPTER XI

       Keeping Christmas Our Way

       CHAPTER XII

       The Horn of the Hunter

       CHAPTER XIII

       The Garden of the Lord

       CHAPTER XIV

       The Crest of Eastbrooke

       CHAPTER XV

       Laddie, the Princess, and the Pie

       CHAPTER XVI

       The Homing Pigeon

       CHAPTER XVII

       In Faith Believing

       CHAPTER XVIII

       The Pryor Mystery

      Little Sister

       Table of Contents

      "And could another child-world be my share,

       I'd be a Little Sister there."

      "Have I got a Little Sister anywhere in this house?" inquired Laddie at the door, in his most coaxing voice.

      "Yes sir," I answered, dropping the trousers I was making for Hezekiah, my pet bluejay, and running as fast as I could. There was no telling what minute May might take it into her head that she was a little sister and reach him first. Maybe he wanted me to do something for him, and I loved to wait on Laddie.

      "Ask mother if you may go with me a while."

      "Mother doesn't care where I am, if I come when the supper bell rings."

      "All right!" said Laddie.

      He led the way around the house, sat on the front step and took me between his knees.

      "Oh, is it going to be a secret?" I cried.

      Secrets with Laddie were the greatest joy in life. He was so big and so handsome. He was so much nicer than any one else in our family, or among our friends, that to share his secrets, run his errands, and love him blindly was the greatest happiness. Sometimes I disobeyed father and mother; I minded Laddie like his right hand.

      "The biggest secret yet," he said gravely.

      "Tell quick!" I begged, holding my ear to his lips.

      "Not so fast!" said Laddie. "Not so fast! I have doubts about this. I don't know that I should send you. Possibly you can't find the way. You may be afraid. Above all, there is never to be a whisper. Not to any one! Do you understand?"

      "What's the matter?" I asked.

      "Something serious," said Laddie. "You see, I expected to have an hour or two for myself this afternoon, so I made an engagement to spend the time with a Fairy Princess in our Big Woods. Father and I broke the reaper taking it from the shed just now and you know how he is about Fairies."

      I did know how he was about Fairies. He hadn't a particle of patience with them. A Princess would be the Queen's daughter. My father's people were English, and I had heard enough talk to understand that. I was almost wild with excitement.

      "Tell me the secret, hurry!" I cried.

      "It's just this," he said. "It took me a long time to coax the Princess into our Big Woods. I had to fix a throne for her to sit on; spread a Magic Carpet for her feet, and build a wall to screen her. Now, what is she going to think if I'm not there to welcome her when she comes? She promised to show me how to make sunshine on dark days."

      "Tell father and he can have Leon help him."

      "But it is a secret with the Princess, and it's HERS as much as mine. If I tell, she may not like it, and then she won't make me her Prince and send me on her errands."

      "Then you don't dare tell a breath," I said.

      "Will you go in my place, and carry her a letter to explain why I'm not coming, Little Sister?"

      "Of course!" I said stoutly, and then my heart turned right over; for I never had been in our Big Woods alone, and neither mother nor father wanted me to go. Passing Gypsies sometimes laid down the fence and went there to camp. Father thought all the wolves and wildcats were gone, he hadn't seen any in years, but every once in a while some one said they had, and he was not quite sure yet. And that wasn't the beginning of it. Paddy Ryan had come back from the war wrong in his head. He wore his old army overcoat summer and winter, slept on the ground, and ate whatever he could find.


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