Then, there was Jeanie MacFarland, a brown-eyed Scotch lass whose father, she said proudly, was on the Edinburgh committee to buy a gift for the king. And Maureen O’Grady, Irish as her name, headed first for home and then for London. Her mother was helping to make the lace for the Queen’s train.
Oh, they all had stories, these girls. One had lived once in far away India, in Bombay. Another, in the British colony in Shanghai. The father of one was a caretaker at the King’s favorite castle and the brother of another, a lieutenant in His Majesty’s Fleet stationed at Gibraltar.
They were coming from all corners of the world, Nan found, to be in England in May, to see the King and Queen parade in a golden coach from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Cathedral, to attend the balls and the garden parties and the Colonial fairs, to see the King review the British fleet at Spithead and hear the crowds cheer the pretty little princess at her party for the English school children. Everyone, young and old, Hetty’s grandmother said, was to have a part in the joyous week.
School children throughout the Empire were to have seven days of vacation. “Boy Scouts from Australia and India and British South Africa are even now,” she told Nan, “coming on boats to act as a special guard for the little prince. Others, in England and Scotland have charge of the tremendously big bonfires that will be lighted on each hilltop the night after the king and queen are crowned. These beacon fires will proclaim to everyone that a new King and Queen have come to the throne. And, with the lighting of the fires, the people all over the British Empire will sing ‘God Save the King.’”
“Yes, and the Girl Scouts,” Hetty went on, “are having a big party in the gardens of Buckingham Palace. The little princess will be there and the Queen too. A thousand poor children have been invited and the princess has a gift for each one. They have a gift for the princess too, and one for the Queen. Oh, I can hardly wait until the big day arrives.”
“And,” Jeanie contributed, “All over Scotland, the wee lassies and laddies have each given a tuppence piece to their school teachers. When the King and Queen come to Edinburgh after the golden crowns have been put on their heads, all this money will be put in a golden bag and presented to the Queen. Her Majesty will use it to help the children whose fathers were killed in the wars. An orphan from one of Her Majesty’s orphanages will present it at a banquet which the Lord Mayor will give.”
“Will you be there?” Nan was wide-eyed,
“If I only could.” Jeanie’s voice was full of longing.
“If we only could,” Hetty echoed the statement and included everybody.
“But it’s not for the likes of us,” Maureen shook her head as everyone fell silent. “It’s for the great ladies, they who live up in the castles on the hills and in the palaces in the cities. They were born to such things. No, it’s not for the likes of us,” she repeated.