“Miss Ruth is telling us a story about Prince Gray Owl, and he is just saving Princess Katrina from the dungeon. I can tell you the first of it on the way home, Ben.” Alice had jumped up from her chair and was devotedly watching her brother while he blew to start the fire until his red cheeks stood out like small balloons.
“Please go on with the story, Miss Ruth,” cried Betty, impatient at the delay.
But just then Sarah came in with the large plate piled high again with cookies. Ben put the tongs back in their place and seated himself contentedly near the cookies.
Miss Ruth spent a moment or two in looking over the girls’ sewing. Betty had already made one doll’s dress and begun another. Elsa and Alice were just finishing their first ones. When Miss Ruth seated herself again, Elsa drew her chair nearer, and every now and then, as Miss Ruth went on with the story, Elsa reached out and stroked the soft fur on the golden-brown gown.
“Princess, can you come through this opening in the wall?” asked a voice outside of the window-bars.
Trembling now with excitement, the princess took up the tapestry which had fallen around her and made it into a long roll, slender like herself.
“Try if this will go through, Gray Owl,” she said. The squirrel clung to her shoulder.
Slowly the roll of tapestry disappeared through the opening.
“Do you dare follow, Princess?” came the thrilling question.
“I dare—and I follow,” she answered.