Mammy should not have told family matters, and Sally should not have listened, but both were innocent as to some things, and no harm was done.
Sally kept on to the pine grove, going over in her mind what she had heard. But she thought most of what Mammy had asked about herself, and what she had said about her father. She repeated in her own way of speaking:
"How do you know what you were born to? You don't belong to Slipside Row. I've heard of your father. If he had lived you would be getting learning all this time. You ought to be getting it now."
Then Sally listened, hoping her good Fairy would have something to say, and at once it began to speak.
"You feel in your heart that what Mammy said may be true. It may be because your father was a gentleman and your mother a lady that you begin to want to study and to learn as they would have wished you to. Look around. Do not give up. Be determined to see a way to lift yourself. You can find the way!"
Sally stood still. "I will help myself," she said, stoutly. "I will! I will!"
"Oh! oh! oh!" she cried, softly, "that is the same thing my Fairy Prince said, 'I will'!"
She whispered, with her small brown hand before her mouth:
"And we were both talking about getting learning!"