"Oh, Sky-High," said Lucy, "mother has a treasure here—a porcelain plate of your country, see!"
Sky-High looked up to the old porcelain. He had seen such a plate a thousand times; so often, in so many places, that Mrs. Van Buren's had not drawn his eye.
"It is a mandarin plate," he explained to Lucy. "It has a magic power; it brings good luck. My people keep those plates for good fortune."
"A magic plate?" Lucy was all curiosity, now. "Tell me the story of the magic plate," she said. "Sit down and tell me. Who are the young people on the bridge? Begin."
"They are the same as the birds flying away. The birds and the young people are one."
Lucy's interest in the magic plate grew. Sky-High promised to tell her its legend at some time when her mother should be present.
Lucy went at once to her mother. "Oh, mother, we have a magic plate!"
"We have? Where?"
"It is the blue-and-white one over the sideboard."
"Oh! is that a magic plate? That was your grandmother's plate. Old families used to value that kind of ware from China—I do not know why."