For His Country, and Grandmother and the Crow

by Marshall Saunders

The titled lady put an end to the painful scene. "I have changed my mind," she said, coolly. "I have too many cushions now."

The boy turned swiftly to her, and, lifting the white hand hanging by her side, gently touched it with his lips.

"Madame la Princesse, you, too, love your country!"

"'YOU, TOO, LOVE YOUR COUNTRY!'"

His exclamation was so enthusiastic, so heartfelt, there was in it such a world of commiseration for the titled lady before him, that there immediately flashed before each one present the unhappy life of the poor princess in exile. The boy had started a wave of sympathy flowing from one to another of the group, and in some confusion they all moved away.

Gerald wiped the perspiration from his forehead, and went on with the programme of patriotic selections that the impatient children were obliged to go through before they could have the cakes and fireworks.

After the fizzing and bursting noises were over, I said, regretfully, "Gerald, I must go to Paris to-morrow."

"I have been expecting this," he said, with dogged resignation. "When you are gone, Miss Canada, I shall have no one to talk to me about America."