There was a pause on the part of the postman.
“Jimmy, Jimmy Prynne, choose me, Jimmy,” and Ruby Dark stood up in her excitement.
Jimmy hesitated.
Miss Lavinia, the doorkeeper, bent down, and in a very gentle whisper, said: “Choose Ruby, Jimmy.” And Ruby, shining eyes and chin uplifted passed out into the dim light of the narrow passage, and there fifteen kisses, each one carefully counted by the bearer of the letter, were solemnly exchanged.
Every one had a letter. Miss Lavinia saw that nobody was forgotten. She was childishly glad when Tommy chose her and the letter bore one hundred stamps; although, as she explained when they were together in the passage, there really was not time for all the hundred then, they must be content with two and the rest could be delivered some other day.
After this Mr. and Mrs. Brown, and the little dog, and the cushions, and the whip, and the reins and all the other parts of the Old Family Coach grew dizzier and dizzier with the restless whirling and turning resulting from the many adventures and accidents that befell the coach on its perilous summer morning’s journey.
Christmas parties come all too quickly to an end. It was nearly time to go home, but first of all would Miss Lavinia tell them a story? So the lamp was turned out, and in the firelight Miss Lavinia began.
“Once upon a time” (every child looked straight into Miss Lavinia’s eyes). “Once upon a time, in the heart of a deep, green wood, a very beautiful princess lived all alone. She had no father and no mother, but all the creatures that flew, or crawled, or ran were her friends.
“It was always summer in the wood. So the princess wore beautiful garments made of silken gossamer, and the spiders wove a new robe for her every morning, just when the sun was up. When the new gossamer robe was ready the birds flew to the boughs of the beech tree under which the princess slept, and sang sweet songs until the princess sat up and rubbed her eyes, and said: ‘Why, it is day!’
“Then the birds flew away to look after their own families, and the squirrels brought nuts and cracked them, and laid them at the feet of the beautiful princess.