(To be continued.)
THE SHEPHERD’S FAIRY.
A PASTORALE.
By DARLEY DALE, Author of “Fair Katherine,” etc.
CHAPTER XVIII.
ne evening, in the middle of August, John and Charlie got home before Mr. de Courcy had left. The epidemic among the sheep was nearly over now, and consequently they were not detained so late as they had been for the last month. Both the shepherd and his son were astonished to see this grand French gentleman seated on a little wooden stool at Fairy’s feet, quite at home, and apparently on intimate terms with her and Mrs. Shelley, for they were all three laughing merrily at Mrs. Shelley’s attempts at French when the shepherds arrived.
“Why, here is John! This is my friend, Mr. de Courcy—Mr. de Courcy, this is John, and this is my foster-brother,” said Fairy, inwardly feeling very much ashamed of the latter, who, to her annoyance, only pulled his forelock, and was too shy to say a word.
Rex jumped up, no less astonished at the apparition of these two shepherds in their smock frocks, with their crooks in their hands, than they were at the sight of him, and then, having executed one or two of his French bows, he entered into a conversation with John Shelley about his sheep as easily as he would have discussed art or literature with people in his own rank of life.
And if Fairy felt ashamed of Charlie with his clump shoes, his dirty hands, his Sussex brogue, and his uncouth, clownish manners, she was rather proud than otherwise of John Shelley, who, with his hat in his hand, stood there with a gentle dignity all his own, talking simply of his sheep, with an honest pride in his position as head shepherd of the largest sheep-farmer in the district that was as naive as it was touching.