ourse of his progress had to be carefully
studied out on a printed map, and then the towns and villages which
marked his way noted on the clay map, and their places betokened by
wooden pins. Daisy suggested that these pins should have sealing-wax
heads of different colours to distinguish the cities, the villages, and
the forts from each other. Making these, interrupted doubtless the march
of the Conqueror and of history, but in the end much increased Daisy's
satisfaction, and if the truth be told, Preston's too.

"There,--now you can see at a glance where the castles are; don't their
red heads look pretty! And, O Preston! we ought to have some way of
marking the battle-fields; don't you think so?"

"The map of England will be nothing but marks then, by and by," said
Preston.

"Will it? But it would be very curious. Preston, just give me a little
piece of that pink blotting paper from the library table; it is in the
portfolio there. Now I can put a little square bit of this on every
battle-field, and pressing it a little, it will stick, I think.
There!--there is Hastings. Do you see, Preston? That will do nicely."

"England will be all pink blotting paper by and by," said Preston.

"Then it will be very curious," said Daisy. "Were new kings _always_
coming to push out the old ones?"

"Not like William the Conqueror. But yet it was something very like
that, Daisy. When a king died, two of his children would both want the
place; so they would fight."

"But two men fighting would not make a battle-field."

"O Daisy, Daisy!" cried Preston; "do you know no better than that?"

"Well, but who else would fight with them?"

"Why, all the kingdom! Part would fight for the right, you know, as the
Saxons did with Harold; and part would fight to be the best fellows and
to get the fat places."

"Fat places?" said Daisy. At which Preston went off into one of his
laughs. Daisy looked on. How could she be expected to understand him?

"What is the matter, my dear? What are you doing?" Daisy started.

"We are studying English, history, aunt Gary."

"_History_, my dear? And what is all this muss, and these red and black
spots? does your mamma allow this in the library?"

"Just the place to study history, I am sure, mamma," said Preston; "and
you cannot have less muss than this where people are fighting. But I
really don't know what you mean, ma'am; there cannot be a cleaner map,
except for the blood shed on it."

"Blood?"