m dreadfully cross, and he was so flustered he forgot about
being on the barrel, so he stepped back the same as on the floor, and
fell crashing. He might have broken some of his bones, if Laddie
hadn't seen and caught him.

"If you are SURE the flowers go inside, fix one before she comes!"
cried mother.

Father stepped too close the edge of the chair, and by that time he
didn't know how to hang anything, so Laddie climbed up and had one
nailed before the Princess stopped. She came to bring Sally the
handkerchief, and it was the loveliest one any of us ever had seen.
There was a little patch in the middle about four inches square, and
around it a wide ruffle of dainty lace. It was made to carry in a hand
covered with white lace mitts, when you were wearing a wedding gown of
silver silk, lined with white. Of course it wouldn't have been the
slightest use for a funeral or with a cold in your head. And it had
come from across the sea! From the minute she took it by a pinch in
the middle, Sally carried her head so much higher than she ever had
before, that you could notice the difference.

Laddie went straight on nailing up the blinds, and every one he fixed
he let down full length so the Princess could see the roses were
inside; he was so sure he was right. After she had talked a few
minutes she noticed the blinds going up. Laddie, in a front window,
waved to her from the barrel. She laughed and answered with her whip,
and then she laughed again.

"Do you know," she said, "there is the funniest thing at Dovers'. I
rode past on the way to Groveville this morning and they have some
blinds like those you are putting up."

"Indeed?" inquired my mother. "Winfield sent us these from New York in
the spring, but I thought the hot summer sun would fade them, so I
saved them until the fall cleaning. The wedding coming on makes us a
little early but----"

"Well, they may not be exactly the same," said the Princess. "I only
saw from the highway." She meant road; there were many things she said
differently. "Have yours big pink roses and silver scrolls inside?"

"Yes," said mother.

The Princess bubbled until it made you think one of those yellow oriole
birds had perched on her saddle. "That poor woman has gone and put
hers up wrong side out. The effect of all those big pink roses on her
white house front is most amusing. It looks as if the house were
covered with a particularly gaudy piece of comfort calico.