The Mask of the Enchantress Read Online Free PDF Page A

approved. We were etter classthan Matty. It was rather complicated, for although we were not on the level of the doctor and the parson, who themselves were not quite up to the rank of squire, we were some way above Matty.
    Matty would get me to cut a slice of bread from the big cottage loaf. he bottom half, ducks.And I would put it on a long toasting fork which Tom uncle had made at the forge, and hold it before the fire until it was a golden brown.
    good strong cup of tea and a nice thick slice of good brown toast; your own fireside and the wind whistling outside and you shut away from it all I don reckon there could be better than that.
    I didn agree with Matty. There could be an enchanted forest, a cloth spread on the grass; there could be chicken wishbones and two beautiful people who were different from anyone I knew. There could be an enchanted castle seen through the trees and a horse on which to gallop.
    hat you thinking about, young Suewellyn?asked Matty.
    t depends,I said, n you. Perhaps some people wouldn want toast and strong tea. They might like picnics in forests.
    ow that what I mean to say. It what you fancy, eh? Well, this is my fancy. Now you tell me yours.
    And before I realized it I was telling her. She listened. nd you saw that forest, did you? And you saw this castle? And you was took there, was you? I know, it was by the lady who comes.
    atty,I said excitedly, id you know that if you break a wishbone and get the bigger half you can have three wishes?
    h yes, that an old trick, that is. When we was little now and then we have a bird a regular treat that was. There be the plucking and the stuffing and when it was done a regular fight between us little ns for the wishbone.
    id you ever wish? Did your wishes come true?
    She was silent for a while and then she said: es. I reckon I had a good life. Yes, I reckon my wishes come true.
    o you think mine will?
    es, I reckon so. One of these days itl all come right for you. She a mighty pretty lady what comes to see you.
    he beautiful,I said. nd he
    ho he, dearie?
    I thought: I talking to much. I mustn even to Matty. I had a fear that if I talked I would discover that it had not really happened and that I had only dreamed it.
    h, nothing,I said.
    oue burning the toast. Never mind. Scrape that black off in the sink.
    I scraped the burned part from the broad and buttered it. I made and poured out the tea. Then I sat for a while watching the pictures in the fire. I saw the wood there glowing red and blue and yellow. And there was the castle.
    Then suddenly the ashes fell into the grate and the picture collapsed. I knew it was time I went. Aunt Amelia would be missing me and asking questions.
    Christmas was almost upon us. The children went into the woods to gather holly and ivy to decorate the schoolroom. Miss Brent set up a postbox in the hall of her house and we would slip in our cards to our friends. The day before Christmas Eve when school broke up Miss Brent would act as postman, open the paper-covered postbox, take out the cards and, sitting at her desk, call out our names, when we would go up and collect those which were addressed to us.
    We were all very excited about it. We made our own cards in the classroom and there was much whispering and giggling as we painted on scraps of paper and with great secrecy folded them and wrote on the names of those for whom the offering was intended and slipped them into the box.
    On the afternoon there would be a concert. Miss Brent would play the piano and we would all sing together and those among us who had good voices would sing solos; and others would recite.
    It was a great day for us all and we looked forward to it for weeks before Christmas.
    More exciting to me was Miss Anabel visit. She came the day before the school party. She had brought parcels for me which had written on them o be opened on Christmas Day.But I was always more excited by Miss Anabel herself than what she brought.
    n the spring,she said, el have