OUR BOYS & GIRLS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 859, 17 August 1888, Page 5

OUR BOYS & GIRLS.

LITTLE ROSALIE.

By Harriet Prescott Spopeord, (St. Nicholas.) (Continued.)

‘ Well, it begins like a wind in the woods —every littlo leaf whispers like a fluto, and then they all bend with the wind that comes sighing along, aud that wind is an oboe ; you know the oboe. And it goes sighing along out of sight. And far, far, far off, the violins are humming, all in a confusion, and the sound of them grows slower and more dis tinet, and you hear it, and it is rain. And then come long, heavy chords from the violoncellos, that mean clouds. And, suddenly, the tone of a great violin goe3 spurtiug into the rain and cloud, and comes leaping and dancing down, and that is the brook ; and then the brass things—the horns, you know, and the cymbals and those —make everything all sunshine, and the violins soften down, and you hear harp-tones, —oh, in such a soft, bright, lovely air ! And that is Rosalie, the Spirit of the Brook, coming on. And she is all in palest folds of gauze, palest blue, and palest green, like great blocks of ice ; she is sparkling with jewels, and her eyes and smile sparkle, too, and—oh, Bessy, how beautiful it is for anybody to do all the good that Rosalie does in the world ! Oh, if I could only be of use to people ’ * Oh, you are, Maidie dear, you are of the greatest use to me ! I don't' know what I should do without you !’ exclaimed her little bedfellow, clasping Maidie .iu her arms, and able to speak her heart fully because it was dark. * You see to my work, and make up our quarrels, and you get Mamma to let us do things, and—and ’ « But, you see, if I died—to-morrow, say—you would all get along as well without me in a little while, I’m not really necessary to anybody. And she ia really necessary to keep ever so many people alive, and to bring them up and help them on in the world. And then, think to how many people she gives pleasure ; aud how many children just count the days, the way wo do, before they go to see “Little Rosalie,” How perfectly lovely it must be to give people pleasure, like that. Oh, if I could but be as useful in the world as she is ’

And there Maidie stopped her confidences, for tho faintly murmured asgentg showed, that Beßsy would soon be sound asleep iu spite of lierself. What a merry party it was that set out for the * Old Prospero ’ that frosty Saturday afternoon. (Something detained the mother at home ; but Aunt Nan went in her place, and there was Jfurae, and Aunt Lydia, and i—the doorkeeper lapghed to see the rest of them : he did’nt pretend to count them, and so why should !?' It is no affair of anybody but the doorkeeper, how many went into that box ; nor that Nurse had a luncheon for Kitten ; nor was it even his affair that Torn and Johnny did a good deal of pushing and shoving before finding the seats they wished ; nor that Joe hung over the red velvet cushion in front, to sac whether, it he fell, his head would alight on tho bass drum in the orchestra, while Aunt Lydia olutchod at his heels and very nearly made him fall; nor that Maidie, as usual, was crowded into the very front corner next tho stage, where, if Joe had fallen, it would not have hurt him ; aud where she could sec less of the play than ary of the others ; where, had she ciiosen, alio cue Id have ciimood over aud at a single siep have mingled in the scene ; and where she could see so much of the ropes aud ladders, and coils of hose, aud pieces of scenery, and everything going on in the wings, that it destroyed a good part of the illusion.

Maidie laughed though—she couldn’t help it—when Aunt Lydia, after settling herself, took a phial of water from her muff. ‘there!’ said Aunt Lydia. ‘I never go to the theatre without it. For you know if there should ba a lire, and one were iu danger of suffocating from the smoke, only let the handkerchief ho wet in cold water and held over the mouth and nose, aud one can breathe through that aud keep alive a great while longer ’ ‘ Nonsense, Lydia !’ said Aunt Nan. ‘ What do you want to frighten the children for ? As if there were one atom of danger in such a well-regulated place as this, with all these doors, and with firemen behind the scenes !’

‘ There is always danger, Anna, iu the best of them,’sad Aunt Lyuia severely. ’And even if the firemen should put out the fire, the fright, the crazy panic that would be caused, would do as much harm as the fire ; for there would be a rush and a jam, and people would be thrown down and trodden aud squeezed and suffocated to death. I was iu a theatre once,’ she continued, as the children listened open-mouthed, ‘ when there was an alarm of fire, and everybody started up, and some screamed, and some fainted, and great heavy men in the front rows went walking right over the backs of the seats—oh, we got out alive 1 But I declare I don’t see how J There are the Ching-

stone children—little dears -do you see them, Maidie ?’ But as Maidie heard Aunt Lydia her eyes grow bigger and bigger—far too big to see anything so near as the Cbingstone children ; so big that she could see only the daily danger in which Little Rosalie lived; and the terrible thought of it all prevented any pleasure she might have taken in the strange and lovely opening scenes. But after a while, and when Little Rosalie had come cn the scene, Maidie forgot that trouble in her present delight. ‘ Ain’t you glad you corned, Maidie?’ whispered Kitten; and, taking Maidie’s answer for gi-anted, added' with a, sigh of contentment, ‘So’ml !’ But Maidie did not hear her—she was so rapt in seeing a huge blossom open and let Rosalie out, to the sound of soft music, all her fays following from other unfolding flowers. She leaned far from the box in her forgetful gazing ; and soon it seemed as though Rosalie, whirling very near in her pirouette, gave them asmile of recognition, and then none of the children had either eyes or thoughts for anything bat this floatiug, flashing sylph, swift as a flame and beautiful as a flower. At that moment a child down in the audience cried about something, and diverted from the stage, for half a thought, the glances of the occupants of the boxes, and of the rest of the audience as well—the glances of all but Maidie. In that brief moment her eye beheld a dreadful sight seen by but one other person in front of the stage. Some one on the stage, however, had seen it, had uttered something, not in the part, to the one nearest, and the next instant down rolled the drop-scene and hid the stage from view. But not a moment too soon. For a spark had shot out and fallen on some inflammable substance, and one little flame had sprung up and another had followed it, racing and chasing upwards till a hundred tiny tongues of fire, little demons,. were flying up the inner drapery and far aloft. At the same instant some one in the back of the audience shouted ‘ Fire 1’

(To be continued.