OUR BOYS & GIRLS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 901, 7 June 1889, Page 5

OUR BOYS & GIRLS.

THE GOLDEN CASdUE.

By Lucy G. Paine, (Concluded.)

It was close, for thecoachmauwaaevidently on his mettle. There was but a halt-mile to go. The broad avenue was lined with 'holi-day-makers, and carriages drew up to one side to see the sport go on. Truitjesat erect in her wagon, her little hooded cloak hanging down her back, the ribbons which generally fastened it fluttering in the wind. Her snowy waist beneath her bodice was decorated with a beautiful nosegay bought for her in the forest by one of tho little boys, aud worn to please him. Her eyes sparkling, her rosy lips half open as she smiled and prattled to the dogs, she looked, as she moved her rod from one to the other, like a fairy with her enchanted wand. The dogs flew. Their feet seemed hardly to touch the earth, and the men took off their hats, aud the women waved their kerchiefs, —it was an exciting moment ! All looked to see it end when Truitje entered tho fishing village,—but no ! On went the dogs, on went the horses, till Truitje drew up to the cottage with the pent roof over the door, jumped to the ground like a fay, and the dogs soberly took themselves and the cart around the cottage to the house where both were kept. At this moment the carriage was still making its way at speed, and Truitje, her cheeks glowing with excitement, watohed its approach. It stopped, and judge how tumultuously beat her heart, when she found that the one sitting within it, with a beautiful girl about her age beside him, was her king ! Her impulses were, like her character, true. Seizing the nosegay from her bodice, she knelt upon the step of the carriage, and holding it up to him, said, in her artless way, 4 Dear King, I did not dream it was you; forgive my rudeness.’ The King bent forward, and taking the flowers, said ‘Thank you, dear child ! You have done rightly, aud I am better pleased that you should win than I, though I am a little ashamed of my boasted pair of horses. I know I can not be the first whom you have vanquished, and now I wish to know what above all other things you would like for yourself, because I must crown the victor, you know.’ ‘How strange !’ said Truitje, in her innocent way ; 4 the very thing I wish for most is a golden casque. And, dear King, I have the price in my box —all but sixty gulden ; would that be too much for you to give V 4 No, child,’ said the King, smiling. 4 Then I will be very glad, and so will they all, for they so wish me to have a casque.’ 4 vVhat is your name, my child ?’ said the King. • i-'ruitjo Meeris, dear king, said Truitje. 4 And this is your home ? ’ 4 It is, dear king.’ 4 Very well. Goon-bye, Truitje ; I will keep your flowers as a souvenir of onr race, and you must wear the casque I shall send, for the same reason.’ 4 But, dear King, it is too much ; it costs four hundred gulden 1 ’ 4 No matter ; mine will be different, it will cost another sum.’ So the Princess said, ‘good-bye, Truitje,’ and when Truitje had kissed the King’s hand, he drove away. The cottage of Vrouw Meeris was besieged that afternoon. All Scheveningen was alive with the news. Truitje had to tell her story many times before she went to bed, to please all the people. The strangers at the other village heard it. The father of the little boys, proud that his children should have a part in it, sent her twice the fare next morning. The journals at the Hague told it in a very pretty way, and Vrouw Werff, who kept the shoppie, and subscribed for the Hague journal, read it out to all the customers who called next day. 4 1 always said,’ added she, to each reading, 4 that those dogs were the fleetest in Schevengen,—and I say so now ! ’

The next Saturday afternoon, as the Meeris family were sitting about their sup. pet-table covered with snowy linen, a quaint tea-pot steaming beside the good vrouw, a messenger came with a package from the court goldsmith, containing a golden casque beautifully engraved, and having the temple ornaments unusually fine, each one representing a little rose, such as Truitje had given the King. Just along the part which goes above the neck was this legend, * Truitje Meeris, from her King, July 30, IS—.’ It was a supreme moment in Truitje’s life. It must have taken many times the sum she had laid by to purchase this. It fitted her perfectly. In fact, as those casques are made, of thinly laminated plates of gold, they adjust themselves to auy head. It would have seemed a pity to us to see Truitje’s hair disappear under a cap, and this again under the gold casque, because we admire beautiful hair ; but in the eyes of thß Scheveningen folk she became transformed into something exceptionally fine. Next morning when she went to churob, her mother watched her with prbi© as she sab among the other maidens ; and when in the afternoon she drove some stranger In the dog-cart to the forest, there were whisperings and noddings, and knowing looks thrown at her, and all seemed pleased at her good fortune because she wore it so innocently. She had only oue more thin" to wish, and that was to have her father and brothers return and know her great happiness. From that day, every two weeks found a nosegay in her wooden shoes, but she never thought it could be the King who had put it thero. One day, going into the shoppio, she noticed a new flower iugVrouw Werff’s

window. She had never seen the flower but j once, and that was in her bouquet of the day j before. j 4 Dear Vrouw Werff,’ said she, 4 I had a ; flower like that with these in my Bhoe yes- j terday. Can you tell me what it is V At this the vrouw became very much agitated, and said in her confusion that it grew only in tho royal green-houses. 4 Then how, dear Vrouw Werff, did you happen to be the only other one to have it ? ’ said Truitje, in her unaffected way. 4 Why, you see Why, you see , ‘No, dear Vrouw Werff, I do not see,’ said Truitje laughingly. 4 Well, Truitje, I can not tell you.’ 4 Then, I suppose,’ said Truitje, 4 1 never shall see’; and with a 4 Good-morning, dear Viouw Werff,’ she was off and away. The truth is, it was the Princess who had sent the flowers to Vrouw Werff, at the suggestion of the King, giving orders to the gardener to keep them constantly renewed, and the Vrouw promised for this to see that Truitje should every two weeks find a bunch of flowers secretly placed in her shoe. And so she does to this very day ; for I saw those wooden shoos one soft mild January day, as 1 walked down the street of Scheveningen, and the gentle wind murmured this story in my ear, and the waves of the gray North Sea, as they sounded on the shore, kept saying, in tones I could not misunderstand, 4 It is true —It is true It is true !’ (The End.)