Very short the four years had seemed, for the baby princess brought
into the quiet old house such a wealth of love, with its golden
sunshine, that time had passed rapidly since her arrival, as time
always does when we are happy and contented.
Our little princess did not owe her title to royal birth, but to her
unquestioned sway over those around her; a rule in which was so happily
blended entreaty and command that her willing subjects were never quite
sure to which they were yielding. But of one thing they were sure,
which was that the winning grace of the little sovereign equaled their
pleasures in obeying her small commands, and the added fact--a very
important one--that this queen of hearts never abused her power.
No little brothers nor sisters were numbered among the princess'
retainers, but she had had from her babyhood an inseparable companion
and playfellow in Moses. Now Moses was a big brown dog who, like his
namesake of old, had been rescued from a watery grave, and it chanced
that baby-girl and baby-dog became inmates of the quiet old house about
the same time.
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