CHAPTER VII
ONE OF ZEPHYR’S SUMMER HOMES
AS Aida’s real summer home was in a lovely small city in one of the more northern belts of the state, she would not go to the great city for a month yet. So this country house, the Blake home, happened to be Zephyr’s first stopping place. While mother and daughter, in the quiet of the home garden, had many a talk under the trees about the friends who had preceded them to that great city, which has always welcomed its own people; and also the oppressed of all nations, and honored them so long as the privileges of citizenship were appreciated. To those who seemed to understand intuitively that the “Statue of Liberty,” presented by a sister nation, meant more of friendship, loyalty, and respect, than words could express, it was a most wonderful boon, and at once the “Empire city” seemed to become law-abiding, by absorption, under the leadership of the great souls who ruled both city and country, and their appreciation of this new and lasting bond.
While Aida and her mother were happy in the garden and thinking “Big thoughts,” Edwy’s pretty name for all he could not quite comprehend, Aida, looking up, saw a shadow pass over her mother’s face.
“If Edwy were here, dearest, he would ask his friend, why? And he would wait for you to answer his loving question, but I think I know.”
“How do any of us know, when our boys come to be grown men, what may they not have to do to hold such liberty sacred? Can we be sure that their beautiful lives might not have to pay the toll of enrollment for their sacred trust—for their country?”
It was a thought she would not leave in a moment.
“If both boys were here, dear, they would remind you of the Shepherd’s story, which you have so often told them.”
By way of taking her mind from life’s strange vicissitudes, Aida called her attention to the fact of Zephyr’s disappearance. Where could it have gone?
The little creature never seemed to have felt quite so much at home as at the North. It had missed the lake, the boats and the merry voices of the two boys, as they came between the two camps, with the sound of beating oars. Sure enough, Zephyr had gone without even touching her breakfast.
Just at that moment a little girl came along the garden walk, stepping over the bank beside Aida’s lovely flowers, many of them still blooming although so late in the autumn.
“I’ve brought your Kitty home,” she said gently. “But she loves to stay right in my arms. I found her in the schoolroom, and I don’t believe she would have been afraid of any of the boys for they all petted her, but the teacher was having them say some dates in unison, and it made such a racket that she came running to me, and I knew just who owned her, for I had seen her in your garden.”
“O, thank you a thousand times! Zephyr shall know you as her little friend.”
“May I take her to school again?”
“Every day if you wish, and play with her here, too, under the trees.”
“What were the dates that the scholars were saying in unison?” the mother asked.
“One was the date on which the beautiful Statue of Liberty came from France with its motto, ‘Liberty Enlightening the World.’”
“Just what we were talking about, dear,” said the mother thoughtfully. “Ever since its arrival, it has been wreathed with loving, and often poetic thought, and I am glad that our schools are asking you to remember the dates of great events.
“While we are staying here she can go to school with you every day, and you are welcome here, too, among Aida’s flowers!”