The Pensacola journal., 1912-10-01

&S VI TIE Doep1Q2 villages
uF mere letting of Muttle Deeping
Grange was no unimportant event !. hz.f
the inhabitants of Great Deening Wut.
tie Deeping (possibly a corrupfing of
Middle Deeping) and Little Deeping
were stirred to the very depths Of their
being when the news came that IL had
been let TO German Princess. The
women at any rate, awaited her COM
ing with the liyeliest interest and
curiosity, emotions dashed someway
from their fine height when they
Iearned that Princess Elizabeth of
tassei-Nassau was only thirteen years
and seven months old.
The Twins did not share the excited
curiosity of their neighbors. They re-
sented the fact that the tenant of
Muttie Deeping Grange was a German
Princess. ErebEs was more resentfuI
than the Terror; and it is to De sus-
pecfed that the high patriotic spirit
she displayed in the matter was in
some degree owing to the fact that
Mrs. Blelkinsop, the chief gossip of
the neighborhood. who came one after
noon to tea gushing information about
the grandfatbers, grandmothers, I'M
cles, cousins, and aunts of the Prin-
cess, ended by saying, with meaning,
llILl0
girls of the neighborhood I"
The spirit of Erebus was high. not
by any means one to brook the
thought of model nearly two months
younger than herself. She did not
hide from tINe Terror her dark convic-
ton that the coming of the Princess
was but phase of the German inva-
sion which was presently to sweep
England from sea to sea with fire and
sword
When presently the Princess came to
the Grange, the lively curiosity Of her
neighbors was gratifed by but an i'm
perfect vision of her. She did not, as
they had expected, attend any of the
three churches, for she had brought
with her her own Lutheran pastor.
They only saw her on her afternoon
drives, a stiff little figure. thickly
yelled against the sun, sitting bolt up
right in the victoria beside the GRIM
son baroness (crimson in face; she
wore blaclxl in whose charge she had
come to England.
They had learned presently that the
Princess had come to Muttle Deeping
for her health that she was delicate.
and her doctors feared lest she should
develop consumption they hoped that
a summer and autumn in the excellent
Deeping air would strengthen her.
The news abated little the cold hos
! tility of Erebus
4 But the fact that she was one of the
speonIe which was going to sweep Eng
5Jand with fire and sword was not with
lQut its influence on the Twins resolve
10 raid the famous peach-garden of
I0Muttle Deeping Grange. Their mother
was out Of sorts: and DR.. Arbuthnot
had ordered her to eat plenty of fruit
Peaches were the best fruit in season
and the peaches in the GrangH-garden
were said to be finer than any peaches
grown in a dollhouse. The Twins had
never been able to believe that the
laws of NeaB and TuWnt applied to
fruit.
1t was in the afternoon, a sSvelter-
ing afternoon, after the doctors visit
and the Twins were about to set forth
on their bicycles. without any goal in
mind. when a sudden CLEAN came into
the deep blue eyes of the Terror, and
he said:
1--WE got an idea"
An answering light cleaned IN the
brown eyes of Erebus: and she cried
ioyfuily: Thank goodness! / was be-
ginning to think that nothing was ever
be the hot weather"
Those Germans" said the Terror
slowly. why shouldn't we make q
raid on the Grange peaches?'
ssRather!" cried Erebus: and her
piquant face was all alight with stir
ring spirit. Then after a pause she
added reluctantly, But If the Prin-
cess is an invalid, perhaps she wants
them herself"
"She can't want all of them. Why
tce couldn't. There are hundreds y
said the Terror. "And they're the
very thing for Mum. Plums are all
very we'll but one gets tired of them
But how are we going TO get into
the garden? The door in the wall only
opens on the inside" said Erebus
Y thoughtfully.
Were not" said the Terror. "Hurry
up and get some leaves to put between
the peaches. Mum will like them bet
ter with the bloom on. though 1t really
doesn't make any difference to the
taste"
Erebus ran into the kitchen garden
and when she came back. she found
the Terror tying a small landingnet Il
the backbone of his bicycle. She pu
the leaves into her bicycle-basket; anC
they rode slowly to Muttle Deeping.
The Twins knew the country round
thoroughly; and they came lInseeI
along the screen of the home wood t.
the fringe of trees which runs alonS
the walled garden behind the Grange
That fringe of trees was indeed use
full: standing on a low branch Of ont
of them, the Terror raised his heaC
cautiously above the wall and surveyed
the garden. A dancing simmer o.
heat rose above the fruit trees, trained
low. Tt was empty and silent save fol
a curious snoring sound which dis
duieted him little. since he ascribed i
to some distant pig.
He stepped on to a higher branch
leaned over the wall and surveyed th'
golden burden of the tree below him
He chose his peach. the ripest be coult
see, slipped his net under it, dicked it
lifted the peach in it over the wall
And lowered it down to Erehus.
~ The garden was not as empty as tn
Terror believed. On garden chair il
fha lfftIa lawn in fhe middle of it Sa