The Pot of Gold | Page 8

very anxious for her education to
begin at once.
So now, the milkmaid, instead of sitting, singing, in a green meadow,
watching her beautiful gold-horned cow, had to sit all day in a
high-backed chair, her feet on a little foot-stool with an embroidered
pussy cat on it, and do fancy work. The young ladies worked by electric
light; for the seminary was asleep nearly all the time, and no sunlight
could get in at the windows, for boards clapped down over them like so
many eye-lids when the seminary began to doze.
Drusilla had left off her pretty blue petticoat and white short gown now,
and was dressed in gold-flowered satin, with an immense train, which
two pages bore for her when she walked. Her pretty hair was combed
high and powdered, and she wore a comb of gold and pearls in it. She
looked very lovely, but she also looked very sad. She could not help
thinking, even in the midst of all this splendor, of her dear father, and
her own home, and wishing to see them.
She was a very apt pupil. Her tatting collars were the admiration of the
whole seminary, and she made herself a whole dress of rick-rack. She
painted a charming umbrella stand for the King, and actually worked
the gold-horned cow in Kensington stitch, on a blue satin tidy, for the
Queen. It was so natural that she wept over it, herself, when it was
finished; but the Queen was delighted, and put it on her best stuffed
rocking-chair in her parlor, and would run and throw it back every time
the King sat down there, for fear he would lean his head against it and
soil it.
Drusilla also worked an elegant banner of old gold satin, with
hollyhocks, for the King to carry at the head of his troops when he went
to battle; also a hat-band for the Prince of Egypt. This last was sent by a
special courier with a large escort, and the Prince sent an exquisite
shopping-bag of real alligator's skin to Drusilla in return. She was the
envy of the whole seminary when it came.
The young ladies fared very delicately. Their one article of diet was
peaches and cream. It was thought to improve their complexions. Once

in a while, they went out to drive by moonlight; they were afraid of
sunburn by day, and they wore white gauze veils, even in the moonlight,
and they all had embroidered afghans of their own handiwork.
They used to sit around a large table over which hung a chandelier of
the electric light, to work, and some young lady either played "Home,
sweet Home, and variations," or else "The Maiden's Prayer," on the
piano for their entertainment.
It seemed as if Drusilla ought to have been happy in a place like this;
but although she was diligent and dutiful, she grieved all the time for
her father.
Meantime, the King was keeping up an energetic search for the
gold-horned cow. Every stable and pasture in the Kingdom was
searched, spies were posted everywhere, but the King could not find
her. She had disappeared as completely as if she had vanished
altogether from the face of the earth. It at last began to be whispered
about that there never had been any gold-horned cow, but that the
whole had been a clever trick of Drusilla's, that she might become a
Princess. An envious schoolmate, who had been very desirous of
becoming Princess and marrying the Prince of Egypt herself, started the
report; and it soon spread over the whole Kingdom. The King heard it
and began to believe it; for he could not see why he failed to find the
cow. It always exasperated the King dreadfully to fail in anything, and
he never allowed that it was his own fault, if he could possibly help it.
At last the end of the year came, and still no signs of the gold-horned
cow. Then the King became convinced that Drusilla had cheated him,
that there never had been any such wonderful cow, and that she had
used this trick in order to become a Princess. Of course, the King felt
more comfortable to believe this, for it accounted satisfactorily for his
own failure to find her, and it is extremely mortifying for a King to be
unable to do anything he sets out to.
So Drusilla was dismissed from the seminary in disgrace, and sent
home. Her jewels and fine clothes were all taken away from her, even
her rick-rack dress, and she put on her blue petticoat and short gown,

and straw flat again. Still, she was so happy at the prospect of seeing
her dear old father again, that she did not mind the loss of