I was almost wild with excitement.
"Tell me the secret, hurry!" I cried.
"It's just this," he said.

"It took me a long time to coax the Princess into our Big Woods.

I had to fix a throne for her to sit on; spread a Magic Carpet for her feet, and build a wall to screen her.
Now, what is she going to think if I'm not there to welcome her when she comes?
She promised to show me how to make sunshine on dark days." "Tell father and he can have Leon help him." "But it is a secret with the Princess, and it's HERS as much as mine.
If I tell, she may not like it, and then she won't make me her Prince and send me on her errands." "Then you don't dare tell a breath," I said.
"Will you go in my place, and carry her a letter to explain why I'm not coming, Little Sister ?" "Of course!" I said stoutly, and then my heart turned right over; for I never had been in our Big Woods alone, and neither mother nor father wanted me to go.

Passing Gypsies sometimes laid down the fence and went there to camp.

Father thought all the wolves and wildcats were gone, he hadn't seen any in years, but every once in a while some one said they had, and he was not quite sure yet.