MUMPS cannot last forever. As soon as the children were well, their Grandmother proposed taking the children to town to see "this fairy play" as a sort of reward. Alice was doubtful.
"There'll be nothing but bumps," was what she opined. "If Sara goes, nothing on earth will keep her from trying to fly afterward." To this Mrs. Marcey replied loftily:
"I shall explain everything to Sara. You wouldn't be such a silly little girl, would you, Sara, as to think you could fly?"
Sara's eyes widened. New horizons were evidently before her, but her mouth replied dutifully:
"Oh, no, Grandma."
It was the day after the children had been to "Peter Pan" that Tom's peace was disturbed by thumping sounds upstairs. When he inquired, "What's that?" Robert replied scornfully:
"That's Sara flying, of course! She's flying from your chiffonier. She tried the bed and she tried the bureau, and she said they were all too low to get started from, so now she's on your chiffonier, flying."
Sara had always had a taste for fairies, but the play of "Peter Pan" had the effect of a forcing-house. Fairies became with her a savage passion. There was no one in the house who did not have to read fairy stories to her. She even showed symptoms of learning to read. But it was Mrs. Painter who put into her head the idea of being a fairy herself.
