The Little Colonel in Arizona

IN order to understand the excitement that prevailed at the Wigwam when / it was announced that the Little Colonel was on her way toward it, one / would first have to understand what an important part she had played in / the Ware household. To begin with, the place where she lived had always / seemed a sort of enchanted land to the children. "The Old Kentucky Home" / was their earliest cradle-song, and their favourite nursery-tales were / about the people and places of Lloydsboro Valley, where their mother's / happy girlhood had been passed.

They might grow tired of Red Riding Hood and Cinderella. Aladdin and / even Ali Baba and the forty thieves might lose their charm, but no story / failed to interest them that began "Once upon a time in Lloydsboro / Valley." These reminiscences had passed from Joyce to Jack, and on down / the line, with the high chair and the Cock Robin book and the red / building-blocks, belonging to each in turn, but claimed by all. Mary's / tears, Holland's tempers, and Norman's tantrums had many a time / disappeared as if by magic, at those familiar words.