human
Who are you?
gpt
One of the four Corners,
human
Which one?
gpt
Nan.
human
I was sure of it. And why were you trying to get into that house?
gpt
Because it is my grandmother's and--and----
human
Go on, please, said the lady, taking a seat on an end of Nan's pretended piano.
gpt
Did you want anything in particular?
human
Yes, I did. I know I really ought not to have gone, for mother doesn't like us even to cross the brook. She never actually forbids it, but she looks distressed if she finds out that any of us have been over, but I wanted awfully to see if I could get in and try to open the piano. It seems so perfectly dreadful for it to stand there month after month and year after year, no good to anybody, when I'd give my right hand to have it.
gpt
If you gave your right hand for it, said the lady, suddenly dimpling,
human
No, I wouldn't. I like the fine high notes, though sometimes I think the growling bass of the organ at church is beautiful. It makes me think of what it says in the Psalter: 'The noise of the seas, the noise of the waves, and the tumult of the people.'
gpt
This is a nice little spot. She put her hand upon Nan's improvised music-rack.
human
What is this for?
gpt
It's just to hold up the music, you know. That's my piano where you are sitting.
human
Goodness! cried the lady, jumping up.
gpt
How undignified of me to sit on a piano. Please pardon me; I didn't know.
human
Of course not. Nan's eyes grew starlike. It was not only very delightful but very exciting to meet one who so perfectly understood.
gpt
You see, she went on,
human
Poor old Pete, said the lady, with a tender retrospective look in her eyes.
gpt
You have the melodeon, yes, and then?
human
Aunt Sarah always wants to take a nap the minute I begin to play, and to-day, her voice dropped and she went nearer to her visitor,
gpt
I had made a new tune and I did so want to write it down. I came out here first and tried it; it sounded very well, I thought, but I had written only a little of it when I had to shut the melodeon. Aunt Sarah always does have such inconvenient times for taking naps,
human
Won't you let me hear your song, or your tune?
gpt
No one has ever heard it but the crows, she said hesitatingly, then impulsively:
human
You won't laugh?
gpt
Indeed no, of course not,
human
Thank you, dear. I think that is a very sweet little air for one so young as you to think of. May I see? She extended her hand for Nan's half-written song.
gpt
How will you finish it?
human
I don't know. I'll have to wait till Aunt Sarah goes out or goes away. I hope I shall not forget it before then. I'll sing it over every day and then maybe I won't forget.
gpt
Can you keep a secret?
human
Oh, yes. Why, nobody, not even Mary Lee, has an idea about this.
gpt
Then promise not to tell a soul.
human
I promise.
gpt
I am your fairy godmother, and if you will meet me under the sunset tree to-morrow morning at ten o'clock, I will conduct you to a place where you can finish your song undisturbed, for I guarantee Aunt Sarah will not be caught napping within hearing of you and the melodeon.
human
Oh, how perfectly delicious, cried Nan, her imagination all afire.
gpt
I'd love that. Where is the sunset tree? It is such a lovely name for it.
human
It is called that because one can see the sunset so finely from there. Have you never been up to look at the sun go down behind the hills? There is one little notch between the mountains over there and at a certain season of the year the sun drops right down into it.
gpt
I have never seen it, said Nan, regretfully.
human
I wonder why no one ever told me about it. I think sunset tree is such a lovely name and it is just the spot for a trysting place. It would be a lovely secret, but I never had a real important one from mother before. I shall have to tell her about going up there; not right away, but some day. It always comes out sooner or later and I would rather tell just mother, if you don't mind.
gpt
So you may. I'm glad you feel that way about it. Little girls should never have secrets they cannot tell their mothers. In three days you may tell her, if you think it would be right to keep silence that long.
human
Oh, that will not be very long. I could keep the secret longer if you said so.
gpt
That will be long enough. Now, shut your eyes while you count one hundred slowly or the queen of the fairies will not let me appear again. The spell will be broken if you so much as peep, or if you do not count aloud.