"But I suppose you had a very able godmother--princesses
do, don't they?"
"I have a wishing ring," Joy explained, entering into the play.
"It's very well trained. All I have to do is to tell it things, and
it sees to them immediately."
John went on eating his soup.
"You look as if you wanted to ask it to do something," she pursued.
He looked thoughtful.
"As a matter of fact, I do; but it seems an unfair advantage to take
not only of a docile wishing ring, but of you," he stated.
"Try us and see," invited Joy, ringing, with a visible satisfaction
in things, for the next course.
So John took courage.
"It's socks," he confessed with a boyish shame-facedness. "I--I'd
like to see how you'd look doing them. I can't quite make myself see
you, even now.... I suppose I'm silly--I'd like to see you sitting
under the light in there, sewing for me, just once."
"You mean mending, not sewing," Joy told him cheerfully. However the
wishing ring may have felt about the request, the princess was
frankly delighted, "Have you got many? I do them very fast!"
John still looked doubtful. He still seemed to feel that it was a
mean advantage to take of the most domesticated ring and princess.
"You see," he explained, "Mother's idea is--and it's likely a very
good one--that when socks have holes you throw 'em away and get
more. She doesn't make allowance, though, for one's getting attached
to a pair.
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