"Will it? But it would be very curious. Preston, just give me
a little piece of that pink blotting paper from the library
table; it is in the portfolio there. Now I can put a little
square bit of this on every battle-field, and pressing it a
little, it will stick, I think. There! — there is Hastings. Do
you see, Preston? That will do nicely."
"England will be all pink blotting paper by and by," said
Preston.
"Then it will be very curious," said Daisy. "Were new kings
_always_ coming to push out the old ones?"
"Not like William the Conqueror. But yet it was something very
like that, Daisy. When a king died, two of his children would
both want the place; so they would fight."
"But two men fighting would not make a battlefield."
"Oh, Daisy, Daisy!" cried Preston; "do you know no better than
that?"
"Well, but who else would fight with them?"
"Why, all the kingdom! Part would fight for the right, you
know, as the Saxons did with Harold; and part would fight to
be the best fellows, and to get the fat places."
"Fat places?" said Daisy. At which Preston went off into one
of his laughs. Daisy looked on. How could she be expected to
understand him?
"What is the matter, my dear? What are you doing?" Daisy
started.
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