The Count and Me - A Love Story -read intro

The days passed happily for the six young ladies in the little house.

One day, Diana came home from the village holding a large poster.

"Look, everyone!" she called. "There is going to be an auction in town. All the money will go to charity. We should help by giving them something that they can sell."

All the girls decided right away what they would make for the auction---except for Sara. "What can I make that someone would want to buy?" she asked herself, as she walked through the fields.

Sara looked around at the beautiful flowers and plants then she had an idea.

"I'll make a book!" she decided. "A book about plants and flowers. I'll draw the pictures and label each one!" Sara started painting her book right away. She worked very hard. She hoped that her book would fetch a lot of money at the auction!

In the meantime, Anna was doing embroidery. She was very good at it. The only problem was that their cat loved to play with the yarn. She kept getting tangle up.

Jennifer decided she would decorate a vase and donate it to the auction. She used blue paint to make a picture of the little house on the vase. "I hope that the new owner will enjoy this as much as I have liked making it," she thought.

Betty was making a necklace out of beads when the cat knocked all the beads to the ground. "Oh, oh, dear me!" she cried. She crawled under the table, picking up beads. "I'll never find them all," she sighed. But she did. And soon she finished the necklace. It turned out very well indeed.

Diana was just coming back to the house with the materials for her project. She had decided to weave a basket and then decorate it. Baskets are useful and Diana thought that it would fetch a good price. After the basket was woven, Diana painted large, colorful flowers all over it.

Sally was also painting something, a self-portrait---a picture of herself. She began besetting up her easel next to w mirror. But no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't make the picture look like her. First, she couldn't get her hair right. Then, one eye was bigger than the other. Sally was so upset that she was about to burst into tears. Just then she heard a knock at the door.

It was Anna.

And that gave Sally a wonderful idea. "Anna!" Sally begged. "Could I paint your picture? It will be much easier than painting my own!"

"All right," said Anna. Sally started to draw Anna on her canvas right away.

Now, before you learn what happened to the portrait Sally painted of Anna, you should know that not far from the little house, there was a winding road that led to an ancient castle. It in the middle of a beautiful forest. There were foxes in the forest, and many people enjoyed fox hunting there.

One morning, the sound of a horn could be heard through the trees. It was time for another fox hunt. A nearby fox heard the horn and took off through the forest. The hunting dogs led the chase, followed by a young man on horseback.

That morning, Anna had left the house early. She was taking Sally's painting to town for the auction. It was a beautiful fall day, and the leaves on the trees had turned warm shades of red and orange. Anna decided to take a shortcut through the woods.

She was surprised to find a young man resting by the base of an old oak tree. Beside him was a white horse, grazing on the grass. The young man introduced himself---he was Count Damon and lived in the nearby castle. Anna curtsied prettily and told him her name.

"What are you doing with that portrait?" Damon asked. Anna told him the story of the auction, and how the portrait had come to be painted. Count Damon stared at the painting for a long time. He was disappointed when Anna said goodbye and went on her way.

When she arrived at home, Anna could think of nothing but her meeting with the horseman. "Count Damon is very handsome," she told Sally. He seems to be about our age. And he liked your painting very much."

"I'm sure he was not as interested in the painting as he was in you," Sally said, smiling.

That night Sally dreamed that she was a great artist, painting a large picture on a famous building. When she dropped her brush, a handsome prince picked it up.

Anna had a dream, too. It started out badly. A pack of hunting dogs raced through the sky. They were chasing a fox. They tore right through Sally's painting. But then, from far away, she saw a man on a white horse ride up.

"Hurry, Anna! Jump on or they'll catch us!" he called to her. So she did. And they rode and rode through a sky full of clouds until they reached a castle. Anna turned and saw that the rider was Count Damon. He smiled at her.

And that's when Anna woke up.

"Anna, Anna! It's seven o'clock!" Sally was shaking her.

"I was having such and interesting dream," Anna said. "I don't want to wake up."

"But today is the auction!" Sally reminded her. "And we have to go and see who buys our painting."

Young Count Damon was the first to arrive at the auction house that morning. He had come to deliver a china tea set donated by his mother. While it was being unpacked, Count Damon looked around. He was looking for something in particular.

There were many things for sale. There was a bicycle, and a violin, a teapot, and dolls and hats and jams and jellies. And of course, there were things that the girls had made.

Count Damon saw a picture sitting on an easel, covered by a cloth. He quickly walked over to it and drew the cloth away. He smiled to himself. It was exactly the picture he was looking for---a portrait of a young lady with long light brown hair.

Soon after that it was time for the auction. The auctioneer banged his hammer. "Let the auction begin!" he said in a loud voice.

He auctioned off the bicycle and a flute, a pewter pitcher and the violin. He auctioned off almost everything in the room, including the beautiful things that Sally's sisters had made. Finally, the only things left were the Countess's tea set and Sally's picture. The tea set sold for a great deal of money. Everyone applauded. After all, the money was going to a good cause.

Finally, it was time to auction off Sally's picture. But when she took off the cloth... the picture was gone! A murmur of surprise ran through the crowd. Sally found a note on the easle. The note read: "I hereby leave this bag of gold, which I hope will be enough to purchase this beautiful picture." the note was not signed. Who could have left it? the crowd wondered.

The bag contained more many than anything else had sold for... even the Countess's tea set. Never had a missing painting been sold for so much money! Sally was very proud.

OMG! That was longer than I thought it was be! I hope you liked it.