Part 12 (1/2)

Edna jumped up and threw her arms around her aunt. ”O, auntie,” she cried, ”I am so glad you have come back.” Aunt Elizabeth smiled and bade Edna bathe her face and go down and see her uncle, who was waiting for her.

Uncle Justus stood at the foot of the stairs; he opened his arms as his little niece came down, and as he held her closely she knew he meant to make amends for the harsh judgment.

”How is your sick sister?” asked the little girl.

”She is better--a little better, but still very ill,” replied Uncle Justus.

”I am so glad she is better,” returned Edna, ”And you won't have to go away again, will you?”

”I hope not. You had a hard time getting along, did you?”

”We didn't at first,” acknowledged Edna, truthfully. ”We had fun, but to-day it has been just horrid. Why didn't you come back this morning, uncle?”

”We missed the train; there are only two trains a day from that junction, and something happened to the carriage on the way, so we were too late for the morning train. You didn't have school, of course. I found Miss Ashurst's note when I reached here. She has an attack of grippe.”

”O, yes, we did have school. I am sorry, uncle, but the little girls weren't as good as the others.”

”And you are one of the little girls,” returned Uncle Justus, smiling, and looking down at her. But Edna felt that whatever he might hear of the rest, he would not include her with the number of those who had misbehaved.

That he was highly pleased with Agnes Evans's account of the day was evident from his manner to his pupils, and he did not even reprimand the little girls, who continued under Agnes Evans's teaching while Miss Ashurst remained away. To Edna's surprise Louis was not shut up, but there was a sullen look on his face which told of his feelings.

Edna's grat.i.tude for his defense of her increased her affection for her cousin, and she tried in every way to show him little attentions, which he took graciously enough, but which did not seem to add very much to his happiness, and at times Edna felt very indignant at the sternness with which he was treated, and the cold tones in which he was addressed. It was very nice to have Uncle Justus give her credit for trying to be a good girl, and to have Aunt Elizabeth smile upon her, but it made her feel the coldness of their manner to Louis all the more.

To be sure Aunt Elizabeth did not seem to think Edna ever could be cured of certain faults. ”You are a very careless child,” she would say. ”I am afraid you will never be the neat housekeeper your grandmother was;” or, ”Edna, that exhibition of temper over little things must be controlled; it is a very serious fault.” Again it would be, ”You are very babyish, and lack self-control; there is no need of crying over such a small matter as a little blister on your finger.”

And Edna wondered if she were expected to be like the Spartan boy who held the fox under his coat while it gnawed at his heart. Aunt Elizabeth never pitied her, and even the little caresses from Uncle Justus were few and far between.

”I should like a real lap,” said the little girl, wistfully, to her doll. ”I should like to have mamma to hug and hug as hard as I wanted, and I should like to have sister to be silly with. I like to be silly sometimes, and sister does, too. It is a long time, Ada, since we saw them all, the boys, and the kittens, and Snowflake, and all the rest.

I am afraid it is going to be a long time more, for mamma wrote that it would have to be quite warm weather before they could come back.”

To be sure Ellen had a lap ready whenever there was time for her to sit down, but she was kept very busy, the one servant in a large house, and even on the days when the wash-woman came she worked just as hard. Then Aunt Elizabeth did not approve of much time spent in the kitchen by her niece, and so, with Louis grumpy, Ellen busy, Uncle Justus reading, and Aunt Elizabeth absorbed in her many interests, there were days which seemed very long to the little girl, and once or twice she went to her room at night so homesick that she threw herself, crying, on the bed, with her doll hugged up to her, and fell fast asleep without undressing, to awaken in the middle of the night chilly and uncomfortable, finding herself on the outside of the covers. She would then s.h.i.+ver out of her clothes and creep into bed, after groping around to get Ada and place her safely under the bedclothes. But this was only sometimes; generally speaking, the days were not unhappy ones, for lessons and practicing, so many squares of patchwork, so many pages of reading filled up the hours, and the playtime was not so long as to become tiresome.

Once a week there was a visit to Maggie, who was always overjoyed to see her little friend.

”I don't know what I shall do when you go home,” Maggie said, sadly, one day. ”And when you take Moggins so far off, I'll never hear of him.”

Edna was thoughtful. ”What becomes of little girls who live here till they grow up?” she asked.

”Some of 'em don't stay that long, they get 'dopted,” replied Maggie, ”an' some of 'em get places.” And Edna bore this information in mind.

”What do you have to do to get 'dopted?” she asked her aunt.

”You don't do anything but try to behave yourself,” replied she. ”What are you thinking about, Edna? Surely you do not need to have anyone to adopt you?”

”No,” was the reply, ”I was thinking of Maggie.”

”Well, if some lonely, childless person were to come along and take a fancy to Maggie, she might be adopted, but usually the younger children are preferred; little girls of her age are not often chosen.”

Edna was disappointed. She had thought that maybe her aunt's influence might be all that was necessary, provided Maggie should care to be chosen as some one's possible daughter.

But she did not give up the hope. ”Maybe some one will 'dopt you, Maggie,” she said, ”and then, of course, you can have Moggins back again. Your new mamma would want you to have him.” And so the two children talked over this possibility, as if it were a delightful fairy tale.