Part 18 (2/2)
Mrs. Conway smiled. ”You love Uncle Justus, don't you, dear? He has always seemed so stern and distant I hardly fancied you would find the way to his heart.”
”But, mamma,” said Edna, sagely, ”it is such a big heart when you do find your way there.” A remark which mamma considered a very wise one for such a little girl to make.
”What should you like to get for Uncle Justus?” asked Mrs. Conway.
”What very nice thing do you think he would fancy?”
Edna looked perplexed.
”How would a nice umbrella do?” her mother asked.
”He might lose it, and it would wear out. I want something that will not wear out.”
”That is not easy to find, although a book comes near it. How would that do?”
Edna shook her head. That didn't seem to please her, and her eyes wandered around the shop in which they were. Suddenly she jumped down from the high stool upon which she had been sitting.
”I know,” she exclaimed. ”A clock--I'd like a clock, 'cause he'd have to wind it up, and it would remind him of me, and I'll tell him when it is ticking it says 'Ed-na, Ed-na,' just as if it were talking.”
Mamma laughed, but thought it a very good choice. A pretty little memorandum tablet was then bought for Aunt Elizabeth, and the shopping for that day was finished.
”I am afraid we shall be too late for a noonday meal if we go back,”
said Mrs. Conway. ”I told Aunt Elizabeth not to expect us, so we will take a luncheon downtown.”
This was a very delightful experience, and one that had never come to Edna before; therefore she enjoyed her meal hugely.
”Now we must go to see Mrs. Porter,” said mamma, and Edna was made quite happy by having her mother say that she quite agreed with her little daughter in thinking Mrs. Porter a very charming woman.
”And, mamma, don't you think we ought to go to see Mr. and Mrs. Martin before we go home?” asked the little girl.
”To be sure, I want to meet all your friends, Mrs. Evans, Mrs.
MacDonald, and all, but next we shall have to go to the hotel, where your Aunt Clara and Uncle William are.”
”And Louis,” added Edna.
”This is a jolly place,” said Louis, when the two children were left alone. ”I tell you I enjoyed my supper last night. No one said to me, 'b.u.t.ter or mola.s.ses,'” and Louis' imitation of Aunt Elizabeth made Edna laugh.
”Now tell me,” she said, settling herself in a big chair, ”were you really going to run away? How was it?”
”Why,” replied Louis, a little awkwardly, ”I might have gone; but, you see, when I wrote to father and mother about not getting along well and all that, and when Uncle Justus wrote about that time, you know when the boys were there, and said I ought to be in a regular boys'
school, where I'd have companions, they concluded they'd send me to a military school next year. I'd like that; I'll learn to drill and have a fine time, with boys to play with all the time, although,” he added, seeing a little hurt look on Edna's face, ”to tell you the truth, Edna, if it hadn't been for you I don't know how I should have managed; we did have some good times, and you made me ashamed of myself lots of times; so I didn't get into trouble near as often as I might have done if you hadn't been there; but while you were away I couldn't stand it, and I really did think I'd run away--I should have stopped on the way to say good-by to you, though--but when father and mother came I forgot all about everything, you see. I tell you, you are a brick, and stood up for me like a Trojan. I told father and mother all about it.”
Praise like this was very sweet to Edna.
”You stood up for me when that boy, that Phil Blaney, was so dreadful,” she made answer.
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