Part 26 (1/2)
”And why with me, my dear?” asked Mrs. Travilla, with a pleased little laugh, ”are there not more than enough younger people to take part?”
”Oh there are plenty of us such as we are!” laughed Evelyn, ”but we want all the beautiful people, so that the pictures will be beautiful.”
”You are coming out in a new character, Eva--that of an adroit flatterer,” returned Grandma Elsie, with a look of amus.e.m.e.nt; ”but I am not at all displeased, my dear child, because I credit it entirely to your affection, which I prize very highly,” she hastened to add, seeing that her words had called up a blush of painful embarra.s.sment on Eva's usually placid face.
”Grandma Elsie, we all love you dearly,” said Lulu, ”but you _are_ beautiful. I'm sure everybody thinks so. Don't they, papa?”
”As far as my knowledge goes,” he answered, smiling and pinching her cheek--for as usual she was close at his side--”and indeed I don't know how any one could think otherwise.”
”Mamma will, I'm sure,” said Walter, ”because we want her to, and she's always kind.”
”Will what?” asked Violet coming in at that moment.
”Be one in a tableau,” replied Walter.
”Yes, of course,” said Violet. ”Oh we'll make a group with mamma, grandpa, Sister Elsie and her little Ned, and call it a picture of four generations. If dear old grandpa were with us still we could make it five.”
”A very nice idea, my dear,” the captain remarked with a glance of affectionate admiration at his young wife, as he rose and handed her a chair; ”and I think we must have the group photographed.”
”Oh yes, Lester can do it beautifully! We'll send him word to bring his apparatus with him.”
”Yes,” said her mother, ”and we will ask him to take us all in family groups. The pictures will be pleasant mementoes of this holiday season.”
”Mamma,” said Walter, ”I think if you would tell us all about all the New Years days you can remember, it would be a very interesting way of spending the evening.”
”Yes, mamma, we would all be charmed to hear your story,” said Violet, the others chiming in with, ”Oh yes, mamma,” ”Yes, Grandma Elsie, please do tell it.”
”Since you all seem to desire it, I will try,” she answered kindly, ”but I fear my reminiscences will hardly deserve the name of story.
”The first Christmas and New Years of which I retain a vivid remembrance, were those of the first winter after I had made the acquaintance of my dear father; for, as I believe you all know, I never saw him till I was eight years old.
”The occurrences of that Christmas are too familiar to most, if not all of you, to bear repet.i.tion.”
”And you hadn't at all a nice New Year's that time, mamma,” said Rosie, softly stroking and patting the hand she held, then lifting it to her lips; for she was sitting on a stool at her mother's feet, while the others had grouped themselves around her, ”suffering so with that sprained ankle.”
”Ah there you are mistaken, my child,” Grandma Elsie answered with her own sweet smile, ”for I had a most enjoyable day in spite of the injury that kept me a prisoner in my room; my father brought me a beautiful doll-baby, quite as large as some live ones that I have seen, and a quant.i.ty of pretty things to be used in its adornment. My little friends and I had a merry, happy time cutting out garments and making them up.
”The next Christmas and New Year's Day were spent in our sweet new home at the Oaks, which my papa had bought and furnished in the mean time.
”My Christmas gifts were beautiful; from papa books and a pearl necklace and bracelets--now the property of my daughter Rosie”--smiling down at Rosie as she spoke--”and a ring to match from him who was afterward my beloved husband; also books from his mother and my Aunt Adelaide. They were our guests at dinner that day.
”Between breakfast and dinner I had the pleasure of distributing gifts among the house servants and the negroes at the quarter; then a ride with papa; and the evening, till my early bedtime, was spent sitting on his knee.”
”But you are going to tell us about that New Year's, too, mamma, aren't you?” asked Walter, as she paused in her narrative, sitting quietly with a pensive, far off look in her soft brown eyes.
”Yes,” she said, rousing from her reverie, ”I remember it was on the day after Christmas that papa asked me if I was going to make a New Year's present to each of my little friends.
”Of course I was delighted with the idea, especially as he allowed me great lat.i.tude in regard to the amount to be spent.”
”And did he take you to the stores and let yon choose the presents, Grandma Elsie?” asked Lulu. ”That would be half the fun, I think.”