How
very ready I was to punish you for the most trifling fault."
"Indeed, papa," she answered earnestly, "it was no such trifle, for I had
disobeyed a plain order not to ask a second time for permission to do what
you had once forbidden."
"True; but I now see that a child so sensitive, conscientious and
affectionate as you were, would have been sufficiently punished by a mild
rebuke."
"A year or two later you discovered and acted upon that," she said, with
an affectionate look up into his face. "But at this time you were a very
young father; and when I remember how you took me on your knee, by the
fire there, and warmed my hands and feet, petting and fondling me, and
what a nice evening I had with you afterward, I could almost wish to go
through it all again."
"Hark! what was that?" exclaimed Rosie.
Every one paused to listen.
There was a sound of sobbing as of a child in sore distress, and it
seemed to come from the closet.
"There's somebody shut up there now," Walter said in a loud, excited
whisper. "Grandpa, can't she be let out?"
Arthur strode hastily across the room and threw the closet door wide open.
Pages:
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154