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Updated: May 1, 2025
"So there are, Alsie, and I will try to take courage in that thought, for surely God wouldn't take another loved one away from us so soon so soon." The last two words were spoken pensively and as though she was unconscious of the presence of the child. Little Alsie's face became white. "O, Auntee, you don't mean that dear grandfather" her voice faltered and she finished in a whisper "is worse?"
Alsie's cheeks glowed with excitement during the reading of this letter, and at its close she exclaimed, "O, Auntee, have you had it all these years and never showed it to me?" "It was among my foreign letters, dear, and I had not thought of it for some time, but I well remember what a pleasure it was to read that letter and hear of the escapade of the dear little baby namesake at home.
"No, I haven't forgotten it! and I'm not an ungrateful fiend though of course you think it. But Aunt Alsie's like all the others now. She she's turned against me!" There was a break in the girl's voice that she tried in vain to hide. "It isn't true, Hester! I think you know it isn't true." "It is true!
Suddenly, she turned toward a tall and narrow chest of drawers that stood at her left hand. She chose a key from her watch-chain, a small gold key that in their childhood had been generally mistaken by her nieces and nephews for one of the bunch of charms they were allowed to play with on "Aunt Alsie's" lap. With it she unlocked a drawer within her reach.
Such conversations were being held every day, and the days were passing, too, with astonishing rapidity, just as they always do when one is deeply interested in some absorbing project. Aunt Alice had been receiving, daily, numerous letters several containing checks and little Alsie's correspondence had suddenly grown to enormous proportions.
It developed later that the first part of the injunction seemed to make an impression to the exclusion of the last order. At any rate, Alsie's mamma was somewhat delayed in her preparations, and when, twenty minutes or half an hour later, she appeared on the porch, no baby was in sight.
It had been taken for granted in the family, year after year, that if no one else was devoted to Hester, Aunt Alsie's devotion, at least, never failed. Hester's clothes were Miss Puttenham's special care; it was for Hester that she stitched and embroidered. Hester was to inherit her jewels and her money.
The situation began to be a little alarming. The messengers were again started out, with instructions to go farther and report at once if any trace was found. "Ten or fifteen minutes passed, and by this time Alsie's mamma was in a most excited state of mind, as you may well imagine, and felt perfectly sure that the little curly-headed damsel had been kidnaped.
"And after it," he said, looking her in the eyes "when the fuss was over I remember seeing you in Aunt Alsie's arms. Have you forgotten how she cried over you, and defended you and begged you off? You were ill with terror and excitement; she took you off to the cottage, and nursed you till you were well again, and it had all blown over; as she did again and again afterward.
Almost an hour was spent in showing the contents of Alsie's stocking and discussing plans for the day. "Perhaps we had better get dressed now, and be ready for breakfast when it comes, but of course we mustn't disturb father, even though it is Christmas morning," said Alice with a smile, and she began to make haste with her toilet.
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