I can't get them out of my mind. All night long I was planning their
future. The boys are easy. They have already been graduated from
college, Mr. Pendleton assisting, and are pursuing honorable business
careers. But Allegra I don't know about; I can't think what to wish for
the child. Of course the normal thing to wish for any sweet little girl
is that two kind foster parents will come along to take the place of the
real parents that Fate has robbed her of. But in this case it would be
cruel to steal her away from her brothers. Their love for the baby is
pitiful. You see, they have brought her up. The only time I ever hear
them laugh is when she has done something funny.
The poor little fellows miss their father horribly. I found Don, the
five-year-old one, sobbing in his crib last night because he couldn't
say good night to "daddy."
But Allegra is true to her name, the happiest young miss of three I have
ever seen. The poor father managed well by her, and she, little ingrate,
has already forgotten that she has lost him.
Whatever can I do with these little ones? I think and think and think
about them. I can't place them out, and it does seem too awful to bring
them up here; for as good as we are going to be when we get ourselves
made over, still, after all, we are an institution, and our inmates are
just little incubator chicks. They don't get the individual, fussy care
that only an old hen can give.
There is a lot of interesting news that I might have been telling you,
but my new little family has driven everything out of my mind.
Bairns are certain joy, but nae sma' care.
Yours ever,
SALLIE. P.S. Don't forget that you are coming to visit me next week.
P.S. II. The doctor, who is ordinarily so scientific and unsentimental,
has fallen in love with Allegra. He didn't so much as glance at her
tonsils; he simply picked her up in his arms and hugged her. Oh, she is
a little witch! Whatever is to become of her?
June 22. My dear Judy:
I may report that you need no longer worry as to our inadequate fire
protection. The doctor and Mr. Witherspoon have been giving the
matter their gravest attention, and no game yet devised has proved so
entertaining and destructive as our fire drill.
The children all retire to their beds and plunge into alert slumber.
Fire alarm sounds. They spring up and into their shoes, snatch the top
blanket from their beds, wrap it around their imaginary nightclothes,
fall into line, and trot to the hall and stairs.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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