"Jimmy, old man," Graham exclaimed, "you’re all right." He slapped the
boy’s shoulder with a good fellowship which meant more to Jimmy Dunn
than a dollar bill. Meanwhile Peggy was crying over Dorothy, who in her
eagerness to impart a great discovery of her own, was quite indifferent
to the emotions of her relative.
"Aunt Peggy," she cried breathlessly, "What do you think? There’s two
of Santa Claus. Two of him, Aunt Peggy."
Graham took them home, telling Peggy good-naturedly that she wasn’t fit
to be trusted, and Peggy was too thankful to be taken care of, to resent
the implication. The car was crowded, and Peggy was glad of the
opportunity this gave her to hold Dorothy on her lap, and indulge in
surreptitious hugs. Graham sat across the aisle and laughed at them
both with the vast superiority of a collegian.
"He was a nice Santa Claus, Aunt Peggy," was Dorothy’s only defence when
reproached for her abrupt departure. "I asked him for lots of things, a
dolly, and another dolly and a naughty-mobeel and a gold watch and a new
house and a picture book. O dear! Aunt Peggy, I wish I’d told him
another dolly beside."
Graham left his charges at Peggy’s door as the early winter dusk was
veiling the sky. He was half across the street when Peggy called after
him:
"Graham! O, Graham! Please tell Ruth to come over here as quick as she
possibly can."
"All right," Graham responded and smiled to himself. Peggy wanted to
tell Ruth all about Dorothy’s disappearance, of course, and her rescue,
as if it were an affair of thrilling moment. "Knew she’d turn up, all
right," thought Graham, puffing out his chest, and congratulating
himself on being superior to the weakness of girls, even the best of
them.
He little guessed the real importance of the news Peggy had to tell, or
the difference it was to make in his sister’s Christmas. When Ruth came
back presently, moist around her lashes, and stooped to kiss him, as he
sat poring over the evening paper, he was far from suspecting that in
that kiss there was penitence, as well as the love of which he was so
sure.
Dorothy had been asleep an hour when Mrs. Raymond bethought herself of a
question which the exciting character of Peggy’s return had temporarily
banished from her thoughts. "By the way, Peggy, where are Dorothy’s
Christmas presents?"
Peggy sat up straight, stared at her mother, and let her work drop to
the floor. "Mother Raymond!"
"Well, what is it, child?"
"Mother, they’re lost."
"Lost? You don’t mean all of them?"
"I’m--I’m afraid so." Peggy looked shamed-facedly at the carpet. "We
both had our arms full, and I’m sure neither of us had a bundle coming
home in the car. I suppose when I found Dorothy was lost, I let
everything drop."
"And when Dorothy saw the Santa Claus she probably did the same," said
Mrs. Raymond, laughing a little. "It isn’t a great loss as far as their
value is concerned, but I’m afraid she will be dreadfully disappointed."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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