Then Mr. Weston did a very unusual thing. Putting his arm around Randy, he drew her down upon his knee, where she had not sat since she was a little girl like Prue, and as he looked at her, with just a suspicion of moisture in his kind, blue eyes, he said, “Mother, we’ve got a girl to be proud of.”
“And to be thankful for,” said Mrs. Weston.
“Amen!” said Randy’s father, and he added, “Always be as brave and quick to do what’s right, Randy, as you have been to-day, even forgetting your own pleasure, and I will trust you anywhere.”
Here little Prue, who had been awed into silence by the earnestness of the conversation, found her tongue once more, and piped in with, “Why, pa, my big sister Randy’s been good again. How can she be always good?”
They all laughed, and Randy, catching little Prue and giving her a tight hug, said: “I know who’s got the best little sister in all the world. I have, just as sure as your name is Prudence.”
“I like you to love me lots, Randy dear, but don’t you call me anything but Prue. ‘Prudence’ makes me think of Aunt Prudence, and she looked all so,” and here Prue drew down her wee mouth, and puckered up her fair little forehead and brows into such a scowling imitation of Aunt Prudence, that even her father, who did not at all approve, could not help smiling at the dimpled copy of that lady’s unpleasant face.
Soon Mrs. Weston had tea ready, and the family had but just finished the evening meal when a loud tap at the door announced some neighbor’s arrival. Mr. Weston looked at his wife, with a twinkle in his eye, as he arose to answer the knock.
“Well, well, Jason, come in, come in!” Thus Mr. Weston welcomed his crafty neighbor.
“How are ye, Square Weston? I thought I’d jist drop in an’ see if you’d made up yer mind about that piece er land er mine.”
“Well, yes, I hev,” said Mr. Weston, looking his neighbor squarely in the face; “I told ye, a month ago, I’d give ye two hundred dollars in cash fer that big medder of yourn.”