"Aunt Hester, Aunt Hester, it's Ruth, it's Ruth."
Then from the next room, a figure came swiftly, arms extended. Ruth flung herself into them clasping Miss Hester's neck as if she would never let go.
"Oh, Aunt Hester, Aunt Hester," she sobbed, "nobody has kissed me since you did."
"My little girl, my little girl," murmured Miss Hester, kissing and kissing her. "I have missed you so much."
The sobs which Ruth had choked back broke forth then into a real fit of weeping. The love for which the little heart had been starving was here, and the child wept on Aunt Hester's shoulder gasping out:
"I can't help it, I can't help it, I am so glad."
At this moment, there was a thundering knock at the front door, and Billy ran to open to the doctor who cried out in his big voice:
"Where's that little runaway? Great Cesar, but I never saw a mouse scamper to its hole faster than she. Hello, Billy boy, where are the others?"
Aunt Hester with wet eyes and a tremulous smile around her mouth, came forward.
"Come in, Tom," she said. "How did you happen to bring back my little girl?"