Little Miss Mouse

by Amy Ella Blanchard

Billy trotted home well satisfied with his call. He would not tell Ruth yet, but he chuckled as he thought of what a joyful surprise it would be to her if such a thing were to happen as that he could produce the doll in a blue frock. It must be confessed that there was a measure of feeling against Nora Petty which prompted him in being most energetic in trying to find the doll.

He had heard whispers of Miss Hester's transactions with the Pettys. It had been told him that old Mr. Petty had been the one to press his claim against Major Brackenbury's estate and that there were suspicions of there having been some sharp practice. It was known that the major, in his last years, was very forgetful, and, moreover, being an honest man himself, was too ready to trust others, so that he had not been as careful as he should have been in business matters.

The result of this was that after his death there were outlying debts which Miss Hester believed to have been paid, but for which no receipts could be found. Among these debts was a sum of money claimed by old Simon Petty. Miss Hester was sure her father had paid it, for it was a large amount, and she remembered hearing the major say one day that he would be clear of that debt before twenty-four hours were over.

Yet, when they came to look for the receipt, it could not be found, neither was any amount of money corresponding to that due, to be discovered remaining to the major's credit in bank or elsewhere. Every one felt that there was a fraud somewhere, but it could not be ferreted out, and, therefore, the old home passed into Simon Petty's hands and Miss Hester went to live in the little brown house.

It was the Sunday after Billy's call upon the doctor, that this gentleman overtook Miss Hester and the children on their way home from church.

The doctor was in his buggy. He checked his horse and called: "Jump in here, Hetty, and I'll take you home."

Miss Hester hesitated, but the doctor insisted saying, "I've something very important to talk to you about, and I don't know when I'll get another chance."

So Miss Hester left the children to go home together while she and the doctor drove off.

They must have taken a long way around, however, for the children had reached the house and were setting the table for dinner when the buggy stopped at the door. There was a little wistful smile on Miss Hester's face all during dinner, and she was evidently thinking of something besides the food upon her plate. The children thought it must be the sermon of which she thought and would have been rather surprised if they could have known that her old doll occupied her mind, and that the doll at that moment lay in a drawer in the doctor's desk.

It had been there many a year, and the doctor valued it highly, for had it not taken part in the adventures of little Hester Brackenbury and Tommy Peaslee, years before? Had it not often been taken a-nutting in the woods with the two, and once rescued from a watery grave by Tommy who could not stand Hester's tears and who got himself wet to the skin in his valiant effort to save the sinking doll? At another time had it not proved a benefactor when they had lost their way and a stream of sawdust from the doll's body served as a clue to lead them back to the right path? Hester's mother had restored the sawdust and had mended the leak so that this particular thinning out did not happen again. These and many more incidents came to Miss Hester's mind as she ate her dinner.