“YOSY!” SAID MARY ELLEN.
“You best take the flower, Mrs. Gray,” said Mrs. Camp. The others had heard the chirping of the little voice and had come in to see what had happened.
“Don’t you see she has brought it on purpose for you? I told you she would know us apart. I knew she would know you by your flower! She must have been very observing when her mother has had her up here, to know which was your room.”
“Yosy,” said Mary Ellen, pushing the wet flower up against the gentle old face. This time Old Lady Lois took the rose and pinned it in her kerchief. She looked very pleased. The child seemed satisfied now. She laid her little yellow head back on the white kerchiefed shoulder and looked around on the others.
“I shouldn’t be surprised,” said Mrs. Persis, contemplating her, “if she has broken the vase getting the rose out. Her dress seems very wet.”
“Notty watty,” said Mary Ellen.
Madam Esther had gone down-stairs. She came up now with Mary Ellen’s father and mother. Poor Mama Nan seemed even more terrified and breathless than on the day before. “I told you I should never know another moment’s peace,” said she.
Papa Dick laughed at her. “You ought to feel relieved,” said he. “Here your smart little Mary Ellen has taught herself, all alone, how to go up-stairs.”
But Mama Nan was not to be comforted in that way. “What is to be done?” said she. “She will undertake this thing every day.” And here she quite broke down and began to sob in a miserable helpless way.