"Ah, but let me cry for one little moment," she begged. "It is better than laughing, and it helps me so much." There was, of course, but one answer, and Dic, turning up her tear-stained face, replied eloquently.
After a chaotic period of several minutes they took their childhood's place upon the hearth log within the warm, bright fireplace. Dic stirred the fire, and the girl, nestling beside him, said:—
"Now tell me everything."
"Where shall I begin?" asked Dic; and after a pause in which to find a starting-point, he said:—
"I have brought you a little present. I wanted to keep it till to-morrow—Christmas—but I find I cannot." He produced a small gold watch with the word "Rita" engraved upon the lid. Rita was delighted; but after a moment or two of admiration she repeated her request.
Dic rapidly ran over the events of his trip. He had brought home twenty-six hundred dollars, and the gold was at that moment in Billy Little's iron-box. Of the wonders he had seen he would tell her at leisure. He had received her three letters, and had them in his pocket in a small leather case purchased expressly to hold them. They had never left his person. He had been ill at an inn near Wheeling, and was "out of his head" for three weeks; hence his failure to write during that time.
"Yes, Sukey told me you had been ill. I was sorry to learn it. Especially—especially from her," said the girl, with eyes bent demurely upon the hearth.
"Why from her?" asked Dic.
"Well, from any one," she replied. "I hoped you would come to see me first. You see, I am a very exacting, jealous, disagreeable person, Dic, and I wanted you to see me and tell me everything before you should go to see any one else."
"Indeed, I would," he returned. "I have come here first."