“Oh, I know!” exclaimed Jessie. “It’s from cousin Emily.”
The letter was opened, and Jessie read aloud as follows:
Morristown, N. J., November 18, 18—.
My Dear Jessie:
I got home nicely from your house. Ma was very glad to see us, and so was pa. Charlie said he was glad to get home. I was some glad and some sorry. It was pleasant to see pa and ma again, but I missed you, oh! ever so much! When I went up to my room that night, I sat down and cried. I thought over all the naughty things I had said and done to you while I was at Glen Morris, until it seemed to me I was the most wicked girl in the world. I thought of you and of dear Uncle Morris and his good advice, until my heart seemed broken. Then I kneeled down and asked God to make me a good girl like you. I begin to believe he will, for I have been trying hard to be good ever since. Mother says I am a very good girl already; but she don’t know what passes in my thoughts, nor how hard I have to strive to keep down my ugly, wicked temper. Charlie is not quite so wicked as he was, either, and I am trying to make him a good boy. I wish you would come to Morristown and make me a good long visit. With much love to yourself, and your good Ma, Pa, and Uncle Morris, I am
Your affectionate cousin,
Emily Morris.
To Miss Jessie Carlton.
“What a beautiful letter!” said Carrie. Jessie was silent. She was thinking. She was secretly rejoicing, too. Such a joy was in her young heart as had never welled up in it before. She had done Emily good. As Guy had led Richard Duncan into right paths, so she had led Emily. Happy, happy Jessie!
Just then she heard Uncle Morris’s night-key lifting the latch of the hall door. Away she bounded from her seat, almost overturning poor Madge in her hurry. Rushing to her uncle as he was closing the door, she seized his arm with one hand while she held up Emily’s letter in the other, and in a loud, earnest whisper, said: