“Give my love to my little pet, and kiss her for me,” or words to that effect.
Whenever Mrs. Lyon wrote to Mr. Alexander she would smilingly ask the child what message she had to send; and little Drusilla would answer:
“Please say I sent him a love and a kiss; and I ask our Father to bless him whenever I say my prayers.”
And the message would be faithfully transmitted.
Sometimes when Mrs. Lyon chanced to be out of her room the little girl would creep to the door of Judge Lyon’s study, and peep shyly in.
And whether the old lady happened to be there or not the old gentleman would call the child in, and pat her head, and talk to her, and feel in all his pockets for stray pennies to give her.
Little Drusilla had but one use for pennies—“to drop in the purse” that was carried around on Sundays in the Sunday school.
Mrs. Sterling, seeing how really welcome her child was, “in hall and bower,” no longer tried to keep her confined to the housekeeper’s room.
So the winter passed away, and the spring opened.
Early in the season the family, with their whole establishment of servants, migrated to Crowood, the fine old country-seat of the chief justice, situated in the dense forest-land of the valley. Of course Mrs. Sterling and her child went along with them.