"I know you will, I know you will," Patience Harrison said; "but, oh! I am so sorry for you, dear Uncle Bobo."
"Let me see my child," Maggie Chanter said. "Let me see her; and yet, oh, how I dread it! Who will take me to her? Will you take me? Will you tell the story, Mr. Boyd?"
"No, no, my dear, don't ask me; let Patience Harrison do it; let her. I can't, and that's the truth."
Then Patience Harrison mounted the narrow stairs, and pausing at the door said, "We must be careful, she is very weak."
Maggie bowed her head in assent, and then followed Patience into the room.
"Oh, Goody, I am so glad you are come!" and the smile on Joy's face was indeed like a sunbeam. "Bet has not come yet. I don't like to vex her, but she does blunder so. Susan calls her Blunder-buss; isn't that funny of Susan?"
Then Joy turned her head, and caught sight of the figure on the threshold.
"Why doesn't she come in?" Joy said; "she looks very kind; and see what flowers and plums the girls have brought me as they went to school!"
"Joy, darling Joy," Patience said, "you have often said you wished you had known your mother."