From behind the door Naomi heard an unfamiliar stamping, a running about, and Ezra's excited voice.
"Be careful, Jonas," called Ezra sharply. "Wilt thou be stepped on? Stand from under. Naomi, where art thou? Mother! Oh, she comes! Aunt Miriam, Father, she comes!"
Naomi's mother led out the white-faced little girl and Samuel took her gently by the hand.
"A gift for thee, little Naomi," said he, smiling more happily than in many a long day, "from thy good Aunt Miriam. Put out thy hand and guess."
Naomi stretched out a timid hand and touched a soft furry nose.
"A donkey!" said Naomi. "To take me for a ride!"
"Aye," burst out Ezra, his face shining with unselfish joy; "to take thee for a ride every day and everywhere. Up and down the hills and roundabout. We shall go everywhere together, thou and I."
"Speak more plainly, Ezra," said Aunt Miriam, seeing the puzzled look upon his sister's face. "The donkey is thine, Naomi. Thy Uncle Simon and I have given it to thee. Ezra means that he will take thee riding upon it whenever and wherever thou wilt. No longer shalt thou lurk in the house with white cheeks from sunrise to sunrise. We shall have thee as rosy as a poppy again ere long."
And her tender-hearted aunt first wiped her brimming eyes upon the corner of her veil, and then caught back Jonas by his leather pinafore from under the donkey's heels, where he seemed determined to meet with a speedy death.