‘Who can it be so early in the day?’ said Granny to herself.
But when she opened the door and saw who it was standing there on the little landing, she flung both arms about Aunt Elspeth’s neck—for it was Aunt Elspeth herself whom Granny saw standing there—and joyfully brought her into the little room. And behind Aunt Elspeth came Uncle Rob, carrying a big bag in one hand, and with a white bundle carefully held in his other arm.
Oh, how glad Granny was to see Aunt Elspeth and Uncle Rob, come all the way from Scotland over the sea, and, oh, how glad they both were to see Granny, too!
Then Aunt Elspeth made Granny sit down in the rocking-chair and very gently she took the white bundle from Uncle Rob’s arms.
She laid it in Granny’s lap, she unpinned a soft white blanket, and there looking up into Granny’s face lay a little rosy baby with blue eyes and a sandy curl or two that might have belonged to Ailie McNabb herself.
‘This is Thomas,’ said Aunt Elspeth proudly,—‘my Thomas. But we call him Tammus for short.’
‘He is the image of our Ailie,’ said Granny, hugging wee Tammus and rocking him to and fro and never once taking her eyes off his round rosy little face.
‘Ailie?’ cried Aunt Elspeth. ‘Where is Ailie?’
There she was, fast asleep, rolled into a ball in the middle of the bed.
Aunt Elspeth took off all wee Tammus’s outside wrappings, and then with a smile she tucked him under the covers, right down beside Ailie in the bed.