Now Tammus was wide awake and he didn’t mean to lie still a moment longer. His fat little legs waved to and fro, his short arms struck out right and left, and with a mighty thump Tammus turned himself over and began to crawl up on his Cousin Ailie’s head.
So Ailie woke. And when she saw a real live pink-and-white baby crawling and tumbling about in the bed, at first Ailie didn’t know what to think, and then in a moment she understood just what had happened.
‘Santa Claus brought him,’ said Ailie. ‘Santa Claus brought him to me.’
Then Ailie saw Aunt Elspeth and Uncle Rob, and she opened her eyes wider than ever before.
‘Is it a mither for me?’ asked Ailie in her surprise. ‘A mither and a father too?’
‘No, Ailie,’ said Granny with a shake of the head, but smiling as Ailie had not seen her smile in many a long day, ‘but it is almost as good. It is Aunt Elspeth and Uncle Rob come from Scotland to take care of you and me.’
When Aunt Elspeth picked up Ailie and hugged her close, Ailie put both arms about Aunt Elspeth’s neck and felt that this was the very best present that Santa Claus had ever brought to a little girl.
Then Ailie asked a question that first surprised Aunt Elspeth and then that made her laugh.
‘Have you a silk dress?’ asked Ailie in Aunt Elspeth’s ear.
‘Yes,’ whispered back Aunt Elspeth, ‘a bright blue silk. Will you like it, do you think?’