“It’s good news that you’re here, Kathleen mavourneen,” replied her father, giving her a hearty kiss.
“But it is much better than that,” said Kathleen. “Mary Ellen can see. Cousin Bee wrote to me about it.”
“So she can,” said her father, “and a great blessing it is to the dear child.”
“You knew it all the time!” exclaimed Kathleen, “and I thought it was a secret. Who told you? Did Cousin Bee write to you, too?”
“Perhaps she did,” her father answered; and then, looking out across the Causeway, he added, “See that little girl out there on the rocks with the big dog beside her. Do you think it is safe for her to be there all alone? Go and tell her that she’d better come up here with you.”
“Uncle Tom sent me to find Aunt Hannah and the children,” said Kathleen. “I think they are over there on the sand looking for sea-shells.”
“I’ll go down and speak to them,” her father said, “and we will all come back and meet you.”
So Kathleen clambered out over the rocky pier, stopping every few minutes to see if the little girl were still safe.
“She looks like Mary Ellen, only bigger,” she said to herself, as she came nearer and saw the child’s yellow curls.
Just then the little girl began singing in a sweet soft voice, “How many miles to Dublin Town?” and Kathleen knew at once that it was Mary Ellen herself, singing for happiness the little song they used to sing together in Donegal.