“Of course!”
“’Twon’t do you a mite of good to interrupt. I’m in real down earnest. You’ll—you’ll be goin’ away again, pretty soon, and having come into your fortunes you’ll be forgettin’——” Here Alfy sobbed and dabbed her knuckles into her eyes—“’Cause Ma says ’tain’t likely you’ll ever be the same girl again——”
“I should like to know why not? Go on with your story-notes. I’d even rather hear them than you talking foolishly!”
“Well, I’ll have to begin all over again. You was born. Your parents were respectful—respective—hmm! all right folks though deluged with poverty. Then they died and left you a little, squallin’ baby——”
“Alfy, dear, that’s unkind! I don’t admit that I ever could be a squaller!”
Alfaretta raised her big eyes and replied:
“I ain’t makin’ that up. It’s exactly what Mis’ Calvert said her own self. ’Twas why she wouldn’t bother raisin’ you herself after your Pa and Ma died and sent you to her. So she turned you into a foundling orphan and your Father John and Mother Martha brung you up. Then your old Aunt Betty got acquainted with you an’ liked you, and sort of hankered to get you back again out of the folkses’ hands what had took all the trouble of your growing into a sizable girl. Some other folks appear to have took a hand in the business of huntin’ up your really truly name; and Ma Babcock she says that Mis’ Calvert’d have had to own up to your bein’ her kin after awhile, whether or no; so she just up and told the whole business; and here you be—a nairess! and so rich you won’t never know old friends again—maybe—though I always thought you—you—you—Oh! my!”
Alfaretta bowed her head to her knees and began to cry with the same vigor she brought to every act of her life. But she didn’t cry for long; because Dorothy was promptly down upon the floor, also, and pulling the weeper’s hands from her flushed face, commanded:
“It’s my turn. I’ve a story to tell. It’s all about a girl named Alfaretta Babcock, who was the first friend I ever had ‘up-mounting,’ and is going to be my friend all my life unless she chooses otherwise. This Alfy I’m talking about is one of the truest, bravest girls in the world. The only trouble is that she gets silly notions into her auburn head, once in a while, and it takes kisses just like these—and these—and these—to drive them out. She’s going to be a teacher when she grows up——”