“I knew this trip would make a wonderful improvement in you, Judge,” said she, “but had no idea the change would be effected in so rapid a manner.”
“I just can’t help it, Mrs. Calvert. To see these young folks about me makes me feel young again, which reminds me that I have never been happier than when I once took the boys and girls on a jaunt through the Nova Scotia woods.”
“A jaunt that ended in my giving a house party at Deerhurst,” said Dorothy. “That was after I had learned that I was not a homeless waif, but the great-niece of Mrs. Betty Calvert.”
“It was papa, if you remember, who ran down the clues leading to the discovery that Mrs. Calvert was your relative,” said Molly.
“And I’ll never forget how overjoyed we all were when we knew to whom our girl friend was related,” and the old Judge leaned over and stroked Dorothy’s hand as he spoke.
“Then came my humiliation,” said Aunt Betty in a reminiscent tone. “I was forced to admit to you all that when my nephew’s baby came I was indignant, feeling that I was too old to have a squalling infant forced upon me. Then, better thoughts prevailing, I saw in Dorothy traces of my own family likeness and wanted to keep her. Then I listened to Dinah and Ephraim, and finally took their advice to hunt up a worthy couple unburdened with children of their own, and force the child upon them to be reared in simple, sensible ways. When I found that you had discovered the relationship between us, I did only what my heart had been bidding me do for many years—took Dorothy to my bosom, and into my household where she belonged.”
Dinah came to the door to say that lunch was served, and the party filed into the dining-room to continue the discussion at the table.
On the following morning—the day before Christmas—a great bundle of presents arrived from one of the Baltimore department stores, and was taken upstairs by Ephraim, there to be concealed.
On the night before Christmas, following the time-honored custom, stockings of every size and color were strung up around the big fire-place in the living-room. Those of the Judge, Jim and Len not being large enough, garments of a satisfactory size were generously tendered by Dorothy and Molly. Going late to bed, hoping that old Santa Claus would be good to each of them, the young folks awoke in the morning to find their stockings fairly bulging with good things.
There was a cane and a pocketbook from the Judge to Jim, and wearing apparel running from neckties to shirts from Aunt Betty and the girls. Len came in for a similar lot of presents, his gift from the Judge being a shining five-dollar gold piece, which he declared should go in the savings bank as a foundation of his fortune.