“I guess you’re some happy to-night, Letty. How does it feel to be somebody’s little girl after you haven’t belonged to anybody for so long?”
Instead of answering Letty suddenly began to cry. She only now saw how very lonely she had been these past three dreary years.
“There now, you rude boy, you’ve hurt her feelings. I hope you’re satisfied,” exclaimed Jane indignantly. “How would you like to be told you didn’t belong to any one?”
“But I do belong to some one, and I always have. But Letty didn’t, until Mrs. Hartwell-Jones took her, and I don’t see why she has to cry just because I spoke the truth,” argued Christopher.
“Kit is right,” said Letty, drying her tears. “I didn’t belong to any one before and it makes me so happy now to think that I’m really going to be somebody’s little girl again that—that I had to cry.”
“Huh! Had to cry! Why don’t you laugh if you’re glad? Why, I’d laugh for a week if I was going to belong to somebody that had as many good things to eat as Mrs. Hartwell-Jones always has.”
“Why, Kit, would you like to leave father and mother?” exclaimed Jane, much shocked.
“I didn’t say that, but Mrs. Hartwell-Jones certainly does know how to feed a fellow,” and Christopher smacked his lips.
Letty saw the word “greedy” trembling on Jane’s tongue and to check it she began quickly to talk about her good fortune.
“I am not to go to boarding-school, after all, because Mrs. Hartwell-Jones said she would be too lonely without me,” she said with a happy laugh. “Oh, just think of having a home to go back to every day after school! And the girls won’t snub me because of being a little circus girl!” she exclaimed, and, to Christopher’s vexation, began to cry again.