"Does she not give you a present on your birthday?"
"Yes; but I like to give her one better than to have her give me one; and it was such a great part of the happiness 'cause you came to-night."
"Bless your loving little heart!" said the colonel, looking very much pleased.
"You know, even if you did not give me that beautiful doll, it would be 'most the same; for Maggie would let me call hers half mine; but I am very glad you did give it to me. Oh, I'm very satisfied of this day."
"Wasn't this a nice day?" Bessie said to her sister, when their little friends were gone, and they were snug in bed.
"Yes, lovely," said Maggie, "only except the boys hollering about me. I never heard of such a thing,—to go and holler about a girl, and make her feel all red! I think, if it wasn't for that, I wouldn't know what to do 'cause of my gladness."
[XVIII.]
THE ADVENTURE.
THERE was a dreadful storm that week, which lasted several days, and did a great deal of damage along the coast. The sky was black and angry with dark, heavy clouds. The great waves of the ocean rolled up on the beach with a loud, deafening roar, the house rocked with the terrible wind, and the rain poured in such torrents that Maggie asked her mother if she did not think "the windows of heaven were opened," and there was to be another flood.