Appeared Sammy in the doorway, troubled at first but brightening suddenly at sight of his recovered sister.
"Hey, Sabina's home!" he shouted ecstatically back to the others. Then all came trooping in with a rush, clinging about the youngest, hugging her, kissing her as if she had been gone a year.
"Why, it's just like the Prodigal's son, ain't it?" suggested Martha, in whose lap Sabina sat enthroned, refusing to leave it for even a moment.
"Who's he?" asked Sammy.
Mrs. Slawson cast a look of reproach at her son.
"Shame on you, to ask such a question, at your age! Don't you remember the old prodigal gen'lman lived in the Bible, which his son had a rovin' disposition an' went off gallivantin' till his pervisions give out, an' he had to come home to get a square meal? When his father saw'm afar off, he got up, an' went out, an' called'm a fatted calf, an'—no I I'm wrong, he asked'm wouldn't he like some fatted calf, which, his son, bein' fond o' young veal, did, an' so they killed'm—I mean the calf. Now I'm wonderin' which one o' you three I better do it to for Sabina! There, there, Sabina! Don't holla so! O' course I don't mean I'd reely hurt your brothers an' sisters. Come, you're all tired out, or you wouldn't be so foolish! Cheer up, now! You're back home, after all your wanderin's, an' you won't be naughty any more—if you can help it, will you?"
CHAPTER XI
Whatever had been the cause of disagreement between Madam Crewe and her granddaughter, Martha noticed that a negative peace, at least, had been restored by the time she had occasion to go to Crewesmere again.
"And so you've been aiding and abetting a run-away girl, eh?" the old lady accosted her sharply.
Mrs. Slawson had almost forgotten the Ellen Hinckley episode, in the quick succession of events nearer home.