"I have some good news for you, Mary," said Mrs. Willis. "You have often heard me talk of your godmother, your father's sister, who married a missionary and went away to China."
"O yes, mamma!" replied Mary. "I have always wished to see her so much. You know she sent me that beautiful box of shells and curiosities."
And then Mary sighed as she thought how Jenny had begged from her some of the prettiest things, and rarest curiosities in the box.
"Well, my love, I think you will see her very soon. I had a letter from her this afternoon, in which she says she expects to sail the next week for America and will come directly to us. She has a little boy who is lame, and she is bringing him home to see if he can be cured."
"How glad I am!" said Mary. "I have so often looked at her picture—the one you said she painted herself, when she was teaching you to draw, mamma—and wished she would come home."
Mrs. Willis smiled and sighed. "You must not expect to see Aunt Mary looking like her picture," said she. "It was painted long ago, when we were both young, and she has been through a great deal since then."
Mrs. Willis sighed, and looked down on the ground. She was thinking of all that had happened since she had seen her dear sister—how she had lost her husband and all her children but Mary. Mary stood leaning on her mother's chair without speaking, till the sound of the opening gate caused her to look up. There, coming in at the gate, was that very poor woman and her little boy, whom Jane Marvin and her companions had sent "on a fool's errand," as the saying is, to the empty farm-house on the hill.
Before she could make up her mind what to do, Mrs. Willis looked up also, and met the gaze of the stranger. With a scream of delight, she started up and flew to meet her, kissing her and calling her, her dear, precious sister, her darling sister Mary!
"Come here, Mary, and see your aunt," said her mother, turning round.
Mary came forward. She trembled so that she could hardly stand, and she was very pale, but her mother did not notice her confusion.