“Oh yes, mammy, so I am, for I’m going to drive to the city with papa and mamma instead of sitting here studying that hard lesson. And you must please make all the haste you can to dress me in my blue velvet suit.”
“Massa say so? Den dat I will, darlin’, hab you ready fo’ Miss Rose gits her bonnet on.”
Always ready to exert herself for the pleasure of her idolized nursling, Aunt Chloe had laid aside her knitting and taken the dress from the wardrobe before her sentence was fairly concluded.
Her dexterous fingers made quick work with the little girl’s toilet. “Ki, chile! but you is lubly and sweet as de rose!” was her delighted exclamation as she took a careful survey of her completed work.
“O mammy, you mustn’t flatter me!” laughed Elsie, dancing from the room. “Good-by till I come back.”
Hastening to the grand entrance hall of the mansion, she found the carriage at the door; but her papa and mamma had not yet made their appearance. Her baby brother was there, however, crowing in his nurse’s arms.
“Oh, you pretty darling, come to sister!” cried the little girl, holding out her arms to receive him.
But her father’s step and voice sounded in her rear. “No, no, Elsie! he is quite too heavy for you to hold; especially with his out-door garments on.”
“Why, papa, you never said so before,” she returned in a disappointed tone, looking up entreatingly into his face as he drew near, “though you’ve often seen me holding him.”
“But he is growing heavier every day, daughter, and for your own sake I must forbid you to carry him. You may have him on your lap occasionally for a little while at a time, when you are seated; but never hold him when standing.”