You should have heard her talk, though, when Matthias came over to see "Miss Molly."
"Come shufflin' over to see you," he said, "an' O my! but aint she jest as pooty. O"—and at this moment she realized his presence, both her little hands were stretched forth in welcome, and "ah goo! ah goo!" came a hundred times from her sweet mouth as she tried to spring out of her mother's lap.
"Take her, Matthias," I said.
"Wall, wall, she 'pears as ef she know me, Miss Emily—reckon she's got a mammy down thar."
"She has, indeed," said Mary, "and I know she will miss Mammy Lucy. She was my nurse, and she cried bitterly when we left, but I do not need her, Allie is just nothing to care for, and I like to be with her myself, for I am her mother, you know," she added proudly.
"I mus' know that ole Mammy Lucy, doesn't I, Miss Molly?"
"Certainly you do, Matthias, and she has sent a bandanna turban for your wife, and a pair of knitted gloves for you. She told me to say she didn't forget you, and was mighty glad for your freedom. Father long since gave her her's and she has quite a sum of money of her own."
All this time white baby fingers were pawing Matthias' face, as if in pity, and losing their little tips among his woolly hair.
When he rose to leave she cried bitterly, and turning back he said:
"Kin I tote her over to see Peg to-morrer?"