"I suppose I knew I deserved it." Carl laid "Water Babies" on her lap, and, kneeling on the floor with his elbows on the window-sill and his chin in his hands, looked thoughtfully out at the bare branches of the maples.
"I'll tell you what it is," he said after a minute's silence, "Aunt Zélie is a trump."
"I know that, only I'd call her a prettier name," said Dora, smiling.
"You can't know really till you have been very had. She was so good to me. It makes a fellow feel awfully when somebody like her cares a lot for him and he goes and disappoints her."
"But you won't again, I'm sure."
"You see," Carl went on, "she cares for me particularly because I am named for Uncle Carl. Has Bess or Louise ever told you about him?"
Dora shook her head.
"He was Mamma's brother, you know, and he was splendid. I thought there was nobody like him when I was a little fellow. He used to be here a great deal, and we were glad when he married Aunt Zélie because we were so fond of them both. The only thing we did not like about it was that Aunt Zélie went away to live, but they came to see us very often. Then Uncle Carl died. He was skating with some people, and a friend of his went where the ice wouldn't hold, and broke through. Nobody knew just what to do, it was so hard to get to him on the broken ice, and the man couldn't swim. Uncle Carl saw that he would drown before help came, so he went right into the freezing water and held up his head till they brought ropes."
"He wasn't drowned, was he?" Dora asked in an awestruck voice.
"No, but he was in the water so long that it made him ill. The other man got well. It happened not long before Mamma died. Then, you know, Aunt Zélie came back to us."