“I would Jim him if I had him! That man Molyneux in all his scrimping little letters never said whether you were a boy or a girl, and we thought a Lennox was bound to be a boy, and all this time we have been expecting a boy.”
“I declare!” said the little one, with the most amusing drawl, a memory of Molyneux. “Why, I always was a girl, far back as I can remember. Nobody never gave me the chance to be a boy. I s'pose I hadn't the clothes for the part, and they just pushed me along anyhow in frocks. Would you'd rather I was a boy?”
“Not a bit! We have one in the house already, and he's a fair heart-break,” said her aunt, with a look towards Mr. Dyce. “We had just made up our mind to dress you in the kilt when your rap came to the door. At least, I had made up my mind, the others are so stubborn. And bless me! lassie, where's your luggage? You surely did not come all the way from Chicago with no more than what you have on your back?”
“You'll be tickled to death to see my trunks!” said Lennox. “I've heaps and heaps of clothes and six dolls. They're all coming with the coach. They wanted me to wait for the coach too, but the mail man who called me a caution said he was bound to have a passenger for luck on New Year's Day, and I was in a hurry to get home anyway.”
“Home!” When she said that, the two aunts swept on her like a billow and bore her, dog and all, up-stairs to her room. She was almost blind for want of sleep.
They hovered over her quick-fingered, airy as bees, stripping her for bed. She knelt a moment and in one breath said:
“God - bless - father - and - mother - and - Jim - and - Mrs. - Molyneux - and - my - aunts - in - Scotland - and Uncle - Dan - and - everybody - good - night.”
And was asleep in the sunlight of the room as soon as her head fell on the pillow.
“She prayed for her father and mother,” whispered Bell, with Footles in her arms, as they stood beside the bed. “It's not—it's not quite Presbyterian to pray for the dead; it's very American, indeed you might call it papist.”
Ailie's face reddened, but she said nothing.