“It’s a round trip ticket to Rubio, Arizona!” she gasped, “Oh, Helen! Tom! How kind of you. Father and I will have Christmas together! And here’s a book of traveler’s checks and Pullman reservations. I’m to leave tomorrow.”
Tom gave Helen a hearty hug.
“So that’s where the $200 went,” he whispered. “Are you sure it’s enough?”
“Plenty,” she replied.
Mrs. Blair sat down in her favorite chair, the ticket and check book in her hands, her eyes dim with tears.
“But I can’t go away and leave you two here alone during holidays,” she said.
“Oh yes you can, Mother,” said Tom. “We’ll be happy just knowing that you and Dad are together and you can tell him all about us and then, when you come back, you can tell us all about him.”
“You must go, Mother,” insisted Helen. “I’ve let Dad in on the surprise and we can’t disappoint him now.”
Doctor Stevens drove them to the junction where Mrs. Blair was to board the Southwestern limited. Snow was falling steadily, one of those dry, sifting snows that presage a white Christmas in the middle west.
The limited poked its dark nose through the storm and drew its string of Pullmans up to the bleak platform. It paused for only a minute and the goodbyes were hasty.