And Kate poured out the story in a manner as refreshing as a summer shower, ending it with the good news that papa had just received a telegram from Mr. Isaac Dobson that “we will be home on the midday train.”
“And grandma is going to church!” said Harry. “I’m afraid somebody will tell her he’s coming.”
“Not a soul will dare to do it,” remarked Mrs. Hallock. “I would carry the sad news of a death far sooner than this dreadful joy to Mrs. Dobson. We must just wait for the truth to discover itself.”
Grandma Dobson went that Christmas morning, for Kate had the bliss of driving her to the church.
During the service, Mrs. Dobson was pitifully disturbed. Why was it that everybody seemed to regard her with unusual notice? Was it because her bonnet was “on one side”? No, that was not it; and she passed her hands softly over the clustering curls—they were all in place; and who was it, she wondered, for whose safe return from a long absence thanks were given. Who could it be? She hadn’t heard of anybody’s return. She would ask when service was over; but she did not ask, for everybody put the thought of asking far away from her mind. She never knew her townfolks so polite and kind before. Everybody seemed so glad to stop and shake hands and wish her a “Happy Christmas!” Some way she told Kate, who rushed her home over the snow, that she supposed folks thought she was getting too old for a merry Christmas any longer; “But, Kittie, my Clover,” she said, “I am not so very old after all, only fifty-nine; and this Christmas, with you all at the old brown house, will make me quite young again. I do hope Harry has remembered to look into the brick oven after the things I put in.”
“Don’t worry, grandma. Mother was going right over and the cook, and I just this minute caught sight of Frank hiding behind the corner. Go on, Nep.!”
Kate was intensely excited. Had Captain Dobson got there already? Was he in waiting in the house? and, O dear! how would everybody bear it? What a dreadful thing too much joy was, after all!
Frank advanced to assist Mrs. Dobson. The door opened and Mr. Isaac Dobson came out.
“I thought,” he said, “you wouldn’t mind having one more at your Christmas dinner to-day—or three or four, for that matter; so I’ve brought my family over; but we fetched along a roast turkey and some other things with us—so don’t worry.”
“I’m very glad to see you, Isaac. I wonder what will happen next. This is a queer Christmas, I must be allowed to say”; and as she alighted and glanced backward up the Lane, she saw a dozen or more sleighs approaching. Where could they be going?