His lips moved for an instant in silent prayer, and then he stretched out his arms yearningly toward the child and asked almost humbly:
"Will my little daughter give me a kiss?"
The child crept to him and kissed him again and again.
"I do not deserve this blessing from Heaven; I do not deserve this darling little daughter."
"And you have the darlingest and most beautiful wife in all the world!" cried the child.
"Lawd, honey!" said old Squire—he was in a broad grin—"he know'd her long fo' you did."
"Is she like this?" asked Colonel Marsden.
He reached under his pillow and drew thence a small square case and handed it to Roberta.
Roberta fairly screamed: "It's my mamma; it's my own darling mamma! Now I know how much you love her, or you wouldn't carry her picture about with you."
"It has never been away from me an instant, never one instant."