Meantime, Kitty’s absence had been discovered at the hotel, and great excitement followed. Her mamma fainted, and Maggie wrung her hands in anxiety and despair. Her papa alone was cool and collected.
“She has run away so many times,” said he, quietly, “that I have no doubt she will come home safely, as always before.”
Nevertheless, he dispatched messengers without number here and there, and looked anxiously out into the streets for that dear little yellow head he so loved. It was nearly noon when he saw it—the bright sun glaring down on the tired little face under the sailor hat. He was going to be very stern as he lifted his naughty child from the saddle, but she looked so repentant, putting up her quivering lips for a forgiving kiss, that somehow his anger fled away and he gave her the pardoning caress. The two boys were sent away happy, with a generous baksheesh or present, and the next day Kitty’s father sought out the kind-hearted jewel merchant and bought many a gem from his choice collection. Among them was a locket for Kitty, in which he then placed his own and her mother’s picture.
“Kitty,” he said, gravely, as he hung the pretty thing about her neck, “when you are tempted to do wrong, open this locket, and think how it will pain two hearts that love you.“
“Papa,” said the repentant Kitty, “I never will run away again.”
And she kept her word. So it came to pass that our little heroine lost her evil propensity in the Turkish bazaar at Cairo.
“I’M A LITTLE STORY.”
By Margaret Eytinge.