Captain Raymond was sitting alone in the library at Viamede, busily
engaged in examining and answering letters received by that morning's
mail when the telephone brought him Chester's message in regard to
Lucilla--her illness and the birth of their little son. It was news
of deepest interest and importance to the loving, anxious father. He
answered at once, then went out into the grounds to seek his wife, who,
with Elsie and Ned, had remained at home while the rest of their party
and neighbor friends had gone off on various excursions by land or
water.
Ned was not yet strong enough to be continually on the go, and his
parents and sister had elected to stay at home with him on this
occasion. Violet was now sitting under the orange-trees with a child
on each side, who were listening with keen interest to a story which
she was reading to them. She paused at the sound of her husband's
footsteps, and looking up into his face laughingly exclaimed, "Why, how
happy you look, my dear! Have you good news?"
"Yes, love," he replied. "I have a grandson; and mother and child seem
to be doing well."
"Oh, papa! a grandson. Why, whose baby is it? Another for Eva?" queried
Elsie in great excitement.
"No; it is your sister Lu who is the mother this time, and Chester is
its father."
"Oh, a dear little boy! I wish we were there to see him," cried Ned.
"I hope to take you there in a few weeks," returned his father with a
pleased smile. "We won't delay much longer, for I should really like a
sight of the little fellow myself."
"As I certainly should," said Violet. "Dear Lu! I have no doubt she
is very happy over it. And they have named him for you, haven't they,
Levis?"
"Yes, my dear; for me, his only living grandsire," returned the
captain, tone and accompanying smile both showing the pleasure he felt
in being thus affectionately remembered by both parents of the little
one.
"Yes, so you are; and I should have been exceedingly surprised had they
given the child any other name; for Lu loves you with all her heart,
and Chester seems to feel quite as if you were his own father."
"I believe that is so," returned the captain, his tone and countenance
expressing satisfaction. "I am fortunate as concerns sons-in-law,
except in the mixture of relationship in the gaining of the last, and
that seems to work well enough thus far."
"I think it does, and it has ceased to trouble me," said Violet. "But
this news makes me feel like hurrying home to Woodburn, and I am sure
will have that effect upon Grace when she hears it."
"I dare say," assented the captain; "and I think we need not linger
here longer than another fortnight."
"I am so glad," cried Grace when she heard the news. "Lu wanted to give
you your first grandson, and now she has got her wish."
"I fully appreciate the affection which prompted the wish, and am
glad, especially for her sake, that it has been granted," returned the
captain with a look that said even more than the words.
"As I am," said Dr. Harold; "especially as I know that it was Chester's
wish as much as hers."
The Torriswood folk had come in with the Travillas, and now expressed
their gratification at the news.
"A little nephew for us," exclaimed Maud. "And I am glad for Chester as
well as Lu, as it seems he wanted it; but I'm glad our baby is a girl
that we could name for dear Cousin Elsie," giving a warmly loving look
to Grandma Elsie as she spoke.
"As I am," said her husband, adding, "and I only hope that a close
resemblance in both looks and character may accompany the name."
"As I do in regard to my little darling," said Sidney and Dr. Johnson,
speaking simultaneously; then they laughed, and Sidney added, "I shall
write to the happy parents, offering my warm congratulations."
"And I shall do likewise," said Maud, "telling them I am glad I am aunt
to the wonderful little chap."
"And I shall write to Lu that she may consider me both his cousin and
his grandma," laughed Violet.
"Oh, mamma," exclaimed her daughter Elsie, "you know I don't like to
have you called a grandma. It sounds as if you were old, and you are
not at all old."
"Well, dear child, you needn't mind. It won't make me a day older,"
laughed Violet.
"Nor me, although it would seem to make me a great-grandmother," added
Grandma Elsie pleasantly.
"While no one would suspect you from your looks of being even a
grandmother," remarked the captain gallantly.
"No," said Dr. Percival; "I have seen many much younger women who
looked a great deal older."
"Oh, Dick, Dick, Cousin Dick, don't turn flatterer," she laughed,
though looking not at all displeased. "Though I am not very sorry to
hear such flattering remarks, as they are evidently pleasing to my
children."
"Indeed they are," said Violet; "all the more so because we see that
they are perfectly truthful."
"Well, it is high time that we busy doctors and proposed letter writers
were going home," said Dr. Percival, rising to take leave.
"Yes," said Maud, following his example, "especially as Elsie P. and
Elsie J. must be wanting their mothers by this time."
"So we are off for Torriswood," said Sidney. "Good-by, dear friends
and relatives, till next time. We hope to have this call returned
this evening or to-morrow morning," and with that the four took their
departure.
"And I must write at once to dear Lu a letter of warm congratulation,"
said Grace, following her father into the library, and being herself
followed by Dr. Harold, announcing his intention to do likewise.
They were all letters which, when received by Lucilla, seemed to her
very sweet and refreshing, her father's even more so than either of the
other two. But before they reached her she and Chester had had several
messages from him by telegram or telephone. And all these were shared
with Evelyn, Lucilla's constant, loved companion and dear sister.
Most of them also by the nearby friends and relatives, whose love
and sympathy were shown by almost daily calls and hours of pleasant
intercourse.
No one came oftener or showed more sympathy and kindness than Zoe, Mrs.
Edward Travilla.
"I am glad for you, Lu, that your baby is a boy, since that was what
you wanted," she remarked to Lucilla one day; "but for my part, if I
have another child I hope it may be a girl, so that I can name it for
mamma. She is and has always been such a dear, kind mother to me."
"Yes, she is certainly one of the dearest and sweetest of women,"
responded Lucilla heartily; "but there are so many Elsies that it
really seems a little confusing. I believe I should rather like to have
one myself if that were not the case," she added laughingly, "for I do
dearly love Grandma Elsie, as I have been used to calling her. My, what
a mixed-up set we are becoming! For, as you know, she is mother now to
my sister Grace."
"Who, to my delight, is my sister now, since she is the wife of my
husband's brother," returned Zoe exultingly.
"And mine, since I am the wife of her brother," laughed Evelyn. "Oh, we
are a mixed-up set, but perhaps none the less happy and well off for
that."
"No, I think not," said Zoe.
"And I am quite sure of it," said Lucilla; "and as my husband is a
distant relative of yours, Zoe, you and I can claim kin, can't we?"
"Yes, and we will. We will call ourselves cousins from this time
forward."
"And as my Aunt Elsie, Grandma Elsie's oldest daughter, is sister to
your husband, can't you and I claim kin, Zoe?" asked Evelyn.
"Certainly," promptly replied Zoe; "we will consider ourselves cousins
now."
"So we will; it is a very comfortable way to settle matters," laughed
Evelyn. "We have been calling you Aunt Zoe, but you are too young for
that, and we have been growing up to you in age."
"So you have. Well, how soon do you expect our kith and kin to come
from Viamede to their more northern homes?"
"Father says in two or three weeks," replied Lucilla, "and I hope I
shall be allowed to sit up by that time. Oh, you don't know how I long
to show him my little Ray of Sunshine!" she added, gently patting the
sleeping babe by her side. "Oh, both Chester and I want very much to
have him resemble his grandfather, my dear father, in looks, character
and everything."
"As I hope and believe he will," said Zoe in tones of sympathy and
encouragement.