WELCOME VISITORS.
When the Doctor went up to Mary's room after luncheon to make his usual
visit, he found a very quiet little girl waiting for him. His sister had
told him no more than was necessary of the scene an hour earlier, so
that he was more than surprised to find the child in bed and oh, so
tired!
"I fear that you stayed up too long this morning, little one. Better
take a nap and not try to sit up again to-day. You are going to have
company this afternoon. Can you guess who it is?"
"To-day is Saturday. Aunt Mary, Uncle?"
"Exactly. She and Sister Dominic are in town doing some shopping, and
she called me up at the office to know at what hour they might see my
patient. I told them to come about three o'clock. That will give you
plenty of time for a little rest."
"Uncle--please put your head down." Her little arms clasped his neck,
and she whispered close to his ear, "I love to be with you, but--but I
just can't help wishing that I could go----"
"I know, dear, I know. I, too, wish that you were able to go--that we
might both go; but you have no idea what it is going to mean to me to
have you with me. I have so many lovely plans that I fear we shall never
have time to carry them all out. One is about the pony you will learn to
ride when we go South after Christmas to a beautiful, warm place where
we shall almost live outdoors under such a bright blue sky that you may
have to wear black spectacles. Green ones might be more to your taste,
or those new style amber-colored ones."
"What is amber color, Uncle?"
"A deep, golden yellow. Oh, I _beg_ your pardon! Yellow is not your
favorite color, nor green, either."
"Nor black, _either_. If I _must_ wear glasses, they will have to be
clear ones like Aunt Mandy's or blue ones."
"But black is not a color. It is the absence of all color. Do you know,
it seems to me strange that your hair has escaped----"
"My hair escaped!" Mary felt her head. "Why, Uncle, it is on my head
just as tight as ever. You frightened me. I thought it was flying away.
I s'pose _escaped_ has more than one meaning just as so many words have.
When I forgot to close the door of Dick's cage, and he flew out, Mother
said he had escaped."
"In this case, I mean that I am surprised that you have not dyed your
hair blue or bleached it white."
"Now, Uncle, you are just teasing me. Have _you_ ever seen anyone with
blue hair?"
"I must admit that I have not. Such a person would soon make her fortune
in a dime museum or in a side-show at a circus."
"You know very well, sir, that the promise doesn't mean that a person
has to change the color of her hair and lips. Why, no one's face is pure
white; and who ever heard of blue lips?"
"Two weeks ago, the lips of a certain person, not a thousand miles away,
were as blue as I should ever care to see anyone's, and her face looked
as white as the pillow. But I am glad to know that you do not intend to
blue your hair. It brightens things up as a sudden burst of sunshine
does on a gloomy day. Let me punch up that pillow for you, and then go
to sleep just as fast as you can so as to be ready for Aunt Mary and
Sister Dominic."
When Mary opened her eyes two hours later, the sound of voices in the
next room told her that her visitors had arrived. Presently, her mother
peeped in, and finding the little girl awake, propped her up against the
pillows and put a fluffy white shawl about her shoulders.
This was Sister Madeline's first visit since Mary had begun to recover.
"I'm so sorry that I didn't know you were here those other times, Aunt
Mary. Mother told me afterwards when the bad dreams went away. It seems
strange that I had them nearly all the time then, and they never bother
me now."
"That is a very good sign that you are much better. You will soon be
able to spend the day with us at Maryvale. By the way, Elizabeth, where
did you put that famous black bag at which you are always poking fun?
Mary will have greater respect for it than you have when she sees what
there is in it for her. Now," and Sister Madeline drew from her cloth
bag a large oblong package, "can you guess what this is?"
"Some of Sister Wilfred's cookies?"
"Oh, dear, no! But remember that, Sister Dominic, for our next visit.
You are so 'cold,' Mary, that I am sure you can never guess. Just see
how your little friends spent their library hour last evening."
"Letters! and such a pile of them!"
"Yes, it will take you some time to read them. I was so afraid that the
postman might object to bringing such a number to one little girl that I
thought I had better carry them myself. Some of the children feared that
they would not look like real letters; so they took the stamps from old
envelopes to paste on theirs and made circles with spools for postmarks
and asked some of the larger girls to print in them the names and dates.
I am very sure that no little girl has ever received so many letters
from distant lands. Here is one with the Cuban stamp, one from Brazil,
several from Canada, one from China, one from Italy----"
"Oh, please let me look at that stamp, Aunt Mary--Now I shall know which
letters are from Father and Mother the very minute the postman brings
them," Mary murmured wistfully.
"Do you think, Sister, that the boy with our suit-case is lost? We had
something else for Mary packed in a black suit-case, Elizabeth; and as
we did not care to carry it about town with us, we sent a boy out here
with it."
"It is safe in Sister Julia's room. The boy handed it to Liza with the
message, 'For the Sister;' and as Sister Julia has returned to her
convent for a few hours, we thought, of course, that she had sent back
some clothing by him. I shall get it."
"Perhaps you will make a warmer guess this time, Mary," said Sister
Dominic, placing the suit-case on a chair beside the bed. "I assure you
that it is nothing Sister Julia would think of wearing."
"I guess books, Sister."
"The suit-case is not heavy enough for books, dear. Indeed," laughed
Mrs. Selwyn, "I rather think that Aunt Mary is playing a joke on you."
"Not at all!" and Sister Madeline threw back the cover.
"Oh, oh! what beauties!"
Mary's eyes shone with delight at sight of the great mass of
chrysanthemums--big, ragged yellow ones; fluffy pink ones; curly white
ones; "and see, Mother, see the long sprays of little baby ones!"
"Dan has had great success with his chrysanthemums this year," explained
Sister Madeline. "I tell him that they would win the prize at the flower
show; but he insists that he raises his flowers for the altar, not for
prizes."
"I think that is where these ought to be, Aunt Mary. Do you think Mr.
Daniel would mind if Mother sends the big ones to Father Lacey for the
altar, and keeps just the little ones for us?--the little white ones to
put before Blessed Mother's statue, the pink ones for the dinner table,
and the yellow ones in here to prove to Uncle that I do like yellow."
"I am quite sure that Dan would be pleased with your plan, dear."
"Then I shall pack the large ones in a box," said Mrs. Selwyn, "and Tom
may leave them at the rectory when he returns after driving you to the
ferry."
"Please thank Mr. Daniel, Aunt Mary, and the girls, too, for their
letters; but tell them I am afraid that I can't answer them very soon."
"But the children do not expect you to answer those letters, Mary."
"I know the very thing! I shall ask Uncle to write one letter to all of
them, and I shall tell him what to say. We can do the same thing to the
girls in my class. Every one of them wrote to me, too, and said prayers
for me while I was so sick."