Grandpa lived here then and we had fine times;
but now they are all gone except us two."
"We haven't got any father either," said Bab, for something in Miss
Celia's face made her feel as if a cloud had come over the sun.
[Illustration: MISS CELIA AND HER LITTLE FRIENDS.]
"_I_ have a first-rate father, if I only knew where he'd gone to," said
Ben, looking down the path as eagerly as if some one waited for him
behind the locked gate.
"You are a rich boy, and you are happy little girls to have so good a
mother; I've found that out already," and the sun shone again as the
young lady nodded to the neat, rosy children before her.
"You may have a piece of her if you want to, 'cause you haven't got any
of your own," said Betty, with a pitiful look which made her blue eyes
as sweet as two wet violets.
"So I will! and you shall be my little sisters. I never had any, and
I'd love to try how it seems," and Miss Celia took both the chubby
hands in hers, feeling ready to love every one this first bright
morning in the new home which she hoped to make a very happy one.
Bab gave a satisfied nod, and fell to examining the rings upon the
white hand that held her own.
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