ess, longed to be near the dear people of the
family, even if she could not see them.

"Edward," said her mother,--what music there was in her voice!--"if you
are going after that dear child, you'd better take a shawl to wrap her
in, for it is snowing fast. And be sure to tell her we love her dearly,
every one of us, and don't believe she will ever run away again."

"O, was her papa going after her? Did they love her, after all? Were they
willing to keep her in the house?"

Dotty opened the door before she knew it. "O, mamma, mamma!" cried she,
rushing into her mother's arms.

"Why, Dotty, you darling child, where did you come from?" exclaimed Mrs.
Parlin, in great surprise, kissing the little, dirty girl, and taking her
right to her heart, in spite of the coal-dust.

"If you'll let me stay at home," gasped Dotty, "if you'll _let_ me stay
at home, I'll live in the kitchen, and won't go near the table."

"Where _did you_ come from?" said Mr. Parlin, kissing a clean place on
Dotty's black face, and laughing under his breath.

"I came through the cellar window, papa."

"Through the cellar window, child?"

"Yes, papa; I didn't s'pose you'd care!"

"Care! My dear, your mother is the one to care! Just look at your
stockings!"

"There was coal there, thrown in," said Dotty, with a quivering lip;
"and I had to walk over it, and under it, and through it."

"Was my little daughter afraid to come in by the door?"

"I didn't know's you wanted me, papa.

"I thought you'd say, 'What strange child is this?'"

Mr. Parlin, looking at the black streaks on Dotty's woeful face, found it
very difficult to keep from laughing. "A strange child' she appeared to
be, certainly.

"But I'd got my visit all finished up, ever and ever so long ago."

"So you really chose to come back to us, my dear?"

"O, papa, you don't know! Did you think, did you s'pose--"

Here Dotty broke down completely, and, seizing her father's shirt-bosom
in both her grimy hands, she buried her face in it, and sprinkled it with
tears of ink.

There was great surprise throughout the house when Dotty's arrival
became known.

"We didn't know how to live without you any longer," said Prudy; "and
tomorrow Thanksgiving Day."

"But I never should have come up," said Dotty, "if I hadn't heard mamma
talk about loving me just the same; I never _could_ have come up."

"Excuse me for smiling," said Prudy; "but you look as if you had fallen
into the inkstand.