and trying to feel
calm. "We're ready now, Uncle."

"And so am I," said he. "But first of all, I must ask you both not to
magnify the importance of what I am going to reveal."

"About Aunt Kate?" interposed Dorry.

"About Aunt Kate. Do not think you have lost her, because she was
really--no, I should say not exactly--"

"Oh," urged Dorry, "don't stop so, Uncle! Please do go on!"

"As I was about to say," resumed Mr. Reed, in a tone of mild rebuke at
the interruption, "it really never made any difference to me, nor to
your father, and it should make no difference to you now. You know," he
continued, with some hesitation, "children sometimes are adopted into
families; that is to say, they are loved just the same, and cared for
just the same, but they are not own children. Do you understand?"

"Understand what, please, Uncle? Did Aunt Kate adopt any one?" asked
Dorry.

"No, but my father and mother did; your grandfather and grandmother
Reed, you know," said he, looking at the D's in turn, as though he hoped
one of them would help him.

"You don't mean, Uncle," almost screamed Dorry, "that it was that--that
horrid--"

Donald came to her assistance.

"Was it _that man_, Uncle?" he asked, quickly. "Ben Buster told me the
fellow claimed to be related to us; was _he_ ever adopted by Grandfather
Reed?"

"Ugh!" shuddered Dorry.

Very little help poor Uncle George could hope for now from the D's. The
only way left was to speak out plainly.

"No, not that man, my children; but Aunt Kate. Aunt Kate was an adopted
daughter--an adopted sister; but she was in all other respects one of
our family. Never was daughter or sister more truly beloved. When she
came to us she was but two years old, an orphan. Grandpa and Grandma
Reed had known her parents, and when the little"--here Mr. Reed hastily
resolved to say nothing of Eben Slade for the present--"the little girl
was left alone in the world, destitute, with no relatives to care for
her, my father and mother took her into their home, to bear their name
and to be their own dear little daughter.

"When Aunt Kate was old enough, they told her all; but it was her wish
that we boys should forget that we were not really her brothers. This
was before we came to live in this house.

"Our Nestletown neighbors, never hearing anything of the adoption,
naturally supposed that little Kate Reed was our own sister. The secret
was known only to our relatives, and one or two old frie