present; and, without speaking, Clara dropped on the ground, laid her
head on her dear old friend's lap, and little Mercy exclaimed, in
wondering alarm, 'Aunt Cara naughty--Aunt Cara crying!'

'My darling,' said Miss Faithfull, as she kissed Clara's brow and
stroked her long flaxen hair, 'you have gone through a great deal. We
must try to make you happy in your poor old home.'

'Oh, no! oh, no! It is happiness! Oh! such happiness! but I don't
know what to do with it, and I want granny!'

She was almost like little Salome; the flood of bliss in returning
home, joined with the missing of the one dearest welcome, had come on
her so suddenly that she was almost stifled, till she had been calmed
and soothed by the brief interval of quiet with her dear old friend.
She returned to No. 5, there to find that her uncle was going to bed,
and Charlotte, pink and beautiful with delight, was running about in
attendance on Jane. She went up straight to her own little room, which
had been set out exactly as in former times, so that she could feel as
if she had been not a day absent; and she lost not a moment in adding
to it all the other little treasures which made it fully like her own.
She looked out at the Ormersfield trees, and smiled to think how well
Louis's advice had turned out; and then she sighed, in the fear that it
might yet be her duty to leave home. If her uncle could live without
her, she must tear herself away, and work for his maintenance.

However, for the present, she might enjoy to the utmost, and she
proceeded to the little parlour, which, to her extreme surprise, she
found only occupied by the four children--Kitty holding the youngest
upon her feet, till, at the new apparition, Fanny suddenly seated
herself for the convenience of staring.

'Are you all alone here!' exclaimed Clara.

'I am taking care of the little ones,' replied Kitty, with dignity.

'Where's mamma!'

'She is gone down to get tea. Papa is gone to the Union; but we do not
mean to wait for him,' answered the little personage, with an air
capable, the more droll because she was on the smallest scale, of much
less substance than the round fat twins, and indeed chiefly
distinguishable from them by her slender neat shape; for the faces were
at first sight all alike, brown, small-featured, with large dark eyes,
and dark curly hair--Mercy, with the largest and most impetuous eyes,
and Salome with a dreamy look, more like her mother. Fanny w