range
everything for your comfort, I will go and meet him. He is in New York,
and I shall see for myself if he needs any doctoring or care that he
could not get here. Then perhaps we will stay at the seaside or in the
mountains for a week or so. Would you mind being left with the maids for
that long? Perhaps one of your little acquaintances would like to come
and play with you once or twice a week."
This was a great privilege in her grandmother's eyes, as Rosanna knew,
and she said, "Thank you, grandmother," and started to tell her then and
there about Helen. But Mrs. Horton went right on talking.
"Come to my room with me while I pack," she said, rising.
Rosanna did not get a chance to say one word to her. She listened while
her grandmother called up an intimate friend who lived near by and
arranged for her to come in every day to see how Rosanna was getting
on. She called John in and told him just where he could drive the car
when Miss Rosanna took her daily ride. "If she wants to take a little
girl friend with her, she is to do so, as I want her to have a good
time," Mrs. Horton told him.
When she woke the next morning, Rosanna lay for a long while thinking.
So Uncle Robert had actually come home! And grandmother had gone to meet
him! She might be away a week or more. Then her thoughts flew to Helen.
Wasn't it too, _too_ wonderful? Her grandmother had said quite clearly
that one of her little acquaintances might come and play with her.
Usually Rosanna took forever to dress. She was really not at all nice
about it. Big girl as she was, Minnie always dressed her, and she would
scriggle her toes so her stockings wouldn't go on, and would hop up and
down so the buttons wouldn't button. It was very exasperating and she
should have been soundly spanked for it: but of course Minnie, who was
paid generous wages, only said, "Now, Miss Rosanna, don't you bother
poor Minnie that-a way!"
This morning, however, she was out of bed and into the cold plunge
without being pushed and she actually _helped_ with her stockings. She
was ready for breakfast so soon that Minnie said, "Well, well, Miss
Rosanna, looks like it does you good to have your grandmother go 'way!"
With one thing and another, she did not get a chance to go down to the
overhanging tree until after luncheon.
She peered eagerly up.
Helen was there, curled up on a big bough, a book in her lap and a gray
kitten playing around her.
"Here I am!" said
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