I'll tell Martha to look after Clement
for the next two hours, and I will read to you while Claude sleeps. I
have read it once; but I would like to read it again."

And she did read it. Soon Christie's socks and darning-cotton were
forgotten, and she sat listening intently. It was something entirely
new to her, and she yielded herself to the charm of the book with an
eagerness that delighted the reader. Miss Gertrude liked the book at
the second reading even better than at the first. She enjoyed it this
time for herself and Christie too.

"There seems so much more in a book when you have anybody to enjoy it
with you," she said, at the end of an hour. "But I am tired of reading
aloud. You must take it a while now."

"But I have got out of the way of reading aloud," said Christie; "and
besides, I do not read so well as you."

"Oh, never mind; you'll read well enough. And give me the basket; I'll
darn your socks in the meantime."

"The socks? Oh, I had forgotten them! But there is very little to do.
I'll read a while if you like; but I know I don't read so well as you."

She took the book, however, and another hour passed rapidly away. She
shut the book with a sigh when Claude moved.

This was the first of many such readings. During the hours when Claude
was asleep and Clement under the immediate superintendence of Martha,
Miss Gertrude brought her book into the green room and shared the
pleasure it gave her with her little brother's nurse. And at other
times, too, when the little boys were amusing themselves together in the
garden, they read and discussed their books, sitting in the cedar walk,
or under the shadow of the locust-tree. And a very pleasant month they
had. Christie had great enjoyment in all this; and apparently Miss
Gertrude had no less; for she refused several invitations, and broke
more than one engagement with her aunt, rather than interfere with these
new arrangements.

But one day Miss Gertrude came into the green room with a cloud upon her
brow. It was plain that something was the matter.

"It has been a great deal too pleasant to last long," she said, throwing
down a letter which she held in her hand. "Here is papa coming home
immediately. I wouldn't mind his coming," she added, checked by the
look of surprise on Christie's face. "I shall be very glad to see him;
and he won't make much difference--he is so seldom at home. Besides, he
will let me please myself about things