"Mamma, dear mamma, what is wrong?" she asked.
"A sad accident, daughter," Elsie answered, her voice faltering with
emotion, "poor grandpa and Aunt Enna have been badly hurt."
"Our dear grandpa, mamma?" they all asked, lips and voices tremulous with
grief.
"No, darlings, not my own dear father," the mother answered, with a heart
full of gratitude that it was not he, "but our poor old grandfather who
lives at Roselands."
"My dear little wife, you are too much overcome to talk any more just
now," Mr. Travilla said, wheeling an easy-chair to the fire, seating her
in it, and removing her hat and cloak, with all the tender gallantry of
the days when he wooed and won his bride; "let me tell it." He took a seat
near her side, lifted "bit Herbie" to his knee, and with the others
gathered close about him, briefly told how the accident had happened, and
that he and their mother had met a messenger coming to acquaint them with
the disaster, and summon them to Roselands; then gave the children some
idea of the present situation of their injured relations.
When he had finished, and his young hearers had expressed their sorrow and
sympathy for the sufferers, a moment of silence ensued, broken by little
Elsie.
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