"Don't come out in the cold, daughter," he said, seeing the child about to
follow.
Mammy had just come down with the sleeping babe in her arms, warmly
wrapped up to shield her from the cold.
Elsie sprang to her side, lifted the veil that covered the little face,
and softly touched her lips to the delicate cheek. "Good-bye, baby
darling. Oh, mammy, we'll miss her sadly and you too."
"Don't fret, honey, 'spect we all be comin' back soon," Aunt Chloe
whispered, readjusting the veil, and hurrying after her mistress.
Elsie flew to the window, and watched the carriage roll away down the
avenue, till lost to sight in the darkness, tears trembling in her eyes,
but a thrill of joy mingling with her grief: "it was so sweet to be a
comfort and help to dear mamma."
She set herself to considering how she might be the same to her father and
brothers and sister; what she could do now.
She remembered that her father was very fond of music and that her mother
often played and sang for him in the evenings. He had said he would
probably return in an hour, and going to the piano she spent the
intervening time in the diligent practice of a new piece of music he had
brought her a day or two before.
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