be angry at her mother, and delicious tears of joy flowed over her
beautiful face, as, pressing the paper to her lips, she murmured:

"Dear Charlie! darling Charlie! I knew he was not false, and I thank the
kind Father for bringing him at last to me."

Hiding it in her bosom, Anna took the other letter then, and throwing
her shawl around her, for she was beginning to shiver with cold, sat
down by the window and read it through--read it once, read it twice,
read it thrice, and then--sure never were the inmates of Terrace Hill
thrown into so much astonishment and alarm as they were that April
morning, when, in her cambric night robe, her long hair falling unbound
about her shoulders, and her bare feet, gleaming white and cold upon the
floor, Miss Anna went screaming from room to room, and asking her
wonder-stricken mother and sisters if they had any idea who it was that
had been an inmate of their house for so many weeks.

"Come with me, then," she almost screamed, and dragging her mother to
her room, where Willie sat up in bed, looking curiously about him and
uncertain whether to cry or to laugh, she exclaimed, "Look at him,
mother, and you, too, Asenath and Eudora!" turning to her sisters, who
had followed. "Tell me who is he like? He is John's child. And Rose was
Lily, the young girl whom you forbade him to marry! Listen, mother, you
shall listen to what your pride has done!" and grasping the bewildered
Mrs. Richards by the arm, Anna held her fast while she read aloud the
letter left by Adah.

Mrs. Richards fainted. She soon recovered, however, and listened eagerly
while Anna repeated all her brother had ever told her of Lily.

Poor Willie! He was there in the bed, looking curiously at the four
women, none of whom seemed quite willing to own him save Anna. Her heart
took him in at once. He had been given to her. She would be faithful to
the trust, and folding him in her arms, she cried softly over him,
kissing his little face and calling him her darling.

"Anna, how can you fondle such as he?" Eudora asked, rather sharply.

"He is our brother's child. Mother, you will not turn from your
grandson," and Anna held the boy toward her mother, who did not refuse
to take him.

Asenath always went with her mother, and at once showed signs of
relenting by laying her hand on Willie's head and calling him "poor
boy." Eudora held out longer, but Anna knew she would yield in time,
and satisfied with Willie's reception so fa