This is as it should be; and how are you, my dear?" said Mr. Carnegie,
drawing her affectionately to him.

"Is there any need to ask, Thomas? Could she have looked bonnier if she
had never left us?" said his wife fondly.

Blushing, beaming, laughing, Bessie came in. How small the house seemed,
and how full! There was young Christie's picture of her smiling above
the mantelpiece, there was the doctor's old bureau and the old leathern
chair. Bridget and the younger branches appeared, some of them shy of
Bessie, and Totty particularly, who was the baby when she went away.
They crowded the stairs, the narrow hall. "Make room there!" cried
Jack, imperative amidst the fuss; and her mother conveyed the trembling
girl up to her own dear old triangular nest under the thatch. The books,
the watery miniatures, the Oriental bowl and dishes were all in their
places. "Oh, mother, how happy I am to see it again!" cried she. And
they had a few tears to wink away, and with them the fancied
forgetfulnesses of the absent years.

It was a noisy dinner in comparison with the serene dulness Bessie was
used to, but not noisier than it was entitled to be with seven children
at table, ranging from four to fourteen, for Sunday was the one day of
the week when Mr. Carnegie dined with his children, and it was his good
pleasure to dine with them all. So many bright faces and white pinafores
were a sweet spectacle to Bessie, who was so merry that Totty was quite
tamed by the time the dessert of ripe fruit came; and would sit on
"Sissy's" lap, and apply juicy grapes to "Sissy's" lips--then as "Sissy"
opened them, suddenly popped the purple globes into her own little
mouth, which made everybody laugh, and was evidently a good old family
joke.

Dinner over, Mr. Carnegie adjourned to his study, where his practice was
to make up for short and often disturbed nights by an innocent nap on
Sunday afternoon. "We will go into the drawing-room, Bessie, as we
always do. Totty says a hymn with the others now, and will soon begin to
say her catechism, God bless her!" Thus Mrs. Carnegie.

Bessie had now a boy clinging to either arm. They put her down in a
corner of the sofa, their mother occupying the other, and Totty throned
between them. There was a little desultory talk and seeking of places,
and then the four elder children, standing round the table, read a
chapter, verse for verse. Then followed the recitation of the catechism
in that queer, mechanical g