fter their guest had gone to bed, the Grants
sat up together conversing about Annie; and in the morning they came
down with a proposal so astonishing, that Mrs. Boyd could hardly believe
her ears when she heard it.

"We have been talking in a vague way for years past of adopting a little
girl," said Mr. Grant. "We always wished for a daughter, and felt sure
that to have a sister would be the best thing in the world for Rupert,
who is an affectionate little fellow, and would enjoy such a playmate of
all things. But you can easily guess that there have been difficulties
in the way of these plans, especially as to finding the right child, so
we have done nothing about it. Now it strikes my wife, and it strikes me
also, that this story of your sister's is a clear leading of Providence.
Here is a child who wants a home, and here are we who want a child. So
we have made up our minds to send to America for Annie, and, if her
relatives will consent, to adopt her as our own. Will you give me Mrs.
Randolph's exact address?"

"But it is so sudden. Are you sure you won't repent?" asked Mrs. Boyd.

"I don't think we shall. And it seems less sudden to us than to you,
because, as I have explained, this idea has been in our minds for a a
long time."

You can fancy the excitement of Major and Mrs. Randolph when Mr.
Grant's letter reached Medville. He offered to adopt Annie, and treat
her in every respect as though she were his own daughter, provided her
Grandmother and Aunt would give her up entirely, and promise never again
to claim her as theirs.

"If they will consent to this," wrote Mr. Grant, "I will settle a
hundred pounds a year on them for the rest of their lives. I will also
employ a lawyer to see if any thing can be done towards getting back a
part of the confiscated property. But all this is only on condition that
the child is absolutely made over to me. I am not willing to take her
with any loop-hole left open by which she may, by and by, be claimed
back again just as we have learned to consider her our own. I beg that
Major Randolph will have this point most clearly understood, and will
attend to the drawing up of a legal paper which shall put it beyond the
possibility of dispute."

The day after this letter came, Mrs. Randolph put it in her pocket and
walked out to the mountain hut. She felt very nervous as she tapped at
the door.

"It was a terrible thing to do," she wrote afterwards to her sister.
"There were th