ilence fell, Rose said
slowly, with a pretty colour in her cheeks, and a beseeching look about
the room, as if asking pardon of the boys,

"It's very hard to choose when everybody is so fond of me; therefore I
think I'd better go to the one who seems to need me most."

"No, dear, the one you love the best and will be happiest with," said
Dr. Alec quickly, as a doleful sniff from Aunt Myra, and a murmur of "My
sainted Caroline," made Rose pause and look that way.

"Take time, cousin; don't be in a hurry to make up your mind, and
remember, 'Codlin's your friend,'" added Charlie, hopeful still.

"I don't want any time! I know who I love best, who I'm happiest
with, and I choose uncle. Will he have me?" cried Rose, in a tone that
produced a sympathetic thrill among the hearers, it was so full of
tender confidence and love.

If she really had any doubt, the look in Dr. Alec's face banished it
without a word, as he opened wide his arms, and she ran into them,
feeling that home was there.

No one spoke for a minute, but there were signs of emotion among the
aunts, which warned the boys to bestir themselves before the water-works
began to play. So they took hands and began to prance about uncle and
niece, singing, with sudden inspiration, the nursery rhyme,

"Ring around a Rosy!"

Of course that put an end to all sentiment, and Rose emerged laughing
from Dr. Alec's bosom, with the mark of a waistcoat button nicely
imprinted on her left cheek. He saw it, and said with a merry kiss that
half effaced it, "This is my ewe lamb, and I have set my mark on her, so
no one can steal her away."

That tickled the boys, and they set up a shout of,

"Uncle had a little lamb!"

But Rose hushed the noise by slipping into the circle, and making them
dance prettily like lads and lasses round a May-pole; while Phebe,
coming in with fresh water for the flowers, began to twitter, chirp, and
coo, as if all the birds of the air had come to join in the spring revel
of the eight cousins.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Eight Cousins, by Louisa M. Alcott

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