ths and
Butterflies of other countries, I was glad indeed when it was
proposed that I should be the one to go. You were but five
years old, and needed a woman's care more than mine, so I left
you with your uncle's family. I still think it was the best
thing I could have done.

"I thought that it would be an easy matter to stay away for
twelve, or even more years, but lately there have come to me
sweet visions of a daughter's companionship, and Nature will no
longer be denied. It is partly your letters which have wrought
this change. They have been so bright, so clever, so amusing,
that you must have a mind of unusual intelligence. I said
'partly your letters'; for the receipt of your photograph
completed what the letters had begun.

"I can not resist the winsomeness of your picture, so I am
coming back to get acquainted with you, and perhaps we shall
discover a mutual companionship and affection.

"Are you like your mother, I wonder, or do you take after me? I
can not tell by your picture, but I think--No; I shall not tell
you what I think until I see you.

"So, little girl, get your aunt and uncle to go over to our
house to open it up, and to make it habitable for living. If
nothing happens I shall be with you on the evening of the
Fifteenth of June. I am writing Henry, also, by this mail.

"Hoping to see you soon, I am
"Your most loving father,
"William Raymond."

"He is coming," ended Bee with a little sob. "My own, own father."

"I am glad," spoke Adele, but her voice was weak as she said it. Into
her face had come a look of dismay as Bee read what her father had said
of the "winsomeness of the picture." An impulse came to her to confess
to her cousin what she had done, but she was fearful of what Bee might
say. She had not thought that it would have this effect. And so she sat
quieter than her wont while Bee gave vent to her delight.

"You don't know how I've felt at times, Adele," said Bee. "I've almost
envied you your father. When Uncle Henry has kissed you, and petted and
indulged you it hasn't seemed fair that I couldn't have my father. But I
never told you before, and I didn't tell any one. I knew father wouldn't
stay away unless he thought it was right, and I see now just why he did
it. I'll tell him that I don't blame him a bit. And we'll just love each
other all the more