Grandpa had now hastened home to hold me on his lap and to hear me say that I was glad to be at his house and intended to help grandma all I could for being so good as to bring me there.  After I told how we had cooked the liver and how good it tasted, he wiped his eyes and said:  “Mine child, when you little ones thanked me for that liver, it made me not so much your friend as when you called me ‘grandpa.’”

As time went on, grandma declared that I helped her a great deal because I kept her chip-box full, shooed the hens out of the house, brought in the eggs, and drove the little chicks to bed, nights.  I don’t recollect that I was ever tired or sleepy, yet I know that the night must have sped, between the time of my last nod at the funny shadow picture of a rabbit which Jakie made hop across the wall behind the lighted candle, and Courage’s barking near my pillow, which grandma said meant, “Good-morning, little girl!”

It was after one of these reminders of a new day that I saw Leanna.  I don’t know when or how she came, but I missed Frances and Georgia the more because I wanted them to share our comforts.  Nevertheless a strange feeling of uneasiness crept over me as I noticed, later, that grandpa lingered and that the three spoke long in their own tongue, and glanced often toward me.

Finally grandpa and Jakie went off in the wagon and grandma also disappeared, but soon returned, dressed for a trip to the Fort, and explained that she had heard that Georgia was sick and she would take me back and bring her in my place.  I had known from the beginning that I was to stay only a little while, yet I was woefully disturbed at having my enjoyment so abruptly terminated.  My first impulse was to cry, but somehow, the influence of her who under the soughing pines of the Sierras had told me that “friends do not come quickly to a cry-baby child” gave me courage, and I looked up into the dear old face before me and with the earnestness of an anxious child asked, “Grandma, why can’t you keep two of us?”

She looked at me, hesitated, then replied, “I will see.”  She kissed away my fears and rode off on old Lisa.  I did not know that she would ride farther than the fort and imagined she had gone on horseback so that she might the easier bring back my little sister.

Leanna washed the dishes and did the other work before she joined me in watching for grandma’s return.  At last she came in sight and I ran up the road craning my neck to see if Georgia were really behind on old Lisa’s back, and when I saw her pinched face aglow with smiles that were all for me, I had but one wish, and that was to get my arms around her.

One chair was large enough to hold us both when we got into the house, and the big clock on the wall with long weights reaching almost to the floor and red roses painted around its white face, did not tick long before we were deaf to its sound, telling each other about the doings of the day.