Elsie's Womanhood Part 37

"That is right."

"Papa, it is so sweet to be a mother! to have my little Elsie in my lap, as I had but a few moments since, and feel the clasp of her arms about my neck, or the tiny hands patting and stroking my face, the sweet baby lips showering kisses all over it, while she coos and rejoices over me; Mamma!

mamma, my mamma! Elsie's dear mamma! Elsie's own sweet pretty mamma.' Ah, though our hearts ache for the dear land of our birth, we still have many many blessings left."

"We have indeed."

Mr. Travilla, Rose, and Horace now joined them, and the last-named besieged his father with questions about the war and its causes; all of which were patiently answered to the best of Mr. Dinsmore's ability, Mr.

Travilla now and then being appealed to for further information, or his opinion, while the ladies listened and occasionally put in a remark or a query.

From that day the mails from America were looked for with redoubled anxiety and eagerness: though the war news was always painful, whichever side had gained a victory or suffered defeat.

At first, papers and letters had been received from both North and South, giving them the advantage of hearing the report from each side; but soon the blockade shut off nearly all intercourse with the South, a mail from thence reaching them only occasionally, by means of some Confederate or foreign craft eluding the vigilance of the besieging squadron.

Early in June there came a letter from Miss Stanhope, addressed to Elsie.

Like all received from America now, it dwelt almost exclusively upon matters connected with the fearful struggle just fairly begun between the sections. The old lady's heart seemed full of love for the South, yet she was strongly for the Union, and said she should be so if any other section or State rebelled.

Lansdale was full of excitement, flags flying everywhere; they had one streaming across from the top of the house, and another from a tree in the garden.

Harry had enlisted in response to the first call of troops, and was now away, fighting in Virginia; while she, praying night and day for his safety, was, with most of the ladies of the town, busy as a bee knitting stockings and making s.h.i.+rts for the men in the field, and preparing lint, bandages, and little dainties for the sick and wounded.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SECOND.

"Calm me, my G.o.d, and keep me calm While these hot breezes blow; Be like the night-dew's cooling balm Upon earth's fevered brow."

--H. BONAR.

"Fear not; I will help thee."

--ISAIAH xiii. 13.

"Dear old auntie! to think how hard at work for her country she is, while I sit idle here," sighed Elsie, closing the letter after reading it aloud to the a.s.sembled family. "Mamma, papa, Edward, is there nothing we can do?"

"We can do just what they are doing," replied Rose with energy, "I wonder I had not thought of it before; s.h.i.+rts, stockings, lint, bandages, we can prepare them all; and send with them such fruits and delicacies as will carry from this far-off place. What say you, gentlemen?"

"I think you can," was the simultaneous reply; Mr. Travilla adding, "and we can help with the lint, and by running the sewing-machines. I'd be glad to add to the comfort of the poor fellows on both sides."

"And money is needed by their aid societies," added Mr. Dinsmore.

"And I can send that!" Elsie exclaimed joyously

"Yes, we all can," said her father.

Several busy weeks followed, and a large box was packed and sent off.

"If that arrives safely we will send another," they said; for news had reached them that such supplies were sorely needed.

"What! at it again, little wife?" queried Mr. Travilla, entering Elsie's boudoir the next morning, to find her delicate fingers busy with knitting-needles and coa.r.s.e blue yarn.

"Yes, sir," she said, smiling up at him, "it seems a slight relief to my anxiety about my country, to be doing something, if it is only _this_."

"Ah! then I'll take lessons, if you, or Aunt Chloe there will teach me,"

he returned, laughingly drawing up a chair and taking a seat by her side.

"Mammy, can you supply another set of needles, and more yarn?"

"Yes, ma.s.sa;" and laying down the stocking she was at work upon, away she went in search of them.

"Papa, see! so pitty!" cried a little voice; and "wee Elsie" was at his knee, with a diamond necklace in her hand.

"Yes," he said, gently taking it from her, "but rather too valuable a plaything for my little pet. How did she get hold of it, dearest?" he asked, turning to his wife.

"Mamma say Elsie may. Please, papa, let Elsie have it," pleaded the little one with quivering lip and fast-filling eyes.

"I gave her leave to look over the contents of my jewel box; she is a very careful little body, and mammy and I are both on the watch:" answered mamma. "It is a great treat to her; and she takes up only one article at a time, examines it till satisfied, then lays it back exactly as she found it. So please, papa, may she go on?"

"Yes, if mamma gave permission it is all right, darling," he said, caressing the child and returning the necklace.

"Tank oo, papa, mamma; Elsie be very tareful mamma's pitty sings," she cried with a gleeful laugh, holding up her rosebud mouth for a kiss, first to one, then the other.

"Let papa see where you put it, precious," he said, following her as she tripped across the room and seated herself on a cus.h.i.+on in front of the box.

"Dere, papa, dus where Elsie dot it," she said, laying it carefully back in its proper place. "See, so many, many pitty sings in mamma's box."

"Yes," he said, pa.s.sing his eye thoughtfully from one to another of the brilliant collection of rings, brooches, chains, bracelets, and necklaces sparkling with gems--diamonds, rubies, amethysts, pearls, emeralds, and other precious stones. "Little wife, your jewels alone are worth what to very many would be a handsome fortune."

"Yes, Edward, and is it not really a pity to have so much locked up in them?"

"No, it is a good investment; especially as things are at present."

"I could do very well without them; should never have bought them for myself: they are almost all your gifts and papa's, or his purchases."

Aunt Chloe had returned with the needles and yarn, and now Elsie began giving the lesson in knitting, both she and her pupil making very merry over it. Rose and Mr. Dinsmore presently joined them, and the latter, not to be outdone by his son-in-law, invited his wife to teach him.

Horace was at his lessons, but Rosebud, or Rosie as she had gradually come to be called, soon followed her parents. She was a bright, merry little girl of six, very different from what her sister had been at that age; full of fun and frolicsome as a kitten, very fond of her father, liking to climb upon his knee to be petted and caressed, but clinging still more to her sweet, gentle mamma.

Mr. Travilla and she were the best of friends; she was devotedly attached to her sister, and considered it "very nice and funny," that she was aunt to wee Elsie and baby Eddie.

"Oh," she cried, the moment she came into the room, "what is wee Elsie doing? Mamma, may I, too?"

"May you what?" asked Rose.

"Why, what is the child doing? playing with your jewels, Elsie?" asked Mr.

Dinsmore in a tone of surprise, noticing for the first time what was the employment of his little granddaughter.

"Yes, papa; but she is very careful, and I am watching her."

"I should not allow it, if she were my child. No, Rosie, you may not; you are not a careful little girl."