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MILDRED'S NEW DAUGHTER

By MARTHA FINLEY

(MARTHA FARQUHARSON)

Author of the Famous ELSIE BOOKS

    "A sweet, heartlifting cheerfulness,
    Like springtime of the year,
    Seemed ever on her steps to wait."
                              --Mrs. Hale.

A. L. BURT COMPANY Publishers--New York




COPYRIGHT, 1894,
BY
DODD, MEAD & COMPANY




CHAPTER I.


The clock on the mantel, striking six, woke Ethel and Blanche Eldon, two
little sisters lying side by side in their pretty bed.

"Ah, it is morning, Blanche, and time for you and me to be up," said
Ethel, smiling pleasantly into her younger sister's eyes.

"Yes; in a minute, Ethel," replied Blanche, turning toward her sister
and patting her cheek affectionately.

At the same moment the door into the hall opened softly and the mother
came in, her dark eyes shining, her thin, pale face wreathed in smiles.

"Good-morning, my darlings," she said, speaking softly, for fear of
waking the two younger children in the nursery beyond. "Have you slept
well?" she asked, bending over to kiss first one, then the other.

"Yes, mamma, dear," they answered, speaking together. "And so have Harry
and Nannette," added Ethel, "and they are sound asleep yet, I think."

"And we will not wake them," responded the mother.

"Did you sleep well, mamma? and is dear papa better?" asked the little
girls with eager, anxious looks up into her face, Ethel adding, "Oh, I
am sure of it, because you look so happy!"

"Yes, dears, I am very glad and happy, very thankful to our kind
Heavenly Father, that your papa slept unusually well and seems easier
and brighter this morning than I have seen him for weeks," Mrs. Eldon
replied, with tears of joy shining in her eyes. "He has asked to see his
children, and when you are dressed and have eaten your breakfast, you
shall come to him for a few minutes."

"Oh, we are so glad we may see him, mamma," they cried in a breath,
Ethel adding, "I hope papa will soon be so well that we can go back to
our own dear home again and see our own dear grandma and grandpa."

"Yes, I hope so, darling. And now you two may get up and when dressed
help Harry and Nannette with their toilet."

"Then have our breakfast and after that go in to see papa?" exclaimed
Blanche joyously. "And may we kiss him, mamma?"

"I think he will be able to kiss his children all around," the mother
answered the little questioner, with a loving smile. "But I must go back
to him now, dears," she added; and with another tender kiss she turned
and went quickly from the room.

The two little girls were already out of bed and dressing as fast as
they could; but that was not so very rapidly, for Ethel, the eldest, was
only eight years old, Blanche nearly two years younger.

Their father had been ill for a long while, and it was now some days
since they had seen him; their mother was his devoted nurse, with him
almost constantly, so that of late the children had been left very much
to themselves and the companionship of the young girl, Myra, who
combined in her person the calling of both child's-nurse and housemaid.
Ethel was scarcely dressed when the little brother and sister woke and
were heard demanding assistance with their dressing.

"Oh, hush, hush! do hush, children!" cried Ethel, running to them,
"don't make such a noise. You forget that our dear papa is very sick and
your noise may make him worse. I don't know where Myra is, but you may
get up and I will help you to dress; then we will have breakfast, and
after that we will go into dear papa's room; for mamma says we may."

"Oh! oh! can we, Ethel?" they asked in delight. "We're so glad! 'cause
we haven't seen our dear papa for ever so long."

"And Nanny wants mamma to tum and dress her," whimpered Nannette.

"Oh, no, Nan, dear; mamma is too busy taking care of our poor sick papa,
so I'll dress you and we'll have our breakfast, and then we are to go in
to see him," returned Ethel. "Now be a dear, good girl and don't cry,"
she added coaxingly; "because if dear papa should hear you it might make
him worse. Now let me wash you and put on