"O, Auntee, what is it?"
The awed young voice paused at the threshold.
It was a sight the little girl had never witnessed before she had seen Auntee sad at occasional intervals, and a few times had looked upon tears in the usually merry eyes of her beloved chum, but never before had she beheld Auntee sobbing in such an abandonment of grief.
There was a very tender tie of love between these two Alsie, the dear little twelve year old daughter of an older sister of the family, and Alice, the only remaining unmarried child of a household of many sons and daughters.