Now
that she had the baby at home she was beginning to wonder what Lanse and
Celia would say.
"Never mind. I'll stand by you. You're all right, whatever you do--if I
did think you were rather off your head at first," promised Jeff,
sturdily. He was never known to fail Charlotte in an emergency.
Whether it was the strange surroundings or something wrong about the
last meal of the day cannot be stated, but Baby Ellen did wake up. It
was at three o'clock in the morning that Charlotte, who, excited by the
strangeness of the situation, had but just fallen asleep, was roused by
a small wail.
The baby seemed not to know her in the trailing blue kimono, with her
two long curly braids swinging over her shoulders, and in spite of all
that Charlotte could do, the infantile anguish of spirit soon filled the
house.
Charlotte walked the floor with her, alternately murmuring consolation
and singing the lullabies of her own childhood; but the uproar
continued. It is astonishing what an amount of disturbance one small
pair of lungs can produce. It was not long before the anxious nurse,
listening with both ears for evidences that the family were aroused,
heard the tap of Celia's crutches, which the invalid had just learned to
use.
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