He was rejoicing over the boy of the household.
Months had gone by. One day there was a joyful outcry at the farm-
house. The little girls rushed out to meet their father. With him
was their mother's sister, Aunt Jennie, with her husband and little
boy.
Claude was on the ranch at work, and did not hear the joyful outcry
at first.
He was not aware of the new-comers, till his father and the two
little girls rushed where Claude was working, and the boy's father
caught him in a close embrace.
"Come and see Aunt Jennie," his father said to Claude.
"She-she looks like, mamma," whispered Rose tremulously, and Claude
came somewhat bashfully into the house.
There he saw a woman whose face did indeed look, like his mother's,
and he felt mother-arms put around him. He heard a voice like his
mother's say, "Is this my boy?" He felt a warm teardrop on his
cheek, and he knew that Aunt Jennie understood and cared for boys,
and that he would be indeed "her boy."
That afternoon they all drove away from the ranch, leaving Cousin
Harriet smitten with a sudden sense of loneliness, for she had even.
grown attached to Claude as well as to his sisters. The boy looked
back at the ranch. It was rapidly being left behind, but he could
still see the green patch of corn that covered the place where the
alkali used to be. Rut the boy was, not thinking of the alkali patch
alone.
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