The child crept to him and kissed him again and again.

"I do not deserve this blessing from Heaven; I do not deserve this darling
little daughter."

"And you have the darlingest and most beautiful wife in all the world!"
cried the child.

"Lawd, honey!" said old Squire--he was in a broad grin--"he know'd her
long fo' you did."

"Is she like this?" asked Colonel Marsden.

He reached under his pillow and drew thence a small square case and handed
it to Roberta.

Roberta fairly screamed: "It's my mamma; it's my own darling mamma! Now I
know how much you love her, or you wouldn't carry her picture about with
you."

"It has never been away from me an instant, never one instant."

"Why did you stay away from her so long if you loved her so dearly?" Her
great brown eyes were lifted in wonder to his face. "I can't stay away
from her a single day. Sometimes, even when I'm just out in the yard
playing, I have to come back and peep at mamma, to be sure she is there."

A red flush mounted to Colonel Marsden's temples.

"I must tell her first, little daughter; and if she forgives me, will not