her in the family sleigh, and take Alf with me. He will be nearer her own
age, and help to break the ice. If you want a lark, go out by yourself,
and drive where you please, after your own break-neck style."

"Leonard is right," resumed Mr. Clifford, emphatically. "The ward
committed to me by my dear old friend should be brought to her home with
every mark of respect and affection by the one who has the best right to
represent me. I'd go myself, were not the cold so severe; but then
Leonard's ways are almost as fatherly as my own; and when his good wife
there gets hold of the child she'll soon be fused into the family, in
spite of the zero weather. She'll find all the cold without the door."

"I yield," said Burtis, with a careless laugh. "Len shall bring home the
little chick, and put her under his wife's wing. I should probably
misrepresent the family, and make a bad first impression; and as for
Webb, you might as well send the undertaker for her."

"I don't think she will feel strange among us very long," said Leonard's
wife. "She shall hang up her stocking to-night, like the other children,
and I have some nice little knick-knacks with which to fill it. These,
and the gifts which the rest of you have provided, will delight her, as
they do all little people, and make her feel at once that she is part of
the family."

"Maggie expresses my purpose fully," concluded Mr. Clifford. "As far as
it is within our power, we should make her one of the family. In view of
my friend's letters, this is the position that I desire her to sustain,
and it will be the simplest and most natural relation for us all. Your
mother and I will receive her as a daughter, and it is my wish that my
sons should treat her as a sister from the first."