DOT

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXVII, Issue 19, 13 May 1909, Page 757

DOT

' Oh, dear!' Dot looked in dismay at the letter in her pocket. She had been so sure she had dropped it into the post-box, as she had promised Aunt Charlotte that morning. It was a good thing she had found it now. She mailed the letter and went home. She expected that Aunt Charlotte would ask her about it, and of course she was going to tell the truth. But instead Aunt Charlotte asked her how she got along in her arithmetic, and whether Annie Clifford was well enough to be back in school yet. All through supper Dot waited for the question that did not come. After all, it could not make any particular difference whether a letter was mailed at half-past 8 in the morning, or half -past sin the afternoon. To be sure, Aunt Charlotte had said, ' Now, post this letter the very first thing, Dot, before you have time to forget it.' But if she had really cared she would have thought to ask her if she had done so. Besides, the letter was only to "Uncle John, and he had not been gone three days. The evening dragged. Dot had hard work to keep her mind on her books, and was glad when bedtime came. But long after the quiet breathing in the next room told that Aunt Charlotte was asleep, Dot tossed about in her bed, unable to think of anything but the letter that had not been mailed on time. Presently her restless movements awakened her aunt. 'What is it, dear?' the kind voice questioned. ' Haven't you been asleep ?' ' No'm.' ' Are you sick, child ?' { ' No'm.' ' Come here, dear,' Aunt Charlotte's outstretched arms welcomed a little white-robed figure that ran into them. ' Something to 'fess, is it, Dot ?' she asked tenderly. ' It isn't much, but it's something,' Dot acknowledged. .' I didn't post that letter.' She felt her aunt start. ' Not when you told me L should,' she hastily explained. ' Not till half-past 5. Does it make any difference, Aunt Charlotte?' ' A great difference, Dot. Your uncle was planning to sell a piece of property at Mayfield to-morrow, and I have just received some information which I think will lead him to wait. But that letter will not reach Dentoii till after "he has left in the morning. We must communicate with him to-night.' ' To-night, Aunt Charlotte !' There was consternation in Dot's tones, for even as she spoke the little clock on the mantel struck 2. ' Yes, to-night. The telegraph office" will be closed, and it's too late to wake up our neighbors and ask to use their telephone. We must go to the Central office. There's no help for it.' As long "as" she lives Dot will remember making a hurried toilet in the middle of the night, and starting out on a long, lonely walk to town. The moonlight and the stillness made the every-day world seem strange and unfamiliar, and she shivered, though the night was warm. It was a relief

to reach the telephone office, where a sleepy girl operator roused herself and set to work to call up the hotel at Denton. Aunt Charlotte laughed when her husband's voice reached her over the wires. ' Don't be frightened, John ; nothing is wrong.' Then she went on to give the information which the delayed letter had contained. 'It will change your plans, won't it?' she asked in conclusion. * Yes, I thought so. Good-night!' There was a faint light in the east when they reached home. ' Almost sunrise and you haven't had any sleep yet,' said Aunt Charlotte, as pityingly as if it had not all been Charlotte's fault. ' Sleep as late as you can in the morning, dear.' But Dot was thinking of something else. ' The ne*t time I've something to own up,' she said with solemnity, ' I won't wait till the middle of the night to do it.'