The Letter Cake.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 431, 25 December 1889, Page 5

The Letter Cake.

Betty is deaf and lam blind. Betty is ray maid, and we live on the river-bank in a white house — they say it is white-;— and are as happy together as two bees in a rose. There is this differonco between Betty and me : I know X am blind, but she doesn't know she is deaf. I pifcj Bebty, and wouldn't for the world have her know how deaf she is. My name is Mrs Polly Pope, ,but I am "Aunt Polly" to all the good uhi/dren in town. Perhaps the one I hold closest and Idas oftenest is little Lena Paul. I knit worsted stockings for half the village, but for Lena I knit nothing but .silk. She id very dear and sweet, and has set mo in her prayers, all of her own accord. God has always blessed me, and surely He always will, when a loving child is asking Him. One day — it was the day before Christmas — Lena came to my house just as Betty and I were starting for the chapel with a basket of clothes for the poor children, I did not quite like to take her with us, for she is as frisky as a squirrel and chatters quite as much ; but go she would. When we arrivedshe wanted all the little frocks, hoods, and petticoats, and everything else she saw. Mrs Hay called tho poor children to the platform to get some shoes ; and Lena whispered, "X want a pair of shoes, Aunt Polly." " Fie !" said I, " you don't need them any more then a fly needs a pair of spectacles." " My shoes is all wored-ed," Raid she. We were glad to got her home, Betty and I. She took my hand and prattled to me all the way. Lena is only three years old, and she was uncommonly full of miachief that day. " What will I do for a pudding: ?' said Betty, after we had been at home about five minutes. "I had mixed one, ready to bake, and the baby has thrown it into the ash-barrel." Little rogue ! She set the water running in the kitchen, and I had to go out and stop it, ior Betty didn't hear. And soon Betty was saying, " Naughty Lena, to pull the needles out of Aunt Polly's knitting-work when poor auntie can'fc see." X brought out the coloured picture-booka, and then Lena was happy for a few minutes. "I know every letter there is in this world !" she declared, and she began to read some surprising stories aloud to me, in a little, high, squealing tone : 41 ' Once there wa9 a little boy and the wind blowed him, and bime-by it blowed ; his hair right off." Once there was a woe, wee girlie, and she had thou sands of dollies. Couldn't hear and couldn't see. Cow came and ate 'em all up.' There, now, guess I'll go out see Betty." She shut the door behind her so softly I suspected mischief. So I went out and told Betty to give the child some soapsuds and let her blow bubbles, for I wanted to keep her a good while — I knew her mother was busy. "Yea, ma'am," said Betty. I went back to the parlour, expecting soon to hear Lena screaming with delight over the bubbles. But Betty made such a clatter, beating eggsfor a fresh pudding and slamming: the oven door, that Lena's little voice was quite drowned. " Betty is a noisy woman,'' thought I. A whole hour passed and I did not hear sound from Lena. 1 rang the bell twice for Betty, and asked what the child was doing, "I thought she was with you, ma'am," replied Betty. " With me !' 1 cried. " Why, I thought she was in the kitchen, blowing bubbles." "Pebbles?" says Betty. "There's no! pebbles in the house, ma'am— nothing but fino white sand." It seemed not a word about bubbles had ever reached Betty's ears. She had been busy every minute, and had not thought of the child. Dinner was ready, now ; but I would not sit down till we had found Lena. "She must be upstairs," I said. Betty thought not. j "Don't you remember I was in your I chamber, ma'am, half-an-hour ago, to get you a spool of silk out of your ivory box, and wouldn't I have seen her, if she had been there ?" "Never mind Betty. You go again, and I'll go with you." We went from room to room up&tairs, calling " Lena !" but no answer came. Then we searched the attic in overy comer — -no Lena was to be found. She could not have left the house, for we kept every door locked and bolted. She could not have gone out, unless somebody from outride had picked a lock and come in and stolen her ! That wasn't at all likely. Somebody might have done it while poor, deaf Betty was down cellar gotting potatoes. I know this was not so ; still — where was the child ? We hunted the house over and over, till I was ready to drop ; and I had to send for Mrs Paul, and ask what was to be done. She came in, quite out of breath and sadly frightened, with a policeman close at her heels. The policeman insisted on searching the house again. This would make the sixth time ; but Betty sa»d not a word, nor did I : we merely followed him : " I suppose you've looked in all the closets ?" said he. "In every one but mine, 1 ' I answered; thai) is always lockud, and she can't have got in there ; but here's the key, if you like — here in my pocket." He took tho key, opened the door — and there, if you'll believe it, was that missing baby curled up on a shelf, sound asleep ! She must have slipped in when Betty went up after the silk, and Betty had locked the door upon her without knowing it. You may fancy how the child was hugged and kissed, and how her mother cried over her. "Ispeakedbo Betty two times,'' said Lena; " but she didn't let me out, and didn't let me out !" After dinner, when everybody was gone, and I had taken my nap, Betty came into the parlour, and I knew by the way she cleared her throat that she had something to say. " There's new coal on in the l-ange, ma'am, and if you don't object, where's the harm in just making a Christmas cake for the baby, seeing as I shut her up, and scared folks so."' *' Not the least harm, Betty. Only be sure you stuff it as full as it will hold with raisins and citron and currants and everything nice." " And now, ma l am, I'm thinking," added Betty, cleaving her throat again, u w&v^ld it do to frost it ?" <* Frost it as white as the driven snow, Petty, And traoe her name on the top with little red oandy drops." Befcfcy was in raptures ; but I might have known she couldn't spell. When she brought the cakevo*me with great pride, I ran my fingers over the name, and foAnd it was L-e-a-n-e-r. » c Beautiful," said I, and didn't tell her there were too many letters in it. I daresay she thought the darling deserved them all and a dozen more. Lena was overJoyed with thfe oaVe. It outshone for her the costliest gifts in the Christmns-troe, they said. . Dear Baby ! That nigh 1 " she added to her prayers another "blessing,", which vanned Botry Fay's old heart through and through :—": — " Please bless Petty— can't hear— -made mo boo-ful Ki§was f\rosted letter-cake 1 '