YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART 



came and she swung the closet door wide, to 

 take him out and comfort him; then, what 

 was her consternation and alarm to behold 

 only emptiness, no pretty little Flossie to 

 be found, - and Stella loved him so ! 



Candle in hand, grandma anxiously 

 sought the little fellow in every nook and 

 corner of the house, over and over, a fruit- 

 less search. But grandma was a woman of 

 determination and energy, and never suc- 

 cumbed in helpless inactivity. It was wax- 

 ing toward midnight, a late hour for her 

 staid habits, but she sent across the street 

 for her elder son, and briefly setting forth 

 the dire calamity which threatened, she con- 

 cluded by saying with the air of a comman- 

 der-in-chief : 



"Now, Flossie is in this house, and he's 

 got to be found, dead or alive! You must 

 go with me to the cellar. We'll begin our 

 search there, and keep on, if we end it in the 

 attic.' 



The elder son knew grandma too well to 

 remonstrate, and led the way, each with 

 candle in hand, down the steep stairs, to the 

 great, square, dark cellar under the old- 

 fashioned homestead. Into every black bin, 



61 



