The next summer we went North, and while there visited at Elmgrove, Mr.Allison's country seat, which gave papa and Miss Rose an opportunity to become quite well acquainted.
"I had known and loved Miss Rose before, and was very glad when papa told me she had consented to become his wife and my mother.
"They were married in the fall and when we returned to the Oaks she was with us.
"That made my next Christmas and New Year still happier than the last, and when yet another came round my treasures had been increased in number by the advent of a darling little brother." "Uncle Horace," said Walter.

"Mamma, were you very glad when God gave him to you ?" "Indeed I was!" she answered with a smile.

"I had never had a brother or sister and had often been hungry for one.
"And he has always been a dear, loving brother to me," she went on, "and your Aunt Rose, who came to us while we were in Europe some eight years later, as sweet a sister as any one could desire." "But about those holidays, mamma, the first when you had a brother ?" persisted Walter; "aren't you going to tell about them ?" "Yes," she answered; "it was a particularly enjoyable time, for we had our cousins--Mildred and Annis Keith--with us.

Mildred, though, had become Mrs.Landreth, and had her husband and baby boy with her.
"Annis was a dear, lovable little girl just about my own age.

They spent the winter at the Oaks, Annis sharing both my studies and my sports.