I'll wrap her up
in furs like an Esquimau."
"Yes, and upset her in the drifts with your reckless driving," said
good-natured Leonard. "Thunder is wild enough at any time; but of late,
between the cold, high feeding, and idleness, he'll have to be broken
over again; lucky if he don't break your neck in the operation. The
little girl will feel strange enough, anyway, coming among people that
she has never seen, and I don't intend that she shall be frightened out
of her wits into the bargain by your harum-scarum ways. You'd give her
the impression that we were only half-civilized. So I'll drive over for
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.
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