his wife died? Tell me that, Charlotte Wheeler! And didn't the
little thing thrive with me, and grow strong and healthy? Yes,
even you have to admit that it did, Charlotte Wheeler. And yet
you have the presumption to think that you ought to have Jane's
baby! Yes, it is presumption, Charlotte Wheeler. And when
William Ellis got married again, and took the baby, didn't the
child cling to me and cry as if I was its real mother? You know
it did, Charlotte Wheeler. I'm going to get and keep Jane's baby
in spite of you, Charlotte Wheeler, and I'd like to see you try
to prevent me--you that went and got married and never so much as
let your own sister know of it! If I had got married in such a
fashion, Charlotte Wheeler, I'd be ashamed to look anybody in the
face for the rest of my natural life!"

Miss Rosetta was so interested in thus laying down the law to
Charlotte, and in planning out the future life of Jane's baby,
that she didn't find the journey to Charlottetown so long or
tedious as might have been expected, considering her haste. She
soon found her way to the house where her cousin lived. There,
to her dismay and real sorrow, she learned that Mrs. Roberts had
died at four o'clock that afternoon.

"She seemed dreadful anxious to live until she heard from some of
her folks out in Avonlea," said the woman who gave Miss Rosetta
the information. "She had written to them about her little girl.
She was my sister-in-law, and she lived with me ever since her
husband died. I've done my best for her; but I've a big family
of my own and I can't see how I'm to keep the child. Poor Jane
looked and longed for some one to come from Avonlea, but she
couldn't hold out. A patient, suffering creature she was!"