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diff --git a/18058-8.txt b/18058-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9ef2170 --- /dev/null +++ b/18058-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8101 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Elsie's Vacation and After Events, by Martha +Finley + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Elsie's Vacation and After Events + + +Author: Martha Finley + + + +Release Date: March 27, 2006 [eBook #18058] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ELSIE'S VACATION AND AFTER +EVENTS*** + + +E-text prepared by Suzanne Lybarger, Brian Janes, Emmy, and the Project +Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net/) + + + +ELSIE'S VACATION AND AFTER EVENTS + +by + +MARTHA FINLEY + +Author of "Elsie Dinsmore," "Elsie at Home," etc. + +Special Authorized Edition + + + + + + + +[Illustration] + + + + + +M. A. Donohue & Co. +Chicago New York +Copyright, 1891. +By Dodd, Mead & Company. +Made in U.S.A. + + + + +ELSIE'S VACATION + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + +Captain Raymond went back to the hotel feeling somewhat lonely and +heartsore over the parting from his eldest hope, but as he entered the +private parlor where his young wife and most of the party were, his look +and manner had all their accustomed cheeriness. + +He made a pleasant remark to Violet, fondled the little ones, and talked +for a few minutes in his usual agreeable way with Mr. and Mrs. Dinsmore +and the others; then glancing about the room, as if in search of someone +or something, asked, "Where are Lulu and Gracie?" + +"Why, I thought they were here," Violet answered in some surprise, +following the direction of his glance. "They seem to have slipped out of +the room very quietly." + +"I must hunt them up, poor dears! for it is about time we were starting +for the _Dolphin_," he said, hastily leaving the room. A low sobbing +sound struck upon his ear as he softly opened the door of the room +where his little girls had slept the previous night, and there they were +down on the carpet near a window, Gracie's head in her sister's lap, +Lulu softly stroking the golden curls and saying in tender tones, +"Don't, Gracie dear; oh, don't! It can't be helped, you know; and we +have our dear papa and Mamma Vi, and the little ones left. Besides, +Maxie will come home again to visit us one of these days." + +"Oh, but he'll never live at home with us any more," sobbed Gracie; "at +least I'm afraid he won't; and--and oh, I do love him so! and he's the +only big brother we have." + +"But we have papa, dear, dear papa, who used to be obliged to go away +and leave us; but we have him all the time now," Lulu replied half +chokingly. "I wish we could have them both, but we can't, and we both do +love papa the best after all." + +"And papa loves his two dear little girls more than tongue can tell," +the captain said in tenderest tones, drawing near, bending down to take +both in his arms together, and kissing first one and then the other. "Be +comforted, my darlings," he went on, holding them close to his heart; +"we haven't lost our Maxie by any means; and though I left him feeling a +trifle homesick and forlorn, he will get over that in a day or two I +know, and greatly enjoy the business of preparing himself for the life +work he has freely chosen." + +"But, oh, papa, how he will miss our lovely home, and you, and all of +us!" sobbed Gracie, hiding her tear-stained face on her father's +shoulder. + +"Not as you would, my darling," he replied, holding her close and +caressing her with great tenderness. "Boys are different from girls, and +I think our dear Maxie will soon feel very happy there among his mates, +though he will, I am sure, never cease to love his father, sisters, +Mamma Vi, baby brother, and his home with them all." + +"Papa, I'm thinking how he'll miss the pleasant evenings at home--the +good talks with you," sobbed the little girl. + +"Yes, darling, but I will tell you what we will do to partly, at least, +make up that loss to our dear boy." + +"What, papa?" she asked, lifting her head and looking up into his face, +with her own brightening a little. + +"Suppose we each keep a journal or diary, telling everything that goes +on each day at home, and now and then send them to Maxie; so that he +will know all that we are doing?" + +"Oh, what a good thought, papa!" exclaimed Lulu, giving him a vigorous +hug and kiss. "And Maxie will write us nice, interesting letters; and +some day he'll come home for a visit and have ever so much to tell us." + +"Yes," her father said, "and I think we will have interesting letters +from him in the meantime." + +"And perhaps I'll learn to like writing letters, when it's just to +please Maxie and comfort him," said Grace, wiping away her tears and +trying to smile. + +"I hope so, darling," her father replied, bestowing another kiss upon +the sweet little tear-stained face. "But now, my dears," he added, "put +on your hats; it is time to go back to the _Dolphin_." + +They hastened to obey, and he led them to the parlor, where they found +the rest of the party ready to accompany them on board the yacht. + +The sun was setting as they reached the _Dolphin's_ deck and they found +a luxurious repast ready for them to partake of by the time outdoor +garments could be laid aside and wind-tossed hair restored to order. + +The captain missed the bright face of his first-born at the table, but, +exerting himself for the entertainment of the others, seemed even more +than usually cheery and genial, now and then indulging in some innocent +jest that made his little girls laugh in spite of themselves, and at +length almost forget, for the moment, their parting from Max, and their +grief over the thought that he would no longer share their lessons or +their sports, and would be at home only after what, in the prospect, +seemed to them a long, long time; and then but for a little while. + +On leaving the table all gathered upon deck. There was no wind, but the +yacht had a steam engine and used her sails only on occasions when they +could be of service. Stars shone brightly in the sky overhead, but their +light was not sufficient to give an extended view on land or water, and +as all were weary with the excitement and sightseeing of the day, they +retired early to their berths. + +Poor Grace, worn out with her unusual excitement, and especially the +grief of the parting with Max, was asleep the instant her head touched +the pillow. Not so with Lulu; her loneliness and depression banished +sleep from her eyes for the time, and presently she slipped from her +berth, threw on a warm dressing-gown, and thrust her feet into felt +slippers. The next moment she stole noiselessly into the saloon where +her father sat alone looking over an evening paper. + +He was not aware of her entrance till she stood close at his side, her +hand on his shoulder, her eyes fixed, with a gaze of ardent affection, +upon his face. + +"Dear child!" he said, looking up from his paper, and smiling +affectionately upon her; then tossing the paper aside and putting an arm +about her waist, he drew her to his knee and pressed fatherly kisses +upon lip and cheek and brow, asking tenderly if anything was wrong with +her that she had come in search of him when he supposed her to be +already in bed and sound asleep. + +"I'm not sick, papa," she said in reply; "but oh, I miss Maxie so!" The +words were almost a sob, and she clung about her father's neck, hiding +her face on his shoulder. + +"I, too, miss my boy more than words can tell," he replied, stroking her +hair with gently caressing touch, and she was sure his tones trembled a +little with the pain of the thought of Max left alone among strangers; +"but I thank God, our Heavenly Father, that I have by no means lost my +eldest son, while I still have another one and three dear daughters to +add to my happiness in our sweet home." + +"I do want to add to it, you dear, dear, good papa!" she said, hugging +and kissing him over and over again. "Oh, I wish I was a better girl for +your sake, so that my wrong-doing would never give you pain!" + +"I think--and am very happy in the thought--that you are improving," he +said, repeating his caresses; "and it is a great comfort to me," he +continued, "that my little girls need not be sent away from home and +their father to be educated." + +"To me also, papa," she returned. "I am very thankful that I may live +with my dear father always while we are spared to each other. I don't +mean to ever go away from you, papa, but to stay with you always, to +wait on you and do everything I can to be a great help, comfort, and +blessing to you; even when I'm grown up to womanhood." + +"Ah!" he returned, again smoothing her hair caressingly and smiling down +into her eyes; then holding her close, "I shall be very glad to keep you +as long as you may prefer life with me, my own dear, dear child," he +said in tender tones. "I look upon my dear eldest daughter as one of the +great blessings my Heavenly Father has bestowed upon me, and which I +hope he may spare to me as long as I live." + +"Papa, I'm so, so glad you love me so dearly!" she exclaimed, lifting to +his eyes full of love and joy; "and oh, I do love you so! I want to be a +great blessing to you as long as we both live." + +"I don't doubt it, my darling," he replied. "I doubt neither your desire +nor purpose to be such." + +"Yes, sir, I do really long to be the very greatest of comforts to you, +and yet," she sighed, "I have such a bad temper you know, papa, I'm so +wilful too, that--that I'm afraid--almost sure, indeed--I'll be naughty +again one of these days and give you the pain of punishing me for it." + +"That would grieve me very much, but would not diminish my love for +you," he said; "nor yours for me, I think." + +"No, indeed, papa!" she exclaimed, creeping closer into his embrace, +"because I know that when you have to punish me in any way it makes you +very, very sorry." + +"It does indeed!" he responded. + +"Papa," she sighed, "I'm always dreadfully sorry and ashamed after one +of my times of being disobedient, wilful, and ill-tempered, and I am +really thankful to you for taking so much pains and trouble to make a +better girl of me." + +"I don't doubt it, daughter," he answered; "it is a long while now since +I have had any occasion to punish you, and your conduct has rarely +called for even so much as a reproof." + +She gave him a glad, grateful look, an embrace of ardent affection, +then, laying her cheek to his, "You dear, dear papa, you have made me +feel very happy," she said, "and I'm sure I am much happier than I +should be if you had let me go on indulging my bad temper and +wilfulness. Oh, it's so nice to be able to run to my dear father +whenever I want to, and always to be so kindly received that I can't +feel any doubt that he loves me dearly. Ah, how I pity poor Maxie that +he can't see you for weeks or months!" + +"And don't you pity papa a little that he can't see Maxie?" he asked, +with a smile and a sigh. + +"Oh, yes! yes indeed! I'm so sorry for you, papa, and I mean to do all I +can to supply his place. What do you suppose Maxie is doing just now, +papa?" + +"Doubtless he is in his room preparing his lessons for to-morrow. The +bugle-call for evening study-hour sounds at half-past seven, and the +lads must be busy with their books till half-after nine." + +He drew out his watch, and glancing at its face, "Ah, it is just nine +o'clock," he said. "Kiss me good-night, daughter, and go back to your +berth." + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + +Max was in his room at the Academy, busy with his tasks, trying +determinately to forget homesickness by giving his whole mind to them, +and succeeding fairly well. Very desirous, very determined was the lad +to acquit himself to the very best of his ability that he might please +and honor both his Heavenly Father and his earthly one. + +By the time the welcome sound of gun-fire and tattoo announced that the +day's work was over he felt fully prepared for the morrow's recitations. +But he was in no mood for play. The quiet that had reigned through the +building for the last two hours was suddenly broken in upon by sounds of +mirth and jollity--merry boyish voices talking, singing, some +accompanying themselves with the twang of a banjo or the tinkle of a +guitar; but Max, closing and putting his book aside, kept his seat, his +elbow on the desk, his head on his hand, while with a far-away look in +his dark eyes, he indulged in a waking dream. + +He seemed to see the _Dolphin_ steaming down the bay, his father, +perhaps, sitting in the saloon with the other grown folks (the younger +ones would be pretty sure to have retired to their state-rooms), and +thinking and speaking of his absent son. Or, it might be, pacing the +deck alone, his heart going up in prayer to God for his first-born--his +"might and the beginning of his strength,"--that he might be kept from +sin and every danger and evil and enabled to prove himself a brave, true +follower of Christ, never ashamed or afraid to show his colors and let +it be known to all with whom he had to do that he was a disciple, a +servant of the dear Lord Jesus. + +"Lord, help me; help me to be brave and faithful and true," was the +silent petition that went up from the boy's heart. + +"Homesick, bub?" asked a boyish voice, in mocking tones. "I believe most +of the fellows are just at the first, but they get over it after a bit +without much doctoring." + +"I'm inclined to think it is not a dangerous kind of ailment," returned +Max, in a pleasant tone, lifting his head and turning toward his +companion with a smile that seemed rather forced. "However, I was +thinking not of home, exactly, but the homefolks who are just at present +aboard my father's yacht and steaming down the bay." + +It was only by a great effort he repressed a sigh with the concluding +words. + +"That's a handsome yacht and about the largest I ever saw," was the next +remark of his room-mate, a lad--Benjamin Hunt by name--of about the same +age as himself, not particularly handsome but with a good, honest face. + +"Yes, and a splendid sailor," returned Max, with enthusiasm. "Papa +bought her this summer and we've had a jolly good time sailing or +steaming (sometimes one and again the other, the _Dolphin_ has both +sails and engines) along the coast and a short distance out to sea." + +"Had a good, safe captain?" Hunt asked, with a quizzical smile. + +"My father, a retired naval officer; there could be none better," +returned Max, straightening himself slightly, while the color deepened +on his cheek. + +"Yes; I don't wonder you are proud of him," laughed Hunt. "I happened +to see him when he brought you here, and I must say I thought he had a +fine military bearing and was--well, I think I might say one of the +handsomest men I ever saw." + +"Thank you," said Max heartily, glancing up at Hunt with a gratified +smile. "I suppose being so fond of him I may not be a competent judge, +but to me my father seems the best, the noblest, and the handsomest man +that ever lived." + +"Didn't force you to come here against your will, eh?" queried Hunt +jestingly. + +"No, indeed! he only let me come because I wanted to. I think he would +have been glad if I had chosen the ministry, but you see I don't think I +have any talent in that line, and I inherit a love for the sea, and papa +says a man can do best in the profession or business that is most to his +taste, so that perhaps I may be more useful as a naval officer than I +could be in the ministry." + +"Especially in case of war, and if you turn out a good and capable +commander," returned Hunt, tossing up a ball and catching it as it fell. +"I sometimes think I'd like nothing better; a fellow would have a chance +to distinguish himself, such as he could never hope for in time of +peace." + +"Yes; and if such a thing should happen I hope it will be when I'm ready +to take part in the defence of my country," said Max, his cheek flushing +and his eyes kindling, "but war is an awful thing considering all the +killing and maiming, to say nothing of the destruction of property; and +I hope our country will never be engaged in another. But excuse me," he +added, opening his Bible, "I see we have scarcely fifteen minutes now +before taps will sound." + +At that Hunt moved away to his own side of the room, from whence he +watched Max furtively, a mocking smile on his lips. + +Max was uncomfortably conscious of it, but tried to ignore it and give +his thoughts to what he was reading. Presently, closing his book he +knelt and silently offered up his evening prayer, asking forgiveness of +all his sins, strength to resist temptation, and never be afraid or +ashamed to own himself a follower of Jesus, his loving disciple, his +servant, whose greatest desire was to know and do the Master's will; and +very earnestly he prayed that no evil might befall his dearly loved and +honored father, his sisters or brother, Mamma Vi, or any of those he +loved; that they might be taken safely through all their journeying, and +he permitted to see them all again when the right time should come; and +having committed both them and himself to the watchful care of his +Heavenly Father, he rose from his knees and began his preparations for +bed. + +"Well, sonny, I hope you will sleep soundly and well after saying your +prayers like the goodest of little boys," sneered Hunt. + +"I shall sleep none the worse," returned Max pleasantly. + +"I'll bet not a bit better than I shall without going through any such +baby-like performance." + +"God is very good and often takes care of those who don't ask him to," +said Max; "but I don't think they have any right to expect it; also I am +sure I should be shamefully ungrateful if I were to lie down for my +night's rest without a word of thanks to him for his protecting care +over me and mine through the day that is just past. As to its being a +baby-like performance, it is one in which some of the greatest, as well +as best men, have indulged. Washington was a man of prayer. So was +General Daniel Morgan--that grand revolutionary officer who whipped +Tarleton so completely at the battle of the Cowpens. There was +Macdonough also, who gained that splendid victory over the British on +Lake Champlain in the war of 1812-14. Have you forgotten that just +before the fight began, after he had put springs on his cables, had the +decks cleared, and everything was ready for action, with his officers +and men around him, he knelt down near one of his heaviest guns and in a +few words asked God to help him in the coming struggle? He might well do +that, because, as you know of course, we were in the right, fighting +against oppression and wrongs fit to rouse the indignation of the most +patient and forbearing of mortals." + +"That's a fact!" interrupted Hunt. "Americans have always been +forbearing at the start; but let them get once thoroughly roused and +they make things hot enough for the aggressors." + +"So they do," said Max, "and so I think they always will; I hope so, +anyhow; for I don't believe it's right for any nation to allow any of +its people to be so dreadfully wronged and ill-treated as thousands of +our poor sailors were, by the English, before the war of 1812 taught +them better. I don't believe the mass of the English people approved, +but they couldn't keep their aristocracy--who hated republicanism, and +wanted always to continue superior in station and power to the mass of +their countrymen and ours--from oppressing and abusing our poor sailors, +impressing, flogging, and ill-treating them in various ways, and to such +a degree that it makes one's blood boil in reading or thinking of it. +And I think it's right enough for one to be angry and indignant at such +wrongs to others." + +"Of course it is," said Hunt; "and Americans always will resist +oppression--of themselves or their weaker brethren--and I glory in the +fact. What a fight that was of Macdonough's! Do you remember the +incident of the gamecock?" + +"No; what was it?" + +"It seems that one of the shots from the British vessel _Linnet_ +demolished a hencoop on the deck of the _Saratoga_, releasing this +gamecock, and that he flew to a gun-slide, where he alighted, then +clapped his wings and crowed lustily. + +"That delighted our sailors, who accepted the incident as an omen of the +victory that crowned their arms before the fight was over. They cheered +and felt their courage strengthened." + +"Good!" said Max, "that cock was at better business than the fighting he +had doubtless been brought up to." + +"Yes; so say I: + + "O Johnny Bull, my joe John, + Behold on Lake Champlain, + With more than equal force, John, + You tried your fist again; + But the cock saw how 'twas going. + And cried 'Cock-a-doodle-doo,' + And Macdonough was victorious, + Johnny Bull, my joe!" + +"Pretty good," laughed Max. "But there are the taps; so good-night." + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + +Lulu woke early the next morning and was dressed and on deck before any +other of the _Dolphin's_ passengers. Day had dawned and the eastern sky +was bright with purple, orange, and gold, heralding the near approach of +the sun which, just as she set her foot on the deck, suddenly showed his +face above the restless waves, making a golden pathway across them. + +"Oh, how beautiful!" was her involuntary exclamation. Then catching +sight of her father standing with his back toward her, and apparently +absorbed in gazing upon the sunrise, she hastened to his side, caught +his hand in hers, and carried it to her lips with a glad, "Good-morning, +you dear papa." + +"Ah! good-morning, my darling," he returned, bending down to press a +kiss on the bright, upturned face. + +"Such a lovely morning, papa, isn't it?" she said, standing with her +hand fast clasped in his, but turning her eyes again upon sea and sky. +"But where are we now? Almost at Fortress Monroe?" + +"Look and tell me what you see," was his smiling rejoinder, as, with a +hand on each of her shoulders, he turned her about so that she caught +the view from the other side of the vessel. + +"O papa, is that it?" she exclaimed. "Why, we're almost there, aren't +we?" + +"Yes; we will reach our anchorage within a few minutes." + +"Oh, are we going to stop to see the old fort, papa?" she asked eagerly. + +"I think we are," was his smiling rejoinder. "But you don't expect to +find in it a relic of the Revolution, do you?" he asked laughingly, +pinching her cheek, then bending down to kiss again the rosy face +upturned to his. + +"Why yes, papa; I have been thinking there must have been a fight there. +Wasn't that the case?" + +"No, daughter; the fortress was not there at that time." + +"Was it in the war of 1812-14, then, papa?" + +"No," he returned, smiling down on her. "The building of Fortress Monroe +was not begun until 1817. However, there was a small fort built on Point +Comfort in 1630; also, shortly before the siege of Yorktown, Count De +Grasse had some fortifications thrown up to protect his troops in +landing to take part in that affair." + +But just then the talk was interrupted by the coming on deck of one +after another of their party and the exchange of morning greetings; +then followed the interest and excitement of the approach to the +fortress and anchoring in its vicinity. + +Next came the call to breakfast. But naturally, and quite to Lulu's +satisfaction, the talk at the table turned upon the building of the +fort, its history and that of the adjacent country, particularly +Hampton, two and a half miles distant. + +The captain pointed it out to them all as they stood upon the deck +shortly afterward. + +"Which is Old Point Comfort, papa?" asked Grace. + +"That sandy promontory on the extremity of which stands Fortress +Monroe," he answered. "Yonder, on the opposite side, is Point +Willoughhy, the two forming the mouth of the James River; and these are +the Rip Raps between the two. You see that there the ocean tides and the +currents of the river meet and cause a constant ripple. There is a +narrow channel of deep water through the bar, but elsewhere between the +capes it is shallow. + +"Beyond the Rip Raps we see the spacious harbor which is called Hampton +Roads. It is so large that great navies might ride there together." + +"And I think some have ridden there in our wars with England?" remarked +Rosie, half inquiringly. + +"You are quite right," replied the captain; "that happened in both the +Revolution and the last war with England. + +"In October, 1775, Lord Dunmore, the British governor of Virginia,--who +had, however, abdicated some months earlier by fleeing on board a +man-of-war, the _Fowey_,--driven by his fears, and his desire for +revenge, to destroy the property of the patriots, sent Captain Squires, +of the British navy, with six tenders, into Hampton Creek. + +"He reached there before the arrival of Colonel Woodford--who, with +a hundred Culpepper men, had been sent to protect the people of +Hampton--and sent armed men in boats to burn the town; protecting +them by a furious cannonade from the guns of the tenders. + +"But they were baffled in the carrying out of their design; being driven +off by Virginia riflemen, concealed in the houses. Excellent marksmen +those Virginians were, and picked off so many of the advancing foe that +they compelled them to take ignominious flight to their boats and return +to the vessels, which then had to withdraw beyond the reach of the +rifles to await reinforcements." + +"What is a tender, papa?" asked Grace, as her father paused in his +narrative. + +"A small vessel that attends on a larger one to convey intelligence and +supply stores," he replied; then went on with his account of Dunmore's +repulse. + +"Woodford and his men reached Hampton about daybreak of the succeeding +morning. At sunrise they saw the hostile fleet approaching; it came so +near as to be within rifle shot, and Woodford bade his men fire with +caution, taking sure aim. They obeyed and picked off so many from every +part of the vessels that the seamen were soon seized with a great +terror. The cannons were silenced,--the men who worked them being shot +down,--and their commander presently ordered a retreat; but that was +difficult to accomplish, for any one seen at the helm, or aloft, +adjusting the sails, was sure to become a target for the sharpshooters; +in consequence many of the sailors retreated to the holds of the +vessels, and when their commander ordered them out on the dangerous +duty, refused to obey. + +"The victory for the Americans was complete; before the fleet could +escape, the Hampton people, with Woodford and his soldiers, had sunk +five vessels." + +"And such a victory!" exclaimed Rosie, in an exultant tone. + +"Yes," the captain said, smiling at her enthusiasm. + +"Were the houses they fired on the very ones that are there now, papa?" +asked Lulu. + +"Some few of them," he replied. "Nearly all were burned by Magruder in +the Civil War; among them St. John's Episcopal Church, which was built +probably about 1700. Before the Revolution it bore the royal arms carved +upon its steeple; but soon after the Declaration of Independence--so it +is said--that steeple was struck by lightning and those badges of +royalty were hurled to the ground." + +"Just as the country was shaking off the yoke they represented," laughed +Rosie. "A good omen, wasn't it, Brother Levis?" + +"So it would seem, viewed in the light of after events," he answered +with a smile. + +"Papa, can't we visit Hampton?" asked Lulu eagerly. + +"Yes, if you would all like to do so," was the reply, in an indulgent +tone and with an inquiring glance at the older members of the party. + +Everyone seemed to think it would be a pleasant little excursion, +especially as the _Dolphin_ would carry them all the way to the town; +but first they must visit the fortress. They did not, however, set out +thither immediately, but remained on deck a little longer gazing about +and questioning the captain in regard to the points of interest. + +"Papa," asked Grace, pointing in a southerly direction, "is that another +fort yonder?" + +"Yes," he replied, "that is Fort Wool. It is a mile distant, and with +Fortress Monroe defends Hampton Roads, the Gosport navy yard, and +Norfolk." + +"They both have soldiers in them?" she said inquiringly. + +"Yes, daughter; both contain barracks for soldiers, and Fortress Monroe +has also an arsenal, a United States school of artillery, chapel, and, +besides the barracks for the soldiers, storehouses and other buildings, +and covers eighty acres of ground." + +"And when was it finished, papa? How long did it take to build it?" + +"It is not finished yet," he answered, "and has already cost nearly +three million dollars. It is an irregular hexagon--that is has six sides +and six angles--surrounded by a tide-water ditch eight feet deep at high +water." + +"I see trees and flower gardens, papa," she remarked. + +"Yes," he said, "there are a good many trees, standing singly and in +groves. The flower gardens belong to the officers' quarters. Now, if you +will make yourselves ready for the trip, ladies, Mr. Dinsmore, and any +of you younger ones who care to go," he added, smoothing Grace's golden +curls with caressing hand and smiling down into her face, "we will take +a nearer view." + +No one felt disposed to decline the invitation and they were soon on +their way to the fortress. + +It did not take very long to look at all they cared to see; then they +returned to their vessel, weighed anchor, and passed through the narrow +channel of the Rip Raps into the spacious harbor of Hampton Roads. + +It was a lovely day and all were on deck, enjoying the breeze and the +prospect on both land and water. + +"Papa," said Lulu, "you haven't told us yet what happened here in the +last war with England." + +"No," he said. "They attacked Hampton by both land and water, a force of +two thousand five hundred men under General Beckwith landing at Old +Point Comfort, and marching from there against the town, while at the +same time Admiral Cockburn assailed it from the water. + +"The fortification at Hampton was but slight and guarded by only four +hundred and fifty militiamen. Feeling themselves too weak to repel an +attack by such overwhelming odds, they retired, and the town was given +up to pillage." + +"Didn't they do any fighting at all, papa?" asked Lulu in a tone of +regret and mortification. "I know Americans often did fight when their +numbers were very much smaller than those of the enemy." + +"That is quite true," he said, with a gleam of patriotic pride in his +eye, "and sometimes won the victory in spite of the odds against them. +That thing had happened only a few days previously at Craney Island, and +the British were doubtless smarting under a sense of humiliating defeat +when they proceeded to the attack of Hampton." + +"How many of the British were there, Captain?" asked Evelyn Leland. +"I have forgotten, though I know they far outnumbered the Americans." + +"Yes," he replied, "as I have said there were about four hundred and +fifty of the Americans, while Beckwith had twenty-five hundred men and +was assisted by the flotilla of Admiral Cockburn, consisting of armed +boats and barges, which appeared suddenly off Blackbeard's Point at the +mouth of Hampton Creek, at the same time that Beckwith's troops moved +stealthily forward through the woods under cover of the _Mohawk's_ guns. + +"To draw the attention of the Americans from the land force coming +against them was Cockburn's object, in which he was partly successful, +his flotilla being seen first by the American patrols at Mill Creek. + +"They gave the alarm, arousing the camp, and a line of battle was +formed. But just then some one came in haste to tell them of the large +land force coming against the town from the rear, and presently in the +woods and grain fields could be seen the scarlet uniforms of the British +and the green ones of the French." + +"Oh, how frightened the people in the town must have been!" exclaimed +Grace. "I should think they'd all have run away." + +"Most of them did," replied her father; "but some sick and feeble ones +had to stay behind--others also in whose care they were--and trust to +the supposed humanity of the British; a vain reliance it proved, at +least so far as Admiral Cockburn was concerned. He gave up the town to +pillage and rapine, allowing the doing of such deeds as have consigned +his name to well-merited infamy. + +"But to return to my story: Major Crutchfield, the American commander, +resolved that he and his four hundred and fifty men would do what they +could to defend the town. They were encamped on an estate called 'Little +England,' a short distance southwest of Hampton, and had a heavy battery +of seven guns, the largest an eighteen-pounder cannon. + +"Major Crutchfield was convinced that the intention of the British was +to make their principal attack in his rear, and that Cockburn's was only +a feint to draw his attention from the other. So he sent Captain Servant +out with his rifle company to ambush on the road by which Beckwith's +troops were approaching, ordering him to attack and check the enemy. +Then when Cockburn came round Blackbeard's Point and opened fire on the +American camp he received so warm a welcome from Crutchfield's heavy +battery that he was presently glad to escape for shelter behind the +Point, and content himself with throwing an occasional shot or rocket +into the American camp. + +"Beckwith's troops had reached rising ground and halted for breakfast +before the Americans discovered them. When that happened Sergeant +Parker, with a field-piece and a few picked men, went to the assistance +of Captain Servant and his rifle company, already lying in ambush. + +"Parker had barely time to reach his position and plant his cannon when +the British were seen rapidly advancing. + +"At the head of the west branch of Hampton Creek, at the Celey road, +there was a large cedar tree behind which Servant's advanced +corps--Lieutenant Hope and two other men--had stationed themselves, and +just as the British crossed the creek--the French column in front, led +by the British sergeant major--they opened a deadly fire upon them. A +number were killed, among them the sergeant major--a large, powerful +man. + +"This threw the British ranks into great confusion for the time, and +the main body of our riflemen delivered their fire, killing the brave +Lieutenant-Colonel Williams of the British army. But the others +presently recovered from their panic and pushed forward, while our +riflemen, being so few in number, were compelled to fall back. + +"But Crutchfield had heard the firing, and hastened forward with nearly +all his force, leaving Pryor and his artillerymen behind to defend the +Little England estate from the attack of the barges. But while he was +moving on along the lane that led from the plantation toward Celey's +road and the great highway, he was suddenly assailed by an enfilading +fire from the left. + +"Instantly he ordered his men to wheel and charge upon the foe, who were +now in the edge of the woods. His troops obeyed, behaving like veterans, +and the enemy fell back; but presently rallied, and, showing themselves +directly in front of the Americans, opened upon them in a storm of grape +and canister from two six-pounders and some Congreve rockets. + +"The Americans stood the storm for a few minutes, then fell back, broke +ranks, and some of them fled in confusion. + +"In the meantime Parker had been working his piece with good effect till +his ammunition gave out. Lieutenant Jones, of the Hampton artillery, +perceiving that to be the case, hurried to his assistance; but seeing an +overwhelming force of the enemy approaching, they--Parker's men--fell +back to the Yorktown Pike. + +"Jones, who had one cannon with him, found that his match had gone out, +and rushing to a house near by he snatched a burning brand from the +fire, hurried back, and hid himself in a hollow near a spring. + +"The British supposed they had captured all the cannon, or that if any +were left they had been abandoned, and drawing near they presently +filled the lane; then Jones rose and discharged his piece with terrible +effect, many of the British were prostrated by the unexpected shot, and +during the confusion that followed Jones made good his retreat, +attaching a horse to his cannon, and bearing it off with him. + +"He hastened to the assistance of Pryor, but on drawing near his camp +saw that it had fallen into the possession of the foe. + +"Pryor had retreated in safety, after spiking his guns. He and his +command fought their way through the enemy's ranks with their guns, swam +the west branch of Hampton Creek, and, making a circuit in the enemy's +rear, fled without losing a man or a musket. + +"Jones had seen it all, and spiking his gun followed Pryor's men to the +same place. + +"In the meantime Crutchfield had rallied his men, those who still +remained with him, on the flank of Servant's riflemen, and was again +fighting vigorously. + +"But presently a powerful flank movement of the foe showed him that he +was in danger of being out off from his line of retreat. He then +withdrew in good order and escaped, though pursued for two miles by the +enemy. + +"That ended the battle, in which about thirty Americans and fifty of the +British had fallen. Then presently followed the disgraceful scenes in +Hampton of which I have already told you as having brought lasting +infamy upon the name of Sir George Cockburn." + +"I think he was worse than a savage!" exclaimed Lulu hotly. + +"Certainly, far worse; and more brutal than some of the Indian +chiefs--Brant, for instance," said Rosie, "or Tecumseh." + +"I cannot see in what respect he was any better than a pirate," added +Evelyn, in a quiet tone. + +"Nor can I," said Captain Raymond; "so shameful were his atrocities that +even the most violent of his British partisans were constrained to +denounce them." + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + +Before the sun had set the _Dolphin_ was again speeding over the water, +but now on the ocean, and going northward, Philadelphia being their +present destination. It had grown cloudy and by bedtime a steady rain +was falling, but unaccompanied by much wind, so that no one felt any +apprehension of shipwreck or other marine disaster, and all slept well. + +The next morning Lulu was, as usual, one of the first to leave her +berth, and having made herself neat for the day she hurried upon deck. + +It had ceased raining and the clouds were breaking away. + +"Oh, I'm so glad!" she exclaimed, running to meet her father, who was +coming toward her, holding out his hand with an affectionate smile, "so +glad it is clearing off so beautifully; aren't you, papa?" + +"Yes; particularly for your sake, daughter," he replied, putting an arm +about her and bending down to give her a good-morning kiss. "Did you +sleep well?" + +"Yes, indeed, papa, thank you; but I woke early and got up because I +wanted to come on deck and look about. Where are we now? I can see land +on the western side." + +"Yes, that is a part of the Delaware coast," he answered. "We are +nearing Cape Henlopen. By the way, do you remember what occurred near +there, at the village of Lewis, in the war of 1812?" + +"No, sir," she said. "Won't you please tell me about it?" + +"I will; it is not a very long story. It was in March of the year 1813 +that the British, after destroying such small merchant craft as they +could find in Chesapeake Bay, concluded to blockade Delaware bay and +river and reduce to submission the Americans living along their shores. +Commodore Beresford was accordingly sent on the expedition in command of +the _Belvidera_, _Poictiers_, and several smaller vessels. + +"On the 16th of March he appeared before Lewis in his vessel, the +_Poictiers_, and pointing her guns toward the town sent a note addressed +to the first magistrate demanding twenty live bullocks and a +proportionate quantity of hay and of vegetables for the use of his +Britannic majesty's squadron. He offered to pay for them, but threatened +in the event of refusal to destroy the town." + +"The insolent fellow!" cried Lulu. "I hope they didn't do it, papa?" + +"No; indeed, they flatly refused compliance and told him to do his +worst. The people on both sides of the bay and river had heard of his +approach and armed bodies of them were gathered at points where an +attack might be expected. There were still among them some of the old +soldiers of the revolution, and you may be sure they were ready to do +their best to repel this second invasion by their old enemy. One of +these was a bent old man of the name of Jonathan M'Nult. He lived in +Dover, and when, on the Sabbath day, the drums beat to arms, he, along +with men of every denomination to the number of nearly five hundred, +quickly responded to the call, took part in the drill, and spent the +whole afternoon in making ball-cartridges. + +"The people of all the towns of the vicinity showed the same spirit and +turned out with spades and muskets, ready to take part in the throwing +up of batteries and trenches, or to fight 'for their altars and their +fires'--defending wives, children, and other helpless ones. At +Wilmington they built a strong fort which they named Union. + +"This spirited behavior of the Americans surprised Beresford, and for +three weeks he refrained from any attempt to carry out his threat. + +"During that time Governor Haslet came to Lewis and summoned the militia +to its defence. On his arrival he reiterated the refusal to supply the +British invaders with what had been demanded. + +"Beresford repeated his threats and at length, on the 6th of April, sent +Captain Byron, with the _Belvidera_ and several smaller vessels, to +attack the town. + +"He fired several heavy round shot into it, then sent a flag of truce, +again demanding the supplies Beresford had called for. + +"Colonel Davis, the officer in command of the militia, repeated the +refusal; then Byron sent word that he was sorry for the misery he should +inflict on the women and children by a bombardment. + +"To that a verbal reply was sent: 'Colonel Davis is a gallant officer, +and has taken care of the ladies.' + +"Then Byron presently began a cannonade and bombardment and kept it up +for twenty-two hours. + +"The Americans replied in a very spirited manner from a battery on an +eminence. Davis's militia worked it and succeeded in disabling the most +dangerous of the enemy's gunboats and silencing its cannon. + +"The British failed in their effort to inflict great damage upon the +town, although they hurled into it as many as eight hundred eighteen and +thirty-two pound shot, besides many shells and Congreve rockets. The +heavy round shot injured some of the houses but the shells did not reach +the town and the rockets passed over it. No one was killed. + +"Plenty of powder was sent for the American guns from Dupont's at +Wilmington, and they picked up and sent back the British balls, which +they found just fitted their cannon." + +"How good that was," laughed Lulu. "It reminds me of the British at +Boston asking the Americans to sell them their balls which they had +picked up, and the Americans answering, 'Give us powder and we'll return +your balls.' But is that all of your story, papa?" + +"Yes, all about the fight at Lewis, but in the afternoon of the next +day the British tried to land to steal some of the live stock in the +neighborhood; yet without success, as the American militia met them at +the water's edge and drove them back to their ships. + +"About a month later the British squadron dropped down to Newbold's +ponds, seven miles below Lewis, and boats filled with their armed men +were sent on shore for water; but a few of Colonel Davis's men, under +the command of Major George H. Hunter, met and drove them back to their +ships. So, finding he could not obtain supplies on the Delaware shore, +Beresford's little squadron sailed for Bermuda." + +"Good! Thank you for telling me about it, papa," said Lulu. "Are we +going to stop at Lewis?" + +"No, but we will pass near enough to have a distant view of the town." + +"Oh, I want to see it!" she exclaimed; "and I'm sure the rest will when +they hear what happened there." + +"Well, daughter, there will be nothing to hinder," the captain answered +pleasantly. + +"How soon will we reach the point from which we can see it best, papa?" +she asked. + +"I think about the time we leave the breakfast table," was his reply. + +"Papa, don't you miss Max?" was her next question. + +"Very much," he said. "Dear boy! he is doubtless feeling quite lonely +and homesick this morning. However, he will soon get over that and enjoy +his studies and his sports." + +"I think he'll do you credit, papa, and make us all proud of him," she +said, slipping her hand into her father's and looking up lovingly into +his face. + +"Yes," the captain said, pressing the little hand affectionately in his, +"I have no doubt he will. I think, as I am sure his sister Lulu does, +that Max is a boy any father and sister might be proud of." + +"Yes, indeed, papa!" she responded. "I'm glad he is my brother, and I +hope to live to see him an admiral; as I'm sure you would have been if +you'd stayed in the navy and we'd had a war." + +"And my partial little daughter had the bestowal of such preferment and +titles," he added laughingly. + +Just then Rosie and Evelyn joined them, followed almost immediately by +Walter and Grace, when Lulu gave them in a few hasty sentences the +information her father had given her in regard to the history of Lewis, +and told of their near approach to it. + +Every one was interested and all hurried from the breakfast-table to the +deck in time to catch a view of the place, though a rather distant one. + +When it had vanished from sight, Evelyn turned to Captain Raymond, +exclaiming, "O sir, will you not point out Forts Mercer and Mifflin to +us when we come in sight of them?" + +"With pleasure," he replied. "They are at Red Bank. Port Mercer on the +New Jersey shore of the Delaware River, a few miles below Philadelphia, +Fort Mifflin on the other side of the river on Great and Little Mud +Islands. It was, in Revolutionary days, a strong redoubt with quite +extensive outworks." + +"Did our men fight the British there in the Revolutionary war, papa?" +asked Grace. + +"Yes; it was in the fall of 1777, soon after the battle of the +Brandywine, in which, as you may remember, the Americans were defeated. +They retreated to Chester that night, marched the next day toward +Philadelphia, and encamped near Germantown. Howe followed and took +possession of the city of Philadelphia. + +"The Americans, fearing such an event, had put obstructions in the +Delaware River to prevent the British ships from ascending it, and also +had built these two forts with which to protect the _chevaux de frise_. + +"The battle of the Brandywine, as you may remember, was fought on the +11th of September, and, as I have said, the British pushed on to +Philadelphia and entered it in triumph on the 26th." + +"Papa, what are _chevaux de frise_?" asked Grace. + +"They are ranges of strong frames with iron-pointed wooden spikes," he +answered; then went on: + +"In addition to these, the Americans had erected batteries on the +shores, among which was the strong redoubt called Fort Mercer, which, +and also Port Mifflin on the Mud Islands, I have already mentioned. +Besides all these, there were several floating batteries and armed +galleys stationed in the river. + +"All this troubled the British general, because he foresaw that their +presence there would make it very difficult, if not impossible, to keep +his army supplied with provisions; also they would be in more danger +from the American forces if unsupported by their fleet. + +"Earl Howe, as you will remember, was at this time in Chesapeake Bay +with a number of British vessels of war. As we have just been doing, he +sailed down the one bay and up into the other, but was prevented, by +these fortifications of the Americans, from continuing on up the +Delaware River to Philadelphia. + +"Among his vessels was one called the _Roebuck_, commanded by a Captain +Hammond. That officer offered to take upon himself the task of opening a +passage for their vessels through the _chevaux de frise_, if Howe would +send a sufficient force to reduce the fortifications at Billingsport. + +"Howe was pleased with the proposition and two regiments of troops were +sent from Chester to accomplish the work. They were successful, made a +furious and unexpected assault upon the unfinished works, and the +Americans spiked their cannon, set fire to the barracks, and fled; the +English demolished the works on the river front, and Hammond, with some +difficulty, made a passage way seven feet wide in the _chevaux de +frise_, so that six of the British vessels passed through and anchored +near Hog Island." + +"Did they immediately attack Forts Mifflin and Mercer, papa?" asked +Lulu. + +"It took some little time to make the needed preparations," replied the +captain. "It was on the 21st of October that Count Donop, with twelve +hundred picked Hessians, crossed the Delaware at Cooper's Ferry, and +marched to the attack of Fort Mercer. The Americans added eight miles to +the extent of their march by taking up the bridge over a creek which +they must cross, so compelling them to go four miles up the stream to +find a ford. + +"It was on the morning of the 22d that they made their appearance, fully +armed for battle, on the edge of a wood within cannon shot of Fort +Mercer. + +"It was a great surprise to our men, for they had not heard of the +approach of these troops. They were informed that there were twenty-five +hundred of the Hessians, while of themselves there were but four hundred +men in a feeble earth fort, with but fourteen pieces of cannon. + +"But the brave fellows had no idea of surrendering without a struggle. +There were two Rhode Island regiments, commanded by Colonel Christopher +Greene. They at once made preparations for defence, and while they were +thus engaged a Hessian officer rode up to the fort with a flag and a +drummer, and insolently proclaimed, 'The King of England orders his +rebellious subjects to lay down their arms; and they are warned that if +they stand the battle, no quarter whatever will be given.' + +"Colonel Greene answered him, 'We ask no quarter nor will we give any.' + +"The Hessian and his drummer then rode hastily back to his commander and +the Hessians at once fell to work building a battery within half cannon +shot of the fort. + +"At the same time the Americans continued their preparations for the +coming conflict, making them with the greatest activity and eagerness, +feeling that with them skill and bravery must now combat overwhelming +numbers, fierceness, and discipline. + +"Their outworks were unfinished but they placed great reliance upon the +redoubt. + +"At four o'clock in the afternoon the Hessians opened a brisk cannonade, +and at a quarter before five a battalion advanced to the attack on the +north side of the fort, near a morass which covered it. + +"They found the works there abandoned but not destroyed, and thought +that they had frightened the Americans away. So with a shout of victory, +and the drummer beating a lively march, they rushed to the redoubt, +where not a man was to be seen. + +"But as they reached it, and were about to climb the ramparts to plant +their flag there, a sudden and galling fire of musketry and grape-shot +poured out upon them, from a half-masked battery on their left flank, +formed by an angle of an old embankment. + +"It took terrible effect and drove them back to their old intrenchments. + +"At the same time another division, commanded by Dunot himself, attacked +the fort on the south side, but they also were driven back, with great +loss, by the continuous and heavy fire of the Americans. + +"The fight was a short one but very severe. Donop had fallen, mortally +wounded, at the first fire. Mingerode, his second in command, was +wounded also, and in all the enemy left behind, in the hasty retreat +which followed, some four hundred in killed and wounded. + +"The American galleys and floating batteries in the river galled them +considerably in their retreat. + +"After the fight was over Manduit, the French engineer who had directed +the artillery fire of the fort, was out with a detachment examining and +restoring the palisades, when he heard a voice coming from among the +killed and wounded of the enemy, saying, 'Whoever you are, draw me +hence.' + +"It was Count Donop, and Manduit had him carried first into the fort, +afterward to a house close at hand, occupied by a family named Whitall, +where he died three days afterward. + +"Donop was but thirty-seven. He said to Manduit, who attended him till +he died, 'It is finishing a noble career early; but I die the victim of +my ambition and the avarice of my sovereign.'" + +"His sovereign? That was George the Third, papa?" Grace said +inquiringly. + +"No, Donop was a Hessian, hired out to the British king by his +sovereign," replied her father. + +"And avarice means love of money?" + +"Yes, daughter; and it was avarice on the part of both sovereigns that +led to the hiring of the Hessians; the war was waged by the king of +England because the Americans refused to be taxed by him at his pleasure +and without their consent. He wanted their money. + +"Whitall's house, a two-story brick, built in 1748, stood close by the +river," continued the captain, "and I suppose is still there; it was, in +1851, when Lossing visited the locality. + +"The Whitalls were Quakers and took no part in the war. When the fort +was attacked Mrs. Whitall was urged to flee to some place of safety, but +declined to do so, saying, 'God's arm is strong, and will protect me; I +may do good by staying.' + +"She was left alone in the house, and, while the battle was raging, sat +in a room in the second story busily at work at her spinning-wheel, +while the shot came dashing like hail against the walls. At length one, +a twelve-pound ball from a British vessel in the river, just grazed the +walnut tree at the fort, which the Americans used as a flag-staff, and +crashed into her house through the heavy brick wall on the north gable, +then through a partition at the head of the stairs, crossed a recess, +and lodged in another partition near where she was sitting. + +"At that she gathered up her work and went down to the cellar. + +"At the close of the battle the wounded and dying were brought into her +house and she left her work to wait upon them and do all in her power to +relieve their sufferings. + +"She attended to all, friend and foe, with equal kindness, but scolded +the Hessians for coming to America to butcher the people." + +"I am sure she must have been a good woman," remarked Grace; "but, oh, I +don't know how she could dare to stay in the house while those dreadful +balls were flying about it." + +"No doubt she felt that she was in the way of her duty," replied the +captain, "and the path of duty is the safe one. She seems to have been a +good Christian woman." + +"Yes, indeed!" said Evelyn. "Captain, did not the British attack Fort +Mifflin at the same time that the fight was in progress at Fort +Mercer?" + +"Yes; the firing of the first gun from the Hessian battery was the +signal for the British vessels in the river to begin the assault upon +the other fort on its opposite side. + +"The _Augusta_ and several smaller vessels had made their way through +the passage in the _chevaux de frise_ which Hammond had opened, and were +now anchored above it, waiting for flood tide. + +"The _Augusta_ was a sixty-four gun ship; besides there were the +_Merlin_, of eighteen guns; the _Roebuck_, of forty-four; two frigates, +and a galley. All these came up with the purpose to attack the fort, but +were kept at bay by the American galleys and floating batteries, which +also did good service by flanking the enemy in their attack upon Fort +Mercer. + +"The British deferred their attack upon Fort Mifflin until the next +morning, when, the Hessians having been driven off from Fort Mercer, the +American flotilla was able to turn its attention entirely upon the +British fleet, which now opened a heavy cannonade upon Fort Mifflin, +attempting also to get floating batteries into the channel back of the +island. + +"But Lieutenant-Colonel Smith, a gallant officer in command of the fort, +very vigilant and brave, thwarted all their efforts and greatly assisted +the flotilla in repulsing them. + +"The fire of the Americans was so fierce and incessant that the British +vessels presently tried to fall down the stream to get beyond its reach. +But a hot shot struck the _Augusta_ and set her on fire. She also got +aground on a mud bank near the Jersey shore and at noon blew up. + +"The fight between the other British and the American vessels went on +until three o'clock in the afternoon, when the _Merlin_ took fire and +blew up near the mouth of Mud Creek. + +"The _Roebuck_ then dropped down the river below the _chevaux de frise_, +and for a short time the Americans were left in undisturbed possession +of their forts. + +"Howe was, however, very anxious to dislodge them, because the river was +the only avenue by which provisions could be brought to his army in +Philadelphia. + +"On the 1st of November he took possession of Province Island, lying +between Fort Mifflin and the mainland, and began throwing up works to +strengthen himself and annoy the defenders of the fort. + +"But they showed themselves wonderfully brave and patient. +Lieutenant-Colonel Smith was as fine an officer as one could desire to +see. + +"The principal fortification of Fort Mifflin was in front, that being +the side from which vessels coming up the river must be repelled; but on +the side toward Province Island it was defended by only a wet ditch. +There was a block house at each of its angles, but they were not strong, +and when the Americans saw the British take possession of Province +Island and begin building batteries there, they felt that unless +assistance should be sent to dislodge the enemy, the fort would soon be +demolished or fall into his possession." + +"But couldn't Washington help them, and didn't he try to?" asked Grace. + +"Washington was most desirous to do so and made every effort in his +power," replied her father; "and if Gates had done his duty the fort +might probably have been saved. Burgoyne's army had been defeated and +captured some time before this, and there was then no other formidable +enemy in that quarter; but Gates was jealous of Washington and, rather +than have him successful, preferred to sacrifice the cause which he had +engaged to defend. + +"He had ample stores and a formidable force, and had he come promptly to +the rescue might have rendered such assistance as to enable Washington +to drive the British from Philadelphia and save the forts upon the +Delaware. + +"But, actuated by the meanest jealousy, he delayed, and would not even +return Morgan's corps, which Washington had been but ill able to spare +to him. + +"Hamilton, sent by Washington to hasten Gates's movements in the +matter, grew very indignant at the slow and reluctant compliance of +Gates, and by plainly expressing his opinion induced him to send a +stronger reinforcement than he had intended. + +"Putnam also made trouble by detaining some of the troops forwarded by +Gates to assist him in carrying out a plan of his own for attacking New +York. + +"Governor Clinton then advised Hamilton to issue a peremptory order to +Putnam to set those troops in motion for Whitemarsh where Washington was +encamped. Hamilton did so, and the troops were sent." + +"Dear, dear!" sighed Lulu, "what a time poor Washington did have with +Congress being so slow, and officers under him so perverse, wanting +their own way instead of doing their best to help him to carry out his +good and wise plans." + +"Yes," her father said, with a slight twinkle of fun in his eye, "but +doesn't my eldest daughter feel something like sympathy with them in +their wish to carry out their own plans without much regard for those of +other people?" + +"I--I suppose perhaps I ought to, papa," she replied, blushing and +hanging her head rather shamefacedly; "and yet," she added, lifting it +again and smiling up into his eyes, "I do think if you had been the +commander over me I'd have tried to follow your directions, believing +you knew better than I." + +She moved nearer to his side and leaned up lovingly against him as she +spoke. + +"Yes, dear child, I feel quite sure of it," he returned, laying his hand +tenderly on her head, then smoothing her hair caressingly as he spoke. + +"But you haven't finished about the second attack upon Fort Mifflin, +have you, brother Levis?" queried Walter. + +"No, not quite," the captain answered; then went on with his narrative: + +"All through the war Washington showed himself wonderfully patient and +hopeful, but it was with intense anxiety he now watched the progress of +the enemy in his designs upon Fort Mifflin, unable as he himself was to +succor its threatened garrison." + +"But why couldn't he go and help them with his soldiers, papa?" asked +Grace. + +"Because, daughter, if he broke up his camp at Whitemarsh, and moved his +army to the other side of the Schuylkill, he must leave stores and +hospitals for the sick, within reach of the enemy; leave the British +troops in possession of the fords of the river; make it difficult, if +not impossible, for the troops he was expecting from the North to join +him, and perhaps bring on a battle while he was too weak to hope for +victory over such odds as Howe could bring against him. + +"So the poor fellows in the fort had to fight it out themselves with no +assistance from outside." + +"Couldn't they have slipped out in the night and gone away quietly +without fighting, papa?" asked Grace. + +"Perhaps so," he said, with a slight smile; "but such doings as that +would never have helped our country to free herself from the British +yoke; and these men were too brave and patriotic to try it; they were +freemen and never could be slaves; to them death was preferable to +slavery. We may well be proud of the skill and courage with which +Lieutenant-Colonel Smith defended his fort against the foe. + +"On the 10th of November the British opened their batteries on land and +water. They had five on Province Island, within five hundred yards of +the fort; a large floating battery with twenty-two twenty-four pounders, +which they brought up within forty yards of an angle of the fort; also +six ships, two of them with forty guns each, the others with sixty-four +each, all within less than nine hundred yards of the fort." + +"More than three hundred guns all firing on that one little fort!" +exclaimed Rosie. "It is really wonderful how our poor men could stand +it." + +"Yes, for six consecutive days a perfect storm of bombs and round shot +poured upon them," said the captain, "and it must have required no small +amount of courage to stand such a tempest." + +"I hope they fired back and killed some of those wicked fellows!" +exclaimed Walter, his eyes flashing. + +"You may be sure they did their best to defend themselves and their +fort," replied the captain. "And the British loss was great, though the +exact number has never been known. + +"Nearly two hundred and fifty of our men were killed or wounded. +Lieutenant Treat, commanding the artillery, was killed on the first day +by the bursting of a bomb. The next day quite a number of the garrison +were killed or wounded, and Colonel Smith himself had a narrow escape. + +"A ball passed through a chimney in the barracks,--whither he had gone +intending to write a letter,--scattered the bricks, and one of them +striking him on the head knocked him senseless. + +"He was carried across the river to Red Bank, and Major Thayer of the +Rhode Island line took command in his place. + +"The first day a battery of two guns was destroyed, a block house and +the laboratory were blown up, and the garrison were compelled to keep +within the fort. All that night the British threw shells and the scene +was a terrible one indeed, especially for the poor fellows inside the +fort. + +"The next morning, about sunrise, they saw thirty armed boats coming +against them, and that night the heavy floating battery was brought to +bear upon the fort. The next morning it opened with terrible effect, yet +they endured it, and made the enemy suffer so much from their fire that +they began to think seriously of giving up the contest, when one of the +men in the fort deserted to them, and his tale of the weakness of the +garrison inspiring the British with renewed hope of conquest they +prepared for a more general and vigorous assault. + +"At daylight on the 15th two men-of-war, the _Iris_ and the _Somerset_, +passed up the channel in front of the fort on Mud Island. Two +others--the _Vigilant_ and a hulk with three twenty-four +pounders--passed through the narrow channel on the west side and were +placed in a position to act in concert with the batteries of Province +Island in enfilading the American works. + +"At ten o'clock all was silent, and doubtless our men were awaiting the +coming onslaught with intense anxiety, when a signal bugle sounded and +instantly all the ships and batteries poured a storm of shot and shell +from the mouths of their many guns upon the devoted little garrison." + +"Oh, how dreadful!" sighed Grace. "Could they stand it, papa?" + +"They endured it with astonishing courage," replied the captain, "while +all day long, and far into the evening, it was kept up without cessation. +The yards of the British ships hung nearly over the American battery; +and there were musketeers stationed in their tops who immediately shot +down every man who showed himself on the platform of the fort. Our men +displayed, as I have said, wonderful bravery and endurance; there seems +to have been no thought of surrender; but long before night palisades, +block houses, parapet, embrasures--all were ruined. + +"Early in the evening Major Thayer sent all but forty of his men to Red +Bank. He and the remaining forty stayed on in the fort until midnight, +then, setting fire to the remains of the barracks, they also escaped in +safety to Red Bank. + +"Lossing tells us that in the course of that last day more than a +thousand discharges of cannon, from twelve to thirty-two pounders, were +made against the works on Mud Island, and that it was one of the most +gallant and obstinate defences of the war. + +"Major Thayer received great credit for his share in it, and was +presented with a sword by the Rhode Island Assembly as a token of their +appreciation of his services there." + +"Did not Captain--afterward Commodore--Talbot do himself great credit +there?" asked Evelyn. + +"Yes; he fought for hours with his wrist shattered by a musket ball; +then was wounded in the hip and was sent to Red Bank. He was a very +brave man and did much good service during the war, principally on the +water, taking vessel after vessel. In the fight with one of them--the +_Dragon_--his speaking trumpet was pierced by bullets and the skirts of +his coat were shot away." + +"How brave he must have been!" exclaimed Lulu with enthusiasm. "Don't +you think so, papa?" + +"Indeed, I do," replied the captain. "He was one of the many men of that +period of whom their countrymen may be justly proud." + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + +Little Ned, who was not very well, began fretting and reaching out his +arms to be taken by his father. The captain lifted him tenderly, saying +something in a soothing tone, and carried him away to another part of +the deck. + +Then the young people, gathering about Grandma Elsie, who had been an +almost silent listener to Captain Raymond's account of the attacks upon +the forts, and the gallant conduct of their defenders, begged her to +tell them something more of the stirring events of those revolutionary +days. + +"You have visited the places near here where there was fighting in those +days, haven't you, mamma?" asked Walter. + +"Yes, some years ago," she replied. "Ah, how many years ago it was!" she +added musingly; then continued, "When I was quite a little girl, my +father took me to Philadelphia, and a number of other places, where +occurred notable events in the war of the Revolution." + +"And you will tell us about them, won't you, mamma?" Walter asked, in +coaxing tones. + +"Certainly, if you and the rest all wish it," she returned, smiling +lovingly into the eager young face, while the others joined in the +request. + +"Please tell about Philadelphia first, mamma," Walter went on. "You went +to Independence Hall, of course, and we've all been there, I believe; +but there must be some other points of interest in and about the city, +I should think, that will be rather new to us." + +"Yes, there are others," she replied, "though I suppose that to every +American Independence Hall is the most interesting of all, since it was +there the Continental Congress held its meetings, and its bell that +proclaimed the glad tidings that that grand Declaration of Independence +had been signed and the colonies of Great Britain had become free and +independent States--though there was long and desperate fighting to go +through before England would acknowledge it." + +"Mamma, don't you hate old England for it?" cried Walter impulsively, +his eyes flashing. + +"No, indeed!" she replied, laughing softly, and patting his rosy cheek +with her still pretty white hand. "It was not the England of to-day, you +must remember, my son, nor indeed the England of that day, but her half +crazy king and his ministers, who thought to raise money for him by +unjust taxation of the people of this land. 'Taxation without +representation is tyranny.' So they felt and said, and as such resisted +it." + +"And I'm proud of them for doing so!" he exclaimed, his eyes sparkling. +"Now, what other revolutionary places are to be seen in Philadelphia, +mamma?" + +"There is Christ Church, where Washington, Franklin, members of +Congress, and officers of the Continental army used to worship, with its +graveyard where Franklin and his wife Deborah lie buried. Major-General +Lee too was laid there; also General Mercer, killed at the battle of +Princeton, but his body was afterward removed to Laurel Hill Cemetery." + +"We will visit Christ Church, I hope," said Rosie. "Carpenter's Hall +too, where the first Continental Congress met, and Loxley House, where +Lydia Darrah lived in Revolutionary times. You saw that, I suppose, +mamma?" + +"Yes," replied her mother, "but I do not know whether it is, or is not, +still standing." + +"That's a nice story about Lydia Darrah," remarked Walter, with +satisfaction. "I think she showed herself a grand woman; don't you, +mamma?" + +"I do, indeed," replied his mother. "She was a true patriot." + +"There were many grand men and women in our country in those times," +remarked Evelyn Leland. "The members of that first Congress that met in +Carpenter's Hall on Monday, the 5th of September, 1774, were such. Do +you not think so, Grandma Elsie?" + +"Yes, I quite agree with you," replied Mrs. Travilla; "and it was John +Adams--himself by no means one of the least--who said, 'There is in the +Congress a collection of the greatest men upon the continent in point of +abilities, virtues, and fortunes.'" + +"Washington was one of them, wasn't he, Grandma Elsie?" asked Lulu. + +"Yes, one of the members from Virginia. The others from that State were +Richard Henry Lee, Peyton Randolph, Richard Bland, Benjamin Harrison, +Edmund Pendleton, and Patrick Henry. Peyton Randolph was chosen +president, and Charles Thomson, of Pennsylvania, secretary." + +"And then, I suppose, they set to work on their preparations for +fighting their oppressor, George the Third," remarked Lulu, half +inquiringly. + +"Lossing tells us," replied Mrs. Travilla, "that the delegates from the +different colonies then presented their credentials, and after that +there was silence, while deep anxiety was depicted on every countenance. +It seemed difficult to know how to begin upon the work for which they +had been called together. But at length a grave-looking member, in a +plain suit of gray, and wearing an unpowdered wig, arose. So plain was +his appearance that Bishop White, who was present, afterward telling of +the circumstances, said he 'felt a regret that a seeming country parson +should so far have mistaken his talents and the theatre for their +display.' However, he soon changed his mind as the plain-looking man +began to speak; his words were so eloquent, his sentiments so logical, +his voice was so musical, that the whole House was electrified, while +from lip to lip ran the question, 'Who is he? who is he?' and the few +who knew the stranger, answered, 'It is Patrick Henry of Virginia.'" + +"O mamma, was it before that that he had said, 'Give me liberty or give +me death'?" queried Walter, his eyes sparkling with enthusiasm. + +"No, he said that a few months afterward; but about nine years before, +he had startled his hearers in the Virginia House of Burgesses by his +cry, 'Cæsar had his Brutus, Charles the First his Cromwell, and George +the Third may profit by their example'!" + +"And now he was starting the Congress at its work!" + +"You are right; there was no more hesitation; they arranged their +business, adopted rules for the regulation of their sessions, and +then--at the beginning of the third day, and when about to enter upon +the business that had called them together--Mr. Cushing moved that the +sessions should be opened with prayer for Divine guidance and aid. + +"Mr. John Adams, in a letter to his wife, written the next day, said +that Mr. Cushing's motion was opposed by a member from New York, and one +from South Carolina, because the assembly was composed of men of so many +different denominations--Congregationalists, Presbyterians, Quakers, +Anabaptists, and Episcopalians,--that they could not join in the same +act of worship. + +"Then Mr. Samuel Adams arose, and said that he was no bigot and could +hear a prayer from any gentleman of piety and virtue who was at the same +time a friend to his country. He was a stranger in Philadelphia, but had +heard that Mr. Duché deserved that character; so he moved that he--Mr. +Duché, an Episcopal clergyman--be desired to read prayers before +Congress the next morning. + +"Mr. Duché consented, and the next morning read the prayers and the +Psalter for the 7th of September; a part of it was the thirty-fifth +psalm, which seemed wonderfully appropriate. Do you remember how it +begins? 'Plead my cause, O Lord, with them that strive with me: fight +against them that fight against me. Take hold of shield and buckler, and +stand up for mine help.'" + +"It does seem wonderfully appropriate," said Evelyn. "Oh, I'm sure that +God was on the side of the patriots, and helped them greatly in their +hard struggle with their powerful foe!" + +"Yes, only by His all-powerful aid could our liberties have been won, +and to Him be all the glory and the praise," said Grandma Elsie, +gratitude and joy shining in her beautiful eyes. + +"But that wasn't the Congress that signed the Declaration?" Walter +remarked, half inquiringly, half in assertion. + +"No; this was in 1774, and the Declaration was not signed until July, +1776," replied his mother. + +"It seems to me," remarked Lulu, "that the Americans were very slow in +getting ready to say they would be free from England--free from British +tyranny." + +"But you know you're always in a great hurry to do things, Lu," put in +Grace softly, with an affectionate, admiring smile up into her sister's +face. + +"Yes, I believe you're right, Gracie," returned Lulu, with a pleased +laugh and giving Grace's hand a loving squeeze. + +"Yes," assented Grandma Elsie, "our people were slow to break with the +mother country--as they used to call old England, the land of their +ancestors; they bore long and patiently with her, but at last were +convinced that in that case patience had ceased to be a virtue, and +liberty for themselves and their children must be secured at all costs." + +"How soon were they convinced of it, mamma?" asked Walter. + +"The conviction came slowly to all, and to some more slowly than to +others," she replied. "Dr. Franklin, Samuel Adams, and Patrick Henry +were among the first to see the necessity of becoming, politically, +entirely free and independent. + +"It is stated on good authority that Patrick Henry in speaking of Great +Britain, as early as 1773, said, 'She _will_ drive us to extremities; no +accommodation _will_ take place; hostilities _will soon_ commence, and a +desperate and bloody touch it will be.' + +"Some one, present when the remark was made, asked Mr. Henry if he +thought the colonies strong enough to resist successfully the fleets and +armies of Great Britain, and he answered that he doubted whether they +would be able to do so alone, 'but that France, Spain, and Holland were +the natural enemies of Great Britain.' + +"'Where will they be all this while?' he asked. 'Do you suppose they +will stand by, idle and indifferent spectators to the contest? Will +Louis XVI. be asleep all this time? Believe me, no! When Louis XVI. +shall be satisfied, by our serious opposition and our _Declaration_ of +_Independence_, that all prospect of a reconciliation is gone, then, and +not till then, will he furnish us with arms, ammunition, and clothing: +and not with them only, but he will send his fleets and armies to fight +our battles for us; he will form a treaty with us, offensive and +defensive, against our unnatural mother. Spain and Holland will join the +confederation! Our independence will be established! and we shall take +our stand among the nations of the earth!'" + +"And it all happened so; didn't it, mamma?" exclaimed Rosie exultantly; +"just as Patrick Henry predicted." + +"Yes," replied her mother, with a proud and happy smile, "and we have +certainly taken our place--by God's blessing upon the efforts of those +brave and gallant heroes of the revolution--as one of the greatest +nations of the earth. + +"Yet not all the credit should be awarded them, but some of it given to +their successors in the nation's counsels and on the fields of battle. +The foundations were well and strongly laid by our revolutionary +fathers, and the work well carried on by their successors." + +"Grandma Elsie, what was the story about Lydia Darrah?" asked Gracie. "I +don't remember to have heard it." + +"She lived in Philadelphia when the British were in possession there +during the winter after the battle of the Brandywine," replied Mrs. +Travilla. "She belonged to the Society of Friends, most of whom, as you +doubtless remember, took no active part in the war; at least, did none +of the fighting, though many helped in other ways; but some were Tories, +who gave aid and comfort to the enemy in other ways than by the use of +arms." + +"What a shame!" cried Walter. "You will tell us about the doings of some +of those when you are done with the story of Lydia Darrah, won't you, +mamma?" + +"If you all wish it," she answered; then went on with her narrative: + +"Judging from her conduct at that time, Lydia must have been an ardent +patriot; but patriots and Tories alike had British officers quartered +upon them. The adjutant-general took up his quarters in Loxley House, +the home of the Darrahs, and, as it was a secluded place, the superior +officers frequently held meetings there for private conference on +matters connected with the movements of the British troops." + +"One day the adjutant-general told Mrs. Darrah that such a meeting was +to be held that evening, and that he wanted the upper back room made +ready for himself and the friends who would be present. He added that +they would be likely to stay late and she must be sure to see that all +her family were early in their beds. + +"His tone and manner led Mrs. Darrah to think something of importance +was going forward, and though she did not dare disobey his order, she +resolved to try to find out what was their object in holding this +private night meeting, probably hoping to be able to do something to +prevent the carrying out of their plans against the liberties of her +country. + +"She sent her family to bed, according to directions, before the +officers came, and after admitting them retired to her own couch, but +not to sleep, for her thoughts were busy with conjectures in regard to +the mischief they--the unwelcome intruders into her house--might be +plotting against her country. + +"She had lain down without undressing and after a little she rose and +stole softly, in her stocking feet, to the door of the room where they +were assembled. + +"All was quiet at the moment when she reached it. She put her ear to the +keyhole and--doubtless, with a fast beating heart--waited there, +listening intently for the sound of the officers' voices. + +"For a few moments all was silence; then it was broken by a single voice +reading aloud an order from Sir William Howe for the troops to march out +of the city the next night and make an attack upon Washington's camp at +Whitemarsh. + +"Lydia waited to hear no more, for that was sufficient, and it would +have been dangerous indeed for her to be caught there. + +"She hastened back to her own room and again threw herself on the bed; +but not to sleep, as you may well imagine. + +"Presently the opening and shutting of doors told her that the visitors +of the adjutant-general were taking their departure; then there was a +rap on her door. But she did not answer it. It was repeated, but still +she did not move or speak; but at the third knock she rose, went to the +door, and found the adjutant-general there. + +"He informed her that his friends had gone and she might now close her +house for the night. + +"She did so, then lay down again, but not to sleep. She lay thinking of +the momentous secret she had just learned, considering how she might +help to avert the threatened danger to the patriot army, and asking help +and guidance from her heavenly Father. + +"Her prayer was heard; she laid her plans, then at early dawn arose. +Waking her husband she told him flour was wanted for the family and she +must go immediately to the mill at Frankford for it. Then taking a bag +to carry it in, she started at once on foot. + +"At General Howe's headquarters she obtained a passport to leave the +city. + +"She had a five miles' walk to Frankford, where she left her bag at the +mill, and hurried on toward the American camp to deliver her tidings. + +"It was still quite early, but before reaching the camp she met an +American officer, Lieutenant Craig, whom Washington had sent out to seek +information in regard to the doings of the enemy. + +"Lydia quickly told him her story, then hastened back to the mill for +her bag of flour and hurried home with it." + +"Mamma," exclaimed Walter, "how could she carry anything so big and +heavy?" + +"Perhaps it was but a small bag," returned his mother, with a smile. "I +never saw or read any statement as to its size, and perhaps the joy and +thankfulness she felt in having been permitted and enabled to do such +service to the cause of her country may have helped to strengthen her to +bear the burden." + +"What a day it must have been to her!" exclaimed Evelyn, "hope and +fear alternating in her breast; and how her heart must have gone up +constantly in prayer to God for his blessing upon her bleeding country." + +"And how it must have throbbed with alternating hope and fear as she +stood at the window that cold, starry night and watched the departure +of the British troops to make the intended attack upon Washington and +his little army," said Rosie. "And again when the distant roll of a drum +told that they were returning." + +"Yes," said Lulu; "and when the adjutant-general came back to the house, +summoned Lydia to his room, and when he got her in there shut and locked +the door." + +"Oh," cried Grace, "did he know it was she that had told of his plans?" + +"No," said Mrs. Travilla; "from the accounts I have read he does not +seem to have even suspected her. He invited her to be seated, then +asked, 'Were any of your family up, Lydia, on the night when I received +company in this house?' 'No,' she replied; 'they all retired at eight +o'clock.' 'It is very strange,' he returned. 'You I know were asleep, +for I knocked at your door three times before you heard me, yet it is +certain we were betrayed. I am altogether at a loss to conceive who +could have given information to Washington of our intended attack. On +arriving near his camp, we found his cannon mounted, his troops under +arms, and so prepared at every point to receive us, that we have been +compelled to march back like a parcel of fools, without injuring our +enemy!'" + +"I hope the British did not find out, before they left Philadelphia, who +had given the information to the Americans, and take vengeance on her?" +said Walter. + +"No," replied his mother, "fearing that, she had begged Lieutenant Craig +to keep her secret; which he did; and so it has happened that her good +deed finds no mention in the histories of that time and is recorded only +by well authenticated tradition." + +"So all the Quakers were not Tories?" remarked Walter in a satisfied yet +half inquiring tone. + +"Oh, no indeed!" replied his mother, "there were ardent patriots among +them, as among people of other denominations. Nathaniel Green--after +Washington one of our best and greatest generals--was of Quaker family, +and I have heard that when his mother found he was not to be persuaded +to refrain from taking an active part in the struggle for freedom, she +said to him, 'Well, Nathaniel, if thee must fight, let me never hear of +thee having a wound in thy back!'" + +"Ah, she must have been brave and patriotic," laughed Walter. "I doubt +if she was so very sorry that her son was determined to fight for the +freedom of his country." + +"No," said Rosie, "I don't believe she was, and I don't see how she +could help feeling proud of him--so bright, brave, talented, and +patriotic as he showed himself to be all through the war." + +"Yes," said Lulu, "and I don't think he has had half the honors he +deserved, though at West Point we saw a cannon with an inscription on it +saying it had been taken from the British army and presented by Congress +to Major-General Green as a monument of their high sense of his services +in the revolutionary war." + +"Weren't the Tories very bad men, Grandma Elsie?" asked Grace. + +"Not all of them, my dear," replied Mrs. Travilla, smiling lovingly into +the sweet, though grave and earnest, little face; "some were really +conscientiously opposed to war, even when waged for freedom from +unbearable tyranny and oppression, but were disposed to be merely +inactive witnesses of the struggle, some of them desiring the success of +the patriots, others that of the king's troops; then there was another +set who, while professing neutrality, secretly aided the British, +betraying the patriots into their hands. + +"Such were Carlisle and Roberts, Quakers of that time, living in +Philadelphia. While the British were in possession of the city those two +men were employed as secret agents in detecting foes to the government, +and by their secret information caused many patriots to be arrested and +thrown into prison. Lossing tells us that Carlisle, wearing the meek +garb and deportment of a Quaker, was at heart a Torquemada." + +"And who was Torquemada, mamma?" queried Walter. + +"A Dominican monk of Spain, who lived in the times of Ferdinand and +Isabella, and was by them appointed inquisitor-general. He organized the +Inquisition throughout Spain, drew up the code of procedure, and during +sixteen years caused between nine and ten thousand persons to be burned +at the stake." + +"Mamma! what a cruel, _cruel_ wretch!" cried Walter. "Oh, but I'm glad +nobody can do such cruel things in these days! I hope Roberts and +Carlisle weren't quite so wicked as he." + +"No, I should not like to think they would have been willing to go to +quite such lengths, though they seem to have shown enough malignity +toward their patriotic fellow-countrymen to make it evident that they +had something of the spirit of the cruel and bloodthirsty Torquemada. + +"Though they would not bear arms for the wealth of the Indies, they were +ever ready to act as guides to those whose object was to massacre their +fellow-countrymen; and that only because they were determined to be +free." + +"Were not some of those in New Jersey known as 'Pine Robbers,' Grandma +Elsie?" asked Evelyn. + +"Yes; they infested the lower part of Monmouth County, whence they went +on predatory excursions into other parts of the State, coming upon the +people at night to burn, murder, plunder, and destroy. They burrowed +caves in the sandhills on the borders of the swamps, where they +concealed themselves and their booty." + +"Did they leave their hiding-places only in the night time, mamma?" +asked Walter. + +"No," she replied, "they would sometimes sally forth during the day and +attack the farmers in their fields. So that the men were compelled to +carry muskets and be ready to fight for their lives, while women and +children were kept in a constant state of terror." + +"I think I have read that one of the worst of them was a blacksmith, +living in Freehold?" remarked Evelyn, half inquiringly. + +"Yes, his name was Fenton; he was a very wicked man, who, like many +others calling themselves Tories, took advantage of the disturbance of +the times to rob and murder his fellow-countrymen; he began his career +of robbery and murder very early in the war. + +"One of his first acts, as such, was the plundering of a tailor's shop +in the township. A committee of vigilance had been already organized, +and its members sent Fenton word that if he did not return what he had +stolen he should be hunted out and shot. + +"He was a coward, as such villains almost always are, and did return the +clothing, sending with it a written message, 'I have returned your ---- +rags. In a short time I am coming to burn your barns and houses, and +roast you all like a pack of kittens.' + +"One summer night, shortly afterward, he led a gang of desperadoes like +himself against the dwelling of an old man named Farr. There were but +three persons in the house--the old man, his wife, and daughter. They +barricaded their door and defended themselves for a while, but Fenton +broke in a part of the door, fired through the hole at the old man and +broke his leg. The women could not keep them out much longer; they soon +forced an entrance, murdered the old man and woman, and badly wounded +the daughter. She, however, made her escape, and the cowardly ruffians +fled without waiting to secure any plunder; no doubt fearing she would +bring a band of patriots to avenge the slain." + +"I hope that wretch, Fenton, was soon caught and well punished for his +robberies and murders!" exclaimed Lulu. + +"He was," replied Grandma Elsie. "The Bible tells us that 'bloody and +deceitful men shall not live out half their days,' and Fenton's fate was +one amongst many to prove the truth of it. + +"He had met a young man on his way to mill, plundered and beaten him; +the victim carried his complaint to Lee, and a sergeant and two +soldiers were detailed to capture or kill Fenton. + +"They used strategy and with success. The two soldiers were secreted +under some straw in the bottom of a wagon, the sergeant disguised +himself as a countryman, and the young man took a seat in the vehicle. +Then they drove on toward the mill, expecting to meet Fenton on the +road. They were passing a low groggery among the pines, when he came out +of it, pistol in hand, and impudently ordered them to stop. + +"They drew rein, and he came nearer, asking if they had brandy with +them. They replied that they had, and handed him a bottle. Then, as he +lifted it to his lips, the sergeant silently signaled to one of his +hidden soldiers, who at once rose from his hiding place in the straw and +shot Fenton through the head. His body was then thrown into the wagon +and carried in triumph to Freehold." + +"The people of that part of the country must have felt a good deal +relieved," remarked Rosie. "Still there were Fenton's desperado +companions left." + +"Two of them--Fagan and West--shared Fenton's fate, being shot by the +exasperated people," said her mother; "and West's body was hung in +chains, with hoop iron bands around it, on a chestnut tree hard by the +roadside, about a mile from Freehold." + +"O Grandma Elsie, is it there yet?" asked Gracie, shuddering with +horror. + +"No, dear child, that could hardly be possible after so many years--more +than a hundred you will remember when you think of it," returned Mrs. +Travilla, with a kindly reassuring smile. + +"I hope papa will take us to Freehold," said Lulu. "I want to see the +battleground." + +"I feel quite sure he will, should nothing happen to prevent," said +Grandma Elsie. + +"Wasn't it at Freehold, or in its neighborhood, that a Captain Huddy was +murdered by those pine robbers?" asked Evelyn. + +"Yes," replied Grandma Elsie. "It was only the other day that I was +refreshing my memory in regard to it by glancing over Lossing's account +given in his Field Book of the Revolution." + +"Then please tell us about it, mamma," pleaded Walter. + +"Very willingly, since you wish to hear it," she said, noting the look +of eager interest on the young faces about her. + +"Captain Huddy was an ardent patriot and consequently hated by his Tory +neighbors. He lived at a place called Colt's Neck, about five miles from +Freehold. + +"One evening, in the summer of 1780, a party of some sixty refugees, +headed by a mulatto named Titus, attacked Huddy's house. There was no +one in it at the time but Huddy himself, and a servant girl, some twenty +years old, named Lucretia Emmons." + +"She wouldn't be of much use for fighting men," remarked Walter, with a +slight sniff of contempt. + +"Perhaps Captain Huddy may have thought differently," replied his +mother, with a slightly amused smile. "There were several guns in the +house which she loaded for Huddy while he passed from one window to +another firing through them at his foes. Titus and several others were +wounded; then they set fire to the house and Huddy surrendered. + +"He was taken on board of a boat from which he jumped into the water and +escaped, assisted in so doing by the fire of some militia who were in +pursuit of the Tories. + +"About two years later Huddy was in command of a block house near the +village of Tom's River, when it was attacked by some refugees from New +York, and, his ammunition giving out, he was obliged to surrender. He +and his companions were taken to New York, then back to Sandy Hook, +where they were placed on board a guard-ship and heavily ironed. + +"Shortly afterward he was taken to Gravelly Point, by sixteen refugees +under Captain Lippincott, and hung on a gallows made of three rails. + +"He met his fate like the brave man that he was, first calmly writing +his will on the head of the barrel upon which he was presently to stand +for execution. + +"A desperate Tory, named Philip White, had been killed while Huddy was a +prisoner in New York, and these men falsely accused Huddy of having had +a share in his death. After hanging him that cruel, wicked Lippincott +fastened to his breast a notice to the effect that they had killed +Captain Huddy in revenge for the death of Philip White, and that they +were determined to hang man for man while a refugee lived." + +"Oh, what dreadful, dreadful things people did in those days!" sighed +Grace. "Did anybody venture to take the body down and bury it, Grandma +Elsie?" + +"Yes, Captain Huddy's body was carried to Freehold and buried with the +honors of war." + +"And did people care much about it?" + +"Yes, indeed! his death caused great excitement and indignation, and Dr. +Woodhull, the Freehold minister, who preached the funeral sermon from +the piazza of the hotel, earnestly entreated Washington to retaliate in +order to prevent a repetition of such deeds. + +"Washington consented, but, ever merciful, first wrote to Sir Henry +Clinton that unless the murderers of Captain Huddy were given up he +should retaliate. + +"Clinton refused, and a young British officer, Captain Asgill, a +prisoner in the hands of the Americans, was selected by lot for +execution. Washington, however, mercifully postponed the carrying out of +the sentence, feeling much pity and sympathy for the young +man--doubtless for his relatives also; letters came from Europe +earnestly entreating that Asgill's life might be spared; among them a +pathetic one from his mother, and an intercessory one from the French +minister, Count de Vergennes. + +"These letters Washington sent to Congress and that body passed a +resolution, 'That the commander-in-chief be, and hereby is, directed to +set Captain Asgill at liberty.'" + +"It seems to me that our people were far more merciful than the +English," remarked Lulu, with a look of patriotic pride. + +"I think that is true," assented Grandma Elsie, "not meaning to deny +that there are many kindhearted men among the British of to-day, or that +there were such among them even then, but most of those then in power +showed themselves to be avaricious, hardhearted, and cruel." + +"Yes, they wanted to make slaves of the people here," exclaimed Lulu +hotly. "But they found that Americans wouldn't be slaves; that rather +than resign their liberty they would die fighting for it." + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + +It was still early in the evening when the _Dolphin_ reached her wharf +at Philadelphia, where her passengers found friends and relatives +waiting to give them a joyful reception. + +A few days passed very pleasantly in visiting these friends and places +of interest in the city, particularly such as were in one way or another +connected with the events of revolutionary times. Then they went up the +Delaware in their yacht. + +Their first halting-place would be at Trenton, and naturally the talk, +as they went up the river, was largely of the revolutionary events which +had taken place there and at other not far distant points. Grandma Elsie +was again the narrator. + +"In November of 1776," she began, "our country's prospects looked very +dark. On the 16th, Fort Washington, on the east bank of the Hudson, and +near New York City, fell into the hands of the enemy and its garrison of +nearly three thousand men were made prisoners of war. + +"On the 20th Cornwallis crossed the Hudson at Dobbs Ferry and with his +six thousand men attacked Fort Lee. The garrison hastily retreated, +leaving all their baggage and military stores, and joined the main army +at Hackensack, five miles away. + +"Then Washington, who had with him scarcely three thousand men, began a +retreat toward the Delaware, hoping to obtain reinforcements in New +Jersey and Pennsylvania which would enable him to make a stand against +the invaders and give them battle. + +"But his troops had become much dispirited by the many recent disasters +to our arms, delayed payment of arrears by Congress, causing them great +inconvenience and suffering, and lack of proper food and clothing, and +the presence of the enemy, who now had possession of New Jersey and +seemed likely soon to take Philadelphia. + +"Just at that time, as I have said, there seemed little hope for our +country. Washington's army was dwindling very rapidly, men whose terms +of enlistment had expired refusing to serve any longer, so that he had +but twenty-two hundred under his command when he crossed the Delaware, +and two days later not more than seventeen hundred; indeed, scarcely +more than a thousand on whom he could rely. + +"He wrote to General Lee, who had been left at White Plains with nearly +three thousand men, asking him to lead his division into New Jersey, to +reinforce his rapidly melting army. Lee paid no attention to the +request and Washington sent him a positive command to do what he had +before requested. + +"Lee obeyed very slowly, and while on his way was taken prisoner by the +enemy." + +"Served him right for disobeying Washington!" growled Walter. + +"There could be no excuse for such disobedience," continued Grandma +Elsie; "and one feels no sympathy for Lee in reading of his sudden +seizure by the British, who carried him off in such haste that he had no +time to dress but was taken bareheaded and in blanket coat and +slippers." + +"I doubt if his capture was a loss to the American cause," remarked +Rosie. + +"No," said her mother; "though much deplored at the time, I have no +doubt it was really for the good of the cause. General Sullivan +succeeded Lee in command and presently joined Washington with his +forces." + +"I don't see how Washington could have patience with so many +disappointments and delays," said Lulu. "Didn't he ever give way to +despair, even for a little while, Grandma Elsie?" + +"I have never seen the least intimation of it," replied Mrs. Travilla. +"He is said to have been at this time firm, calm, undaunted, holding +fast to his faith in the final triumph of the good cause for which he +was toiling and striving. + +"There seemed to be nothing but the Delaware between the enemy and his +conquest of Philadelphia; the freezing of the river so that the British +could pass over it on the ice might occur at any time. Some one asked +Washington what he would do were Philadelphia to be taken. He answered, +'We will retreat beyond the Susquehanna River, and thence, if necessary, +to the Alleghany Mountains.' Doubtless he was even then planning the +masterly movements of his forces that presently drove the enemy from +Trenton and Princeton." + +"Didn't the people of Philadelphia try to be ready to defend themselves +and their city, mamma?" asked Walter. + +"Yes," she replied; "Congress gave the command there, with almost +unlimited power, to General Putnam; then appointing a committee of three +to act for them, they adjourned to reassemble at Baltimore. + +"In the meantime Washington was getting ready for the striking of his +intended blows in New Jersey. + +"It would seem that General Howe, the commander-in-chief of the British +forces, had planned to despatch Cornwallis up the Hudson to the +assistance of Burgoyne, who was about to invade our country from Canada. +But Cornwallis had a strong desire to capture Philadelphia, and +probably no doubt that he could do so if allowed to carry out his plans, +and to that Howe consented. + +"Cornwallis showed but little skill in the arrangement of his forces, +scattering them here and there in detachments from New Brunswick to the +Delaware and down that stream to a point below Burlington. His military +stores, and his strongest detachment, were at New Brunswick. The last +consisting of a troop of light horse with about fifteen hundred +Hessians. + +"Washington decided to surprise those troops while at the same time +Generals Ewing and Cadwalader, with the Pennsylvania militia, were +directed to attack the posts at Bordentown, Black Horse, Burlington, and +Mount Holly. Cadwalader was to cross near Bristol, Ewing below Trenton +falls, while Washington, with Generals Greene and Sullivan, and Colonel +Knox of the artillery, was to lead the main body of Continental troops +and cross the Delaware at M'Conkey's Ferry. + +"Washington was very anxious to save Philadelphia, which Cornwallis was +aiming to capture, and felt sure of taking without any great difficulty, +after crossing the Delaware, since he had heard that the people there +were for the king almost to a man. So sure was he indeed that the +victory would be an easy one that he had gone back to his headquarters +in New York and prepared to return to England. + +"Putnam, in Philadelphia, had heard of Washington's intended attack upon +the British at Trenton, and to assist him sent Colonel Griffin, at the +head of four hundred and fifty militia, across from Philadelphia to New +Jersey with directions to make a diversion in favor of the Americans by +marching to Mount Holly as if intending an attack upon the British +troops under the command of Colonel Donop at Bordentown. + +"Donop fell into the trap, moved against Griffin with his whole force of +two thousand men, and, as Griffin retreated before him, followed; then, +secure like Cornwallis and other of the English officers in the belief +that the Americans were well nigh subdued already, and that when once +Philadelphia should fall, resistance would be about at an end, moved his +troops in so dilatory a manner that he was two days in returning to his +post." + +"Humph! they were mightily mistaken in their estimate of our people, +weren't they, mamma?" exclaimed Walter. + +"I think they were themselves soon convinced of that," she answered with +a smile; then continued her story. + +"Washington selected Christmas night as the time for his contemplated +attack upon the British at Trenton. It was, as he well knew, the habit +of the Germans to celebrate that day with feasting and drinking, and +such being the case, he felt that he might reasonably expect to find +them under the influence of intoxicating drinks, therefore unfit for a +successful resistance. + +"The river had been free from ice, but in the last twenty-four hours +before the time appointed for the expedition the weather changed, +growing very much colder, so that the water was filled with floating +ice, greatly increasing the difficulty and danger of crossing; a storm +of sleet and snow set in too, and the night was dark and gloomy. + +"Still the little army was undaunted; they paraded at M'Conkey's Ferry +at dusk, expecting to reach Trenton by midnight; but so slow and +perilous was the crossing that it was nearly four o'clock when at last +they mustered on the Jersey shore. + +"It was now too late to attack under cover of the darkness, as had been +Washington's plan." + +"Excuse me, mamma, but surely it would be still dark at four o'clock in +the morning?" Walter said half inquiringly. + +"Yes, my son, but you must remember they had crossed at M'Conkey's +Ferry, which is eight miles higher up the river than is Trenton, so that +they had that distance to march before they could make their attack. + +"Washington divided his forces, leading one portion himself by the upper +road,--Generals Greene, Mercer, and Lord Sterling accompanying him,--and +giving Sullivan command of the other, which was to approach the town by +another road leading along the river. + +"The two arrived at Trenton about the same time, having marched so +silently that the enemy was unaware of their approach till they were but +a short distance from the picket guards on the outskirts of the town. + +"There was a brisk skirmish then, the Hessians retreating toward their +main body, firing as they went from behind the houses, while the +Americans pursued them closely." + +"Then the Hessians weren't drunk as Washington expected, were they, +Grandma Elsie?" asked Grace. + +"Well-authenticated tradition says they were," replied Mrs. Travilla; +"that they had been carousing through the night, Rall himself feasting, +drinking, and playing cards at the house of Abraham Hunt, who had +invited him and other officers to a Christmas supper. They had been +playing all night and regaling themselves with wine. + +"A Tory on the Pennington road saw, about dawn, the approach of the +Americans under Washington and sent a messenger with a note to warn +Rall. But a negro servant who had been stationed as warden at the door +refused to allow the messenger to pass in, saying, 'The gemman can't be +disturbed.' + +"It seems that the messenger was aware of the contents of the note, or +at least that it was a warning of the approach of the Americans, so, +being foiled in his purpose of seeing Rall himself, he handed the note +to the negro with an order to carry it at once to Colonel Rall. + +"The negro obeyed, but Rall, excited with wine and interested in his +game, merely thrust the note into his pocket and went on with his deal. + +"But presently the roll of the American drums, the rattle of musketry, +the tramp of horses, and the rumble of heavy gun-carriages fell upon his +drowsy ear, and in a moment he was wide awake, the cards were dropped, +he sprang to his feet, then rushed away to his quarters and mounted his +horse with all speed; but at that time his soldiers were being driven by +the Americans as chaff before the wind. + +"The Hessians' drums were beating to arms, and a company rushed out of +the barracks to protect the patrol. Washington's troops had begun the +fight with an attack upon the outermost picket on the Pennington road, +and Stark, with the van of Sullivan's party, gave three cheers and +rushed upon the enemy's pickets near the river with their bayonets, and +they, astonished at the suddenness and fury of the charge, were seized +with a panic and fled in confusion across the Assanpink. + +"Both divisions--the one commanded by Washington, the other under +Sullivan--now pressed forward so rapidly, and with such zeal and +determination, that the Hessians were not allowed to form. Nor could +they get possession of the two cannon in front of Rall's quarters. + +"The Americans themselves were forming in line of battle when Rall made +his appearance, reeling in his saddle as if drunk,--as I presume he +was,--received a report, then rode up in front of his regiment and +called out, 'Forward, march; advance, advance!' + +"But before his order could be obeyed a party of Americans hurried +forward and dismounted his two cannon, accomplishing the feat without +injury to themselves except that Captains William Washington and James +Monroe were slightly wounded." + +"And where was General Washington just then, mamma?" asked Walter. + +"He was there in the midst of the fighting, and exposed to the same +dangers as his troops. It was under his personal direction that a +battery of six guns was opened upon two regiments of Hessians less than +three hundred yards distant. Washington was then near the front, a +little to the right, where he could be easily seen by the enemy, and +made a target for their balls. But though his horse was wounded, he +remained unhurt." + +"Oh," cried Evelyn with enthusiasm, "surely God protected him and turned +aside the balls, that America might not lose the one on whom so much +depended! the father of his country, the ardent patriot, the best of men +and greatest of generals, as I do certainly believe he was." + +"I am proud that Washington was a countryman of mine," exclaimed Rosie, +her eyes sparkling. + +"Yes, we are all proud of our Washington," said Lulu. "But what more can +you tell us about the battle of Trenton, Grandma Elsie?" + +"Rall drew back his two regiments as if intending to reach the road to +Princeton by turning Washington's left," continued Mrs. Travilla in +reply. "To prevent that, an American regiment was thrown in front of +him. It seemed likely that he might have forced a passage through it, +but his troops, having collected much plunder in Trenton and wishing to +hold on to it, persuaded him to try to recover the town. + +"He made the attempt, but was charged impetuously by the Americans and +driven back further than before; and in that movement he himself was +mortally wounded by a musket ball. His men were thrown into confusion, +and presently surrendered. + +"Then Baylor rode up to Washington and announced, 'Sir, the Hessians +have surrendered.'" + +"Baylor?" repeated Walter. "Who was he, mamma?" + +"One of Washington's aids," she replied. "In the first year of the war +he was made an aid-de-camp to General Washington and in that capacity +was with him in this battle." + +"How I envy him!" exclaimed Lulu. + +"I do think that if I'd been a man living in those days," said Walter, +"I'd have cared for no greater honor than being aid to our Washington." + +His mother's only reply was a proudly affectionate look and smile as she +went on with her story. + +"There was another regiment, under Knyphausen, which had been ordered to +cover the flank. These tried to reach the Assanpink bridge, but lost +time in an effort to get two cannon out of the morass, and when they +reached the bridge the Americans were guarding it on both sides. They +tried to ford the river, but without success, and presently surrendered +to Lord Stirling, with the privilege of keeping their swords and their +private baggage. That ended the battle, leaving the Americans with +nearly a thousand prisoners in their hands. + +"Over two hundred of the Hessians had escaped--some to Princeton, +others to Bordentown. There were a hundred and thirty absent, having +been sent out on some expedition, and seventeen were killed. The battle +had lasted thirty-five minutes, and the Americans had not lost a man." + +"It was wonderful, I think!" said Evelyn, in her earnest way; "certainly +God helped our patriotic forefathers or they never could have succeeded +in their conflict with so powerful a foe as Great Britain was even +then." + +"It was all of God's great goodness to this land and people," said +Grandma Elsie. "Had there been in that action defeat to our arms instead +of victory, we would not--so soon at least--have become the free and +powerful nation we are to-day. Congress lavished praise upon General +Washington, but he replied, 'You pay me compliments as if the merit of +the affair was due solely to me; but I assure you the other general +officers who assisted me in the plan and execution have full as good a +right to the encomiums as myself.'" + +"Possibly that was only just," remarked Rosie, "but it strikes me as +very generous." + +"It was just like Washington," said Walter; "our Washington! I'm ever so +proud of him!" + +"As we all are," said his mother; "but we must not forget to give the +glory of that victory, and all others, and also of our final success, +to him who is the God of battles, and by whose strength and help our +freedom was won. As Bancroft says, 'Until that hour the life of the +United States flickered like a dying flame,' but God had appeared for +their deliverance and from that time the hopes of the almost despairing +people revived, while the confident expectations of their enemies were +dashed to the ground. Lord George Germain exclaimed after he heard the +news, 'All our hopes were blasted by the unhappy affair at Trenton.'" + +"Unhappy affair indeed!" exclaimed Walter. "What a heartless wretch he +must have been, mamma!" + +"And how our poor soldiers did suffer!" sighed Lulu; "it makes my heart +ache just to think of it!" + +"And mine," said Grandma Elsie. "It is wonderful how much the poor +fellows were willing to endure in the hope of attaining freedom for +themselves and their country. + +"Thomas Rodney tells us that on the night of the attack upon Trenton of +which we have been talking, while Rall caroused and played cards beside +his warm fire, our poor soldiers were toiling and suffering with cold +and nakedness, facing wind and sleet in the defence of their country. + +"The night," he says, "was as severe a night as ever I saw; the frost +was sharp, the current difficult to stem, the ice increasing, the wind +high, and at eleven it began to snow. It was three in the morning of the +26th before the troops and cannon were all over, and another hour passed +before they could be formed on the Jersey side. A violent northeast +storm of wind, sleet, and hail set in as they began their nine miles' +march to Trenton, against an enemy in the best condition to fight. The +weather was terrible for men clad as they were, and the ground slipped +under their feet. For a mile and a half they had to climb a steep hill, +from which they descended to the road that ran for about three miles +between hills and forests of hickory, ash, and black oak." + +"Oh, how brave and patriotic they were!" exclaimed Rosie. "I remember +reading that their route might be easily traced by the blood on the snow +from the feet of the poor fellows, who had broken shoes or none. Oh, +what a shame it was that Congress and the people let them--the men who +were enduring so much and fighting so bravely for the liberty of +both--bear such hardships!" + +"It was, indeed," sighed Grandma Elsie; "it always gives me a heartache +to think of those poor fellows marching through the darkness and that +dreadful storm of snow, sleet, and bitter wind and only half clothed. +Just think of it! a continuous march of fifteen miles through darkness, +over such a road, the storm directly in their faces. They reached their +destination stiff with cold, yet rushed at once upon the foe, fighting +bravely for freedom for themselves and their children. 'Victory or +death,' was the watchword Washington had given them." + +"Were they from all the States, mamma?" asked Walter. + +"They were principally Pennsylvania, Virginia, and New England troops," +she answered. "Grant, the British commander in New Jersey, knew of the +destitution of our troops but felt no fear that they would really +venture to attack him; persuading himself that they would not cross the +river because the floating ice would make it a difficult, if not +impossible, thing for them to return. + +"'Besides,' he wrote on the 21st, 'Washington's men have neither shoes +nor stockings nor blankets, are almost naked, and dying of cold and want +of food.'" + +"And didn't Rall say the Americans wouldn't dare to come against him?" +asked Walter. + +"Yes; his reply to a warning of danger of being attacked was, 'Let them +come; what need of intrenchments! We will at them with the bayonet!'" + +"And when they did come he was killed?" + +"Yes, mortally wounded; taken by his aids and servant to his quarters +at the house of a Quaker named Stacey Potts; and there Washington and +Greene visited him just before leaving Trenton." + +"They knew he was dying, mamma?" + +"Yes, and, as Lossing tells us, Washington offered such consolation as a +soldier and Christian can bestow." + +"It was very kind, and I hope Rall appreciated it." + +"It would seem that he did, as the historian tells us it soothed the +agonies of the expiring hero." + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + +From Trenton Grandma Elsie, the captain, and their young charges went on +to Princeton, where they received a most joyful welcome from Harold and +Herbert Travilla, now spending their last year at the seminary. + +Their mother had written to them of the intended visit, and all +necessary arrangements had been made. Carriages were in waiting, and +shortly after their arrival the whole party were on their way to the +battleground, where the attention of the young people was drawn to the +various points of interest, particularly the spot where fell General +Mercer. + +"The general's horse was wounded in the leg by a musket ball," explained +Harold, in reply to a question from his little brother; "he dismounted, +and was rallying his troops, when a British soldier felled him to the +ground by a blow from a musket. + +"He was supposed to be Washington. A shout, was raised, 'The rebel +general is taken!' and at that others of the enemy rushed to the spot +calling out, 'Call for quarter, you d----d rebel!' + +"'I am no rebel!' Mercer answered indignantly, though half a dozen of +their bayonets were at his breast; and instead of calling for quarter he +continued to fight, striking at them with his sword till they bayoneted +him and left him for dead. + +"He was not dead, however, but mortally wounded. + +"After the British had retreated he was carried to the house of Thomas +Clark," continued Harold, pointing out the building as he spoke, "where +he lingered in great pain till the 12th and then died." + +"I'm glad it wasn't Washington," said Walter. + +"Was Washington hurt at all, papa?" asked Grace. + +"No, though exposed to the hottest fire he escaped without injury," +replied the captain. "God our Heavenly Father preserved him for his +great work--the salvation of our country. 'Man is immortal till his work +is done'--and Washington's was not done till years afterward." + +"Not even when the war was over; for he was our first president, I +remember," said Lulu. + +"Yes," replied her father, "and he did much for his country in that +capacity. + +"The night before this battle of Princeton he and his army were in a +critical situation, the British being fully equal in numbers and their +troops well disciplined, while about half of Washington's army was +composed of raw militia--so that a general engagement the next day would +be almost sure to result in defeat to the Americans. + +"Washington called a council of war. It was he himself who proposed to +withdraw from their present position--on the high ground upon the +southern bank of the Assanpink--before dawn of the next morning, and, by +a circuitous march to Princeton, get in the rear of the enemy, attack +them at that place, and if successful march on to New Brunswick and take +or destroy his stores there. + +"The great difficulty in the way was that the ground was too soft, from +a thaw, to make it safe and easy to move their forty pieces of cannon. + +"But a kind Providence removed that hindrance, the weather suddenly +becoming so extremely cold that in two hours or less the roads were hard +enough for the work." + +"As Lossing says," remarked Grandma Elsie, "'The great difficulty was +overcome by a power mightier than that of man. Our fathers were fighting +for God-given rights and it was by his help they at last succeeded.'" + +"What's the rest of the story?" asked Walter. "How did Washington and +his army slip away without the British seeing them? For I suppose they +had sentinels awake and out." + +"Washington had a number of camp fires lighted along his front," replied +Harold, to whom the question seemed to be addressed, "making them of the +fences near at hand. That made the British think he was encamped for the +night, and Cornwallis, when some one urged him to make an attack that +night, said he would certainly 'catch the fox in the morning.' The fox, +of course, was Washington, but he didn't catch him. It was not till dawn +he discovered that the fox had eluded him and slipped away, fleeing so +silently that the British did not know in what direction he had gone +till they heard the boom of the cannon in the fight here. + +"Cornwallis thought it was thunder, but Sir William Erskine recognized +it as what it was and exclaimed, 'To arms, General! Washington has +outgeneraled us. Let us fly to the rescue at Princeton.'" + +"How long did the battle last?" queried Walter. + +"The fight right here lasted about fifteen minutes, but was very +severe," replied his brother. "Then Washington pushed on to Princeton, +and in a ravine near the college had another sharp fight with the +Fifty-fifth British regiment." + +"And whipped them too?" + +"Yes; they were soon flying toward Brunswick, the Fortieth regiment +going along with them. + +"A part of a regiment was still in the college buildings, and Washington +had some cannon placed in proper position, then began firing on them. +One of the balls--it is said to have been the first--passed into the +chapel and through the head of a portrait of George the Second that hung +in a large frame on the wall. A few more shots were fired, and then the +Princeton militia, and some other daring fellows, burst open a door of +Nassau Hall and called upon the troops there to surrender, which they +did promptly." + +"And Cornwallis had not reached there yet?" Walter said interrogatively. + +"No," returned Harold, "and when he did arrive he found that the battle +was over, and Washington, with his victorious troops and prisoners, had +already left the town and was in hot pursuit of the fleeing Fortieth and +Fifty-fifth regiments." + +"And our poor fellows so tired and cold!" sighed Eva. + +"Yes," said the captain, "they had fought at Trenton on the 26th, after +being up, probably, all night, getting across the river, had spent the +next night in marching upon Princeton and the day in fighting; so that +they must have been terribly fatigued even had they had the warm +clothing and nourishing food they needed; but less than half of them +had been able to procure any breakfast or dinner; and, as you all know, +many of them were without shoes or stockings. Ah, how we should prize +the liberty which was so dearly bought!" + +"So to save his army," resumed Harold, "Washington refrained from an +effort to seize the rich prize at New Brunswick, and let them rest that +night and refresh themselves with food; then retired to his winter +quarters at Morristown. + +"Now, good people, if you are ready to retrace your steps, let us go +back and look at the town souvenirs of the revolution; among them the +portrait of Washington in the frame that used to hold that of George the +Second." + +Our friends made but a short stay at Princeton, leaving that evening, +and the next day visited the scene of the battle of Monmouth. The +captain gave a rapid sketch of the movements of the opposing armies, as +he did so pointing out the various positions of the different corps, +describing Lee's disgraceful conduct at the beginning of the fight, +telling of the just indignation of Washington, his stern reproof, Lee's +angry rejoinder, and then with what consummate skill and despatch his +errors were repaired by the general-in-chief--the retreating, almost +routed, troops rallied, and order brought out of confusion, and how +fearlessly he exposed himself to the iron storm while giving his orders +so that that patriot army, which had been so near destruction, within +half an hour was drawn up in battle array and ready to meet the foe. + +"It was a very hot day, wasn't it, papa?" asked Lulu. + +"One of the hottest of the season," replied her father, "ninety-six +degrees in the shade; and the sun slew his victims on both sides." + +"Don't you think Lee was a traitor, Captain?" queried Evelyn. + +"Either that or insane. I think it would have been a happy thing for +America if both he and Gaines had remained in their own land. They did +the American cause far more harm than good. Though I by no means accuse +Gaines of treachery, but he was envious of Washington, and so desirous +to supersede him that he was ready to sacrifice the cause to that end." + +"I just wish he'd been sent back to England," said Walter. "But please +tell us the rest about the battle, Brother Levis, won't you?" + +The captain willingly complied. + +"It was a dreadful battle," remarked Evelyn with a sigh, as his story +came to a conclusion. + +"Yes, one of the most hotly contested of the war," he assented, "and +resulted in victory to the Americans in spite of Lee's repeated +assertion that the 'attempt was madness.' + +"All the other American generals did well, the country resounded with +praises of Washington, and Congress passed a unanimous vote of thanks to +him 'for his great and good conduct and victory.'" + +"It was in this battle Captain Molly fought, wasn't it?" asked Rosie. + +"Yes," the captain replied; and, noticing the eagerly inquiring looks of +Grace and Walter, he went on to tell the story. + +"Molly was the wife of a cannoneer who was firing one of the +field-pieces, while she, disregarding the danger from the shots of the +enemy, made frequent journeys to and from a spring near at hand, thus +furnishing her husband with the means of slacking his thirst, which must +have been great at such work in such weather. + +"At length a shot from the enemy killed him, and an order was given to +remove the cannon, as there was no one among the soldiers near who was +capable of its management. + +"But Molly, who had seen her husband fall, and heard the order, dropped +her bucket, sprang to the cannon, seized the rammer, and, vowing that +she would avenge his death, fired it with surprising skill, performing +the duty probably as well as if she had belonged to the sterner sex. + +"The next morning General Greene presented her--just as she was, all +covered with dust and blood--to Washington, who gave her the commission +of sergeant as a reward for her bravery; in addition to that he +recommended her to Congress as worthy to have her name placed upon the +list of those entitled to half-pay during life. + +"The French officers so admired her bravery that they made her many +presents. Lossing tells us that she would sometimes pass along their +lines and get her cocked hat full of crowns. He also says the widow of +General Hamilton told him she had often seen 'Captain Molly,' as she was +called, and described her as a red-haired, freckle-faced young Irish +woman, with a handsome piercing eye." + +"Papa, did she wear a man's hat?" asked Grace. + +"Yes, and also an artilleryman's coat over her woman's petticoats. She +had done a brave deed about nine months before the battle of Monmouth, +when Fort Clinton was taken by the British. She was there with her +husband when the fort was attacked, and when the Americans retreated +from the fort, and the enemy were scaling the ramparts, her husband +dropped his match and fled, but Molly picked it up and fired the gun, +then scampered off after him. That was the last gun fired in the fort by +the Americans." + +"And this battle of Monmouth was a great victory for us--for the +Americans, I mean?" Walter said inquiringly. + +"Yes, in spite of the shameful retreat of Lee and the unaccountable +detention of Morgan and his brave riflemen, who were within sound of the +fearful tumult of the battle and eager to take part in it, Morgan +striding to and fro in an agony of suspense, and desire to participate +in the struggle, yet unaccountably detained where he was." + +"And that was some of that traitor Lee's doings, I suspect," exclaimed +Lulu hotly. "Wasn't it, papa?" + +"My dear child, I do not know," returned the captain, "but it seems +altogether probable that if Morgan could have fallen, with his fresh +troops, upon the weary ones of Sir Henry Clinton, toward the close of +the day, the result might have been such a surrender as Burgoyne was +forced to make at Saratoga. + +"But as it was, while Washington and his weary troops slept that night, +the general looking forward to certain victory in the morning, when he +could again attack his country's foes with his own troops strengthened +and refreshed by sleep, Sir Henry and his army stole silently away and +hurried toward Sandy Hook." + +"Did Washington chase him?" asked Walter. + +"No," said the captain; "when he considered the start the British had, +the weariness of his own troops, the excessive heat of the weather, and +the deep sandy country, with but little water to be had, he thought it +wiser not to make the attempt." + +"Papa, was it near here that the British shot Mrs. Caldwell?" asked +Lulu. + +"No; that occurred in a place called Connecticut Farms, about four miles +northwest of Elizabethtown, to which they--the Caldwells--had removed +for greater safety. + +"It was in June, 1780. The British under Clinton and Knyphausen crossed +over to Elizabethtown and moved on toward Springfield. The Americans, +under General Greene, were posted upon the Short Hills, a series of high +ridges near Springfield, and came down to the plain to oppose the +invasion of the British. I will not go into the details of the battle, +but merely say that the British were finally repulsed, Greene being so +advantageously posted by that time that he was anxious for an +engagement, but Knyphausen, perceiving his own disadvantage, retreated, +setting fire to the village of Connecticut Farms (now called Union) on +his way. + +"The people of the town fled when they perceived the approach of the +British, but Mrs. Caldwell remained, and with her children and maid +retired to a private apartment and engaged in prayer. + +"Presently her maid, glancing from a window, exclaimed that a red-coated +soldier had jumped over the fence and was coming toward the window. + +"At that Mrs. Caldwell rose from the bed where she had been sitting, and +at that moment the soldier raised his musket and deliberately fired at +her through the window, sending two balls through her body, killing her +instantly, so that she fell dead among her poor frightened children. + +"It was with some difficulty that her body was saved from the fire which +was consuming the town. It was dragged out into the street, and lay +exposed there for some time--several hours--till some of her friends got +leave to remove it to a house on the other side of the street. + +"Her husband was at the Short Hills that night, and in great anxiety and +distress about his family; the next day he went with a flag of truce to +the village, found it in ruins, and his wife dead. + +"That cold-blooded murder and wanton destruction of the peaceful little +village aroused great indignation all over the land and turned many a +Tory into a Whig." + +"Did anybody ever find out who it was that killed her, papa?" asked +Grace. + +"The murderer is said to have been a man from the north of Ireland, +named McDonald, who for some unknown reason had taken a violent dislike +to Mr. Caldwell. + +"But little more than a year afterward Mr. Caldwell himself was slain, +in a very similar manner, but by an American soldier." + +"An American, Brother Levis?" exclaimed Walter, in unfeigned surprise. +"Did he do it intentionally?" + +"The shooting was intentional, but whether meant to kill I cannot say," +replied the captain; "the fellow who did it is said to have been a +drunken Irishman. It happened at Elizabethtown, then in possession of +the Americans. A sloop made weekly trips between that place and New +York, where were the headquarters of the British army at that time--and +frequently carried passengers with a flag, and also parcels. + +"The Americans had a strong guard at a tavern near the shore, and one or +two sentinels paced the causeway that extended across the marsh to the +wharf. + +"One day in November, 1781, the vessel came in with a lady on board who +had permission to visit a sister at Elizabethtown, and Mr. Caldwell +drove down to the wharf in his chaise to receive her; then, not finding +her on the wharf, went aboard the sloop and presently returned, carrying +a small bundle. + +"The sentinel on the causeway halted Mr. Caldwell and demanded the +bundle for examination, saying he had been ordered not to let anything +of the kind pass without strict investigation. + +"Mr. Caldwell refused to give it to the man--James Morgan, by +name--saying it was the property of a lady and had been merely put in +his care. + +"The sentinel repeated his demand and Mr. Caldwell turned and went +toward the vessel, it is presumed to carry the bundle back to its owner, +when the sentinel leveled his piece and shot him dead upon the spot. + +"Morgan was arrested, tried for murder, and hung. He was first taken to +the church, where a sermon was preached from the text 'Oh, do not this +abominable thing which I hate.' + +"Mr. Caldwell had been much beloved as a pious and excellent minister. +He was shot on Saturday afternoon, and the next day many of his people +came in to attend church knowing nothing of the dreadful deed that had +been done till they arrived. + +"Then there was a great sound of weeping and lamentation. The corpse was +placed on a large stone at the door of the house of a friend whither it +had been carried, and all who wished to do so were allowed to take a +last look at the remains of their beloved pastor. Then, before the +coffin was closed, Dr. Elias Boudinot led the nine orphan children up +to the coffin to take their last look at the face of their father, and, +as they stood weeping there, made a most moving address in their +behalf." + +A few more days were spent by our friends in and about Philadelphia, +during which brief visits were paid to places interesting to them +because the scenes of historical events of the Revolution--Whitemarsh, +Germantown, Barren Hill, Valley Forge, beside those within the city +itself. + +But the summer heats were over and the hearts of one and all began to +yearn for the sweets of home; all the more when word reached them +through the mails that the members of their party left in the Newport +cottages had already succumbed to the same sort of sickness, and were on +their homeward way by land. A day or two later the _Dolphin_, with her +full complement of passengers, was moving rapidly southward. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + +Max had a most pleasant surprise when the mail was distributed on that +first morning after his arrival at the Naval Academy. Till his name was +called, he had hardly hoped there would be anything for him, and then as +a letter was handed him, and he recognized upon it his father's +well-known writing, his cheek flushed and his eyes shone. + +A hasty glance at his mates showed him that each seemed intent upon his +own affairs,--no one watching him,--so he broke the seal and read with +swelling heart the few sentences of fatherly advice and affection the +captain had found time to pen before the _Dolphin_ weighed anchor the +previous evening. He knew the homesickness that would assail his son on +that first day of separation from himself and all composing the dear +home circle, and was fain to relieve it so far as lay in his power. + +Max read the letter twice, then, refolding, slipped it into his pocket +to read again and ponder upon when he could find a moment of leisure and +freedom from observation. + +More firmly convinced than ever, if that were possible, was the lad +that his was the best, kindest, and dearest of fathers. + +"And if I don't do him credit and make him happy and proud of his +first-born, it shall not be for want of trying," was his mental resolve. + +It was fortunate for Max that his father had been seen and admired by +the cadets, who one and all thought him a splendid specimen of naval +officer, and were therefore well disposed toward his son. + +Then Max himself had such a bright, intelligent face and genial manner, +was so ready to assist or oblige a comrade in any right and honorable +way that lay in his power, so very conscientious about obeying rules and +doing his duty in everything, and brave in facing ridicule, insolence, +and contempt, when the choice was between that and wrong-doing, that no +one of them could help respecting him, whether willing to acknowledge it +or not. + +At first the "plebes," or boys in the same class (the fourth), who had +entered in June of the same year, showed a disposition to treat him, as +well as the other "Seps,"--as the lads entering in September are +styled,--with scorn, as knowing less than themselves; but that soon +changed under the exhibition Max was able to make of all he had learned +from his father during the weeks on board the _Dolphin_, showing himself +perfectly at home in "rigging-loft work," rowing, and swimming, and by +no means slow in taking to great-gun exercise, infantry tactics, and +field artillery. + +Nor was he less ready in the art of swinging a hammock. His father had +not neglected that part of his education, and Hunt and others who had +hoped for some fun in watching his maiden effort had to own themselves +defeated and disappointed. Max was as expert at that as the oldest +member of the class. + +So the "plebes" soon dropped their air of conscious superiority and +presently began to treat him as an equal; a change which he reported to +his father with evident satisfaction. He wrote frequently and with much +openness to that father, telling of his duties and pleasures and asking +advice in any perplexity as freely as he could have asked it of any one +near his own age, and with full confidence in the wisdom and the +affection for him which would dictate the reply. + +Nor was he disappointed; almost every day a letter came from the +captain, breathing strong fatherly affection, giving commendation, +encouragement, and the best of advice; also telling everything about the +doings and happenings in the family that was not related by Mamma Vi or +one of Max's sisters, who not unfrequently added a note to papa's larger +letter. + +All those letters, like the first, were highly prized by the recipient +and read and reread in leisure moments till he could have repeated their +contents almost word for word; and every perusal increased the lad's +desire and determination to be and do all those dear ones--especially +his father--could wish; also to please and honor him to whose service +he had consecrated his life and all his powers. + +Max was not perfect, but he was honest and true, and sincerely desirous +to do right. + +He was much interested in the accounts received of the visits of +his father and the others to the scenes of revolutionary events in +Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and, though far from regretting his choice +of a profession, could not help wishing he could have made one of the +party. + +One day, after he had spent some weeks in the Academy, he was +disappointed in his expectation of receiving a letter; none came the +next day; but then it occurred to him that the _Dolphin_ was probably on +her homeward way and he would soon get a letter from Woodburn, telling +of the arrival there of all belonging to the dear home circle. + +And he was right; a package of letters came presently giving an account +of the events of the last days spent in Philadelphia, the return voyage, +and the joy of the arrival at their own beautiful and happy home. + +Ah, as Max read, how he longed to be with them! Yet the concluding +sentences of his father's letter restored him to contentment with things +as they were. + +The captain had just received and read the report of his boy's conduct +and academic standing for his first month and was much pleased with it. +He made that very clear to the lad, calling him his dear son, his joy +and pride, and telling him that until he was a father himself he could +never know the joy and happiness such a report of a son's behavior and +improvement of his opportunities could give. + +"Ah," thought the boy, "I'll try harder than ever since it gives such +pleasure to my kindest and best of fathers. How glad I am to have the +chance! How thankful I ought to be! I doubt if there was ever a more +fortunate boy than myself." + +Max and his room-mate, Hunt, liked each other from the first, and seldom +had the slightest disagreement. + +According to the rules they took turns, week about, in keeping their +room in order, each trying to outdo his mate in the thoroughness with +which he attended to all the minutiæ of the business. + +They were good-natured rivals too in other matters connected with the +course of instruction they were going through: gymnastic exercises, +fencing and boxing, and the drill called fire-quarters, in which the +whole battalion is formed into a fire-brigade, and when the fire-bell is +sounded each cadet hastens to his proper place in the troop, and the +steam fire-engine and hose-carriages belonging to the Academy are +brought out and used as they would be in case some building were in +flames and the cadets were called upon to assist in extinguishing the +blaze. + +Max and his chum had become quite expert at that exercise, when one +night they were roused from sleep by the sound of the fire-bell, and +springing up and running to their window saw that a dwelling several +squares from the Academy was in flames. + +"It's a real fire this time!" cried Hunt, snatching up a garment and +beginning a very hurried toilet, Max doing the same, "and now we'll have +a chance to show how well we understand the business of putting it out." + +"And we must try to do credit to our training here in the Academy," +added Max. + +An hour or more of great excitement and exertion followed, then, the +fire extinguished, the brigade returned to the Academy, and the lads to +their sleeping-room, so weary with their exertions that they were very +soon sound asleep again. + +The experiences of that night furnished Max with material for an +interesting letter to his father and the rest of the home folks. + +"I didn't know the cadets were taught how to put out fires," remarked +Grace, when her father had finished reading aloud, to his wife and +children, Max's story of the doings of the cadets on that night. + +"Yes," the captain said, "that is an important part of their education. +There are a great many things a cadet needs to know." + +"I suppose so, papa," said Lulu, "and though Maxie doesn't say much +about his own share in the work, I feel very sure he did his part. And +aren't you proud of him--your eldest son?" + +"I am afraid I am," replied her father, with a smile in his eyes. "It +may be all parental partiality, but my boy seems to me one of whom any +father might well be proud." + +"And I am quite of your opinion, my dear," said Violet. "I am very proud +of my husband's son--the dear, good, brave fellow." + +But the captain's eyes were again upon the letter, his face expressing +both interest and amusement. + +"What is it, Levis?" she asked; "something more that you can share with +the rest of us?" + +"Yes," he returned; then read aloud: + +"That was Friday night, and this is Saturday evening. This afternoon +Hunt and I were allowed to go into the city. We were walking along one +of the side streets, and came upon a man who was beating his horse most +unmercifully. + +"The poor thing was just a bag of bones, that seemed to have nothing but +skin over them, and was hitched to a cart heavily loaded with earth and +stones; its head was down, and it looked ready to drop, while the savage +wretch (not worthy to be called a man) was beating it furiously, and +cursing and swearing in a towering passion; men and boys gathering +around, and some calling him to stop. + +"But he didn't pay the smallest attention, till the poor beast spoke--at +least the voice seemed to come from its mouth--'Aren't you ashamed to be +beating me so, and swearing at me, too, when you've starved me till I +haven't strength to drag even myself another step?' + +"At that the man stopped both his beating and swearing, and stood +looking half scared out of his wits. The crowd, too, looked +thunderstruck; and presently one fellow said, 'It's the story of Balaam +and his ass over again. There must be an angel somewhere round,' +glancing from side to side as he spoke, in a way that almost made me +laugh, angry as I was at the human brute, or rather the inhuman +scoundrel, who had been treating the poor creature so cruelly. + +"Others looked too, but didn't seem to be able to see the angel. + +"Hunt, standing close at my side, gave a low whistle. 'What, upon +earth?' he said. 'Oh, there must be a ventriloquist somewhere in the +crowd. I'd like to know who he is. Wouldn't you, Max?' + +"Do you really think that's the explanation?' I asked. 'Certainly,' he +answered, in a tone as if he was rather disgusted at my stupidity. 'How +else could you account for the seeming ability of that wretched animal +to talk?' + +"'I can't think of any other explanation,' I answered, 'but I hope that +inhuman wretch of a driver doesn't know anything about ventriloquists, +and so will be afraid to ill-use the poor creature any more.' 'I hope +so, indeed,' he said. 'See, the crowd are stroking and patting it, and +yonder comes a man with a bucket of water, and another with a panful of +oats. The ventriloquist has done some good.' + +"'I'm glad of it,' I replied. Then, looking at my watch, I saw that it +was time for us to go back to the Academy. + +"Hunt told the story to some of the other fellows that evening, and +there was great wonderment about the ventriloquist, and a good many +wished they could have a chance to see him and some of his tricks. Some +of them remarked, in a wondering way, that I seemed very indifferent +about it, and then I told them of Cousin Ronald and his doings at Ion, +which interested them very much, and several said they would like +greatly to make his acquaintance and see and hear what he could do. +Isn't it good, papa, that they have never once suspected me?" + +"Well," exclaimed Lulu, "Max used his talent to do good that time. +Didn't he, papa?" + +"He did, indeed," replied the captain. "I hope that poor horse will, as +a consequence, receive better treatment in future." + +"I'm so glad Maxie could frighten the man so and make him stop treating +it so dreadfully," remarked Grace, with a sigh of relief. "I never +thought before that that talent of his was good for anything but to make +fun for folks." + +"The ability to afford amusement to others is a talent not to be +despised," said her father; "for innocent mirth often does good like a +medicine; but power to rescue even a dumb beast from ill-treatment is +still more to be coveted, and I shall be glad indeed if Max will use his +gift in that way whenever opportunity offers." + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + +A week or more had passed since the return of our friends from their +vacation in the more northern part of their loved native land, and Lulu +and Grace, who had at first missed their older brother sorely from the +family circle, had now begun to feel somewhat accustomed to his absence, +and were very merry and happy. + +They had resumed their studies, reciting, as before, to their father, +and took daily walks and rides on their ponies, varied by an occasional +drive with the captain, Violet, and the little ones. + +The Ion and Fairview families, too, had gone back to old pleasures and +employments; but so busy had all been, taking up familiar cares and +duties, and making needed preparations for approaching winter, that only +few and short visits had as yet been exchanged between them. + +It was in the sitting-room, and just after breakfast, that the captain +had read Max's letter aloud to his wife and children. + +"Go to the schoolroom now, daughters, and look over your lessons for the +day," he said, presently, addressing Lulu and Grace. + +They obeyed instantly, and as they left the room a servant came in with +a note from Violet's mother, which he handed to his mistress, saying one +of the Ion servants had just brought it. + +"Mamma's handwriting," Violet remarked to her husband as she took the +note and glanced at the address upon it. + +"Ah! I hope they are all well?" he returned half inquiringly. + +"No, mamma herself is certainly not quite well," Violet answered with a +disturbed look, after glancing hastily down the page; "she says as much, +and that she wants me to come and spend a few days with her, bringing +all the children if I choose; they will not disturb her. And you also +will be most welcome. Dear, dear mamma! I shall go to her at +once--unless my husband objects," she added, looking up at him with a +rather sad sort of smile. + +"As he certainly could not think of doing, my love," he replied, in +tender tones. "We must go, of course; you and the little ones, at least; +we will consider about the older ones, and I shall spend my time between +the two places, not being willing to stay constantly away from you, yet +having some matters to attend to here, some things that ought not to be +delayed." + +"But you will be with us a part of every day?" returned Violet, with a +wistful half-inquiring look up into his face. + +"Yes, oh yes!" he hastened to say; "with my wife so near at hand I could +not let a day go by without inflicting my presence upon her for some +small part of it," he concluded in a half jesting tone, and with a fond +look down into the sweet, troubled face; for he was standing close at +her side. + +"I think it could not be harder for you than for me, my dear," she +returned, with a loving smile up at him. "I should like to take all the +children," she went on, "but Alma is here to make up some dresses for +Lulu, and will need her at hand to try them on and make sure of the +fit." + +"And I should seriously object to allowing Lulu to drop her studies +again just as she has made a fresh and fair start with them," said the +captain; "so of course she will have to stay at home. Grace also, I +think, as there would be the same objection to her absence from home--as +regards the lessons I mean." + +"But if you will allow it, I can hear her recite at Ion," Violet said. +"She could learn her lessons there and still have a good deal of time to +play with her little sister, who thinks no one else quite equal to her +Gracie,--as she calls her,--for a playfellow." + +"Well, my dear, we will make that arrangement if you wish it," +responded the captain. + +"And yet how Lulu will miss her," Violet said, a troubled look coming +over her face. "I wish we could manage it so that she could go too, the +dear child!" + +"I should be glad to give her the pleasure," returned Captain Raymond; +"but really think it will not do to have her studies so interfered with +now when she has but just well settled down to them. It will be a little +hard for her, but perhaps not a bad lesson in patience and self-denial." + +"But a lesson I fear she will not enjoy," remarked Violet, with a +regretful smile. + +Going into the schoolroom presently the captain found his two little +girls industriously busy with their tasks. + +"Gracie, daughter," he said, "your mamma is going over to Ion for a few +days, because Grandma Elsie is not very well and wants her companionship, +and Mamma Vi wants you,--for little Elsie's sake,--having found you very +successful in entertaining her and baby Ned. We are all invited, indeed; +but I must be here the greater part of the time, as I have various matters +to oversee, and Lulu cannot be spared from home as Alma is at work upon +some dresses for her, and I wish her to go on diligently with her studies." + +"But don't I need to be attending to mine, papa?" queried Grace, looking +regretfully at her sister, over whose face had come a look of keen +disappointment, succeeding one of pleased anticipation called out by the +beginning of her father's communication. + +"Yes," he said, with a smile; "we are going to let you attend to them +there, Mamma Vi acting as governess." + +"Isn't she willing to do the same for me too, papa?" asked Lulu, in a +slightly hurt tone. + +"I think so," he answered pleasantly; "but there is the dressmaking, and +I couldn't think of such a thing as asking to have that carried on at +Ion." + +Lulu seemed to have nothing more to say and Grace gave her a troubled +look; then, with a little hesitation, "Papa," she said, "I--I think I'd +rather stay at home with Lu, if I may." + +"No, daughter," he answered, still speaking very pleasantly. "I have not +time to give my reasons just now; but I want you to go, and Lulu to +stay. It will probably be for only a few days; and I think she may trust +her father not to allow her to be very lonely in the meanwhile," he +added, with a smile directed to Lulu, but which she did not seem to see, +keeping her face down and her eyes fixed upon her book. + +Then he left the room, saying to Grace as he went out, "Make haste, +daughter, to gather up your books and whatever else you may wish to +take with you. I have already ordered the carriage and there is no time +to waste. Lulu may help you if she will." + +"Will you, Lu?" asked Grace, with a very sympathizing look at her +sister. "Oh, I wish papa had said you were to go too! Whatever shall I +do without my dear, big sister!" + +"Never mind, Gracie; I'm sure I don't want to go where I'm not wanted," +replied Lulu, in a hurt tone. + +"I'm sure it isn't because they wouldn't like to have you there," +returned Grace, running to her sister and putting her arms about her +neck. + +"Why don't they ask me, then?" queried Lulu, a little angrily. + +"May be they did. I'm most sure Grandma Elsie wouldn't forget to include +you in her invitation; and, oh, yes! don't you remember papa did say we +were all invited? But you know there are the lessons, and I suppose papa +would rather hear them himself." + +"But he could hear them there." + +"Yes; so he could if he wanted to. But then there's the dressmaking, you +know." + +"That could be put off for a few days," returned Lulu, with a very +grown-up air. "There are plenty of ways when people want to do a +thing--plenty of excuses to be thought of when they don't. Alma has +numerous customers and could sew for somebody else first, giving her my +time, and me hers after we get home." + +"Oh, maybe it could be managed in that way!" exclaimed Grace joyously; +"and I'd so much rather have you along. I think I'll ask papa." + +"No, don't you do any such thing," returned Lulu, in a not particularly +amiable tone. "If I'm not wanted, I'm sure I don't wish to go. But +you'll have to hurry, Gracie. You know papa is very particular about our +being prompt in obeying his orders." + +"Yes," returned Grace, who was again at her desk, "but I have been busy +all this time getting out the books and other things I must take along, +and now I'll go upstairs and get dressed and put up the things there +that I want. Won't you go with me? You'll know so much better than I +what I need to take." + +"Yes, Gracie, dear; I'll be glad to give you all the help I can. I'm +glad papa said I might. Oh, but it will be lonely here without you! I do +think papa might have said I could go, too." + +"I'd be ever so glad if he had, or would," said Grace, as hand in hand +they left the room together, "but you know, Lu dear, we always find out +in the end that his way is the best." + +"So we do, and I'll try to believe it now," returned Lulu, in a more +cheerful tone than she had used since learning that the rest of the +family were to go to Ion and she was to remain at home. + +With her good help Grace was ready in a few minutes, and just then they +heard their father call to her to come at once, as the carriage was at +the door. + +The sisters embraced each other hastily, Grace saying, "Oh, Lu, good-by, +I do wish you were going along, for I can hardly bear to go without +you." + +"Never mind, but just try to enjoy yourself as much as ever you can," +returned Lulu. "Go down now, dearie, for we should never keep papa +waiting, you know. Here's Agnes to carry down your satchel. I hope you +won't stay long enough away from me to need many clothes, and if you do +it will be easy enough to send them--the carriage going back and forth +every day." + +Grace was half-way down the stairs before Lulu had finished. + +"Ain't you a gwine down to see de folks off, Miss Lulu?" queried Agnes, +as she took up the satchel. + +"No," returned Lulu shortly; "I'm going back to the schoolroom to attend +to my lessons." + +Agnes gave her a look of surprise as she left the room, thinking she had +never known Miss Lu fail to be at the door when any of the other +members of the family were leaving for more than a short drive, and she +staying behind. + +"Where is Lulu, Gracie?" asked Violet, as the captain handed the little +girl into the carriage. "I hadn't time to hunt her up, and thought she +would be here at the door to say good-by to us all." + +"She said she must hurry back to her lessons, mamma," answered Grace, +blushing for her sister. "You see she stopped to help me get ready, and +I suppose she's afraid she'll not know them well by the time papa wants +to hear her recite." + +"It would have taken very little of her time," the captain remarked, +with a grave and somewhat displeased look. + +"Oh, well, you can bring her over to Ion, perhaps this afternoon or +to-morrow, for a call, Levis," Violet hastened to say in a cheery tone. + +"Possibly," he answered, and was about to step into the carriage when a +servant came hurrying up to ask directions in regard to some work to be +done in the grounds. + +"My dear," said the captain to Violet, "I think it would be better for +you and the children to drive on without waiting for me. I shall +probably follow you in another hour or two." + +"Very well; please don't disappoint us if you can help it," returned +Violet, and the carriage drove on, while Captain Raymond walked away in +the opposite direction, to give the needed orders to his men. + +"I think it's a shame that I should be left behind when all the rest of +the family are going to Ion to have a good time," muttered Lulu angrily, +as she seated herself at her desk again and opened a book. "Papa could +hear my lessons there just as well as here if he chose, and Mamma Vi +might have arranged to have my dresses made a week or two later." + +"Miss Lu," said Agnes, opening the door and putting in her head, "Miss +Alma tole me for to tell you she's 'bout ready fo' to try on yo' new +dress." + +"Tell her to take it to my room. I'll go up there to have it tried on," +replied Lulu, in a vexed, impatient tone. + +Then, as Agnes withdrew her head and closed the door, "Horrid thing! why +couldn't she have come to me while I was up there? Here I am, hardly +fairly settled to my work, and I must drop it and go back again. I'd +better take my book with me, for there's no knowing how long she may +keep me while she alters something that she has got wrong, for she's +generally too stupid to make a thing right at the first trial. Well, +perhaps she'll get done by the time papa comes back and is ready to hear +me recite." + +So saying she went slowly from the school room and upstairs to her own +apartment. + +There were a few minutes of waiting for Alma, which did not improve +Lulu's temper, and as the girl came in she received an angry glance, +accompanied by the remark, in no very pleasant tones, that she had no +business to send for people till she was ready to attend to them. + +At that Alma colored painfully. "I am sorry to have inconvenienced you, +Miss Lu," she said, "but I'll try not to keep you so very long." + +"If you don't, it will be about the first time that you haven't," +snapped Lulu. "I think you are just about the slowest, most blundering +dressmaker I ever did see." + +At that unkind remark, Alma's eyes filled with tears, but she went on +silently with her work, making no rejoinder, while Lulu--the reproaches +of conscience rendering her uneasy and irritable--fidgetted and fussed, +thus greatly increasing the difficulty of the task. + +"Miss Lu," Alma said at last, in a despairing tone, "if you can't keep +stiller, it is not possible for me to make the dress to fit you right." + +"Indeed!" returned Lulu scornfully, "I don't feel sure of your ability +to fit it right under any circumstances--such a stupid, awkward thing as +you are, and----" + +Her sentence was left unfinished, for at that instant, to her +astonishment and dismay, her father's voice called to her from his +dressing-room, in sterner accents than she had heard from him in a long +while. "Lucilla, come here to me!" She had not known of his detention at +home, but supposed he had gone with the others to Ion. + +Jerking off the waist, which Alma had already unfastened,--snatching up +a dressing-sack and putting it on as she went,--she appeared before him, +blushing and shamefaced. + +"I am both surprised and mortified by what I have just overheard," he +said. "I had a better opinion of my dear, eldest daughter than to +suppose she would ever show herself so heartless. You surely must have +forgotten that poor Alma is a stranger, in a strange land, while you are +at home, in your father's house. Go to her now, and apologize for your +rudeness." + +Lulu made no movement to obey, but stood before him in sullen silence +and with downcast, scowling countenance. + +He waited a moment; then said sternly, "Lucilla, you will yield instant +obedience to my order, or go immediately to your own room, and not +venture into my presence again until you can tell me you have obeyed." + +At that she turned and left the room, more angry and rebellious than she +had ever been since that dreadful time at Ion when her indulgence in a +fit of passion had so nearly cost little Elsie's life. + +"Papa will have a pretty time making me do it," she muttered angrily to +herself, as she stood by a window in her bedroom looking out into the +grounds. "Ask Alma's pardon, indeed! She's not even a lady; she's +nothing but a poor woman, who has to support herself with her +needle,--or rather with a sewing machine, and cutting and fitting,--and +I think it's just outrageous for papa to tell me I must ask her pardon. +I'll not do it, and papa needn't think he can make me, though----" she +added, uneasily, the next minute, "to be sure, he always has made me +obey him; but I'm older now; too old, I think, even he would say, to be +whipped into doing what I don't choose to do. + +"But he forbade me to come into his presence till I obeyed, and--oh, +dear, I can't live that way, because I love him so--better than any one +else in all the wide world; and--and--it would just kill me to have to +go without his love and his caresses; never to have him hug and kiss me, +and call me his dear child, his darling. Oh, I couldn't bear it! I never +could! it would just break my heart!" and her tears began to fall like +rain. + +She cried quite violently for a while; then began to think of Alma more +kindly and pityingly than ever before, as an orphan and a stranger in a +strange land. + +"Oh, I am ashamed to have treated her so!" she exclaimed at length, "and +I will ask her pardon; not only because papa has ordered me to do so, +but because I am sorry for her, and really mortified to think of having +treated her so badly." + +Fortunately, just at that moment Alma's timid rap was heard at the door +and her voice saying, in a hesitating, deprecating way, "Miss Lu, +please, I need to try the dress once more. I'm very sorry to disturb and +trouble you, but I know you want it to be a good fit." + +"Yes, of course I do, Alma," returned Lulu gently, opening the door as +she spoke; "you are quite right to come back with it. I'm sorry and +ashamed of having been so rude and unkind to you when you were in here +before," she added, holding out her hand. "It was shameful treatment. +Papa said I must ask your pardon, and I think I would do it now, even if +he hadn't ordered me." + +"It is too much, Miss Lu," Alma said, blushing, and with tears in her +eyes. "I could never ask such a thing as that of a young lady like you." + +"Indeed, my behavior has been very unladylike to-day," sighed Lulu; "and +papa is very, very much displeased with me." + +"I am sorry, Miss," Alma responded, in a sympathizing tone. "But the +captain will not stay angry; he is so very fond of his children." + +"Yes; and so kind and indulgent that I ought to be the best girl in the +world. Oh, I wish I had not behaved so badly!" + +"He will forgive you, Miss; he will not stay displeased, for his love +for you is so very great," returned Alma. "There, Miss, the dress does +fit you now. See in the glass. Does it not?" + +"Yes," Lulu replied, surveying herself in the mirror; "I could not ask a +better fit, Alma." + +"It is lovely, Miss Lu; the stuff so fine and soft, and the colors so +beautiful!" remarked the girl, gazing upon it with admiring eyes. "It is +good, Miss Lu, to have a kind papa, rich enough to gif you all things +needful for a young lady to wear." + +"Yes, and so generous and kind as mine is," sighed Lulu. "It is a very +great shame that I ever do anything to displease him." + +Alma went back to the sewing-room, and Lulu hastened to the door of the +room where her father had been when he called to her. But a glance +within showed her that he was not there now. Then she ran downstairs and +through library, parlors, halls,--everywhere,--looking for him. + +"Oh, where is he?" she sighed. "I must find him and tell him how sorry I +am for my naughtiness. I can't have one minute of happiness till I have +done so and got a kiss of forgiveness." + +Snatching a hat from the rack and putting it on as she went, she ran out +and round the porches and the grounds; but nowhere was he to be seen. + +"Miss Lu," called a servant, at length, "is you lookin' fo' de cap'n? +He's done gone to Ion, I 'spects; kase dere's whar Miss Wi'let went in +de kerridge." + +"Did he say when he would come back?" asked Lulu, steadying her voice +with quite an effort. + +"He gwine come back dis evenin' fo' suah, Miss Lu, to see 'bout de work +on de plantation," was the reply, as the man turned to his employment +again. And with a heavy sigh Lulu turned about and re-entered the house. + +"Oh, it's so lonesome for me here all by myself!" she said half-aloud. + +But there was no one near enough to hear her, and she went back to her +tasks, trying to forget her troubles in study; an effort in which she +was for the time partially successful. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + + +"I hope there is nothing serious ailing dear mamma," Violet said rather +anxiously to herself, as the carriage rolled swiftly on toward Ion; +"there was really nothing in her note to indicate it, but she has never +been one to complain of even a pretty serious ailment. She is not old +yet; we may hope to keep her with us for many, many years. But then she +is so good--so ripe for heaven!" And a silent prayer went up to God that +the dear mother might be spared for many years to help others on their +pilgrim way, especially her children and grandchildren. "For oh, how we +need her!" was the added thought; "what could we ever do without +her--the dear, kind, loving mother to whom we carry all our troubles and +perplexities, sure of comfort, the best of advice, and all the help in +her power to give. Dear, dear mamma! Oh, I have never prized her as I +ought!" + +It was only the previous evening that Mrs. Travilla herself had learned +that she was assailed by more than a trifling ailment. What seemed to +her but a slight one, causing discomfort, and at times quite a good deal +of pain, she had been conscious of for some weeks or months, but had +not thought it necessary to speak of it to anyone. + +About the time of her return home, however, there had been a very +decided increase in the suffering; which at length led her to confide +her trouble to her cousin and family physician, Dr. Arthur Conly, and +she had learned from him that it was far more serious than she had +supposed; that in fact her only escape from sure and speedy death lay in +submission to a difficult and dangerous surgical operation. + +Arthur told her as gently and tenderly as he could--assuring her that +there was more than a possibility of a successful result--bringing +relief from her suffering and prolonging her life for many years. + +His first words--showing her ailment as so much more serious than she +had ever for a moment supposed it to be--gave her a shock at the thought +of the sudden parting from all her dear ones--father, children, and +grandchildren; yet before he had finished she was entirely calm and +composed. + +"And what would death be but going home?" she said; "home to the +mansions Jesus my Saviour has prepared for those he died to redeem, and +to the dear ones gone before, there to await the coming of those who +will be left behind for a little while. Ah, it is nothing to dread or +to fear, for 'I know that my Redeemer liveth.'" + +"And yet, Cousin Elsie," Arthur returned, with ill-concealed emotion, +"how illy you could be spared by any of those who know and love you. +Even I should feel it an almost heartbreaking thing to lose you out of +my life, and your father, children----" + +"Yes, I know, dear cousin, and shall not hesitate to do or bear all that +holds out a hope of prolonging my days here upon earth; for otherwise I +should feel that I was rushing into the Master's presence unbidden, and +that without finishing the work he has given me to do here. + +"Nor would I be willing to so pain the hearts of those who love me. I am +ready to submit at once to whatever you deem necessary or expedient. But +ah, my dear father! How distressed he will be when he learns all that +you have just told me! I wish he might be spared the knowledge till all +is over. But it would not do. He must be told at once, and--I must tell +him." + +"That will be very hard for you, dear cousin; would it not be +better----" Arthur began, but paused, leaving his sentence unfinished. + +"It will come best from me, I think," she returned, with a sad sort of +smile. "But when?" + +"Day after to-morrow, if you will. I think you would prefer to have the +trial over as soon as possible?" + +"Yes; I think it will save both me and all concerned from some of the +suffering of anticipation, if you can make it suit your convenience." + +"Perfectly," he answered; "there are few preparations to be made and I +do not want long to contemplate doing what must be a trial to so many +whom I love." + +Their talk had been in her boudoir. He lingered but a few moments +longer, then went down to the drawing-room. + +"Uncle," he said, in a low aside to Mr. Dinsmore, "I have just left +Cousin Elsie in her boudoir and she wishes to see you there." + +"She is not well, Arthur?" asked the old gentleman, with a slightly +startled look, as he rose from his easy chair and the two passed out +into the hall together. + +"Not very, uncle," was the sad-toned reply. "She has been consulting me +and there is something she wishes to say to you." + +Mr. Dinsmore paled to the very lips. "Don't keep me in suspense, Arthur; +let me know the worst, at once," he said, with almost a groan. "Why has +anything been hidden from me--the father who loves her better than his +life?" + +"I have been as ignorant as yourself, uncle, till within the last half +hour," replied the doctor, in a patient, deeply sympathizing tone. "It +is astonishing to me that she has been able to endure so much for weeks +or months past without a word of complaint. But do not despair, my dear +uncle; the case is by no means hopeless." + +"Tell me all, Arthur; hide nothing, nothing from me," Mr. Dinsmore said +with mingled sternness and entreaty, hastily leading the way as he spoke +to the little reception room opening from the other side of the hall, +and closing the door against any chance intruder. + +Arthur complied, stating the case as briefly as possible, and laying +strong emphasis upon the fact that there was reason to hope for, not +spared life alone, but entire and permanent relief. + +"God grant it!" was the old gentleman's fervent, half agonized response. +"My darling, my darling! would that I could bear all the suffering for +you! Arthur, when--when must my child go through the trial which you say +is--not to be escaped?" + +"We have agreed upon the day after to-morrow, uncle, both she and I +wishing to have it over as soon as possible." + +A few minutes later, Mr. Dinsmore passed quietly into his daughter's +boudoir, where he found her alone, lying on a lounge, her eyes closed, +her countenance, though deathly pale, perfectly calm and peaceful. + +He bent down and touched his lips to the white forehead; then as the +sweet eyes opened and looked up lovingly into his, "Oh, my darling, idol +of my heart," he groaned, "would that your father could himself take the +suffering that I have just learned is in store for you." + +"Ah no, no, my dear, dear father, I could illy bear that," she said, +putting an arm about his neck; "suffering and danger to you would be far +harder for me than what I am now enduring or expecting in the near +future. Arthur has told you all?" + +"Yes; kind-hearted and generous fellow that he is, he felt that he must +spare you the pain of telling it yourself." + +"Yes, it was very, very kind," she said, "Dear papa, sit down in this +easy chair, close by my side, and take my hand in yours while we talk +together of some matters that need to be settled before--before I am +called to go through that which may be the end of earthly life for me." + +Then, in response to the anguished look in his face as he bent over her +with another silent caress, "My dear father, I do not mean to distress +you. Arthur holds out strong hope of cure and years of health and +strength to follow; yet surely it is but the part of wisdom to prepare +for either event." + +"Yes; and I am sure you are fully prepared, at least so far as your +eternal welfare is concerned; should you be called away--our grief will +be for ourselves alone." + +"I am glad the choice is not left with me," she said, in low, sweet +tones, after a moment's silence. "For your dear sake, papa, and that of +my beloved children, I am more than willing to stay here on earth for +many more years, yet the thought of being forever with the Lord--near +him and like him--thrills my heart with joy unspeakable, while added to +that is a great gladness in the prospect of reunion with the dear +husband who has gone before me to that happy land. So I am not to be +pitied, my dear father," she added, with a beautiful smile; "and can you +not rejoice with me that the choice is not mine but lies with him whose +love for us both is far greater than ours for each other?" + +"Yes," he replied with emotion; "blessed be his holy name that we may +leave it all in his hands, trusting in his infinite wisdom and love; +knowing that if called to part for a season, we shall be reunited in +heaven, never again to be torn asunder." + +"Yes, dear father; we cannot expect to go quite together, but when +reunited there in that blessed land, never again to part, the time of +separation will seem to have been very short; even as nothing compared +to the long, the unending eternity we shall spend together. + +"And oh, what an eternity of joy and bliss, forever freed from sin and +suffering, near and like our Lord, altogether pleasing in his sight, no +doubts, no fears, the battle fought, the victory won. 'And there shall +be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, +and his servants shall serve him; and they shall see his face; and his +name shall be in their foreheads. And there shall be no night there; and +they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth +them light, and they shall reign for ever and ever!'" + +"Yes, my darling; blessed be his holy name for the many great and +precious promises of his word, and I have not a doubt of your full +preparation for either event; but oh, that it may please him to spare +you to me as the light, comfort, joy of my remaining days! Yet should it +please him to take you to himself--ah, I cannot, dare not allow myself +to contemplate so terrible a bereavement," he added, in low anguished +accents, as he bent over her, softly smoothing her hair with tenderly +caressing touch. + +"Then do not, dear father," she said, lifting to his eyes full of ardent +love and sympathy; "try to leave it all with the dear Master, and he +will fulfil to you his precious promise, 'As thy days, so shall thy +strength be.' Has it not ever been the testimony of all his saints +concerning his precious promises that not one faileth?" + +"Yes," he said, "and so will it ever be. By his grace I will trust and +not be afraid for you, my beloved child; nor for myself, his most +unworthy servant." + +Then with an upward glance, "'Lord increase our faith.' Oh, help us each +to trust in thee and not to be afraid, be the way ever so dark and +dreary, remembering thy gracious promise, 'I will in no wise fail thee, +neither will I in anywise forsake thee.'" + +"Sweet, sweet words, papa," she said, low and tremulously, lifting to +his eyes full of glad, grateful tears. + +"And those others, 'When thou passeth through the waters, I will be with +thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee; when thou +walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the +flame kindle upon thee. For I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of +Israel, thy Saviour.' + +"Oh, what more could I ask? what have I to do with doubt or fear, since +he is mine and I am his?" + +"Only the physical pain," he said, low and tenderly; "and Arthur tells +me that with the help of anæsthetics there will be little or none of +that during the operation, but----" + +"What may come afterward can be easily borne, dear papa," she said, as +he paused, overcome by emotion. + +"My dear, brave darling! a more patient, resigned sufferer never lived!" +was his moved, though low-breathed, exclamation. + +A moment's silence fell between them, he leaning over and caressing her +with exceeding tenderness; then, "Papa," she said, with a loving look up +into his eyes, "I cannot bear to see you so distressed. Arthur holds out +strong hope of cure, of speedy and entire recovery; and we may be spared +to each other for many years if the will of God be so; but--surely it is +my wisest plan to prepare for every possibility. + +"I feel very easy about my dear children, most of them having already +arrived at years of maturity, and being comfortably settled in life; +Edward and my two older daughters, at least; while the others I can +leave in the safest of earthly hands, even those of my dear and honored +father, whose love for them is only secondary to my own; and for each +one I have reason to hope that the good part has been chosen which can +never be taken away." + +"I do indeed love them very dearly," he responded, "for their own sake, +their father's, and most of all because they are the offspring of my own +beloved child. Should I outlive her, they shall want for nothing their +grandfather can do to make them happy." + +"I know it, dear father, and can leave them to your and their heavenly +Father's care without a doubt or fear," she said, with a gentle sigh +over the thought of the parting with her darlings that might be so near. + +She went on to speak of some business matters, then said: "I think that +is all, papa. I do not care to make any alteration in my will; and, as +you know, you and brother Horace are my executors. To-morrow I must have +a little talk with each of my children, and then I shall be ready for +Arthur and his assistants. + +"I want all my children near at hand in case of an unfavorable result +and that I am able to say a few last words, bidding them all farewell." + +There was again a moment of silence, her father seeming too much +overcome to speak; then she went on: "I think they must not be told +to-night, that the two younger ones need know nothing of the danger till +the morning of the operation. I would spare them all the suffering of +anticipation that I can; and were I but sure, quite sure, of going +safely through it all, they should know nothing of it till afterward; +but I cannot rob them of a few last words with their mother." + +"My darling! always unselfish, always thinking of others first!" Mr. +Dinsmore said, in moved tones, bending over her and pressing his lips +again and again to her pale cheek and brow. + +"Surely almost any mother would think of her children before herself," +she returned with a sweet, sad smile. + +But just at that instant childish footsteps were heard in the hall +without, then a gentle rap on the door, and Walter's voice asking, +"Mamma, may I come in?" + +"Yes, my son," she answered, in cheerful tones, and in a moment he was +at her side, asking, in some alarm and anxiety, "Mamma, dear, are you +sick?" bending over her as he spoke, and pressing ardent kisses upon +cheek and lip and brow. + +"Not very, mother's darling baby boy," she answered, lifting to his eyes +full of tender mother love. + +"'Baby boy?'" repeated Walter, with a merry laugh, gently smoothing her +hair, and patting her cheek lovingly, while he spoke. "Mamma, dear, have +you forgotten that I am eleven years old?" + +"No, dear; but for all that you are still mother's dear, dear baby boy!" +she said, hugging him close. + +"Well, I shan't mind your calling me that, you dearest mamma," laughed +Walter, repeating his caresses; "but nobody else must do it." + +"Not even grandpa?" queried Mr. Dinsmore, with a proudly affectionate +smile into the bright young face. + +"I don't think you'd want to, grandpa," returned the lad, "because, you +know, you're always telling me I must try to be a manly boy. But I came +up to remind you and mamma that it's time for prayers. Grandma sent me +to do so and to ask if you could both come down now." + +"You will not think of going down, Elsie?" Mr. Dinsmore exclaimed in +surprise, as his daughter made a movement as if to rise from her couch. + +"Yes, papa," she returned. "I have been resting here for some hours and +feel quite able to join the family now. I am not in pain at this moment, +and Arthur said nothing about keeping to my room." + +"Then I wouldn't, mamma," said Walter, slipping his hand into hers. "I'm +sure Cousin Arthur's always ready enough to order us to keep to our +rooms if there's any occasion. I'm glad he doesn't think you sick enough +to have to do that." + +His mother only smiled in reply, and, taking her father's offered arm, +moved on in the direction of the stairway, Walter still clinging to her +other hand. + +Anxious looks and inquiries greeted her on their entrance into the +parlor, where family and servants were already gathered for the evening +service; but she parried them all with such cheery words and bright +sweet smiles as set their fears at rest for the time. + +But those of Edward were presently rearoused as--the younger members of +the family and the servants having retired from the room--he noticed a +look of keen, almost anguished anxiety, bestowed by his grandfather upon +his mother; then that her cheek was unusually pale. + +"Mother dear, you are not well!" he exclaimed, hastily rising and going +to her. + +"No, not quite, my dear boy," she replied, smiling up at him; "but do +not look so distressed; none of us can expect always to escape all +illness. I am going back to my room now and, though able to do so +without assistance, will accept the support of the arm of my eldest son, +if it is offered me." + +"Gladly, mother dear, unless you will let me carry you; which I am fully +able to do." + +"Oh, no, Ned," she said laughingly, as she rose and put her hand within +his arm; "the day may possibly come when I shall tax your young strength +to that extent, but it is not necessary now. Papa, dear," turning to +him, "shall I say good-night to you now?" + +"No, no," Mr. Dinsmore answered, with some emotion, "I shall step into +your rooms for that as it is on my way to my own." + +"I, too," said Mrs. Dinsmore; "and perhaps you will let me play the +nurse for you if you are not feeling quite well." + +"Thank you very much, mamma. In case your kind services are really +needed I shall not hesitate to let you know. And I am always glad to see +you in my rooms." + +"Mother, you are actually panting for breath!" Edward exclaimed when +they were half-way up the stairs. "I shall carry you," and taking her in +his arms as he spoke, he bore her to her boudoir and laid her tenderly +down on its couch. "Oh, mother dear," he said, in quivering tones, "tell +me all. Why should your eldest son be shut out from your confidence?" + +"My dear boy," she answered, putting her hand into his, "can you not +rest content till to-morrow? Why should you think that anything serious +ails me?" + +"Your pale looks and evident weakness," he said, "grandpa's distressed +countenance as he turns his eyes on you, and the unusually sober, +serious look of Cousin Arthur as I met him passing out of the house +to-night. He had been with you, had he not?" + +"Yes, my son, and I meant that you and your sisters should know all +to-morrow or the next day. It is only for your own sake I would have had +you spared the knowledge till then." + +"Dearest mother, tell me all now," he entreated; "for surely no +certainty can be worse than this dreadful suspense." + +"No, I suppose not," she replied in sorrowful tones, her eyes gazing +into his, full of tenderest mother love. Then in a few brief sentences +she told him all. + +"Oh, mother dear; dearest mother!" he cried, clasping her close, "if I, +your eldest son, might but take and bear it all--the pain and the +danger--for you, how gladly I would do so!" + +"I do not doubt it, my own dear boy," she returned, in moved tones, "but +it cannot be; each of us must bear his or her own burden and I rejoice +that this is mine rather than that of my dear son. Do not grieve for me; +do not be too anxious; remember that he whose love for me is far greater +than any earthly love appoints it all, and it shall be for good. 'We +know that all things work together for good to them that love God.' +Blessed, comforting assurance! And how sweet are those words of Jesus, +'What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter!'" + +"Yes, dearest mother," he said, with emotion, "and for you it will be +all joy, the beginning of an eternity of bliss, if it shall please him +to take you to himself; but oh, how hard it will be for your children to +learn to live without you! But I will hope and pray that the result may +be for you restored health and a long and happy life." + +For some moments he held her in a close embrace, then, at the sound of +approaching footsteps in the hall without, laid her gently down upon her +pillows. + +"Keep it from Zoe for to-night, if possible," she said softly. "Dear +little woman! I would not have her robbed of her night's rest." + +"I will try, mother dear," he said, pressing his lips again and again to +hers. "God grant you sweet and refreshing sleep, but oh, do not for a +moment hesitate to summon me if there is anything I can do to relieve +you, should you be in pain, or to add in any way to your comfort." + +She gave the desired promise and he stole softly from the room; but not +to join his wife till some moments of solitude had enabled him so to +conquer his emotion that he could appear before her with a calm and +untroubled countenance. + +Mr. and Mrs. Dinsmore passed into the boudoir as he left it. Rose had +just learned from her husband of his talk of that evening with Dr. +Conly, and what the physician had then told him of his daughter's +condition and the trial awaiting her in the near future. + +Rose was full of sympathy for Elsie, and so overcome at the thought of +the trial she must so soon pass through that she could scarcely speak. + +They clung to each other in a long, tender embrace, Rose shedding +tears, Elsie calm and quiet. + +"You will let me be with you, dear Elsie?" she said at last. "Oh, how +willingly I would help you bear it if I could!" + +"Dear mamma, how kind you are and have always been to me!" exclaimed the +low sweet voice. "Your presence will be a great support while +consciousness remains, but after that I would have you spared the trial. + +"Don't fear for me; I know that it will all be well. How glad I am that +should I be taken you will be left to comfort my dear father and +children. Yet I think that I shall be spared. Arthur holds out a strong +hope of a favorable termination. + +"So, dear father," turning to him and putting her hand in his, "be +comforted. Be strong and of a good courage! Do not let anxiety for me +rob you of your needed rest and sleep." + +"For your dear sake, my darling, I will try to follow your advice," he +answered, with emotion, as in his turn he folded her to his heart and +bade her good-night. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + + +The next morning found Mrs. Travilla calm and peaceful, even cheerful, +ready for either life or death. She was up at her usual early hour, and +Rosie and Walter, coming in for their accustomed half hour of Bible +reading with mamma, found her at her writing-desk just finishing a note +to Violet. + +"Dear mamma," exclaimed Walter, in a tone of delight, "you are looking +so much better and brighter this morning. I was really troubled about +you last night lest you were going to be ill; you were so pale, and +grandpa looked so worried." + +"Grandpa is always easily frightened about mamma if she shows the +slightest indication of illness," said Rosie; "as indeed we all are, +because she is so dear and precious; our very greatest earthly treasure. + +"Mamma dearest, I am so rejoiced that you are not really sick!" she +added, dropping on her knees beside her mother's chair, clasping her +arms about her, and kissing her again and again with ardent affection. + +"I, too," Walter said, taking his station on her other side, putting an +arm round her neck, and pressing his lips to her cheek. + +She returned their caresses with words of mother love, tears shining in +her eyes at the thought that this might prove almost her last +opportunity. + +"What do you think, Rosie?" laughed Walter. "Mamma called me her baby +boy last night; me--a great fellow of eleven. I think you must be her +baby girl." + +But Rosie made no reply. She was gazing earnestly into her mother's +face. "Mamma dear," she said anxiously, "you are not well! you are +suffering! Oh, what is it ails you?" + +"I am in some pain, daughter," Elsie answered, in a cheerful tone; "but +Cousin Arthur hopes to be able to relieve it in a day or two." + +"Oh, I am glad to hear that!" Rosie exclaimed, with a sigh of relief. +"Dearest mamma, I do not know how I could ever bear to have you very +ill." + +"Should that trial ever come to you, daughter dear, look to God for +strength to endure it," her mother said in sweetly solemn accents, as +she gently smoothed Rosie's hair with her soft white hand and gazed +lovingly into her eyes. "Do not be troubled about the future, but trust +his gracious promise: 'As thy days, so shall thy strength be!' Many and +many a time has it been fulfilled to me and to all who have put their +trust in him?" + +"Yes, mamma, I know you have had some hard trials, and yet you always +seem so happy." + +"You look happy now, mamma; are you?" asked Walter, a little anxiously. + +"Yes, my son, I am," she said, smiling affectionately upon him. "Now let +us have our reading," turning over the leaves of her Bible as she spoke. +"We will take the twenty-third psalm. It is short, and so very sweet and +comforting." + +They did so, Elsie making a few brief remarks, especially on the fourth +verse, which neither Rosie nor Walter ever forgot. + +She followed them with a short prayer, and just at its close her father +came in, and, sending the children away, spent alone with his daughter +the few minutes that remained before the ringing of the breakfast bell. + +He obeyed the summons, but she remained in her own apartments, a servant +carrying her meal to her. + +It was something very unusual for her, and, joined to an unusual silence +on the part of their grandfather, accompanied by a sad countenance and +occasional heavy sigh, and similar symptoms shown by both Grandma Rose +and Edward, excited surprise and apprehension on the part of the younger +members of the household. + +Family worship, as was the rule followed immediately upon the conclusion +of the meal, and Mr. Dinsmore's feeling petition on behalf of the sick +one increased the alarm of Rosie and Zoe. + +Both followed Edward out upon the veranda, asking anxiously what ailed +mamma. + +At first he tried to parry their questions, but his own ill-concealed +distress only increased their alarm and rendered them the more +persistent. + +"There is something serious ailing mamma," he said at length, "but +Cousin Arthur hopes soon to be able to relieve her. The cure is somewhat +doubtful, however, and that is what so distresses grandpa, grandma, and +me. Oh, let us all pray for her, pleading the Master's precious promise, +'If two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall +ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.' + +"Mamma has sent for my sisters Elsie and Violet. She wants as many of +her children and grandchildren near her as possible; but Harold and +Herbert have to be left out because, being so far away, there is not +time to summon them." + +"O Ned," cried Rosie, in an agony of terror, "is--is mamma in immediate +danger? What--what is it Cousin Arthur is going to do?" + +"A--surgical operation is, he says, the only--only thing that can +possibly save her life, and--he hopes it will." + +"But he isn't certain? O mamma, mamma!" cried Rosie, bursting into an +uncontrollable fit of weeping. + +Zoe was sobbing too, Edward holding her in his arms and scarce able to +refrain from joining with her, and at that moment the Fairview carriage +drove up, and Elsie Leland, alighting therefrom, quickly came in among +them, asking in alarm, as she saw their tear-stained, agitated faces, +"What is the matter? Oh, is mamma ill?" + +Then Edward's story had to be repeated to her, and shortly after to +Violet, who, with her children, arrived a little later. + +They too seemed almost overwhelmed with distress. + +"Can we go to her?" Violet asked, and Mrs. Dinsmore, who had just joined +them, replied, "Not yet; your grandpa is with her, and wishes to have +her to himself for a while." + +"Ob, I hope he will not keep us long away from her; our own, own dear +mother!" exclaimed Rosie, with a fresh burst of tears and sobs. + +"I think not long, Rosie, dear," Mrs. Dinsmore replied soothingly, +putting an arm round the weeping girl as she spoke, and smoothing her +hair with gently caressing hand. "Your mamma will be asking for you all +presently. She has said that until the danger is past, she wants you all +near enough to be summoned to her side in a moment." + +"And I--we all--know she is ready for any event," Elsie Leland said, in +trembling, tearful tones. + +"Yes; and I believe God will spare her to us for years to come, in +answer to our prayers," remarked Mrs. Dinsmore in cheerful, hopeful +accents. + +Walter had gone out into the grounds at the time the older ones repaired +to the veranda, and Grace, with Violet's little ones, had joined him +there on alighting from the carriage which had brought them from +Woodburn. + +The four now came running in and Walter, noticing the looks of grief and +anxiety on the faces of the older people asked anxiously, "What's the +matter, folks?" then added quickly. "Oh, I hope mamma is not worse! Is +that it, grandma?" His query was not answered, for at that moment Dr. +Conly's carriage came driving up the avenue. All crowded about him as he +alighted and came up the steps into the veranda. That, however, was +nothing new for he was a great favorite, being not only their relative, +but their trusted and valued physician. + +"You have come to see mamma?" Mrs. Leland said, half inquiringly. "Oh, +Cousin Arthur, do be frank with us! do tell us plainly what you think of +her case." + +"It is a serious one, Cousin Elsie, I will not deny that," the doctor +replied, a very grave and concerned look on his face as he spoke, "and +yet I have strong hope of complete recovery; so do not any of you give +way to despair, but unite together in prayer for God's blessing on the +means used." + +"Can I see her now, Aunt Rose?" he asked, turning to Mrs. Dinsmore. "I +think so," she replied, leading the way, the doctor following, while the +others remained where they were, waiting in almost silent suspense. + +To them all it seemed a long, sad day. One at a time they were admitted +to a short interview with their mother, in which she spoke with each one +as though it might be her last opportunity, the burden of her talk being +always an earnest exhortation to a life hid with God in Christ; a life +of earnest, loving service to him who had died to redeem them from sin +and eternal death. + +She was very cheerful and spoke hopefully of the result of the +operation, yet added that, as it might prove fatal, and in a way to +leave her neither time nor strength for these last words, she must speak +them now; but they need not despair of seeing her restored to health and +given many more years of sweet companionship with her loved ones. + +Walter, as the youngest, took his turn last. + +For many minutes he could do nothing but sob on his mother's breast. +"O mamma, mamma," he cried, "I cannot, cannot do without you!" + +"Mother knows it will be hard for her baby boy at first," she said, low +and tenderly, holding him close to her heart; "but some day you will +come to mamma in that happy land where there is no parting, no death, +and where sorrow and sighing shall flee away; the land where 'the +inhabitant shall not say I am sick'; the land where there is no sin, no +suffering of any kind, and God shall wipe away all tears from our eyes. + +"My darling, my little son, there is nothing else mother so desires for +you as that you may be a lamb of Christ's fold, and I have strong hopes +that you already are. You know that Jesus died to save sinners; that he +is able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by him; that you +can do nothing to earn salvation, but must take it as God's free +unmerited gift: that Jesus says, 'Him that cometh to me I will in no +wise cast out.' All this you know, my son?" + +"Yes, mamma dearest," he sobbed. "Oh, how good it was in him to die that +cruel death that we might live! Yes, I do love him, and he won't be +angry with me because I'm almost heartbroken at the thought of having to +do without my dear, dear mother, for many years. O mamma, mamma, how can +I live without you?" + +"It may please the dear Lord Jesus to spare you that trial, my darling +boy," she said. "I know that he will, if in his infinite wisdom he sees +it to be for the best. + +"And we must just trust him, remembering those sweet Bible words, 'We +know that all things work together for good to them that love God.' +Leave it all with him, my darling, feeling perfectly sure that whatever +he orders will be for the best; that though we may not be able to see it +so now, we shall at the last." + +"But, mamma, I must pray that you may be cured and live with us for +many, many years. It will not be wrong to ask him for that?" + +"No, not if you ask in submission to his will, remembering that no one +of us knows what is really for our highest good. Remember his own prayer +in his agony there in the garden of Gethsemane, 'Father, if thou be +willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless, not my will, but thine, +be done.' + +"He is our example and we must strive to be equally submissive to the +Father's will. Remember what the dear Master said to Peter, 'What I do +thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter.'" + +"Mamma, I will try to be perfectly submissive to his will, even if it is +to take you away from me; but oh, I must pray, pray, _pray_ as hard as I +can that it may please him to spare your dear life and let me keep my +mother at least till I am grown to be a man. It won't be wrong, mamma?" + +"No, my darling boy, I think not--if with it all you can truly, from +your heart, say, 'thy will, not mine, be done.'" + +When Captain Raymond followed his wife and little ones to Ion, he found +there a distressed household, anxious and sorely troubled over the +suffering and danger of the dearly beloved mother and mistress. Violet +met him on the veranda, her cheeks pale and showing traces of tears, her +eyes full of them. + +"My darling!" he exclaimed in surprise and alarm, "what is the matter?" + +He clasped her in his arms as he spoke, and dropping her head upon his +shoulder, she sobbed out the story of her mother's suffering and the +trial that awaited her on the morrow. + +His grief and concern were scarcely less than her own, but he tried to +speak words of comfort to both her and the others to whom the loved +invalid was so inexpressibly dear. To the beloved invalid also when, +like the rest, he was accorded a short interview. + +Yet he found to his admiring surprise that she seemed in small need of +such service--so calm, so peaceful, so entirely ready for any event was +she. + +Finding his presence apparently a source of strength and consolation, +not only to his young wife, but to all the members of the stricken +household, he remained till after tea, but then returned home for the +night, principally for Lulu's sake; not being willing to leave the child +alone, or nearly so, in that great house. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + + +The duties of the schoolroom had filled up the rest of the morning for +Lulu, so occupying her mind that she could give only an occasional +thought to the sad fact that she was in disgrace with her father. + +Then came dinner, which she took in the dining-room, feeling it lonely +enough with the whole family absent; immediately after that a music +lesson filled another hour, and that was followed by an hour of practice +on the piano. + +Then Alma wanted her again, and then, knowing it was what her father +would approve, she took her usual exercise about the grounds; after +which she prepared her lessons for the next day. + +But all the time her heart was heavy with the consciousness that "papa, +dear papa," was displeased with her, and she felt that there could be no +happiness for her till she had made her peace with him. + +"Oh," she sighed again and again, "will he never, never come, that I may +tell him how sorry and ashamed I am?" + +But when tea-time came he was still absent, and that meal also had to be +taken alone. + +She did not linger at the table, and on leaving it went into the library +where a wood fire blazed cheerfully on the hearth, for the evenings were +now quite cool, and settling herself in an easy-chair listened for the +sound of his coming. + +She was too much disturbed, and too anxious to read or work, so sat +doing nothing but listen intently for the sound of horses' hoofs or +carriage-wheels on the drive without. + +"Will he punish me?" she was asking herself. "I believe I want him to, +for I'm sure I richly deserve it. Oh, there he is! I hear his voice in +the hall!" and her heart beat fast as she sprang up and ran to meet him. + +He was already at the door of the room when she reached it. + +"Papa," she said humbly, and with her eyes on the carpet, "I--I'm very, +very sorry for my naughtiness this morning. I have obeyed you--asked +Alma's pardon--and--please, dear papa, won't you forgive me, too?" + +"Certainly, dear child," he said, bending down to press a kiss upon her +lips. "I am always ready to forgive my dear children when they tell me +they are sorry for having offended, and ready to obey." + +He led her to the easy-chair by the fireside, which she had just +vacated, and seating himself therein, drew her to a seat upon his knee. + +"Papa, I'm so sorry, so very sorry for my badness, so ashamed of not +being obedient to such a dear, kind father," she said, low and +tremulously, blushing painfully as she spoke. "Please, I want you to +punish me well for it." + +"Have I not already done so, daughter?" he asked. "I doubt if this has +been a happy day to you." + +"Oh, no, indeed, papa! I soon repented of my badness and looked +everywhere for you to tell you how sorry I was and ask you to forgive +me. But you were gone and so I had to wait, and the day has seemed as if +it would never end, though I've been trying to do everything I thought +you would bid me do if you were here." + +"Then I think I need add no further punishment," he said, softly +caressing her hair and cheek with his hand. + +"But please I want you to, because I deserve it and ought to be made to +pay for such badness; and I'm afraid if I'm not, I'll just be bad again +soon." + +"Well, daughter," he replied, "we will leave that question open to +consideration. I see you have books here on the table, and we will now +attend to the recitations." + +Her recitations were quite perfect, and he gave the deserved meed of +praise, appointed the tasks for the next day, then drawing her to his +knee again, said: "It does not seem to me necessary, daughter, to +inflict any further punishment for the wrong-doings of this morning. You +are sorry for them, and do not intend to offend in the same way again?" + +"Yes, I am sorry, papa, and I don't mean to behave so any more; still, +I'd feel more comfortable, and surer of not being just as bad again in a +few days or weeks, if you'd punish me. So please do." + +"Very well, then, I will give you an extra task or two," he said, taking +up her Latin grammar, "I will give you twice the usual lesson in this. +Then, not as a punishment, but for your good, I want you to search out +all the texts you can find in God's Holy Word about the sinfulness of +anger and pride and the duty of confessing our faults, not only to him, +but to those whom we have injured by them." + +Opening the Family Bible which lay on the table close at hand, "Here is +one in Proverbs," he said. "'He that covereth his sins shall not +prosper; but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them, shall have mercy."' + +Then turning to the New Testament, he read again, "'Therefore, if thou +bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath +aught against thee, leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy +way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy +gift.'" + +"That is in Matthew," he said, "and here in the Epistle of James," again +turning over the leaves, "we read perhaps the plainest direction of all +on the subject, 'Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for +another that ye may be healed.'" + +"But, papa----" she paused, hanging her head while a vivid blush +suffused her cheeks. + +"Well, daughter, what is it? Do not be afraid to let me know all your +thoughts. I want you always to talk freely to me, that if you are wrong +I may be able to convince you of the right. I want my children to act +intelligently, doing right because they see that it is right, and not +merely because papa commands it." + +"Please don't be angry with me, papa, but, it did seem to me a sort of +degradation to have to ask pardon of a--a woman who has to work for her +living like Alma," she said with some hesitation, blushing and hanging +her head as she spoke. + +"I am very, very sorry to hear such sentiments from a daughter of mine," +he returned in a gravely concerned tone and with a slight sigh. "It is +wicked pride, my child, that puts such thoughts in your head. + +"And who can say that there may not come a time when you too will have +to work for your living? The Bible tells us riches certainly take to +themselves wings and fly away." + +Again turning over the leaves, "Here is the passage--twenty-third +chapter of Proverbs, fourth and fifth verses: 'Labor not to be rich; +cease from thine own wisdom. Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is +not? for riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an +eagle toward heaven.' + +"And how little are they really worth, while we have them? 'Riches +profit not in the day of wrath,' we are told in this Holy Book. And it +says a great deal of the folly and sinfulness of pride; particularly in +this book of Proverbs;" turning over the leaves he read here and +there--"'When pride cometh, then cometh shame; but, with the lowly is +wisdom.' 'Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a +fall. Better is it to be an humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide +the spoil with the proud.' + +"'Proud and haughty scorner is his name who dealeth in proud wrath.' + +"'A man's pride shall bring him low: but honor shall uphold the humble +in spirit.' + +"'The fear of the Lord is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the +evil way and the forward mouth, do I hate.'" + +There was a moment of silence, then Lulu said humbly, tears starting to +her eyes as she spoke, "Papa, I did not know--at least I never thought +about it--that pride was so wicked." + +"Yes," he said, "the Bible tells us that everyone proud in heart is an +abomination to the Lord, that God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace +unto the humble; there is much in the Bible against pride and in favor +of humility. We are all sinners, worthy of nothing good at the hands of +God, and what have we to do with pride?" + +"Papa, when I say my prayers to-night I will ask God to take away all +the wicked pride out of my heart; and won't you ask him too?" + +"I will, my darling, as I have already, very many times, and I hope you +have not neglected to ask him to forgive your wrong thoughts, feelings, +and actions of this morning?" + +"I have asked for that, papa, and I will again," she replied. + +They were silent again for a little while, the captain looking as if his +thoughts were far away; Lulu was studying his face with eyes that +presently filled with tears. + +"Papa," she said low, and half tremulously, "you look so sad. Is it all +because you are grieved over my naughtiness?" + +"No, daughter, not all; indeed I was hardly thinking of that at the +moment, but of the grief, sorrow and anxiety at Ion." + +"What about, papa?" she queried with a startled look. "Oh, I hope that +nothing bad has happened to Gracie or Mamma Vi, or our little ones?" + +"No; I am thankful that all is right with them: but dear Grandma Elsie +is in a very critical condition; I cannot tell you exactly what ails +her, but she has been suffering very much for months past, keeping it to +herself till yesterday, when she told it all to Cousin Arthur, and +learned from him that nothing but a difficult and dangerous surgical +operation could save her life. + +"That is to be performed to-morrow, and, whether she lives or dies, will +relieve her from the dreadful agony she is enduring; for no one who +knows her can doubt that she is one of God's dear children. Death will +be gain to her, but a sad loss to all of us." + +Before he had finished Lulu's face was hidden on his shoulder and she +was weeping bitterly. + +"O papa," she sobbed, "I'm so, so sorry for her, dear, dear Grandma +Elsie! Isn't she frightened almost to death?" + +"No, daughter; she is very calm and peaceful, ready to live or die as +God's will shall be; grieving only for those who love her so dearly and +find it so difficult to be reconciled to the thought of losing her; her +efforts are all to comfort them. She has set her house in order and +seems quite ready for either life or death. + +"But we will pray--you and I--as the others are praying, that if God's +will be so, she may live and go in and out before us for many years to +come." + +"Yes, papa. Oh, I am glad that we may ask our kind heavenly Father for +everything we want! Poor Mamma Vi! how her heart must ache! and is she +going to stay on at Ion now, papa?" + +"Yes; certainly till her mother is out of danger or forever done with +sin and suffering. Gracie and our two little ones will stay too; Gracie +amusing the others and keeping them in the grounds, or a part of the +house so distant from Grandma Elsie's room that their noise will not +disturb her." + +"And you and I will stay on here, papa?" + +"Yes; I must be here a good deal of the time to oversee my workmen, and +shall want my dear eldest daughter to be my companion and helper in +various ways, for I know she loves to be such to her father," he added, +pressing his lips to her cheek. + +"Indeed I do, papa! Oh, thank you for letting me!" she exclaimed, +lifting her head and showing eyes shining through tears. "I'd rather be +here with you, than anywhere else, my own dear, dear father!" putting +her arms about his neck and hugging him close. "Only," she added, "I'd +like to see Gracie and the others for a little bit every once in a while +if I may." + +"Yes, you shall," he said, returning her embrace. "Perhaps I may be able +to take you over there for a short visit almost every day. And in the +meantime we may hope that lessons and the dressmaking will go on +prosperously." + +"Are you going to spend your nights here at home, papa?" she asked with +a wistful, half pleading look. + +"Yes, dear child; I could not think of leaving you alone; nor would your +Mamma Vi wish me to do so while she has both her brother and grandfather +near her, to say nothing of the women, children, and servants; you will +have me close at hand every night and the greater part of the day." + +"Oh, I am so glad and thankful!" she said, with a sigh of relief. "I +don't think I should be exactly afraid, because God would be with me, +but it is so delightful to have my dear earthly father too. May I sleep +in Gracie'e room to be nearer to you?" + +"Yes; and with the door open between it and mine, so that if you want +anything in the night you will only need to call to me and I will go to +you at once. + +"Now if there are any more questions you would like answered, let me +hear them." + +"There is something I'd like to say, papa, but I'm--almost afraid." + +"Afraid of what, daughter?" he asked, as she paused in some +embarrassment, and with a half pleading look into his eyes. + +"That you might think it saucy and be displeased with me. + +"Do you mean it so, daughter?" + +"Oh, no indeed, papa!" + +"Then you need not be afraid to let me hear it." + +"Papa, it is only that I--I think if you had talked to me this morning, +when you called me to you, about the wickedness of being too proud to +ask Alma's pardon, and reasoned with me as you did a little while ago, +about it all, I--I'd have obeyed you at once; you know you do almost +always show me the reasonableness of your commands before, or when, you +lay them upon me." + +"Yes, my child," he said in a kindly tone, "I have done so as a rule, +and should in this instance, but that I was much hurried for time. That +will sometimes happen, and you and all my children must always obey me +promptly, whether you can or cannot at the moment see the reasonableness +of the order given. Is your estimation of your father's wisdom and his +love for you so low that you cannot trust him thus far?" + +"O papa, forgive me!" she exclaimed, putting her arms about his neck and +laying her cheek to his. "I do hope I'll never, never again hesitate one +minute to obey any order from you; because I know you love me, and that +you are very wise and would never bid me do anything but what I ought." + +"Certainly never intentionally, daughter; and surely your father, who is +so many years older than yourself, should be esteemed by you as somewhat +wiser." + +"O papa, I know you are a great, great deal wiser than I," she said +earnestly. "How ridiculous it seems to think of anybody comparing my +wisdom with yours! I know I'm only a silly little girl, and not a good +one either, and it would be a sad thing to have a father no wiser or +better than myself." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + + +The morning of that critical day found Grandma Elsie as calm and +cheerful as she had been the previous evening, though every other face +among the older members of the family showed agitation and anxiety. Her +daughters, Elsie and Violet, were with her almost constantly during the +early hours, doing everything in their power to show their devoted +affection and make all things ready for the surgeons and their +assistants; her father and his wife also giving their aid and loving +sympathy, while Edward and Zoe attended to necessary arrangements +elsewhere, occasionally snatching a moment to stand beside the dear +sufferer and speak words of love and hope. + +Rosie and Walter were allowed one short interview in which they were +clasped in her arms and a few loving, tender words spoken that both she +and they felt might be the last. + +Captain Raymond came a little earlier than the doctor. Lester was +already there, and each young wife found the presence of her husband a +comfort and support while, in an adjoining room, they waited in almost +agonizing suspense to hear that the operation was over and what was the +result. + +They were a silent group, every heart going up in strong crying to God, +that, if consistent with his holy will, the dear mother might be spared +to them. + +And the united petition was granted; Mrs. Dinsmore presently came to +them, her face radiant with joy and hope. "It is over," she said; +"successfully over, and the doctors say that with the good nursing she +is sure to have she will soon be restored to perfect health." + +The communication was received with tears of joy and thankfulness. + +"It will be strange indeed if she lacks anything the most devoted nurses +can do for her," remarked Mr. Leland. + +"I should think so, with three daughters, two sons, and as many +sons-in-law, to say nothing of father and mother," remarked Violet, with +a tearful smile. "Levis, you will spare me to her as long as I am +needed?" + +"Certainly, my love," he replied, without a moment's hesitation; "there +is nothing we could refuse, or grudge to our beloved mother at this, or +indeed at any time." + +"O grandma, may we go to her now?" queried Rose and Walter in a breath. + +"I think not yet, dears; she must be kept very, very quiet," was the +gently spoken reply. "I know it would be a joy to both you and her to +meet and exchange a few words, but it might be a risk for her; and I +know you would far rather deny yourselves the gratification than do +anything to increase her suffering; to say nothing of endangering her +precious life." + +"O grandma, neither of us would be willing to do that for the wealth of +the world!" exclaimed Rosie, with starting tears. + +"No, indeed!" cried Walter. "It is very hard to refrain, but we would +not injure our mother for the world; our dear, dear mother!" + +"I am sure of it," said Grandma Rose, smiling kindly upon him. "And now, +Walter, would not you and Rosie like to go over to Fairview and carry +the good news to Eva and Gracie? They are there with the little ones, +and I know would be very glad to hear that your dear mother is over the +worst of her trial." + +"I am going over there for Gracie, Elsie, and Ned, to take them home to +Woodburn for a while," said Captain Raymond, "and if you two would like +it, will take you both with me, leave you there, bring you back here, or +carry you on to Woodburn, as you may prefer." + +"Thank you, sir," said Rosie. "I will be pleased to go as far as +Fairview with you, but not on to Woodburn at this time: because I do not +feel at all sure that mamma may not be taken worse. So I shall not stay +long away from home." + +Walter's reply was to the same effect, and as the captain's carriage and +horses were already at the door, the three were presently on their way +to Fairview. + +Grace and Evelyn were rejoiced to see them, and having been in great +anxiety about their dear "Grandma Elsie," felt much relieved by the news +of her which they brought. + +The captain was in some haste to return to Woodburn, and Rosie and +Walter, finding they wanted to stay a while with Evelyn and their sister +Elsie's children, decided to walk back to Ion; the distance being none +too great for either their strength or enjoyment. + +Home and Sister Lu held strong attractions for Grace, Elsie, and Ned, +and they were full of delight as papa lifted them into the carriage and +took his seat beside them. + +"Et Ned sit on oo knee, papa," pleaded the baby, and was at once lifted +to the desired place. + +"Papa's dear baby boy," the captain said, smoothing his curls and +smiling down into the pretty blue eyes. "How glad Sister Lulu will be to +see you and Elsie, and Gracie!" + +"And we'll be just as glad to see her, papa," said Grace. "I know it's +not very long since we came away from our own dear home and Lu, but it +does seem a long time." + +"Isn't Lu tired doing without us, papa?" asked Elsie. + +"I think she is," he replied; "at all events I know she will be very +glad to see you. It is nearly dinner-time now," he added, looking at his +watch, "so we will go directly home. But this afternoon I will take you +all for a nice, long drive, then leave you little ones at Ion and take +Lulu home again." + +Lulu had been busy all the morning attending to her studies, her +practice on the piano, the demands of the dressmaker, and taking her +usual exercise about the grounds. She was out in them now, watching for +the coming of her father, eager to see him and to hear how it was with +dear Grandma Elsie. + +Presently she heard the sound of carriage-wheels on the road, then in +another minute the vehicle turned in at the great gates and came rapidly +up the drive, little Elsie calling out from it, "Lu, Lu, we've come!" + +"Have you, Elsie? Oh, I'm so glad!" she called in reply. + +The carriage had stopped, Lulu bounded toward it, and her father, +throwing open the door, helped her in. Hugs and kisses and laughter +followed; so glad were the happy children to meet again after even so +short a separation. + +In another minute the carriage drew up before the entrance to the +mansion, and the captain and his joyous little troop alighted. Dinner +was ready to be served, and as soon as hats and other outer garments had +been disposed of the merry little party gathered about the table. Mamma +was missed but it was very pleasant to all to find themselves there with +their fond father and each other. Lulu's fears for dear Grandma Elsie +had been much relieved by the report of the success of the surgeons, so +that she was light-hearted and gay as well as the younger ones. + +Immediately after dinner, while the little ones took their accustomed +afternoon nap, she recited her lessons, doing so in a manner that drew +hearty commendation from her father, who was always glad to be able to +bestow it; then, knowing it would be a joy to her to do them, he called +upon her for some of the little services she was accustomed to render +him. + +These attended to, "Now, daughter," he said, "you may dress yourself +nicely for a drive. I am going to take you and your little brother and +sisters for a pretty long one. Then I will drop them at Ion, and you and +I, after a call of a few minutes to hear how Grandma Elsie is, will +drive home together." + +"Oh, how pleasant that will be, papa! How good you always are to every +one of us children!" she exclaimed, giving him an ardent kiss, then +running away to do his bidding. + +A merry, happy time the children had, and on reaching Ion the little +ones were ready for their supper and bed. The older ones were full of +joy on learning that their loved Grandma Elsie was as comfortable and +doing as well as possible under the circumstances. The captain and Lulu +spent a quiet half-hour with the Ion family and Violet, then departed +for Woodburn. + +As the carriage started, the captain put an arm round Lulu, drew her +close to him, and smiling affectionately down into her face, said: "How +glad I am to be able to keep one of my loved flock with me!" + +"And oh, how glad I am that I'm the one, you dear, dear papa!" responded +the little girl, returning his loving look and smile. Then, with a sigh, +"I think there are some fathers who wouldn't be very fond of even their +own child, if she were so often ill-tempered and disobedient. Papa, I've +been thinking all day that you didn't punish me half so severely as I +deserved for my naughtiness yesterday." + +"I would rather err on that side than the other, daughter," he said, in +tender tones, "and I hope your future behavior will be such as to prove +that the slight punishment inflicted was all-sufficient." + +"I hope so, indeed, papa," she answered earnestly, "but if I am +disobedient and ill-tempered again soon, you will be more severe with +me, won't you? I really want you to, that I may improve." + +"Yes, daughter, I think I must," he replied a little sadly; then after a +moment's silence went on again: "I expect to pay a little visit to Max +in January, and if my eldest daughter has been a good and obedient +child----" He paused, looking smilingly at her. + +"You will take me with you, papa?" she cried half-breathlessly. "Oh, how +I should like it! Ah, I do hope I shall not be so bad that you will have +to leave me behind." + +"No, I hope not. I want to take you; to share the pleasure of my dear +eldest daughter will double it to me, and if neither bad conduct on your +part, nor anything else happens to prevent, you shall go with me." + +"Oh, thank you, dear papa!" she exclaimed, her cheeks glowing and her +eyes sparkling with delight, "you are so good to me that I just hate +myself for ever doing anything to vex or grieve you." + +"My dear child," he said with emotion, "be more watchful, careful, and +prayerful; fight more earnestly and determinately the good fight of +faith, ever looking to God for help, for only so may you hope to gain +the victory at last, and to be able to say, 'in all these things we are +more than conquerors through him that loved us.'" + +"I will try, papa," she said, tears starting to her eyes, "but oh, it +is such a hard fight for anybody with a temper like mine. Please help me +all you can by praying for me, and punishing me too, whenever you see +that I need it." + +"I will do all I can for you, my darling, in every way," he replied, +"but as I have often told you, the hardest part of the conflict must +inevitably be your own. + +"Cling close to Jesus, and cry to him every day and every hour for help, +for only by his all-powerful assistance can we hope to win holiness and +heaven at last." + +"I will try, papa, I will indeed," she said. "I am, oh, so glad and +thankful that he will let me cling to him and that he promises his help +to those who ask him for it." + +"Yes, he says, 'In me is thine help,' and having his help what can harm +us? since he is the Lord who made heaven and earth." + +Again a few moments of silence; then Lulu said, "Papa, you have often +told me I inherit my temper from you, and though I could never believe +it if anybody else had told me, I have to believe you because I know you +always speak the truth; but how did you ever conquer it so completely?" + +"By determined effort, at the same time looking to God for help," he +replied; "and only by the same means can I even now keep it under +control." + +"And you think I can learn to control mine if I use the same means?" + +"I do; God, our kind heavenly Father, is as able and as willing to help +you as me." + +"Yes," she said thoughtfully, "and if I don't choose to try hard enough, +at the same time praying earnestly for help, I deserve to be punished by +my earthly father; and I do really hope he always will punish me till he +has taught me to be as patient and self-controlled as he is," she added, +nestling closer to him and slipping a hand into his. "Papa, I often +wonder why I wasn't made as patient and sweet-tempered as Gracie. She +doesn't seem to have any temper at all to fight." + +"No; but she has her own peculiar temptations, of some of which your +firmer, braver nature knows nothing; and each must battle with her own +faults and failings, looking to God for help in the hard struggle. To +God, who, the Bible tells us, 'will not suffer you to be tempted above +that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape +that ye may be able to bear it.'" + +"It is a precious promise, papa," she said, with thoughtful look and +tone, "and I am glad you reminded me of it. It makes me feel less +discouraged about trying to conquer my besetting sins." + +"In the first chapter of Joshua," replied her father, "the Lord says to +him three times, 'Be strong and of a good courage,' the last time +adding, 'be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed; for the Lord thy God +is with thee whithersoever thou goest.' And that blessed assurance of +the constant, sustaining presence of our God, each one of his children +may take to him or herself." + +"What a comfort, papa!" she exclaimed. "Oh, the Bible is such a +blessing! I do feel sorry for all the people who have none." + +"Yes," he responded, "they are greatly to be pitied, and those who have +dared to take it from others will have much to answer for in the day of +judgment; as will those also who, having it themselves, make no effort +to supply it to such as have it not. + +"Ah, here we are at our own home!" he added, as the carriage drew up +before the entrance. + +"And such a sweet home as it is!" she responded, as he threw open the +door, sprang out, and took her in his arms. + +"Yes," he said, "so I think, and am glad my little girl appreciates it. +There," setting her on her feet, "run in, daughter, and make yourself +ready for the tea-table." + +She obeyed and presently they two were seated cozily at a little round +table in the family breakfast-room, greatly enjoying their tea, broiled +chicken, and waffles. + +"Papa," remarked Lulu, as she poured out his second cup, "I'm sorry for +you that you have only me for company, but I do enjoy being--once in a +while--all the family you have at home." + +"Do you?" he returned, with a good-humored little laugh. "Well, I am +glad to have you contented and happy; and I can't deny that I should +feel very lonely here to-night without the pleasant companionship of my +dear eldest daughter. What do you want to do this evening? how shall we +spend our time alone together? + +"I have my lessons to learn, you know, papa." + +"Ah, yes; and I must write some letters. And after that perhaps you may +find a bit of sewing to do, while your father reads aloud something that +will be both interesting and instructive to his dear little girl." + +"Yes, sir; I have some work on hand for our Dorcas Society, and though I +rather dislike sewing, I shall not mind doing it while listening to your +reading," she answered, smiling brightly up into his face. + +"Ah! then that is what we will do," he said, returning her smile. + +"Well, daughter, has it been a pleasant evening to you?" he asked, when +the time had come for the good-nights to be said. + +"Indeed it has, papa," she replied, giving him an ardent hug. "Oh, I am +so glad you didn't let me go to Ion with the others, but kept me at home +with you. I do hope that I'll remember after this that you always know +and do the very best thing for me, and that I'll never, never grow +ill-tempered and rebellious, as I was yesterday." + +"You think you can trust your father after this, even without being told +his reasons for all he does and requires?" + +"I hope so, papa, and indeed, indeed I'm very much ashamed of my +rebellious feelings and don't intend to indulge in them any more!" she +added, with a remorseful look up into his face. + +"Try to keep that resolution, dear child," he said. "Now good-night and +pleasant dreams. May he who neither slumbers nor sleeps have you in his +kind care and keeping. But if you want your earthly father, you have +only to call out or run to him." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + + +Lulu's first thought on awaking the next morning was of dear Grandma +Elsie. "I wonder," she said to herself, "if papa has not been asking +news of her through the telephone; oh, I hope she is getting well!" + +Hurrying through the duties of the toilet, she was ready to run to meet +her father when presently she heard his steps in the hall without. + +"Good-morning, papa," she cried. "Oh, have you heard from Ion how +Grandma Elsie passed the night?" + +"Yes," he said, bending down to give her a good-morning kiss, "she +passed a very comfortable night; is thought to be doing as well as +possible. Mamma Vi and our little ones are all right also; I have just +had a talk with your mamma, through the telephone." + +"Oh, I am glad! How nice it is that we can talk in that way to the folks +at Ion and the other places where Mamma Vi's relations live!" + +"Yes; a telephone is really a blessing under such circumstances. I am +much more reconciled to being at some short distance from my wife and +little ones than I could be if without such means of communication." + +They went down to the library together and seating himself he drew her +to his knee, saying pleasantly, "You are the youngest child at home with +me, and I think I must have you here. I hope you will never think +yourself too old to sometimes sit on your father's knee." + +"No, papa, I'm sure I never shall while you are willing to let me," she +replied, putting an arm round his neck and gazing lovingly into his +eyes. + +They chatted for a few minutes, then the breakfast bell rang, and +presently they were again seated at the little round table from which +they had eaten last night's supper, Lulu pouring the coffee with a very +grown-up air, while her father filled her plate and his own with the +tempting viands. + +"What a lovely, delightful home we have, papa!" she remarked, as she +handed him his cup. "I do really think that with such a father and such +a home I ought to be the best girl in the world; and I do mean to try to +be." + +"I have no doubt you do, daughter, and I have seldom had occasion to +find serious fault with you in the last year or more, so that I am by no +means in despair of seeing you gain control of that troublesome temper +which has caused so much unhappiness to both you and me." + +"Oh, thank you for saying it, papa!" she returned, with a bright and +joyous smile. "I'm determined to try my very best to be as good as +possible, both to please you and to earn that visit to Annapolis that +you spoke of last night. I think it will be very delightful; and how +pleased Max will be to see us; especially you." + +"I think he will. Ah, here comes the mail-bag!" as a servant entered +with it. + +"Oh, I hope there's a letter from Max," Lulu said, as her father opened +the bag and took out the contents--papers, magazines, and letters. + +"Yes, here is one from our dear boy," he said, singling out a letter and +hastily tearing it open. + +He read it first to himself, then aloud to her--a bright, cheery, +boyish, affectionate epistle such as they were accustomed to receive +from Max's pen. + +They talked it over together while they finished their breakfast, then +returned to the library where, as usual, Christine, Alma, and the +servants being called in, the captain led the family devotions, reading +a portion of the Scripture and engaging in prayer. + +"Are you going immediately to Ion, papa?" asked Lulu, when again they +were alone together. + +"No," he replied; "I have some matters to attend to here while you are +preparing your lessons. After hearing them, if your recitations and +conduct have been satisfactory, I intend taking you with me to the +village, where I have to make some business arrangements; then we will +drive to Ion, spend a little time there, then come home, probably +bringing your little sisters and brother with us as we did the other +day, returning them as before to your Mamma Vi, just in time for supper +and bed, and coming home alone together." + +"Oh, I like that, papa!" she exclaimed, "and is it what you intend doing +every day?" + +"Every day while your Grandma Elsie is so ill that the noise might +disturb her; unless the weather should be quite too inclement, I think +it will be a relief to your Mamma Vi to have them here a good deal of +the time, till her mother is better. + +"I suppose so, papa; and at the same time very pleasant for us--they are +such darlings!" + +"So you and I think," he said, with a smile. "Now go to your lessons, +daughter." + +At Ion Grandma Elsie lay quietly sleeping, her three daughters watching +over her with tenderest care and solicitude. Scarce a sound was to be +heard, either within doors or without, save the distant lowing of +cattle, the twittering of birds, and the gentle sighing of the wind in +the treetops; family and servants moved with cautious tread, speaking +seldom, and that with bated breath, lest they should disturb her who was +so dear to all hearts. + +To Walter it seemed very hard to be shut out of mamma's room, and he sat +on the veranda watching for the coming of Cousin Arthur, to petition for +admittance, if only for a moment, just to look at her and come away +again. + +Cousin Arthur had been with her through the night, had gone away early +in the morning and was expected back again soon. + +The half hour spent in watching and waiting seemed very long indeed to +the little lad, but at last, oh joy! there was Cousin Arthur's sulky +turning in at the great gates; then it came swiftly up the avenue, and +Walter rose and hastened to meet the doctor as he alighted. + +"O Cousin Arthur!" he cried, but in subdued tones, "they've shut me out +of mamma's room and I just don't know how to stand it any longer. Mayn't +I go in, if it's only for a minute, to get one look at her dear face? I +won't speak to her or touch her if you say I must not, but oh, I don't +know how to endure being kept away from her altogether." + +The little fellow's tones were tremulous, and his eyes filled with tears +as he spoke. + +Dr. Conly felt for the child, and laying a hand kindly on his head, said +cheerfully, "Don't be down-hearted, my boy, your mother will be well +enough in a few days, I hope, to stand quite an interview with her +youngest son, and perhaps it may do for you to go in for a moment this +morning; you may come upstairs with me and wait in the hall till I see +how she is. If I find her well enough to stand a peep from her boy, you +shall go in for a minute, provided you will promise to be cheerful and +not to speak unless you have the doctor's permission." + +"Oh, I'll promise to do anything you bid me, if you'll only let me see +her," returned Walter in eager tones, then followed the doctor with +noiseless tread through the hall and up the broad stairway. + +Reaching his mother's door, he paused and waited outside while the +doctor went quietly in. + +His patient seemed to be asleep, but opened her eyes and smiled up into +his face as he reached the bedside. + +"Dear cousin," he said, low and tenderly, "are you feeling quite easy +now?" + +"Quite so," she answered in low, sweet tones; "all is going right, I +think. Is it not?" + +"Yes, so it would seem. You are the best of patients, and with the +abundance of good nursing you are sure to have, I think we will soon +have you about again. But," glancing around upon her three daughters, +"she must be kept very quiet, neither talking nor being talked to much +more than is absolutely necessary. + +"However, I am going to allow Walter a moment's sight of his mother, and +as he is your baby boy, you may, if you choose, speak half a dozen words +to him," he added, addressing himself directly to the patient. + +Then stepping to the door, he beckoned to Walter, and led him to the +side of the bed. + +"There, laddie, you may tell her how dearly you love her, but nothing +more." + +"Mamma, dear, darling mamma! I couldn't begin to tell it!" Walter said, +low and tremulously, just touching his lips to her cheek. + +"Mother's darling boy!" was all she said in response, but the eyes +looking into his spoke volumes of mother-love. + +"Don't cry, Walter, my man," his cousin said, as he led him out to the +hall again; "you have behaved so well that I think you may be allowed +another interview to-morrow; and I hope you will see your mother up and +about again in perhaps a fortnight from this. You must pray for her +healing to the Great Physician, as we all are doing: and pray in faith, +for you know the Bible tells us he is the hearer and answerer of +prayer." + +"Oh, I will! I do!" sobbed the child, "and I'm so glad there are so many +others asking for her too, because the Bible says Jesus promised that +his Father would grant what two or three agreed together to ask for." + +"Yes; pray for your mother, believe God's promises, and be happy in the +expectation that she will get well; and with a mind at rest interest +yourself in your studies and sports. That's my prescription for you, my +lad; now go and take it like a good boy," added the doctor, with a +smile, as he turned and re-entered the sick-room. + +"A funny prescription, and not so bad to take," laughed Walter to +himself, as he wiped away his tears and hastened to the schoolroom to +attend to his lessons. + +"Nobody here but myself," he sighed, as he crossed the threshold. "It's +rather lonesome, but I'll do the best I can. It's what mamma would +advise." + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + + +Grace had gone over to Fairview with her little brother and sister, +accompanied by their nurse, Mamma Vi having told her she might learn her +lessons there, and if Evelyn cared to hear her recite, that would answer +very well. + +Evelyn was entirely willing, and they had just finished a few minutes +before the carriage from Woodburn came driving up the avenue, bringing +Grace's father and sister Lulu. + +They had already paid a call at Ion, and now had come to make a short +one at Fairview, and pick up Gracie, little Elsie, and Ned. + +"Papa, papa!" shouted the two little ones, running to meet him as he +came up the steps into the veranda, and holding up their faces for a +kiss. + +"Papa's darlings!" he responded, taking them in his arms to caress and +fondle them, then letting them go to give Gracie her turn. + +"Is my feeble little girl quite well this morning?" he asked, in tender +tones. + +"Yes, papa, thank you," she replied, giving him a vigorous hug, "and oh, +so glad to see you! Have you come to take us--Elsie and Ned and +me--home for a while again?" + +"I have," he said, returning her hug. "I can't have your mamma at +present, as her mother needs her, but my dear babies I need not do +without." + +"Am I one of them, papa?" asked Gracie, with a smile. "I'm almost +eleven; but I don't mind being one of your babies, if you like to call +me that." His only reply was a smile and a loving pat on her cheek, for +the two little ones were tugging at his coat and coaxing for a drive. + +"Why, Elsie and Ned, you haven't kissed me yet," said Lulu. "Gracie and +Eva did while you were exchanging hugs and kisses with papa, and I think +it's my turn now." + +"So it is! I love you, Lu," cried Elsie, leaving her father for a moment +to throw her arms round Lulu's neck in a hearty and loving embrace; Ned +quickly followed suit, then running to his father again, renewed his +request for a drive in the carriage. + +"Yes, my son, you shall have it presently," said the captain; then he +proposed to Evelyn that she and her two little cousins should join the +party for a short drive in another direction, before he would take his +own children home to Woodburn. + +His invitation was joyfully accepted and in a few minutes they had all +crowded into the captain's carriage and were driving down the avenue. + +The little ones were very merry, and the captain did not check their +mirth. He was, in fact, in very good spirits himself, because thus far +Grandma Elsie's cure had progressed so favorably. It continued to do so +from that time till in two weeks she was able to be up and about a part +of every day, and Violet returned to Woodburn, though daily, when the +weather permitted, she drove over to Ion and spent an hour or more with +her mother. + +Quite frequently the captain drove her over himself, and leaving her +there, went on into the village to attend to some business matter, +calling for her on his return. + +On one of these occasions, going into the parlor he found there his +wife, her mother, eldest sister and grandparents in earnest conversation +with the doctor. + +When the customary greetings had been exchanged, Grandma Elsie said to +him, with a smile, "Captain, these good people seem to have leagued +together to send, or to take me, to Viamede to spend the winter, Cousin +Arthur having given it as his opinion that a warmer climate than this +would probably be of benefit just at this time." + +"In which I presume he is quite right, mother," returned the captain. +"And surely there is no difficulty in the way?" + +"Nothing insurmountable," she replied. + +"But we want some one to go on in advance and see that everything is in +order for mamma's comfort," said Violet, giving her husband a look that +was half entreating, half one of confident assurance that he would deny +nothing to her or her loved mother which it was at all in his power to +bestow. + +"That, I think, would certainly be the better plan," he returned +pleasantly, "and if no one more competent than myself is to be had and +it suits my wife to accompany me, my services may be considered as +offered." + +Hearty thanks were at once bestowed upon him by all present. + +But he disclaimed all title to them, saying, "I now have everything in +order at Woodburn, so that I may feel quite easy in leaving it for even +a protracted stay; and to get a view of Viamede will be a new and +doubtless very pleasant experience to me, with wife and little ones +along; my daughters can go on with their studies under my tuition, there +as well as at home, and my intended visit to Max can be paid before +starting for the far South. I only fear," he added, with a pleasant +glance at Mrs. Leland, "that I may be offering to take upon myself a +duty which is much to the taste of one of my brothers-in-law and might +be better performed by one or both of them. + +"No, captain," replied Mrs. Leland, "you need have no such fear, as +neither of them is just now in a position to leave home, unless it were +quite necessary for dear mamma's comfort." + +"Then we will consider it settled that Violet and I are to go," said the +captain, turning to her with his pleasant smile. "How soon can you be +ready, my dear?" + +"By the first of next week if my husband wishes to start by that time," +returned Violet gayly. "Oh, I am quite delighted at the prospect of +seeing again that one of our sweet homes, and especially of doing so in +company with you, Levis." + +The captain considered a moment. "I would not like to disappoint Max," +he said. "I think I must visit him next Saturday--as I shall not +probably be able to see him again before next spring. But I will make +necessary arrangements beforehand and I think we may leave for the South +by Wednesday morning of next week, if that will suit you, my dear?" + +"Entirely," she said; "it will give me just about time enough to get +everything ready without hurry or confusion." + +So it was settled, everybody seeming well satisfied with the +arrangement. + +A little more time was spent in discussing plans, then the captain and +Violet bade good-by and set out on their return home. + +"You are well pleased with the prospect of this visit to Viamede, +Violet, my dear?" the captain said, as they drove rapidly along the +familiar road. + +"Oh, yes, indeed," she answered brightly; "Viamede is so lovely, a sort +of earthly paradise I have always thought, and I am really delighted at +the thought of showing it to you. Ah, I am quite sure, having your dear +society there, I shall enjoy it more than ever!" + +"Thank you, dearest," was his smiling response. "I am certainly pleased +with the prospect of seeing that earthly paradise, particularly with you +to share my enjoyment. And how pleased Lulu and Gracie will be, for I +have often heard them speak of Viamede as even lovelier than Woodburn, +which they evidently esteem a very delightful and lovely home." + +"As it assuredly is, my dear," was Violet's smiling rejoinder. "I could +not ask a lovelier, happier home than that which my husband--the very +best and dearest of husbands--has provided for me. Oh, I often ask +myself, 'Is there anybody else in all the wide world who has so much to +be thankful for as I?'" + +"Ah, that fortunate mortal is surely he who sits by your side at this +moment, my darling," he answered in moved tones, taking her hand in his +and pressing it affectionately. + +But the carriage was turning in at the Woodburn gates and presently the +glad shout of little voices was borne to their ears on the evening +breeze. "There it is! Papa and mamma have come home!" + +A joyously tumultuous greeting followed, the little flock gathering +about them as they alighted, talking, laughing, dancing around them, +claiming their attention and their caresses. + +Elsie and Ned pleaded for a ride, and Grace and Lulu seemed not averse +to sharing it. So there was a hasty bundling up in capes and hoods, +cloaks and shawls, papa piled them in, followed them, taking Ned on his +knee, and away they went for a mile or more down the road, then back +again, and were presently taking off their outdoor garments in the hall, +mamma helping the little ones. + +Then all gathered about the tea-table with appetites that made +everything taste very good indeed. Elsie and Ned were too busy to talk +much, but Lulu and Grace were unusually gay and mirthful, and their +father indulged them in more than usual chat and laughter that were +neither rude nor boisterous. + +Neither he nor Violet said anything of the new plans for the winter till +the babies had had their evening romp and been taken away to bed. +Violet, as usual, went with them, and the captain was left alone with +Lulu and Grace. + +They were hanging lovingly about him as was their custom on such +occasions, and he drew one to each knee, saying in low, tender tones, +"My darlings! my precious little daughters! How rich I feel in the +possession of my five dear children!" + +"And how rich we feel with our dear, dear father! to say nothing of our +dear, sweet Mamma Vi and the two darling babies!" responded Lulu, +putting her arm about his neck and her lips to his. + +"Yes; and our dear big brother Maxie," added Grace. + +"Yes, I was just going to mention him," said Lulu. "I am both very fond +and very proud of Max. I wouldn't swap him for any other body's brother +that ever I saw; no not even for all the nice brothers that Rosie has." + +"Neither would I," said Grace, "though I'm fond of them all." + +"Papa, when is it that we are going to see Max?" queried Lulu. "Some +time in January I know you said, but will it be to spend New Year's with +him?" + +"No; wouldn't you like to go sooner than that?" he asked, stroking her +hair and looking down lovingly, smilingly into her eyes. + +"Oh, yes, indeed, papa! if it suits you to go and to take me," she +answered eagerly. "It seems now a long, long while that I have been +separated from Max, and the sooner I may go to see him the better. But +have you changed your plans about it?" + +"Yes," he replied. "I have something to tell you both which will show +you why, and also prove pleasant news to you, I think." + +Then he proceeded to tell them of the plans laid that afternoon at Ion, +and which made it necessary that, if he went to see Max at all that +winter, he must do so before the end of the week already begun. + +His news that their winter was to be spent at Viamede was hailed with +delight by both the little girls. + +"I am so glad!" cried Grace, clapping her hands and smiling all over her +face. + +"I, too," exclaimed Lulu. "Viamede is so, _so_ beautiful, and to have +you there with us, you dear papa, will make us--me any way--enjoy it at +least twice as much as I did before." + +"Me too," said Grace; "the happiest place for me is always where my own +dear father is with me," hugging him tight and kissing him again and +again. + +"My darling! my precious darlings!" the captain said in response and +caressing them in turn. + +"I'm so sorry for poor Maxie," remarked Grace presently, "that he can't +see you every day, papa, as we do, and be kissed and hugged as we are; +and that he can't go to Viamede with the rest of us." She finished with +a heavy sigh. + +"Yes," her father said, "I am sorry for him, and for ourselves, that he +is not to be with us. But my dear boy is happy where he is, and I in the +thought that he is preparing himself to do good service to our country; +to be a valuable and useful citizen." + +"And we are all ever so proud of him--our dear Maxie; but I'm glad I am +not a boy. Women can be very useful in the world too, can't they, papa?" + +"Yes; yes, indeed, my darlings; the world couldn't go on without women, +any more than without men; both are necessary, and the one sex to be as +much honored as the other, and I hope and trust my daughters will all +grow up to be noble, true-hearted, useful women, always trying to do +earnestly and faithfully the work God has given them to do." + +"I hope so, indeed, papa!" responded Lulu in an earnest, thoughtful +tone; "if I know my own heart I do want to be a very useful woman when +I'm grown up--a useful girl now--serving God with all my might; but oh, +I do so easily forget and go wrong!" + +"Yet I can see very plainly that my dear little girl is improving," her +father said, softly smoothing her hair with his hand, "and I'm sure--for +the Bible tells us so--that if you fight on, looking to God for help, +you will come off conqueror and more than conqueror in the end." + +"Yes, papa; oh, I am so glad the Bible says that!" + +There was a moment's silence; then Grace said, with a sigh and a voice +full of tears, "Oh, I do so wish I could see Maxie before we go so far +away from him! Papa, wouldn't they let him come home for just a little +while?" + +"No, daughter; but how would you like to go with Lulu and me to pay him +a little visit?" + +"O papa! so much if--if you think I won't be too tired to go on to +Viamede so soon afterward." + +"I really think you could stand the two journeys, coming so near +together, now that you are so much stronger than you used to be; and as +you can lie and rest in the cars, and we go by water from New Orleans. +Don't you feel as if you could?" + +"Oh, yes, papa, I feel almost sure I could!" she cried joyously. + +"Then we will try it," he said, fondling her; "you will have no packing +to do--I am sure Mamma Vi and Lulu will be pleased to attend to all that +for you--and the journey to Annapolis is not a very long or fatiguing +one. So, should nothing happen to prevent, you shall make one of our +little party to visit Max." + +Grace's eyes shone with pleasure and Lulu exclaimed delightedly, "Oh, I +am so glad, Gracie! It will double my pleasure to have you along; and +you needn't worry one bit about your packing of clothes or playthings, +for I'm sure I can see to it all with Christine or Alma to help me; or +even if I should have to do it all myself." + +"Oh, thank you, Lu!" exclaimed Grace, "you are just the very best sister +that ever I saw! Isn't she, papa?" + +"I think her a very good and kind sister, and it makes me a proud and +happy father to be able to give her that commendation," he answered, +with a loving look down into the eyes of his eldest daughter. + +Just then Violet re-entered the room and a merry, happy hour followed, +while plans and prospects were under discussion. + +"Won't you excuse Gracie and me from lessons the rest of the time before +we start for Viamede, papa?" asked Lulu coaxingly. + +"No, daughter," replied the captain, in a pleasant tone; "there is very +little either of you will be called upon to do in regard to the +preparations for our southward flitting, so no occasion for you to miss +lessons for so many days. Of course you cannot study on the boats and +cars, at least I shall not ask it of you, and when we get to Viamede +you will be glad of a little holiday to rest and run about, seeing +everything that is to be seen; and all that will cause quite sufficient +loss of time from your lessons." + +"Oh, dear," sighed Lulu, "I think it must be ever so nice to be grown up +and not have any lessons to learn." + +"Ah, Lu," laughed Violet, "I am not so sure that grown up folks have no +lessons to learn; in fact I begin to have an idea that their lessons are +not seldom more trying and wearisome than those of the children." + +"Yes, Mamma Vi," responded Lulu, with a blush, "and I'm sorry and +ashamed of my grumbling. Papa, I'm just determined I will be good and do +cheerfully whatever you bid me; I have always, always found your way the +very best in the end." + +"Why, yes, Lu; of course papa always knows far better than we do what is +best for us," said Grace, leaning lovingly up against him and smiling up +into his face. + +"Papa is very happy in having such loving, trustful little daughters," +he said, passing his hand caressingly over Gracie's golden curls. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + + +It was a most joyful surprise to Max when, on the following Saturday, +his father and sisters walked in upon him, as he left the dinner table +full of life and pleasure at the thought of the half holiday that had +just begun. + +His standing and conduct had been such that he was entitled to leave, +and to be able to spend it with these dear ones was most delightful. + +A carriage had brought the captain and his little girls to the door, and +they--father and children--took a long drive together, during which the +tongues of Max and Lulu ran very fast. + +She and Gracie thoroughly enjoyed Max's surprise on learning of the +plans for the winter, so soon to be carried out. + +At first he seemed to feel rather badly at the thought that they would +all be so far away from him; but he presently got over that, as his +father spoke of the letters he would receive from Viamede every day, and +how quickly the winter would pass and all be coming home again, some of +them--certainly himself--making haste to pay a visit to the Academy to +see their young cadet and learn what progress he was making in +preparing for future duty in the naval service of his country. + +At that Max's face brightened and he said heartily, "And I shall try my +best to have as good a report as possible ready for you, papa, that you +may be proud and happy in your first-born son. Ah, the thought of that +does help me to study hard and try very, very earnestly to keep rules, +so that I may be an honor, and not a disgrace to the best of fathers." + +"Yes, I am sure of it, my dear boy," the captain replied, laying his +hand on the lad's shoulder, while the light of fatherly love and pride +shone in his eyes; "I haven't a doubt that it is one of my son's +greatest pleasures to make himself the joy and pride of his father's +heart." + +They drove back to the Academy just in time for Max to be ready to +report himself at evening roll-call, according to the rules, with which +no one was better acquainted than the captain. + +He and the little girls were to start on their return journey that +evening, and good-by was said at the Academy door. + +A very hard one it seemed to the little girls, hardly less so to Max and +his father. The captain and his daughters went by boat, as less +fatiguing for Grace, and reached home on Monday. + +The next day was a busy one to all, and Wednesday noon saw them on the +cars, bound for New Orleans. + +A day and night were spent in the city, then they took the steamer for +Berwick Bay. + +The morning was clear and bright and the captain, Violet, and the +children all sat upon deck, greatly enjoying the breeze and the dancing +of the waves in the sunlight, as the vessel cleared its port and steamed +out into the gulf. + +"Oh, it is so pleasant here!" exclaimed Grace; "just like summer. And +see the beautiful rainbow in the water that the wheel throws up!" + +"Oh, yes; so pretty, oh, so pretty!" cried little Elsie, clapping her +hands in delight. + +"Oh, so pitty!" echoed baby Ned. + +"Take care, little ones; I fear you may fall overboard," warned the +captain. "Come and sit on papa's knee, and perhaps mamma will kindly +tell us of all the lovely things we will see at Viamede." + +They obeyed and were charmed with mamma's story of what she had done and +seen at Viamede when she was a little girl, and of dear grandma being +once a baby girl in the very same house, and how dearly all the old +servants loved her, and how they mourned when she was taken away to live +with her grandpa at Roseland. + +The babies and even the older folks, not excepting papa himself, seemed +deeply interested, and more delighted than before that they were so soon +to see Viamede. + +At length Ned fell asleep, Elsie presently followed his example, and +older people were left to the quiet enjoyment of the lovely scenes +through which they were passing; for they had now entered Teche Bayou, +and from that pressed on, threading the way through lake and lakelet, +past plantation and swamp, plain and forest, coming upon cool, shady +dells carpeted with a rich growth of velvety grass, and flowers of +varied hue, and shaded by magnificent trees, oaks and magnolias; while +amid groves of orange trees they could see lordly villas, tall white +sugar-houses and rows of cabins where the negro laborers dwelt. + +"A beautiful, beautiful country," remarked the captain, breaking a +prolonged silence. + +"Quite up to your expectations, my dear?" queried Violet, glancing up at +him, her eyes shining with pleasure. + +"I believe it rather exceeds them," he replied, "it is very, very +lovely! an earthly paradise, so far as beauty can make it such." + +"Papa, do you suppose you will know which is Viamede when you see it?" +queried Lulu. + +"I very much doubt it, daughter," he answered. + +"Yes, sir; there it is, just coming into sight; the sugar-house, at +least, and yonder, a little beyond, is the great orange orchard." + +"And it's just beautiful!" cried Grace. "See, papa, the orange trees, +with their beautiful, glossy leaves and ripe and green fruit, and +flowers all on them at once." + +"And presently we will come to the beautiful lawn, with its giant oaks, +magnolia trees, velvety grass and lovely flowers," exclaimed Lulu. "Oh, +I am so much obliged to dear Grandma Elsie, for inviting us all to spend +the winter here again!" + +"Yes, it was very kind," her father said, "and I hope my children will +do nothing to mar the peace of the household, and so distress Mamma Vi's +dear mother." + +"I do intend to be a very good girl, papa, and if I begin to be the +least bit bad, I do hope you'll stop it at once by punishing me well and +making me behave myself," Lulu said, in a low, earnest tone, speaking +close to his ear. + +"Dear child," he returned, in the same low key in which she had spoken, +"I have not the least doubt that you intend to be and do all I could ask +or wish." + +There was no time for anything more just then, for, as they were nearing +their destination, baggage must be seen to and satchels and parcels +gathered up. + +Presently the boat rounded to at the wharf and in another minute +greetings and embraces were being exchanged with the cousins, who, +having been duly informed of the intended arrival, were gathered there +to give a cordial and delighted welcome to Violet, her husband, and +children. + +There were servants also, some few of the old and some new ones, each +and all eager for a handshake and a few words of greeting from "Miss +Wi'let and the cap'en and dere chillens," in which they were not +disappointed. + +In a few moments the baggage had been landed and was being taken to the +house, while ladies, gentlemen, and children followed, the newly arrived +gazing, delighted, about upon the beauties of the place, the others +asking many questions concerning Grandma Elsie and those of her family +left behind--how they were in health, and when they would come to +Viamede. + +"You will find the house in very tolerable order, I think, Vi," remarked +Mrs. Keith, "though doubtless many little repairs and improvements +needed, that Cousin Elsie may find everything in order when she comes. +It was a good idea to get you and the captain to come a little in +advance of the older folk and have everything in order for their +reception." + +"I think so," Violet said with a smile, "and that no better person than +my honored husband could have been found to undertake that task." + +"No more trustworthy one, I am sure, judging from his looks," returned +Isa. "I am delighted with his appearance, Vi; he is as noble-looking a +man as ever I saw." + +Violet flushed with pleasure. "And he is all that he appears to be, +Isa," she said; "the better he is known the more highly is he esteemed." + +A bountiful supper had been prepared for the travelers, and the others +stayed and partook with them, but soon after leaving the table bade +good-night and went to their own homes. + +Then Violet took her sleepy little ones upstairs to see them to bed, +leaving the captain, Lulu, and Grace on the veranda. + +As usual, the two were hanging lovingly about their father, he seeming +to enjoy it as much as they. + +It was a beautiful moonlight night, warm, and sweet with the breath of +flowers; away in the distance, beyond the wide-spreading lawn, they +could see the waters of the bayou glittering in the moonbeams, and the +soft plash of oars came pleasantly to their ears. + +"Oh, isn't it just lovely, here!" exclaimed Lulu, breaking a momentary +silence. "Papa, did I exaggerate in telling you of the beauties of the +place?" + +"No, I think not," he replied; "it is certainly very lovely, and I hope +we are going to have a happy winter here." + +"I'm sure we will; I'm happy anywhere with you, my dear, dear papa," +said Grace, putting an arm round his neck and pressing her lips to his +cheek. + +"So am I," said Lulu, "unless I have been doing wrong, and papa is +displeased with me. Oh, I do mean to try my very hardest to be good! and +I'm sure it will be ever so much easier with you for my tutor, dear +papa, than it was before, going to that horrid school and having to take +music lessons from that Signor Foresti, who was so ill-tempered and +struck me, when I was trying as hard as I could to play my piece just +right." + +"Yes, daughter, I think it will be easier for you with the tutor who +loves you and is loved by you," assented the captain, drawing her into a +close, loving embrace. "We must see if a music teacher is to be had +here, but certainly will not try Signor Foresti again." + +"Oh, I am glad to hear you say that, papa! though I never thought you +would send me back to him again. I am, oh, so glad I belong to you +instead of to--anybody else." + +"So am I," he responded, with a happy little laugh. + +"And that I do too, papa?" asked Grace, in a half-pleading tone. + +"Yes, yes, my own darling," he said, addressing her with great +tenderness. "You are no less dear than your sister." + +"How good in you, papa! for I'm not half so bright or pretty as Lu," she +said, patting his cheek with her small white hand. + +"Why, Gracie!" exclaimed Lulu, "whatever put such a thing as that into +your head? You are far prettier, and better too, than I am. Isn't she, +papa?" + +"You must not ask me such hard questions," he returned laughingly, and +hugging them both up in his arms, "I really could not say that either +one is prettier or dearer to me than the other, or that I love either +more or less than I do each of the other three. The love differs +somewhat in kind, but, I think, not in intensity." + +"Yes, papa, I suppose so," returned Lulu thoughtfully; "for instance you +must have quite a different sort of love for Max, who is almost old +enough to take care of himself, and baby Ned who is so very young and +helpless." + +Violet joined them at that moment, reported the babies as fast asleep in +the nursery, and consulted her husband as to what rooms they should +occupy during their stay; saying her mother had kindly bade them please +themselves in regard to that matter. + +"Choose for yourself, my dear," replied the captain, "and I shall be +entirely satisfied; only I should like to have these children close at +hand--a door of communication between their room, or rooms, and ours, if +that can be easily managed. We must be near the babies of course." + +"Yes, indeed! Near every one of our four," returned Violet brightly; "I +could not be easy otherwise, any more than their father. + +"But suppose I take you over the house, if you are not too tired. +To-morrow, you remember, is Sunday, and I could hardly wait till Monday, +to say nothing of the curiosity that must of course be consuming you." + +"Of course," returned the captain laughingly, as he rose and gave her +his arm; "it will give me great pleasure to accompany you, if you are +not too weary for such exertion." + +"Not a bit," she said; "the trip on the boat was more restful than +fatiguing; at least so far as concerned myself. May not Lulu and Gracie +come too?" + +"If they wish; though I fear Gracie is too tired," he said, with an +inquiring glance at her. "If you would like to go, pet, papa will carry +you up the stairs." + +"Oh, then, I would like to, papa; I'm not so very tired," she answered +eagerly. + +"Then of course Lulu is not?" he said with a smiling glance at his +eldest daughter. + +"No, indeed, papa; and I'd dearly love to go along," she answered, +taking Gracie's hand and with her tripping along in the rear, as he and +Violet passed on into the wide hall. + +They first inspected the rooms on the lower floor, lingering longest in +the drawing-room, where the many beautiful paintings and pieces of +statuary were very attractive. + +"We cannot give them half enough time to-night," remarked Violet, "but +fortunately have good reason to hope for many opportunities for future +inspection." + +"Yes," the captain said, glancing at Grace, then at his watch. "Shall we +not call in the servants and have prayers before going upstairs? It is +not far from the usual time, and I see Gracie is growing weary." + +Violet gave a ready assent and led the way to the family parlor where +her grandfather had been wont to hold that service. + +The servants were summoned and came in looking well pleased. The captain +made the service short out of consideration for Gracie's weariness, +though, indeed, he never thought it well to lengthen it so much as to +risk making it a weariness to either children or servants. + +A few directions in regard to securing doors and windows for the night +and as to what should be done for the comfort of the family in the +morning, then he, Violet, and the little girls, having exchanged kindly +good-nights with the servants, went on up the broad stairway, the +captain, according to promise, carrying Grace in his arms. + +Only a hasty survey of the upper rooms was taken that night, for all +began to feel the need of rest and sleep. Apartments connected with each +other and the nursery were selected for occupation, and soon all were +resting peacefully in their beds. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + + +The Sabbath morning dawned bright and clear. Lulu rose with the sun and, +before he was an hour high, was down on the veranda, gazing with delight +upon the lovely landscape spread out at her feet. + +So absorbed in its beauties was she that she failed to hear an +approaching footstep, and was aware of her father's presence only when +he laid a hand gently on her head and, bending down, imprinted a kiss on +her lips. + +"An early bird as usual, my darling!" he said. + +"Yes, sir, like my father, my dear, dear father," she returned, twining +her arms around his neck and holding him fast for a moment. + +"Did you sleep well?" he asked, releasing himself and taking her hand in +his. + +"Oh, yes, indeed, papa! Did not you?" + +"I did; I think we all did," he answered. "God has been very good to us. +And what a lovely, lovely Sunday morning it is!" + +"We can all go to church, can't we, papa?" she asked. + +"I think so," he said. "And now you would like to walk down across the +lawn, to the water's edge, with me?" + +"Oh, yes, indeed, papa," she cried delightedly. "It was just what I was +wanting to do." + +"It might be well for you to have a bit of something to eat first," he +said. "Ah, here is just the thing!" as a servant approached with a +waiter on which were some oranges prepared for eating in the way Grandma +Elsie had enjoyed them in her young days. + +"Thank you, Aunt Sally," the captain said, helping Lulu and himself; +"you could have brought us nothing more tempting and delicious. Will you +please carry some up to my wife?" + +"Ise done it already, sah," replied the woman, smiling all over her +face, and dropping a courtesy; "yes, sah; an' she say dey's mighty nice, +jes like she hab when she's heah in dis place yeahs ago." + +"Papa," remarked Lulu, as they presently crossed the lawn together, "I'm +so glad to be here again, and with you. It was a delightful place the +other time, I thought, but, oh, it seems twice as pleasant now, because +my dear father is with us!" and she lifted her eyes to his face with a +look of ardent affection. + +"Dear child, it is a great pleasure to me to be with you and the rest," +he returned, pressing affectionately the little hand he held in his, +"and if you do not have a happier time than you had here before, it +shall not be because your father does not try to make it so. + +"But, my dear little daughter, remember you have the same spiritual foes +to fight here as in other places. If you would be happy you must try to +live very near to Jesus and to watch and pray lest you enter into +temptation. Particularly must you be ever on your guard against that +quick temper which has so often got you into trouble." + +"Papa, I do intend to," she said, with a sigh; "and I am very glad I +shall have you close at hand all the time to help me in the fight; for +you do help me, oh, so often--so much, dear papa!" and again she lifted +loving eyes to his face. + +"I am very thankful that I can, my darling," he returned. "I feel that +God has been very good to me in so changing my circumstances that I can +be with you almost constantly to aid you in the hard task of learning to +control the fiery temper inherited from me. Yet, as I have often told +you, dear child, the hardest part of the fight must inevitably be your +own, and only by the help of him who has all power in heaven and in +earth can you conquer at last. + +"I want you to feel that in your inmost soul, and to beware of +self-confidence, which was, I think, the cause of your sad failure of a +few weeks ago." + +"Yes, papa," she said humbly, "I believe I had begun to feel that I was +quite reformed, so did not watch and pray as constantly as I used to, +and then almost before I knew it I was in a passion with poor Alma." + +"'When I am weak, then am I strong!' the apostle says," returned her +father; "that is when we feel our weakness and trust in the strength of +our Almighty Saviour; of him who has said, 'In me is thine help.' It is +help, daughter, which is never refused to those who look humbly to Jesus +for it." + +"I am so glad the Bible tells us that," she said. + +They walked on in silence for a little, then Lulu said, "Papa, I asked +Cousin Molly last night if Professor Manton still had his school at +Oakdale. She said, 'Yes, is your papa going to send you there?' and I +was so glad I could answer, 'No, ma'am; he is going to teach me +himself.' Then Cousin Molly said, 'Oh, is he? I am sure that will be far +pleasanter for you, dear. The professor is not very popular, and I hear +that his school grows smaller.'" + +"Ah, then, don't you think it would be only kind in me to put my eldest +daughter there as a pupil?" asked the captain jestingly. + +"Not to me, papa, I am sure," she answered, lifting to his smiling eyes +that said as plainly as any words could have spoken that she had no fear +that he would do any such thing. + +"No; and I do not know what could induce me to do so," he returned. "So +you need never ask it, but must try to content yourself with the tutor +who has had charge of your education ever since Woodburn became our +home." + +"I don't need to try, papa," she said with a happy laugh; "for it's just +as easy as anything. Gracie and I both think there was never such a +dear, kind teacher as ours. Neither of us wants ever to have any other." + +"Ah! then we are mutually pleased. And now I think we should turn and go +back to the house, for it must be near the breakfast hour." They found +Violet, Grace, and the little ones on the veranda, awaiting their +coming, and breakfast ready to be served. + +Morning greetings were exchanged and all repaired to the breakfast room. + +The meal proved a dainty one, was daintily served and enlivened by +cheerful chat on such themes as were not unsuited to the sacredness of +the day. + +Family worship followed, and soon after the family carriage was at the +door ready to convey them to the church of which their Cousin Cyril was +pastor. + +The captain, Violet, and the two little girls, Lulu and Grace, formed +the deputation from that family, the two babies remaining at home in +the care of their nurse, whom they had brought with them from Woodburn. + +Cyril gave them an excellent sermon, and at the close of the exercises +conducted a Bible class attended by nearly every one belonging to the +congregation. + +The Viamede family remained to its close, held a little pleasant talk +with the relatives from the parsonage and Magnolia Hall, then drove back +to Viamede, reaching there just in time for dinner. + +In the afternoon the captain gathered his family and the servants under +the trees in the lawn, read and expounded a portion of scripture, and +led them in prayer and the singing of several familiar hymns. + +The evening was spent much as it would have been at Woodburn, and all +retired early to rest. + +Monday morning found them all in good health and spirits, entirely +recovered from the fatigues of the journey and ready for work or play. + +"We don't have to learn and recite lessons to-day, papa, do we?" asked +Lulu, at the breakfast table. "I think you said we could have a day or +two for play first, didn't you?" + +"Yes; but I shall give you your choice of having that playtime now or +taking it about a week hence, when you will have Rosie and Walter with +you." + +"May I choose too, papa?" asked Grace. + +"Yes." + +"Then I choose to wait for my holiday till the others are here to share +it with us; for don't you suppose Grandma Elsie will let them, papa?" + +"No doubt of it," he replied. "And what is your choice, Lulu?" + +"The same as Gracie's, papa," she answered in bright cheerful tones. +"Lessons are not bad to take, with you for my teacher," she added +laughingly, "and will leave us a good deal of time for running about and +looking at everything." + +"Besides an occasional drive or walk with mamma and papa," he +supplemented, with an approving smile, adding, "the lessons shall not be +long or hard to-day, so that you will still have some time for roaming +about the grounds; and perhaps, if my pupils are very deserving, there +may be a row on the bayou after dinner." + +"Oh, how delightful, papa!" they cried, in a breath. + +"I am glad you think so," he said, smiling on them; "there is nothing I +enjoy more than giving pleasure to my wife and children," with an +affectionate glance at Violet. "I hope such a little excursion will +afford you pleasure, my dear?" + +"Yes," she returned gayly, "I think even the children will hardly enjoy +it more than I; and," she added laughingly, "I shall endeavor to earn my +right to it by faithfully attending to housekeeping matters in the +meantime." + +"I don't believe there is any schoolroom here!" exclaimed Grace, as if +struck with a sudden thought. + +"We will have to select one and get it ready before the others come," +said Violet. + +"And for the present my dressing-room will answer very well," added the +captain. + +So thither the children repaired at the usual hour for beginning their +studies. + +It was at first a little difficult to fix their attention upon them, but +with an earnest desire to do right, and to please their dear father, +they made very determined efforts, and had their lessons well prepared +by the time he came to hear them. + +It seemed to afford him pleasure to give the deserved meed of praise, +and the young faces grew bright and gladsome under it. An hour was then +given to writing and ciphering, and they were dismissed for the day. + +"May we go out into the grounds now, papa?" asked Lulu, as she put up +her books. + +"Yes," he replied, "but keep near the house for the present, for it is +near dinner-time now." + +"We will, papa," both little girls answered and hurried away. + +They sported about the lawn till summoned to the house by the +dinner-bell, whose call they obeyed with alacrity, air and exercise +having given them good appetites. + +"My dear," the captain said to his wife, near the conclusion of the +meal, "you have had a busy morning, can you not afford to devote the +afternoon to recreation?" + +"Certainly, if you will share it," she replied. "Are we not to have that +row on the bayou?" + +"It is what I had planned, should my wife still feel inclined to go," he +said. + +"Ah! that will be very enjoyable I think; and perhaps there may be time +afterward for me to drive over to the parsonage. I want a bit of chat +with Isa about some household matters." + +"Yes, I think you may have time for both," he returned. "An hour on the +bayou will be sufficient for this first time; the carriage can be +ordered to be in waiting when we return, and you, if the plan suits your +views, can drive over to the parsonage at once, have your talk, and be +at home again in season to pour out your husband's tea." + +"That will do nicely, thank you, sir," she returned gayly. "I see I am +not likely to lack for diversion with you at the head of affairs, so I +think I shall try to keep you there as long as possible." + +"I hope you will, Mamma Vi," said Lulu, "And any way I'm glad that when +papa is about, he is the one that has control of me." + +"So I have at least one willing subject," remarked the captain, looking +not ill-pleased. + +"Two, papa," said Grace, "you can always count on me for one." + +"I don't doubt it in the least, dear child," he said. "And now, as I see +you have all finished your dinner, and the boat is at the wharf, let us +be going." + +In a few minutes all were seated in the boat, and it was moving rapidly +over the water, the children very merry, the parents by no means +disposed to check the manifestations of their mirth. + +They found the carriage in waiting when they landed. + +"You are going with us, Levis?" Violet said inquiringly, as the captain +handed her in. + +"I should be pleased to do so, my dear, but have too many business +letters calling for immediate reply," he said, lifting little Ned, and +then Elsie, to a place by her side. "Lulu and Gracie, you would like to +go with your mamma?" + +"Yes, sir, if I may," Grace answered with alacrity, but Lulu declined, +saying: "I would much rather stay with you, papa, if I may." + +"Certainly, dear child; I shall be glad to have you," he said with a +pleased look; "but I fear you will find it dull, as I shall be too busy +to talk to you, or let you talk to me." + +"But I can be with you, and perhaps of some use waiting on you, papa." + +"Perhaps so," he said. "You generally contrive to make yourself useful +to your father in one way or another." + +Then the carriage drove on, Lulu slipped her hand into his, and together +they walked back to the house. + +"I do hope I can find something to do that will be a help to you, papa," +she said, as they entered the library. + +"I verily believe my dear eldest daughter would like to carry all her +father's burdens if she could," he said, laying his hand caressingly on +her head, "but it wouldn't be good for me, my darling, to have my life +made too easy." + +"I am sure it wouldn't hurt you, papa, and I only wish I could carry all +your burdens," she replied, with an ardently affectionate look up into +his face. "Isn't there something I can do now?" + +"Yes," he replied, glancing at the table; "here are papers, magazines, +and letters, quite a pile. You may cut leaves and open envelopes for me, +that will save me some time and exertion--be quite a help." + +"Yes, sir; I'll be glad to do it all. But, oh, papa," and a bright, +eager look came into her face. + +"Well, daughter, what is it?" as she paused half breathless with her new +idea. + +"Papa, couldn't I write some of the letters for you? Here is my +typewriter that you so kindly let me bring along. I've learned to write +pretty fast on it, you know, and wouldn't it be easier for you just to +tell me the words you want said and let me put them down, than to do it +all yourself with either it or your pen?" + +"That is a bright thought, daughter," he said, patting her cheek, and +smiling down upon her. "I dare say that plan would shorten my work +considerably." + +"Oh, I shall be so glad if it does, papa!" she exclaimed. "There is +nothing in the world I'd enjoy more than finding myself a real help and +comfort to you." + +"I have found you both many a time, daughter," he responded, taking up +and opening a letter as he spoke, while she picked up a paper cutter and +fell zealously to work opening envelopes, laying each one close to his +hand as she had it ready. + +"Now, you may get your typewriter ready for work," he said presently. +"Put in a sheet of this paper," taking some from a drawer in the table +and laying it beside the machine, "date it, and in a moment I will tell +you what to say." + +He had already instructed her carefully in punctuation and paragraphing: +spelling also; and, with an occasional direction in regard to such +matters, she did her work well. + +She was full of joy when at the close of the business he bestowed upon +her a judicious amount of praise and said that she had proved a great +help to him, shortening his labor very considerably. + +"I think," he concluded, "that before long my dear eldest daughter will +prove a valuable amanuensis for me." + +"Papa, I am so glad!" she cried, her cheeks flushing and her eyes +sparkling. "Oh, there is nothing else in the world that I enjoy so much +as being a help and comfort to my dear, dear father!" + +"My precious little daughter," he responded, "words cannot express the +love your father feels for you. Now there is one letter that I wish to +write with my own hand, and while I am doing that you may amuse yourself +in any way you like." + +"May I read this, papa?" she asked, taking up a magazine. + +"Yes," he said, and she went quietly from the room with it in her hand. + +She seated herself on the back veranda, read a short story, then stole +softly back to the library door to see if her father had finished his +letter so that she might talk to him. + +But some one else was there; a stranger she thought, though she did not +get a view of his face. + +She paused on the threshold, uncertain whether her father would wish her +to be present at the interview, and at that instant he spoke, apparently +in reply to something his caller had said, and his words riveted her to +the spot. + +"No," he said, in stern tones, "had I been here my daughter would never +have been sent back to your school. She was most unjustly and shamefully +treated by that fiery little Italian, and you, sir, upheld him in it. +When I am at hand no daughter of mine shall be struck by another man, or +woman either, with impunity, and Foresti may deem himself fortunate in +that I was at a distance when he ventured to commit so great an outrage +upon my child." + +Lulu waited to hear no more, but ran back to the veranda, where she +danced about in a tumult of delight, clapping her hands and saying +exultingly to herself, "I just knew papa wouldn't have made me go back +to that horrid school and take lessons of that brute of a man. Oh, I do +wish he had been here! How much it would have saved me! If my father is +strict and stern sometimes, he's ever so much better and kinder than +Grandpa Dinsmore. Yes, yes, indeed, he's such a dear father! I wouldn't +exchange him for any other, if I could." + +Presently she suddenly ceased her jumping and dancing, and stood in an +intently listening attitude. + +"Yes, he's going--that horrid professor! I'm so glad! I don't believe +he'll ever trouble this house again, while papa is in it any way," she +said half aloud. + +Then running to meet her father as he returned from seeing the professor +to the door, she threw her arms round him, exclaiming in a voice +quivering with delight. "Oh, you dear, dear papa, I'm so glad, so glad +to know that you wouldn't have made me go back to that horrid music +teacher! I felt sure at the time that you wouldn't, if you were here." + +He heard her with a look of astonishment not unmixed with sternness. + +"O papa, please don't be angry with me!" she pleaded, tears starting to +her eyes; "I didn't mean to listen, but I happened to be at the library +door (I was going back to see if you were done writing that letter and I +might be with you again) when you told Professor Manton that you +wouldn't have sent me back to Signor Foresti, nor even to his school. It +made me so glad, papa, but I didn't stop to hear any more, but ran away +to the veranda again; because I knew it wouldn't be right for me to +listen to what wasn't intended for me to hear." + +He took her hand, led her into the library again, drew her to a seat +upon his knee, and softly smoothing back the hair from her forehead, +said in kind, fatherly tones, "I am not displeased with you, daughter. +I understand that it was quite accidental, and I am sure my little girl +is entirely above the meanness of intentionally listening to what is +evidently not meant for her ear. And in fact, now that I think of it, +I am not sorry that you know I did not, and do not now, approve of the +treatment you received at that time. Yet that was the first time I had +ever mentioned it to any one, and I should be sorry to have your Grandpa +Dinsmore know, or suspect, how entirely I disapproved of what he thought +best to do at the time. Can, and will, my little daughter promise to +keep the secret? never mentioning it to any one but me?" + +"Yes, indeed, papa," she returned, looking up brightly into his face. +"Oh, it's nice to be trusted by you, and not even threatened with +punishment if I disobey!" + +"I am happy to think that is by no means necessary," he said, drawing +her into a closer embrace. "I believe my little girl loves her father +well enough to do of her own free will what she knows he would have her +do." + +"Yes, indeed, papa," she answered earnestly; "and do you know, it seems +a great pleasure to have a secret along with you. But, papa, why did you +write--after I had confessed it all to you--as if you were so much +displeased with me that you couldn't let me stay any longer at Ion +after you had found another place to put me?" + +"My child, as I had put you under Grandpa Dinsmore's care, it was your +duty to submit to his orders till I could be heard from in regard to the +matter. You should therefore have gone back, not only to the school, but +to the music teacher, when he directed you to do so; you were disobeying +me in refusing, and also showing great ingratitude to the kind friends +who were doing so much for you without your having the slightest claim +upon them." + +"Papa, I am very sorry and ashamed," she murmured low and tremulously, +hanging her head and blushing deeply as she spoke; "I almost want you to +punish me well for it yet." + +"No, daughter, that account was settled long ago," he said in kindly, +reassuring accents, "fully settled, and I have no desire to open it +again." + +"But, oh, papa," she sighed, "sometimes I do feel so afraid I may get +into a passion with somebody about something while we're here this +winter, with all the Ion folks, that--that I believe I want you to say +you will punish me very severely if I do." + +"My daughter," he said, "I want you to avoid sin and strive to do right, +not from fear of punishment, but that you may please and honor him whose +disciple you hope you are." + +"Oh, yes, papa, I do want to for that reason and also to please and +honor you--the best and dearest father in the world!" she concluded, +putting her arms round his neck and laying her cheek lovingly to his. +"But you will watch me and warn me and try to keep me from yielding to +my dreadful temper?" + +"Yes, dear child, I will, as I have promised you again and again, do all +I can to help you in that way," he replied in tenderest tones. + +Then, as the carriage-wheels were heard on the drive without, "Ah, your +mamma and our little ones have returned," he said, putting her off his +knee; and taking her hand led her out to the veranda to meet and welcome +them home. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + + +"Had you a call from Professor Manton, Levis?" asked Violet, as they sat +together on the veranda that evening. "I thought so because he passed us +as we were coming home and was looking very glum." + +"Yes, he was here this afternoon," replied the captain. + +"In search of pupils, I suppose?" + +"Yes; and was rather disappointed to learn that I had none for him. He +asked about Rosie and Walter, but I was unable to tell him positively +whether they would, or would not, be sent to him; though I gave him but +little encouragement, perhaps I should say none at all, to expect them." + +"No; I am nearly certain they will not be willing to go to him, and that +mamma will not care to send them; indeed she more than hinted that she +would be delighted to commit them to your care should you show yourself +willing to undertake the task of instructing them. Are you willing?" + +"I am hardly prepared to answer that question, my dear," he replied +thoughtfully. "They might not be willing to submit to the authority of +a brother-in-law." + +"I am almost sure you would have no trouble in governing them," returned +Violet. + +"I don't believe you would have any at all, papa," remarked Lulu, who +was leaning on the arm of his chair and listening with much interest to +the conversation; "neither of them is half so--so wilful and +quick-tempered as I am." + +The captain smiled at that, put an arm about her, and drew her closer to +him. "But they don't belong to me as you do," he said, touching his lips +to her cheek. "You are my very own, own little daughter, you know." + +"Yes, indeed, and so glad to be," she returned, putting her arm round +his neck and gazing into his eyes, her own shining with filial love. + +The younger ones were already in bed, even Gracie having felt too much +fatigued with the duties and pleasures of the day to wait for evening +prayers. + +"Yes, I think you may esteem yourself a fortunate child in that respect, +Lu," said Violet. "I really believe it is the next best thing to being +his wife," she added, with a pleasant little laugh. + +"I think it's the very best thing, Mamma Vi," returned Lulu. + +"Well, to go back to the original topic of discourse, Levis--or at +least to the question whether you are willing to undertake the tuition +of my young sister and brother," Violet went on. "I feel certain they +would give you no trouble in governing them; also that your talent for +teaching is such that they could not fail to greatly improve under your +tuition." + +"But might not your grandpa feel that I was interfering with him?" +queried the captain. + +"Oh, no, indeed! Grandpa feels that he is growing old, and has done +enough of that kind of work. And you would be glad to please mamma?" + +"Most certainly; I could refuse her nothing--the poor, dear woman!" + +"Then we may consider it settled? Oh, thank you, my dear." + +"Well, yes; I suppose so. Are you willing to share your teacher with +Rosie and Walter, daughter mine?" he asked, softly stroking Lulu's hair. + +"My teacher, but not my father, you dear papa," returned Lulu, patting +his cheek, then holding up her face for a kiss, which he gave heartily +and repeated more than once. + +"What do you think, Mamma Vi, of your husband having an amanuensis?" he +continued, affectionately squeezing Lulu's hand, which he had taken in +his. "My correspondence was disposed of to-day with most unusual and +unexpected ease. I would read a letter, tell my amanuensis the reply I +wished to make, and she would write it off on the typewriter while I +examined the next epistle, asking few directions and making scarcely any +mistakes." + +"Lulu did it?" Violet exclaimed in surprise "Why, Lu, I am both +astonished and delighted!" + +"Thank you, Mamma Vi; and I am very glad that I can help my dear, kind +father, who does so much for me," Lulu answered, putting her arm round +his neck, and laying her cheek to his. "Oh, I couldn't possibly do half +enough for him! but I hope I may be of a great deal of use to him some +of these days." + +"You are that already, dear child," he said; "so useful and so dear that +your father would not know how to do without you." + +"How good in you to say that, dear papa; but I am sure it would be ten +times worse for me to be without you," she returned. "Oh, I'm glad I'm +not a boy, to have to go away from you." + +"I am glad too," he responded; "glad that my children are neither all +boys nor all girls. It is quite delightful, I think, to have some of +each." + +"Yes, sir; and I think it's delightful to have both brothers and sisters +when they are of as good a sort as mine are, though I've seen some I'd +be sorry to have." + +"As I have seen some children that I should be sorry, I think, to call +my own. Yet if they were mine I would probably love them dearly, and +perhaps not see their faults; or rather love them in spite of their +naughtiness." + +"Just as you do me, papa," she said, a little sadly. "Haven't you always +loved me, though I've sometimes been very, very naughty indeed?" + +"Yes, always," he said, holding her close, as something very dear and +precious. "And I believe my little girl has always loved me even when I +have been quite severe in the punishment of her faults." + +"Yes; oh, yes, indeed, papa! because I have always felt that I deserved +it; often a much more severe punishment than you inflicted; and that you +didn't do it because you liked to, but because you wanted to make me +good." + +"And happy," he added. "I think you are never happy when disobedient, +wilful, or ill-tempered." + +"No, indeed, papa! and I'm thankful to you that you have never indulged +me in those things." + +"And I think, with Lu, that you are one of the best of fathers, Levis," +remarked Violet. + +"It is certainly very pleasant to be so highly esteemed by one's wife +and daughter, whether deserving of it or not," he said, with a pleased +little laugh; "yet I am not at all sure that such flattery is quite +good for me." + +"I don't believe any amount of praise could ever hurt you, papa," Lulu +said, with a look into his eyes of ardent love and reverence; "you do +seem to me to be just perfect; never doing or saying anything wrong." + +"I think it must be my little girl's great love for her father that +makes her so blind to his faults and failings," he replied, in low, +tender tones. + +"A blindness certainly shared by your wife," remarked Violet lightly. +"We have been married five years and I have yet to hear the first unkind +word from my husband's lips." + +"He would be an exceedingly unreasonable man who could find fault with +such a wife as mine," was his smiling rejoinder. + +"But to change the subject, I suppose we may look for the rest of our +party about the last of next week?" + +"Yes, I think so." + +"I shall be ever so glad to see them--especially dear Grandma Elsie and +Rosie and Walter; but oh, I wish the Fairview folks were coming, +especially Eva," remarked Lulu, ending with a sigh of regret. + +"Ah, well, daughter, perhaps Evelyn may be here before the winter is +over," the captain said, exchanging a slightly amused glance with +Violet. + +"Oh, I hope so!" exclaimed Lulu; "but of course one can't expect to have +everything one wants in this world." + +"No, certainly not," her father said; "it would be by no means good for +us if we could." + +"Not for me, I know; but oh, I have a great, great many +blessings--health and strength and such a dear kind father to love me, +provide for me, teach me, and train me up in the way I should go," she +concluded, with a smiling look up into his eyes. + +"That is what I am trying to do, at all events," he returned, holding +her close, "though I sometimes fear I may not always have taken the +wisest way." + +"Is it because you have succeeded so poorly that you fear so, papa?" she +asked. "If so, don't be troubled about it, because I don't believe it's +from any mistake of yours, but only that I'm so very naughty and +unmanageable." + +"Really, now, Lu, I think your father has succeeded fairly well at the +business," laughed Violet. "I doubt if anybody else would have done +better." + +"Or half so well," said Lulu; "and I am fully resolved to try to do +credit to his training." + +"I think you had a letter from Max to-day, Levis?" remarked Violet +inquiringly, "Dear fellow, I hope he was quite well at the time of +writing?" + +"Yes; and apparently in excellent spirits. He seems to be doing well in +his studies; content with things as they are too, though evidently +feeling that he would greatly enjoy being here with the rest of us." + +"Yes, poor, dear fellow! I wish he could make one of our party; +especially at Christmas time." + +"So do I," said his father. "We must make it up to him with as full an +account as possible of the Christmas doings here." + +"I wonder what they will be," said Lulu. + +"We will have to consider and decide that question--to some extent, at +least--after mamma comes," replied Violet. + +"And now we must go in and have prayers; for it is near bedtime for my +eldest daughter," remarked the captain, rising and taking Lulu's hand in +his. + +The days flew by on swift wings, even to Lulu and Grace, so filled were +they with duties and pleasures, and at length the time had come when +Grandma Elsie and the others were expected by the evening boat. + +Their arrival was anticipated with great delight by every one on the +estate, and all possible preparations had been made for their comfort +and to show how gladly welcome they were. Everything indoors and out was +in beautiful order, a feast of fat things ready in the kitchen, the +families from the parsonage and Magnolia Hall were present by +invitation, and as the hour drew near when the boat might be expected, +all gathered at the wharf and eagerly watched for its appearance. + +At length their patience was rewarded; the little steamer appeared in +sight far down the bayou, came puffing along past the orange orchard, +and rounded to at the landing. + +In another moment the travelers were on shore: Mr. and Mrs. Dinsmore, +Grandma Elsie, Rosie, Walter, and--could Lulu believe her eyes--yes, +there was Evelyn! It could be no one else; and with a cry of joy the two +little girls ran into each other's arms. + +"Oh, Eva, Eva, I'm so glad! I hadn't the least idea that you were coming +too!" cried Lulu, fairly wild with delight. + +"Ah, papa, you must have known and kept it a secret from me to give me +such a glad surprise," she exclaimed, as she caught sight of his face +and noted the pleased smile with which he was regarding her. + +"Yes, daughter, I knew and planned, with Mamma Vi and the others, to +give you this pleasant surprise," he said, bending down to bestow a +paternal kiss upon the gentle, fatherless girl who had won so large a +place in the heart of his own dear child. + +"And we were all very glad to have Eva along," Rosie said. "And, O Lu, +I'm looking for very good times this coming winter here in our lovely +Viamede, and with your father here I know it will be pleasanter than +ever for you--pleasanter for all of us; for, Brother Levis, I hear that +I am to be your pupil instead of Professor Manton's; a change which I +haven't a doubt I shall enjoy extremely." + +"Ah, don't be too sure of that, little sister," he returned laughingly, +giving a welcoming embrace to her also. "I am a very strict +disciplinarian, as Lulu here can testify," laying a hand affectionately +on his daughter's shoulder. + +"Yes, Rosie, papa is strict, but if one does exactly as he orders, he's +kind as kind can be; and maybe he wouldn't be quite so stern and strict +with other folks' children as he is with me--his very own, you know." + +But a reply from Rosie was prevented by Violet catching her in her arms, +saying, "You dear child, how glad I am to have you here at last! We have +all been looking forward to your coming as well as to that of dear, +darling mamma, grandpa, and the others." + +At the same time Grandma Elsie was embracing Lulu most affectionately, +saying how well she looked, and hoping that she and Grace, as well as +the older people, had been enjoying Viamede. + +"Indeed we have, dear Grandma Elsie," replied Lulu. "Oh, it was so good +and kind in you to invite us all to spend the winter in this loveliest +of lovely places!" + +"Good to myself, dear child, quite as much as to you; for I love to have +you all about me." + +"And I hope you are better? A great deal better?" returned Lulu, with an +inquiring look into the sweet face. + +"Very much better, thank you, dear child. Almost my old self again," was +the sweet-toned reply. + +Some few moments more were spent in the exchange of glad, affectionate +greetings and inquiries after each other's health and welfare, then all +took their way to the house; even Grandma Elsie claiming that her +strength was quite equal to so short a walk, the journey on the boat +having been restful rather than fatiguing. Yet it was evident to all +that she was far from strong, and they joined Mr. Dinsmore in an urgent +entreaty that she would retire at an early hour to her own room and bed; +which she did, her daughters accompanying her to see that nothing was +lacking that could in any way add to her comfort. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + + +A bright, beautiful day succeeded that on which the Ion family had +arrived at Viamede. The younger members of their party woke early, and +the sun was hardly more than an hour high when Evelyn and Rosie passed +down the broad stairway into the lower hall, moving with cautious tread +lest they might disturb the still sleeping older members of the +household. + +But on reaching the veranda they were surprised to see the captain and +Lulu already taking a morning promenade along the bank of the bayou. + +"Ah, I see there is no getting ahead of Brother Levis," laughed Rosie. +"Let us run down there and join them, Eva." + +"With all my heart," returned Evelyn gayly, and away they went, racing +down the broad gravelled walk in merry girlish fashion. + +"Good-morning, little ladies, I see that you are early birds as well as +Lulu and myself," the captain said, with his genial smile, as they drew +near. + +"Yes, sir," returned Rosie, catching hold of Lulu and giving her a +hearty embrace; "on such a morning as this, and in such a lovely place, +bed has no attractions to compare with those of out of doors." + +"That's exactly what papa and I think," said Lulu; "and, oh girls, I'm +so glad you have come to share this lovely, lovely place with us. Eva, I +haven't yet got over the glad surprise of your coming. I was just saying +to papa how very kind it was in Grandma Elsie and the rest of them to +prepare such an unexpected pleasure for me. Wasn't it good in them?" + +"Yes, indeed, good to us both!" Evelyn said, squeezing affectionately +the hand Lulu had slipped into hers. + +"Captain," looking up smilingly into his face, "are you intending to be +so very, very kind as to take me for one of your pupils?" + +"Most assuredly, my dear, if you wish it," he replied. + +"Oh, thank you, sir! thank you very much indeed, and I promise to give +you as little trouble as I possibly can." + +"I shall consider it no trouble at all, my dear child," he returned, +giving her a fatherly smile. "Indeed, I think the favor will be on +your side, as doubtless Lulu will improve all the faster for your +companionship in her studies. Rosie, being older than either of you, +will, I fear, have to be quite alone in most of hers." + +"Yes, Brother Levis, and as I am to be such a lonely, forlorn creature +you ought to be extremely good to me," remarked Rosie demurely. "I hope +you will remember that and try to have unlimited patience with your +youngest sister." + +"Ah! my little sister would better not try the patience of her big +brother too far," returned the captain with a twinkle of fun in his eye. + +"I dare say; but he needn't think he can make me very much afraid of +him, big as he is," laughed Rosie. + +"Perhaps, though, it might turn out to the advantage of Professor +Manton, should my youngest sister prove quite beyond the management of +her biggest and oldest brother," remarked the captain, with assumed +gravity. + +"There!" exclaimed Rosie, "that's the worst threat you could possibly +have made. I think I'll try to be at least passably good and obedient in +the schoolroom. You needn't look for it in any other place, Captain +Raymond," making him a deep courtesy, then dancing gayly away. + +"Don't you envy her that it is only in the schoolroom she must be +obedient to me, whom you have to obey all the time?" asked the captain +laughingly of Lulu, noticing that she was watching Rosie with a hurt, +almost indignant look on her expressive features. + +"No, indeed, papa! I'm only too glad that I belong to you everywhere +and all the time," she answered, lifting to his face eyes full of filial +respect and ardent affection. + +"So am I," he returned, pressing tenderly the hand she had again slipped +into his. "But you must not be vexed with Rosie. Could you not see that +all she said just now was in sportive jest?" + +"I'm glad if she didn't mean it, papa; but I don't like such things said +to my dear, honored father even in jest." + +"But you must excuse Rosie, Lu, dear," said Evelyn. "It was indeed all +in jest, for I know that she feels the very highest respect for your +father--her biggest brother; as we all do." + +Lulu's brow cleared. "Well, then, I won't mind it, papa, if you don't," +she said. + +"And I certainly do not, daughter," he returned pleasantly. "Rosie and I +are the best of friends, and I think will continue to be such." + +It was a gay, light-hearted party that met at the Viamede +breakfast-table that morning. Even their loved invalid, Grandma Elsie, +was looking wonderfully bright and well; yet, as she laughingly averred, +everybody seemed determined to consider her as ill and unable to make +any exertion. + +"I shall have to let you continue to take the rôle of mistress of the +establishment, Vi," she said, with a pleasant smile, as, resigning to +her daughter her accustomed seat at the head of the table, she took +possession of one at the side. + +"Not that I am of so humble a spirit as to consider myself unfitted for +the duties and responsibilities of the position, but because older and +wiser people do." + +"I really think Vi makes as good a substitute as could well be found, +mother," remarked the captain, with a proudly affectionate glance at his +lovely young wife. + +"In which I entirely agree with you, sir," said Mr. Dinsmore. + +The meal was partaken of with appetite, and enlivened by cheery talk; a +good deal of it in regard to pleasures and amusements attainable in that +locality; riding, driving, boating, fishing; to say nothing of the +pleasant rambles that could be taken on and beyond the estate. + +There was no lack of carriages for driving, or horses to draw them, or +for those to ride who might prefer that mode of locomotion. + +The final decision was in favor of a drive, for Mrs. Dinsmore, Violet, +her little ones, and Grace, accompanied by the rest of the party on +horseback. + +Breakfast and family prayers over, the young girls hastened to their +rooms to prepare for the little excursion, all seemingly in the gayest +spirits at the pleasing prospect; none more so than merry, excitable +Lulu. + +She and Grace were ready a little sooner than either of the other girls, +and went down to the veranda to wait there for the rest. + +As they did so a servant passed them with the bag containing the morning +mail, which he had just brought from the nearest post-office. + +He carried it to the library, where Mr. Dinsmore and the captain were +seated, awaiting the appearance of the ladies, carriages, and horses. + +As if struck by a sudden thought, Lulu ran after him. She saw her father +take the bag, open it, hand several letters to Mr. Dinsmore, select +several others and give them to the servant (with directions to carry +them up to the ladies), then lay a pretty large pile on the table, take +up one, and open it. + +"There, those are papa's own," she said to herself, "and what a number +he has!--all to be answered, too. I don't believe he'll take time to +ride this morning; he's always so prompt about replying to a letter. Oh, +dear, I don't want to go without him, and I just wish they hadn't come +till to-morrow." + +She walked slowly out to the veranda again. + +Rosie and Evelyn had not yet made their appearance, and Grace was +romping about with little Elsie and Ned. + +Just then a servant man came round from the stables, leading the ponies +the little girls were to ride, and at sight of them Lulu seemed to take +a sudden resolution. + +"Oh, Solon," she said, hurrying toward the man, "you can put my pony +back into the stable; I'm not going to ride this morning; I've changed +my mind; and if anybody asks about me, you can tell them so," and with +that she ran away round the house and seated herself on the back +veranda, where she had been when Professor Manton made his call upon the +captain. + +Presently she heard the ladies and young girls come down the stairs, her +father and Mr. Dinsmore come out from the library and assist the older +ones into the carriage, the younger to mount their ponies; then her +father's voice asking, "Where is Lulu?" and the servant's reply, "Miss +Lu, she tole me, sah, to tell you she doan want fo' to ride dis heah +mornin', sah"; then her father's surprised, "She did, Solon? Why, that +is a sudden change on her part. I thought she was quite delighted at the +prospect of going. + +"Violet, my dear, I find I have so many letters calling for reply this +morning, that I, too, must remain at home." + +Some exclamations of surprise and regret from the others followed; then +the sound of hoofs and wheels told that the party had set out on their +little excursion, and the captain's step was heard in the hall as he +returned to the library. + +But a thought seemed to strike him as he reached its door, and he +paused, calling aloud, "Lulu! Lulu!" + +She ran to him at once, answering, "Here I am, papa." + +"Why, daughter, what is the meaning of this?" he asked. "Why did you not +go with the others?" + +"Because I preferred to stay at home with my dear father; and I hope he +isn't displeased with me for it!" she replied, looking up coaxingly, +smilingly, into his face. + +"Displeased with you, dear child? I am only too glad to have you by my +side; except that I feel sorry on your own account that you should miss +the pleasant, healthful trip along with the others," he said, bestowing +upon her a fond caress. + +"But how did you know that I was going to stay at home?" he asked, as he +led her in and sat down, drawing her to a seat upon his knee. + +"Because I'm enough of a Yankee to be good at guessing, I suppose, +papa," she answered, with a merry laugh, putting an arm round his neck +and gazing into his eyes with her own full of ardent filial love. "I saw +that big pile of letters," pointing to them as they lay on the table, +"and I thought, 'Now, if I stay at home with papa, maybe he will let me +help him as I did the other day.' So now as I have stayed, won't you be +so very good as to let me, you dear, dearest papa?" + +"I shall be very glad of both your company and your help, darling, +though I am sorry to have you miss your ride in order to give them to +me." + +"But you needn't be sorry, papa, because I'm ever so glad. I was almost +afraid you might be displeased with me for taking the liberty of staying +at home without consulting you; but I don't believe you are a bit," +stroking his face with her little soft white hand, then kissing him with +warmth of affection. + +"I am so much displeased, that as a punishment you will have to write +several letters on your machine at my dictation," he replied, with +playful look and tone. "We will set to work at once," he added, putting +her off his knee, taking the cover from her typewriter, and placing a +chair before it for her to sit upon, then laying a pile of paper and +envelopes within easy reach of her hand. + +"Ah, papa, I don't care how often you punish me in this way!" she +exclaimed, with a merry laugh, as she took her seat. + +"Tut! tut! don't talk as if my punishment were nothing," he replied, in +pretended displeasure. "You may get more of this kind some of these days +than you will like." + +"Not while it's a help to my dear father," she returned, smiling up at +him. + +"You find that a pleasure, do you?" he asked, with tender look and tone, +laying a hand caressingly on her head and gazing fondly down into her +eyes. + +"Yes, indeed, sir! O papa, I just long to be a real help and comfort and +blessing to you; and I do hope that some day I may be." + +"My own dear little daughter, you are already all three to me," he said +with emotion. "Truly, I think no man ever had a more lovable child, or a +more grateful and appreciative one." + +Those words sent a thrill of exquisite delight to Lulu's heart. "Dear +papa, you are so kind to tell me that!" she said. "Oh, I do want always +to be all that to you!" + +"And it is certainly my ardent desire to be the best of fathers to my +dear eldest daughter, and all my children," he responded. + +"But now let us set to work upon this correspondence." + +For the next hour and more they were very busy; then, every letter +having been replied to, the captain went out to a distant part of the +plantation to see how work was progressing there, taking Lulu along. + +Their way led them through the orange orchard, and both father and +daughter found it a delightful walk. + +They reached the house again just in time to receive the others on their +return from their little excursion, and presently after, all sat down to +dinner. + +On leaving the table the little girls repaired to the veranda. + +"I'm decidedly offended with you, Lu," said Rosie, in jesting tone. + +"What for?" asked Lulu. + +"For forsaking us as you did this morning; and now the least reparation +you can make is to confess why you did so. Do you not agree with me, +Eva?" + +"Yes," replied Evelyn, "I think she ought to do so, as the only amends +she can make. So, Miss Raymond, let us hear your excuse at once--if you +have any." + +"Well, then, I suppose I must," said Lulu. "Please understand that I +would have enjoyed going with you very much indeed, but I saw that papa +had a good many letters to answer and I wanted to help him a great deal +more than I did to take a ride. + +"He lets me write some on the typewriter--those, you see, that don't +require a very particular answer--and he says it shortens his work very +much. And," she added with a sigh, "I have given my dear father so much +trouble in past days by my bad temper and wilfulness, that I feel I can +never do enough to make up to him for it." + +"Dear Lu, I just love you for feeling and acting so," said Evelyn +softly, giving Lulu's hand an affectionate squeeze as she spoke; "and I +am sure your father must." + +"Yes, he does love me dearly, and you can't think how happy that makes +me," returned Lulu, glad tears shining in her eyes. + +"I don't know about that, but I think we can," said Rosie, a slight +tremble in her voice; for she had not forgotten altogether the dear +father who had fondled and caressed her in her babyhood, but had so long +since passed away to the better land. + +But just at that moment Violet drew near with a light, quick step. + +"The boat is at the landing, little girls," she said, "and we older +folks want to be off. Please put on your hats, coats too,--or carry some +kind of wrap,--for the captain says it may be quite cool on the water +before we return." + +"A summons we're delighted to receive," returned Rosie, springing to her +feet and hurrying toward the hall door, the others following, all of +them in gay good humor. + +No one was missing from that boating excursion, and on their return, a +little before tea time, all spoke of having had a most enjoyable +afternoon. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + + +After tea, when all were together upon the front veranda, Grandma Elsie +in a reclining chair, the others grouped about her, the talk turned upon +the approaching Christmas and how it should be celebrated--what gifts +prepared for friends and servants. + +Various plans were suggested, various gifts spoken of, but nothing +settled. + +The little girls took a deep interest in the subject, and when they +separated for the night each one's thoughts were full of it; Lulu's +perhaps even more so than those of any other, not of what she might +receive, but what she would like to give. + +"Papa," she said, when he came into her room to bid her good-night, "I +do so want to make some pretty things to give at Christmas time. Please, +won't you let me?" and look and tone were very coaxing. + +"My dear little daughter," he replied, taking possession of an +easy-chair and drawing her to a seat upon his knee, "it would give me +much pleasure to indulge you in this, but you have lost a good deal of +time from your studies of late, and I know very well that to allow you +to engage in the manufacture of Christmas gifts would have the effect +of taking your mind off your lessons in a way to prevent you from making +much, if any, progress with them." + +"Then you won't let me, papa?" + +"No, my child. If you choose you may use your pocket-money, and some +more that I will give you, to buy what you please, that will not make +any work for you. Your studies must be faithfully attended to, and the +greater part of your remaining time I wish you to spend in out-of-door +amusements which will, I hope, both give you much pleasure and keep you +in vigorous health. + +"I could not bear to see my dear eldest daughter growing pale and thin, +or failing to improve her mind and talents so that she may in due time +become a noble, useful woman, capable of doing with her might whatever +work her heavenly Father may be pleased to give her." + +A wofully ill-used, discontented look had come over Lulu's expressive +countenance as her father began what he had to say, but before he had +finished it was replaced by a much sweeter one of contentment with his +decision, and confiding filial love. + +"Papa, dear, I did at first very much want you to say yes to my +petition, but now I see that you know best and am quite content to do as +you have said you want me to," she returned, putting her arm about his +neck and laying her cheek to his in her accustomed fashion when her +heart was swelling with daughterly affection. + +"My dear child, your ready acquiescence in your father's decision makes +you dearer than ever to him, if that be possible," he said, holding her +close with many a fond caress. + +Meanwhile Rosie and Evelyn, occupying adjoining rooms, were chatting +gaily of what they should make for one and another of those they loved. + +Suddenly Evelyn paused, a very thoughtful look overspreading her +expressive face. + +"Well, what is it?" asked Rosie in a bantering tone; and Evelyn +answered, "I was just thinking that all this, should we undertake it, +will be apt to take our minds from our lessons, which are certainly of +far greater importance." + +"And that Captain Raymond may veto it on that account?" asked Rosie, +with a twinkle of fun in her eye. + +"Possibly he may; and if he does, I, for one, shall certainly obey him," +replied Evelyn, speaking in a sober, earnest way that said plainly she +was far from being in jest. + +"Well, I make no rash promises," laughed Rosie; "and I'm not very much +afraid of that brother-in-law of mine, stern as he can look when it +suits him." + +"But you will want to please your dear mother?" returned Evelyn, in a +tone between assertion and inquiry. + +"Yes," replied Rosie, sobering down at once; "I could refuse nothing to +dear mamma. I would do anything and everything in my power to add to her +happiness. Oh, how glad and thankful I am that she has been spared to +us!" + +"I, too," said Evelyn. "I think I could hardly love her better if she +were really my very near relative." + +A moment of silence followed, presently broken by Rosie. "Well, I +suppose," she said with a return to her jesting tone, "it may be our +wisest plan to consult his lordship--Captain Raymond--in regard to the +matter just now under discussion--whether we--his prospective +pupils--may or may not engage in the work of preparing Christmas gifts +for other folk." + +"I, at least, certainly intend doing so," replied Evelyn. "Obedience to +his wishes--to say nothing of orders--it strikes me will be the very +least we can do in return for his great kindness in taking the trouble +to instruct us." + +"There, you are right!" said Rosie. "I hadn't thought of that before. It +is very good in him and I shall really try to show him that I am one of +the best and most tractable of pupils." + +"Suppose we join him and Lu to-morrow in their morning walk, as we did +to-day, and then and there improve the opportunity to discuss this +momentous question," suggested Evelyn laughingly. + +"I am strongly in favor of so doing, provided I wake in season," +returned Rosie, and with that they separated for the night. + +They carried out their plan, had a pleasant little morning ramble and +chat with the captain and Lulu, and finding that such was his wish, +promised to do but little in the way of making Christmas gifts, in order +that their time and attention might be the more fully occupied with +their studies, which they were all to take up again on the following +Monday. + +"And this being Friday, we have only to-day and to-morrow for play. It +looks like rain, too," sighed Rosie disconsolately, glancing up at the +sky as she spoke; "so we are not likely to have much out-of-door sport." + +"Ah, well, little sister, we must not grumble about the rain, for it is +needed; and there are the verandas for you young folks to sport upon," +returned the captain. + +"Besides, your big brother is not intending to be so hard upon you as to +allow no diversion after lessons are resumed. I hope you will all have +many an hour for romping, riding, driving, boating, and walking." + +"Pleasant chats, too, and interesting books to read; music, and games +besides," remarked Evelyn. "Oh, we are not likely to suffer from lack +of diversion when we have been good and industrious enough to deserve +it," she added, with a smiling look at the captain. + +"As I have little doubt that you will be always," he returned, smiling +kindly upon her. + +By the time breakfast and family worship were over a gentle rain was +falling, and instead of seeking out-of-door amusement, the whole family +gathered upon the veranda at the front of the house. + +Just then a pretty well-filled mail-bag made its appearance, and +presently nearly everybody had one or more letters in hand. + +Noticing that her father had several, Lulu presently drew near him and +asked, "Mayn't I help you answer those, papa?" + +"Thank you, dear child," he returned, smiling fondly upon her, "you may +if you wish, but I have plenty of time to do the work myself this +morning, and would be sorry to deprive you of the pleasure you might be +taking with your mates." + +"I'll have time enough for that afterward, papa, and would very much +rather do a little to help you--if it will be a help, instead of a +trouble to you to have me use my machine in that way," she said, with a +look up into his eyes that showed plainly how anxious she was to have +her offer accepted. + +"Then you shall, my darling," he returned, and taking her hand led her +into the library, seated her before her typewriter, supplied paper and +envelopes, and began dictating to her as on the two former occasions. + +"It grieves me to rob my dear little girl of any of her holiday time," +he remarked, as the first letter was completed, laying his hand +caressingly on her head. "Your father loves to see you enjoying +yourself." + +"Yes, dear papa, I know that," she replied, with a pleased loving look +up into his face, "but there is nothing I enjoy more than feeling that I +can be of a little help and comfort to you." + +"Well, it will not take us long to answer these letters--there are but +few to-day--and perhaps you may enjoy your sports all the more +afterward," he replied, handing her a fresh sheet of paper. + +"This, from our dear Max, is the only one left now," he remarked +presently; "and he, I know, would rather have his reply in papa's own +handwriting; but, shall I read this to you, daughter?" + +"Oh, I should like to hear it, papa!" was her eager response. "Please, +may I sit on your knee while I listen?" + +"Indeed you may," he answered, drawing her to the coveted seat and +putting his arm about her waist. "Maxie does write such good, +interesting letters, and I'm so much obliged to you for reading this one +to me, papa," she said, when he had finished. + +"You are very welcome, daughter; and now you may go back to your mates +while I write my reply." + +On the veranda family letters had been read and discussed, meanwhile, +and when Lulu joined the group they were again talking of the +approaching Christmas and what gifts should be prepared for relatives, +near and dear friends, and servants. + +Grandma Elsie, seated in their midst, was looking quite her old +self--very bright, beautiful, and sweet. + +"With the housekeeping given in charge to Vi," she was saying, as Lulu +drew near, "I shall have abundance of spare time and hope to prepare +many gifts for----" + +"No," interrupted her father, "you are to do nothing of the kind; but +must devote yourself to the business of gaining strength as fast as +possible." + +She laughed pleasantly at that, saying, "My vacation has been a long one +already, papa, for I have really done nothing worth speaking of since we +returned home from the North." + +"And what of that, daughter?" he responded. "You have never been an +idler, but it seems to be time now for you to begin. Let your vacation +go on till next spring. That is my prescription for you." + +"Ah, ha, mamma!" laughed Rosie, "the captain forbids Christmas-gift +making for us younger ones, and I'm mighty glad grandpa forbids it to +you. 'Misery loves company,' you know." + +"I hope my Rosie may never be called upon to share any worse misery," +was the smiling rejoinder. "Also that she will show herself as obedient +to the captain as I intend to be to her kind, loving grandpa--so +tenderly careful of his daughter," with a fond look up into the face of +her father, standing by her side. + +"As he may well be, for she is a treasure worth guarding," he said, +returning her look of love. "Rosie, when does the captain propose +beginning his labors as tutor?" + +"Next Monday morning, grandpa; so we want to crowd all the fun and +diversion we can into to-day and to-morrow." + +"Ah, we must select a schoolroom and furnish it with whatever may be +necessary!" exclaimed Violet. + +"Yes," her mother said; "the room used for that purpose when you were a +very little girl will answer nicely. Its desks were sent to the attic +when no longer needed. You might order them brought down to-day, the +room swept and dusted, and whatever else done that is necessary or +desirable, so that it will be quite ready for occupation on Monday." + +"Thank you, mamma; I will have it attended to at once," Violet replied, +and hastened away, Rosie running after her with a "Come girls, let us go +and see the room and find out whether it has a closet for the captain to +shut us up in when we misbehave." + +"I don't believe he'll use it if it has," laughed Lulu, rather enjoying +Rosie's fun, "for he has never punished any of us--his own children--in +that way." + +"Still there is no knowing but he may take a new departure, now, when +he's going to have so distinguished a pupil as myself," pursued Rosie, +dancing down the hall with the others close in her rear. + +They followed Violet to the room Grandma Elsie had spoken of, and found +it large and airy, with windows down to the floor,--opening out upon the +veranda on that side of the house,--the walls prettily papered and +adorned with good pictures, handsomely framed; the floor covered with +fine matting, furniture handsome, a pretty clock and vases on the +mantel. On one side of that was a door to which Rosie flew and, throwing +it wide open, brought to view a large closet. + +"There!" she exclaimed, "didn't I tell you, girls and Walter?" for he +was in the company by that time, "here's the place of incarceration for +those who shall dare to disobey Captain Raymond. I for one shall +certainly try to behave my prettiest, for I wouldn't like to be shut up +in the dark." + +"Well, it appears to me that you are more likely to come to it than any +of the rest of us," observed Walter quietly, as he turned on his heel +and walked away. + +"Did you ever hear the like?" cried Rosie, opening her eyes very wide in +pretended astonishment. + +"What's all this?" asked a familiar voice at the door, and turning at +the sound they saw Captain Raymond standing there, looking very grave +and slightly reproving, but with a perceptible twinkle of fun in his +eyes. + +"We were just looking at the closet you are going to use for the +incarceration of the naughty ones, for this is to be your schoolroom, +you see, sir," returned Rosie demurely. + +"And you expect to enjoy a sojourn there?" he queried, coming forward +and himself taking a survey of the interior. "It strikes me it would +suit better as a receptacle for school-books and the like." + +"So it would," she said, with a sigh of pretended relief; "and we, your +pupils that are to be will venture to hope that you will see best to +devote it to that use." + +"A hope in which you will not be disappointed, I trust," he replied, in +a kindly tone, and laying a hand lightly upon her shoulder. + +"There girls!" she exclaimed, "you may thank me for extracting such a +promise beforehand. I do really believe his honor intends to treat us +well if we are reasonably well behaved." + +"And the rest of us are quite sure of it," added Evelyn, with a bright +look up into the captain's face. + +"Thank you for your confidence, my dear," he returned. "I have little +doubt that we will have pleasant times together in this very pleasant +room." + +A little more time was spent in examining the room and commenting upon +its beauties and conveniences; then they went back to the veranda to +find that the sun had begun to peep through the clouds. + +So carriages were ordered and all took a drive through the beautiful +woods. + +The afternoon was spent in boating and fishing, the evening in the +veranda, where they were joined by their relatives from Magnolia Hall +and the parsonage. + +The manner in which they would spend the approaching Christmas and New +Year's Day was the principal subject of conversation, and the young +folks were particularly interested in listening to the plans made or +suggested, and well satisfied with the proposed arrangement that the +cousins should spend the first at Viamede, all gather at Magnolia Hall +for their New Year's dinner, and pass the evening of that day at the +parsonage. + +Lulu had a talk with her father in her own room at bedtime, that made +her feel very happy and entirely content with his prohibition of the +making of gifts. + +He told her that she and Grace might each make out a list of the +articles they would like to buy to present to others, and that some one, +probably Mr. Embury--Cousin Millie's husband--who was intending to pay a +visit of a few days to New Orleans, would kindly make the purchases for +them. + +"Oh, that will do nicely, papa!" she exclaimed delightedly, "and Gracie +and I might make out our lists to-morrow with a little help from our +dear father," smiling up into his eyes. + +"Yes, dear child, I will gladly give you both all the assistance in my +power," he replied, softly smoothing her hair, for she was--as usual at +such times--sitting upon his knee; "and not with advice only," he +continued, "but also by adding something to your means for carrying out +your wishes." + +"Oh, you dear papa, you are just the kindest father that ever was +made!" she cried, in an ecstasy of delight, and hugging him with all her +strength. + +"Ah, but if you choke me to death," he said laughingly, "I can do +nothing for you." + +"Oh, papa, please excuse me!" she exclaimed, relaxing her hold. "Did I +hurt you? oh, I am very, very sorry!" + +"Not much; I could stand it very well," he returned, giving her a hug +and kiss. "But now I must leave you to go to bed and to sleep." + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + + +There was a decided downpour of rain the next morning, but no one minded +that very much, as the necessity for staying within doors gave time and +opportunity for further arrangements in regard to Christmas and the +gifts to be presented. + +The captain kindly devoted an hour or more to helping his little girls +to decide upon theirs and make out a list; Mr. Embury, and Molly and +Isadore, who were intending to accompany him to the city, having kindly +offered to make any purchases desired by the Viamede relatives. + +At the same time the others, older and younger, were similarly engaged, +and there were many little private chats as they gathered in twos and +threes here and there about the veranda or in the rooms. + +In the afternoon Violet invited the whole party to inspect the +schoolroom, where some of the servants had been busy, under her +direction, all the morning, giving it a thorough cleaning, draping the +windows with fresh lace curtains, looped back with blue ribbons, and +placing a desk for each expected pupil, and a neat table for the +teacher. + +Every one pronounced it a model schoolroom, some of the older people +adding that it made them almost wish themselves young enough to again be +busy with lessons and recitations. + +"Where's your ferule, Brother Levis?" asked Rosie, facetiously, after a +close scrutiny of the table, not omitting its drawer. + +"I think you have not made a thorough examination of the closet yet," +was his noncommittal reply. + +"Oh, that's where you keep it? I say girls----" in a loud whisper, +perfectly audible to everyone in the room, "let's carry it off before he +has a chance to use it." + +"Hardly worth while, since it would be no difficult matter to replace +it," remarked the captain, with assumed gravity and sternness. + +"Ah, then I suppose one may as well be resigned to circumstances," +sighed Rosie, following the others from the room. + +"Papa, can I help you?" asked Lulu, seeing him seat himself at the table +in the library, take out writing materials from its drawer, and dip a +pen into the ink. + +"No, thank you, daughter," he replied. "I am going to write to Max." + +"Please tell him we are all ever so sorry he can't be here to spend +Christmas and New Year's with us." + +"I will." + +"And he can't have the pleasure of giving any gifts I suppose, as they +allow him so little pocket money!" + +"Dear boy! he shall not miss that pleasure entirely," said the captain. +"I am going now to write to him that I will set apart a certain sum for +his use in the purchase of gifts for others. That is, he may tell me +what he would like to give, and I will see that the articles are bought +and distributed as he wishes." + +"Oh, what a nice plan, papa! I am sure Maxie will be very glad." + +"Yes, I do it with the hope of giving pleasure to my dear boy. And +besides that I shall tell him that he may again choose some benevolent +object to which I will give, in his name, a thousand dollars. You too, +and Gracie, shall have the same privilege." + +"Just as we all had last year. Oh, papa, it is so good and kind in you!" + +"That is the opinion of my very partial little daughter," he returned, +with a smile. "But, daughter, as I have often told you, the money is the +Lord's, and I am only his steward." + +"Yes, sir," she said, and walked thoughtfully away. + +By the middle of the afternoon the rain seemed to be over and a row on +the bayou was enjoyed by the most of the party; all who cared to go. + +Music and conversation made the evening pass quickly and pleasantly, and +all retired to their rooms at an early hour that they might rise +refreshed for the duties and privileges of the Lord's day. + +It was spent, as former ones had been, attending church and the pastor's +Bible class in the morning, and holding a similar service on the lawn at +Viamede in the afternoon. + +In addressing that little congregation the captain tried to make the way +of salvation very clear and plain. + +"It is just to come to Jesus as you are," he said; "not waiting to make +yourself any better, for you never can; he alone can do that work; it is +his blood that cleanses from all sin; his righteousness that is perfect, +and therefore acceptable to God; while all our righteousnesses are as +filthy rags, stained and defiled with sin. + +"Concerning him--the only begotten and well beloved Son of God--the +Bible tells us, 'He is able to save them unto the uttermost that come +unto God by him.' + +"'The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.' + +"And he says, 'Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.' + +"'This is the will of him that sent me, that every one who seeth the +Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life; and I will raise +him up at the last day.' + +"Just go to Jesus each one of you, give yourself to him and believe his +word--that he will not cast you out; he will receive you and make you +his own; giving you of his spirit, changing you from the poor sinner you +are, by nature, into his image, his likeness." + +At the conclusion of that service Lulu and Grace recited their Bible +verses and catechism to their father. + +The evening was spent in conversation and music suited to the sacredness +of the day, and all retired to rest. + +Nine o'clock of the next morning found the girls and Walter seated in +the schoolroom. Lulu and Grace busied with their tasks, the others ready +and waiting to have theirs appointed by the captain. + +School that day was a decided success, and Rosie pretended that her +fears of the new teacher were greatly allayed. + +Between that and Christmas-time everything moved along smoothly; studies +were well attended to, sports and pastimes greatly enjoyed. + +The celebration of the holidays--Christmas and New Year's--also proved a +great success. There were many and beautiful gifts; a handsome brooch +from the captain delighted each little girl, and there were other lovely +gifts too numerous to mention. + +The distribution was on Christmas Eve. The next day there was a grand +dinner at Viamede, all the relatives present, and everybody in gayest +spirits. + +The day was bright and beautiful, seeming but little like Christmas to +those accustomed to frost and snow at that season. + +New Year's day was not less lovely, nor were its festivities less +enjoyable, though the gifts were fewer. + +The holidays past, the young folks went back with zest to their studies, +Rosie saying she was now convinced that Captain Raymond was an excellent +teacher, and not at all inclined to tyrannize over a well-behaved pupil; +for which complimentary expression of opinion he gravely thanked her. + +"You are very welcome, sir," she said, "and may depend upon a +recommendation from me whenever it is wanted." + +"O Rosie, how ridiculous you are!" exclaimed Walter. + +But Rosie was already out of the room, the other girls following. They +went out on the lawn, ran about for a while, then settled themselves +under a tree and began cracking and eating nuts. + +Lulu, who was very fond of them, presently put one between her teeth and +cracked it there. + +"O Lu!" exclaimed Grace, "you forget that papa forbade you to crack nuts +with your teeth, for fear you might break them." + +"Well, I wanted to break the nut," returned Lulu, laughing, and blushing +because her conscience reproached her. + +"I meant break your teeth," said Grace. "I'm sure you wouldn't have done +it--cracked the nut with them, I mean--if you hadn't forgotten that papa +forbade you to do it." + +"No, Gracie, I'm not so good as you think; I did not forget; I just did +it because I wanted to," Lulu said with an evident effort, and blushing +again. + +Then she sprang up and ran toward her father, who was seen at some +little distance, coming from the orange orchard toward the house. + +"I do believe she's going to tell on herself!" exclaimed Rosie, in +astonishment. + +"Oh, dear, I wonder what papa will do to her!" exclaimed Grace, just +ready to burst into tears. + +"It is very noble in her to go and confess at once, when he needn't have +ever known anything about it," cried Eva admiringly. + +They were all three watching Lulu and her father with intense interest, +though too far away to hear anything that either one might say. + +Lulu drew near him, hanging her head shamefacedly. "Papa," she said, in +a low, remorseful tone, "I have just been disobeying you." + +"Ah! I am sorry, very sorry, to hear it, daughter," he returned a little +sadly; then, taking her hand, led her away further from the house and +seated her and himself on a bench beneath a group of trees that entirely +hid them from view. + +"Tell me the whole story, my child," he said, not unkindly, and still +keeping her hand in his. + +"I cracked a nut with my teeth, papa," she replied, with her eyes upon +the ground, her cheek hot with blushes. + +"You forgot that I had forbidden it?" + +"No, papa, I haven't even that poor excuse. I remembered all the time +that you had forbidden me, but just did it because I wanted to." + +"Though I had given you my reason for the prohibition--that you would +risk serious damage to your teeth, and probably suffer both pain and the +loss of those useful members in consequence. It gives me pain to find +that my dear eldest daughter cares so little for her father's wishes or +commands." + +At that Lulu burst into tears and sobs. "Oh, I hope you'll punish me +well for it, papa!" she said. "I deserve it, and I think it would do me +good." + +"I must indeed punish you for conduct so decidedly rebellious," he +replied. "I will either forbid nuts for a week, or refrain from giving +you a caress for the same length of time. Which shall it be?" + +"O papa, I'd rather do without nuts for the rest of the winter than a +whole week without a caress from you!" she exclaimed. + +"Very well, then," he said, bending down and touching his lips to her +cheek. "I forbid the nuts, and I think I can trust my daughter to obey +me by not touching one till she has her father's permission." + +"I feel sure I will, papa," she said; "but if I should be so very bad as +to disobey you again in this, I will come to you, confess it, and take +my punishment without a word of objection." + +"I have no doubt of it, daughter," he returned, taking her hand again +and leading her back to the house. + +The other girls were awaiting with intense interest the reappearance of +the captain and Lulu. + +"Here they come!" exclaimed Rosie, "and I don't believe he has punished +her; there has hardly been time, and though she looks very sober--he, +too--she doesn't look at all frightened; nor does he look angry, and he +holds her hand in what strikes me as a very affectionate way." + +"Yes," said Evelyn, "I think the captain is as good and kind a father as +anyone could desire; and I'm sure Lulu's opinion of him is the same." + +"Yes, indeed," assented Grace heartily, as she wiped the tears from her +eyes, "there couldn't be a better, kinder father than ours, Lulu and I +both think; but though he doesn't like to punish us, sometimes he feels +that it's his duty to do it to make us good." + +"I don't believe you get, or need, punishment very often, Gracie," +remarked Rosie; "you are as good as gold; at least so it seems to me." + +"I'm not perfect, Rosie; oh, no, indeed!" Gracie answered earnestly; +"but papa almost never does anything more than talk in a grave, kind way +to me about my faults." + +By this time the captain and Lulu had drawn near the house, and, letting +go her hand, "You may go back to your mates now, daughter," he said in a +kindly tone. "I have some matters to attend to, and if you have anything +more to say to me I will hear it at another time." + +"Yes, sir," replied Lulu, and went slowly toward the little group under +the tree, while her father passed round to the other side of the house. + +"He was not very much vexed with you, Lu, was he?" queried Rosie, in a +kindly inquiring tone, as Lulu joined them, looking grave and a trifle +sad, while traces of tears could be discerned on her cheeks and about +her eyes. + +"Papa only seemed sorry that--that I could be so disobedient," faltered +the little girl, tears starting to her eyes again; "but he always +punishes disobedience,--which is just what he ought to do, I am +sure,--and he has forbidden me to eat any more nuts for a week. I chose +that rather than doing without a caress from him for the same length of +time. So you see he was not very severe; not half so severe as I +deserved that he should be." + +The others agreed with her that it was but a light punishment; then they +began talking of something else. + +Nuts were a part of the dessert that day, and Lulu, sitting near her +father, asked in a low aside, "Papa, mayn't I pick out some kernels for +you?" + +"If you wish, daughter," he answered; and she performed the little +service with evident pleasure. + +"Thank you, dear child," he said, with a loving look and smile as she +handed them to him. Speaking of it to Violet that night in the privacy +of their own room, "I found it hard to take and eat them without sharing +with her, the dear, affectionate child!" he said, with feeling, "but I +knew it gave her pleasure to do her father that little service. Ah, it +is so much pleasanter to fondle and indulge one's children than to +reprove or punish them! yet I am sure it is the truest kindness to +train them to obedience, as the Bible directs." + +"Yes," returned Violet, "and I have often noticed that those parents who +do follow that Bible teaching are more loved and respected by their +children than the foolishly indulgent ones. And, by the way, how +devotedly fond of her father Lulu is! It delights me to see it." + +"Me also, my dear," he returned, with a pleased little laugh. "I doubt +if any man ever had better, dearer children--speaking of the whole five +together--than mine. Nor can I believe that ever a father esteemed his +greater treasures than I do mine." + +The rest of the winter passed quietly and peacefully to our friends at +Viamede, the young folks making good progress with their studies, the +older ones finding employment in various ways--the ladies in reading, +writing letters, overseeing house and servants, and making and receiving +visits; Mr. Dinsmore in much the same manner, except that he gave +himself no concern about domestic affairs; while the captain found full +employment in instructing his pupils and superintending work on the +plantation; but with time enough to spare for participation in the +diversions and recreations of the others. + +Grandma Elsie had entirely recovered her health, and as spring opened +they began to talk of returning to their more northern homes, yet +continued to tarry, looking for a visit to Viamede from the dear ones of +Ion and Fairview. + +And here at beautiful Viamede we will leave them for the present. + + +THE END + + + + +CAMPFIRE GIRLS SERIES + + +An attractive and popular edition of books for Girls. 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Printed +on a superior quality of book paper and bound in cloth. + + +HELEN'S BABIES + +_By John Habberton._ An amusing and entertaining book for everyone. +Printed from new plates and attractively bound in cloth. + + +A DOG OF FLANDERS + +_By Ouida._ An illustrated edition of this popular and interesting +story. Printed from new plates and bound in cloth. + + +BLACK BEAUTY + +_By Anna Sewell._ Beautiful edition of this popular story. An attractive +book, printed from large clear type, bound in cloth. + + +HANS BRINKER + +_By Mary Mapes Dodge._ This is a well-known story of life in Holland. +Printed on a superior quality of paper; cloth bound. + + +PINOCCHIO + +_By C. Collodi._ A beautiful illustrated edition of this popular story. +Attractively printed from new plates and bound in cloth. + + +LITTLE WOMEN + +_By Louisa May Alcott._ Beautiful edition of this famous story in one +volume. Attractively printed and bound in cloth. + + +ALICE IN WONDERLAND + +_By Lewis Carroll._ An attractive edition of this well-known story. +Printed from new plates and attractively bound in cloth. + +_Price each 75c, postpaid_ + + M. A. DONOHUE & COMPANY + 701-733 South Dearborn Street :: CHICAGO + + + + + * * * * * + + + + +Transcriber's Note: + + Obvious punctuation errors repaired. + + Hyphenation retained in "kind-hearted" as it appears once with + and once without the hyphen. + + Page 14, "sailer" changed to "sailor" (a splendid sailor) + + Page 147, "honered" changed to "honored" (my dear and honored) + + Page 166, "child" and "in" presumed from remaining letters + (child alone, or nearly so, in) + + Page 172, "froward" changed to "forward" (the forward mouth) + + Page 182, "two" changed to "too" (the distance being too great) + + Page 198, "tremuously" changed to "tremulously" (tremulously, + just) + + Page 203, "Lelaand" changed to "Leland" (glance at Mrs. Leland) + + Page 216, paragraph break inserted between "queried Lulu." and + "I very much doubt". + + Page 273, "beautitiful" changed to "beautiful" (very bright, + beautiful) + + Page 253, "fatigueing" changed to "fatiguing" (rather than + fatiguing) + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ELSIE'S VACATION AND AFTER EVENTS*** + + +******* This file should be named 18058-8.txt or 18058-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/0/5/18058 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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