"I know I'm often very naughty; papa said I gave him more anxiety than Max and Gracie both put together; and I'm afraid I can't be good all the time, but I do mean to try hard." "Well, dear, if you try with all your might, asking help from on high, you will succeed at last," Elsie said.

"And now I will leave you to wash and dress.

I see your trunk has been brought up and opened, so that you will have no difficulty." With that she passed on into Violet's rooms to see how Gracie was.

She found her sleeping sweetly in Violet's bed, the latter bending over her with a very tender, motherly look on her fair young face.
"Is she not a darling, mamma ?" she whispered, turning her head at the sound of her mother's light footstep.
"She is a very engaging child," replied Elsie.

"I think we are all fond of her, but you especially." "Yes, mamma, I love her for herself--her gentle, affectionate disposition--but still more because she is my husband's child, his dear baby girl, as he so often called her." "Ah, I can understand that," Elsie said, with a loving though rather sad look and smile into Violet's azure eyes, "for I have often felt just so in regard to my own children.