"I have no doubt they will," said Violet, and there the conversation ended.
* * * * * "More than content, papa; for as I have often said, I just delight in belonging to you," was Lucilla's glad response to his last remark in that morning talk.
"Yes, I know you do, and so we are a very happy father and daughter," he said.

"I often think no man was ever more blest in his children than I am in mine." The talk about the breakfast table that morning was of the places it might be most desirable to visit that day, and the final conclusion that they would go first to the battleship _Illinois_, then to the lighthouse and life-saving station, both near at hand.
"I am glad we are going aboard a battleship--or rather the model of one, I presume I should say, and especially in company with a naval officer who can explain everything to us," remarked Rosie in a lively tone.
"Yes, we are very fortunate in that," said Mrs.Dinsmore, giving Captain Raymond an appreciative look and smile.
"Papa, didn't you say she wasn't a real ship ?" asked little Elsie, looking up enquiringly into her father's face.
"Yes, my child, but in all you could perceive in going aboard of her she is exactly like one--a fac-simile of the coast-line battleship _Illinois_, which is a very powerful vessel." "And are her guns real, papa?
Mightn't they go off and shoot us ?" "No, daughter, there is no danger of that.

The largest ones are wooden models, and though quite a number are real and capable of doing terrible execution, there is not the slightest danger of their being used on us." "I'm not one bit afraid of them!" cried little Ned, straightening himself up with a very brave, defiant air.

"Not with papa along, anyhow." "No, you needn't be, Ned," laughed Walter, "for most assuredly nobody would dare to shoot Captain Raymond or anybody under his care." "No, indeed, I should think not," chuckled the little fellow, with a proudly affectionate look up into his father's face.
"No, nor any other visitor to the ship," said the captain.

"We may go there without feeling the least apprehension of such a reception." "So we will start for the _Illinois_ as soon as we are ready for the day's pleasures," said Violet, smiling into the bright little face of her boy.
Harold and Herbert joined them at the usual early hour, bringing Chester and Frank Dinsmore with them, and in a few minutes they were all upon the deck of the model battleship.
They were treated very politely and shown every department from sleeping quarters to gun-deck.