blasts, the vicar is glad to find himself, after a hard day's work, in his snug, warm study. His easy-chair is drawn close beside the fireplace, and his slippers are warming in the fender. He knows who has prepared these comforts for him, and his first act is to kiss his little daughter's smiling face. "Well, Florence, it is a cold night, and I am tired!" "Are you too tired to have me on your knee ?" "No, come along." And Mr. Trevor opened his arms and placed his little daughter in her favourite seat. "Tell me what you have been about this afternoon. "I went with Martha to see Frank's grandmother, and then we took some oranges to poor Lucy Roberts. She looked so ill to-day." Yes, I have seen her. And what was Frank about ?" 66 "He had just come out of school, and was reading that book of travels as usual. He is always talking about all sorts of places, and wishing he could sail round the world." "Rather a vain wish for a country boy; but what's that great sigh for? Are you wishing to leave papa, and sail round the world too ?" 66 'Oh, no, papa! But I'm thinking how perhaps I shall never be quite so happy as to-night again." "And pray, why not? What dreadful thing is going to happen?" "Oh, don't you remember that Lilian is coming to-morrow, and we sha'n't be alone any more, and —” "And-what?" "I don't like it all. I like to have you to myself, except when Norman is at home." "And that is being what I call selfish; and now, at the beginning of Lent, I should like my little girl to try more than ever to overcome this fault. You and I, and everybody in this world, are soldiers fighting in a battle, and one of our worst enemies, and most hard to overcome, is self. Do you understand me, darling ?" "Not quite, papa. 66 Have you not often felt vexed and angry when you wanted to do something very much, and then for some reason or other you have been prevented?" "Yes, this morning I wanted to go a ride on Jenny, and Peter would not let me, because he said he was too busy to take me. I felt very cross, and thought he might just as well do his work afterwards, and come with me." "Yes, that was self struggling for the mastery, and seeking the highest, not the lowest place. You have lived alone and been too much indulged both by Martha and by me, and it will be very good for you to have a companion, if it is only to teach you this one lesson of giving up." "But, supposing Lilian isn't a nice little girl; and supposing I don't like her ?” "Then the lesson will, I hope, be learned more effectually; but, Florence, you will surely, be ready to love a little orphan child who has neither father, mother, sister, nor brother. How would it be with you if God took me to meet mamma above, and you were left without Norman, or even Martha ?" "Oh, papa, I should wish to die too; I should be so very miserable." "And that is how it is with poor Lilian; and I am sure when you think of it, you will try to be very kind to her, even though it should sometimes lead to denials of self." "I will try, papa.” Will it help you a little to remember, too, that she is my only brother's child, and that brother I loved as love Norman ?" much as you Florence's reply was to fling her arms round her father's neck, and to whisper that she should like to do anything that would please him. Then she begged for a story, and tonight Mr. Trevor's was a merry tale of his boyish days, and Florence's ringing laugh might have been heard echoing through the house. It was a pleasant sound to Martha as she tapped at the study door, and said it was time for Miss Florence to go to bed. Miss Florence felt by no means sleepy, or inclined to yield obedience to her nurse's orders; and her tongue chattered ceaselessly long after she went up-stairs. At last she was tucked safely in her little iron bedstead close to Martha's, and before her head had rested many minutes on her pillow she was fast asleep. Mr. Trevor, meanwhile, sat by his fireside, and thought of bygone days, chequered as they had been by great joys and many sorrows. But his was not a nature to exhaust itself in vain regrets, or longings for the past. It was one to realize and face the present; clenching the duties and difficulties of the now in a firm, unshrinking grasp. To-night his chief thought and care was not for his parish, or for his children, but for the little stranger child, who was henceforth to become his charge. A very warm corner was made ready in his heart for that orphan niece; and yet he could not help wondering with Florence what she would be like, and whether she would make a nice companion for his little girl. He knew she had led a strange, wild life in India, where her father had been an officer, and she had but for a short time known a mother's care. In this latter grief and loss, there would be a bond of union between the children, for Florence too was motherless. The recollection made him bow his head, for when Mr. Trevor thought of his wife and happy married life, he liked to pray. He roused himself to go up-stairs and look at his sleeping child, a nightly custom never missed, and then returning to his study he closed the door, and gladly availed himself of quiet time for reading. Whilst Florence slept and Mr. Trevor studied, Lilian, the subject of so many thoughts, was still at sea, and sobbing in her narrow berth. |