the
Lord, asking him to provide. And how wonderfully he has answered our
petitions. But--it seems too much, too much for you to do for
strangers."

"Strangers, my dear friend!" Elsie answered, pressing her hand
affectionately, "art we not sisters in Christ? 'Ye are all the children
of God by faith in Christ Jesus.' 'Ye are all one in Christ Jesus.'

"We feel, my husband and I, that we are only the stewards of his bounty;
and that because he has said, 'Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of
the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me,' it is the
greatest privilege and delight to do anything for his people."

Mr. Travilla had already expressed the same sentiments to Mr. Daly, and
so the poor minister and his wife accepted the invitation with glad and
thankful hearts, and Harold and Frank learned with delight that they
were to live together for what to their infant minds seemed an almost
interminable length of time.

The passage to New Orleans was made without accident or detention.

As our party left the vessel a voice was heard from the hold, crying in
dolorous accents, and a rich Irish brogue, "Och captin dear, help me
out, help me out! I've got fast betwane these boxes here, bad cess to
'em! an' can't hilp mesilf at all, at all!"

"Help you out, you passage thief!" roared the captain in return, "yes
I'll help you out with a vengeance, and put you into the hands of the
police."

"Ah ha! um h'm ah ha, you'll have to catch him first," remarked Mr.
Lilburn with a quiet smile; stepping from the plank to the wharf as he
spoke.

"Ah, cousin, you are incorrigible!" said Elsie, laughingly.

Chapter Twenty-fourth.

"The fields did laugh, the flowers did freshly spring,
The trees did bud and early blossoms bear,
And all the quire of birds did sweetly sing,
And told that garden's pleasures in their caroling."
--SPENSER'S FAERY QUEEN

Nothing could be lovelier than was Viamede as they found it on their
arrival.

The children, one and all, were in an ecstasy of delight over the orange
orchard with its wealth of golden fruit, glossy leaves, and delicate
blossoms, the velvety lawn with its magnificent shade trees, the variety
and profusion of beautiful flowers, and the spacious lordly mansion.

They ran hither and thither jumping, dancing, clapping their hands and
calling to each other with shouts of glee.

The pleasure and admiration of the older people were scarcely less,
though shown after a