ittle 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 stren