home and do it, because I ought to be made to suffer
ever so much for hurting the baby so."

"O Lu, no!" cried Gracie, aghast at the very idea. "It wouldn't do the
baby any good. Oh, I hope papa won't whip you!"

"But he will! I know he will; and he ought to," returned Lulu
vehemently. "Oh, hark!"

She stood still, listening intently, Grace doing the same. They had
seemed to hear a familiar step that they had not heard for many a long
month; yes, there it was again: and with a low cry of joy, Grace bounded
to the door, threw it open, but closed it quickly behind her, and sprang
into her father's arms.

"My darling, my precious little daughter!" he said, clasping her close,
and showering kisses on her face. "Where is every one? you are the first
I have seen, and--why, how you have been crying! What is wrong?"

"O papa! the baby--the baby's most killed," she sobbed. "Come, I'll take
you to her and mamma!"

Fairly stunned by the sudden dreadful announcement, he silently
submitted himself to her guidance, and suffered her to lead him into the
nursery, where Violet sat in a low chair with the apparently dying babe
on her lap, her mother, grandfather and his wife, and the doctor,
grouped about her.

No one noticed his entrance, so intent were they all upon the little
sufferer; but just as he gained her side, Violet looked up, and
recognized him with a low cry of mingled joy and grief.

"O Levis, my husband! Thank God that you have come in time--to see her
alive."

He bent down and kissed the sweet, tremulous lips, his features working
with emotion, "My wife, my dear love, what--what is this? what ails our
little one?" he asked in anguished accents, turning his eyes upon the
waxen baby face; and, bending still lower, he softly touched his lips to
its forehead.

No one replied to his question; and gazing with close scrutiny at the
child, "She has been hurt?" he said, half in assertion, half
inquiringly.

"Yes, captain," said Dr. Conly: "she has had a fall,--a very severe one
for so young and tender a creature."

"How did it happen?" he asked, in tones of mingled grief and sternness.

No one answered; and after waiting a moment, he repeated the question,
addressing it directly to his wife.

"Oh, do not ask me, love!" she said entreatingly, and he reluctantly
yielded to her request; but light began to dawn upon him, sending an
added pang to his heart; suddenly he remembered Lulu's former jealousy
of the baby,