ood the mute petition, and, sitting down again, drew her to
his knee, and kissed her several times with grave tenderness.

"I wanted a kiss so badly, papa," she said. "You know, it is a whole
year since I had one; and you never came home before without giving me
one just as soon as we met."

"No; but I never before had so little reason to bestow a caress on you,"
he said. "When I heard of your deed of this morning, I felt that I ought
not to show you any mark of favor, at least not until I had given you
the punishment you so richly deserved. Do you not think I was right?"

"Yes, sir," she answered, hanging her head, and blushing deeply.

"I will put you in your bed now, and leave you for to-night," he said.
"I must go back to my little suffering baby and her almost heart-broken
mother."

He led her to the bed, and lifted her into it as he spoke.

"Papa, can't I have a piece of bread?" she asked humbly. "I'm _so_
hungry!"

"Hungry!" he exclaimed in surprise. "Had you no supper?"

"No, sir, nor dinner either. I haven't had a bite to eat since
breakfast."

"Strange!" he said; "but I suppose you were forgotten in the excitement
and anxiety every one in the house has felt ever since the baby's sad
fall. And they may have felt it unnecessary to bring any thing to you,
as you were quite able to go to the dining-room for it."

"I couldn't bear to, papa," she said, with tears of shame and grief;
"and, indeed, I wasn't hungry till a little while ago; but now I feel
faint and sick for something to eat."

"You shall have it," he replied, and went hastily from the room, to
return in a few minutes, bringing a bowl of milk and a plentiful supply
of bread and butter.

He set them on the table, and bade her come and eat.

"Papa, you are very kind to me, ever so much kinder than I deserve," she
said tremulously, as she made haste to obey the order. "I think some
fathers would say I must go hungry for to-night."

"I have already punished you in what I consider a better way, because it
could not injure your health," he said; "while going a long time without
food would be almost sure to do so. It is not my intention ever to
punish my children in a way to do them injury. Present pain is all I am
at all willing to inflict, and that only for their good."

"Yes, papa, I know that," she said with a sob, setting down her bowl of
milk to wipe her eyes; "so, when you punish me, it doesn't make me quit
loving you."

"If I did not