then her own
dear ones would be near her.

But the visit, like the big doses of medicine that the doctor ordered, had
to be taken, whether she liked it or not, and the preparations went on,
though it grieved her mother to see how Elsie shrank from the visit.

One day when Elsie was crying about her "banishment from home," Dexie
Sherwood came into the room, and learning the cause of Elsie's tears she
frankly stated her mind as follows:

"Well, if you are not a baby, then I never saw one! The idea of you lying
there crying until your eyes are red and swollen because you are going off
on a fine cruise! I declare! if I thought I should be treated half so well,
I'd fall sick this very day, and you may be sure I would select some
complaint that required a change of scene to restore me," and, assuming an
expression of extreme woe, she added:

"Your kind friend in Charlottetown didn't say that any sick neighbor might
join you, I suppose? for, ah me! I am beginning to feel awfully bad
already. Where, oh! where can I go to regain my shattered health?"

Elsie's tears of grief changed to tears of laughter, and she replied,

"Well, I suppose it does look silly for me to be fretting because I have to
go away, but I hate to go among strange people. If Cora could come with me
I would not mind it at all."

"But Lancy is going with you," said Dexie, "so you cannot come to any great
harm. The people over there are quite civilized, I'm told, so they won't
likely eat you; not till you get a little more flesh on your bones,
anyway."

Mrs. Gurney, who was in the room, lifted her eyes to Dexie's animated face,
and said in her gentle, motherly tone,

"Dexie, my dear, why couldn't _you_ go with Elsie? I was stupid not to have
thought of it before."

"For my health, do you mean, Mother Gurney? But I am afraid I have
recovered it already. I have made Elsie laugh, and the unusual sound has
cured me like a charm."

"Well, not exactly for _your_ health, my dear, but for Elsie's," she
replied, as she looked into the laughing face before her. "When I think of
the double benefit your companionship would be to her, I wonder that the
thought did not occur to me before."

"Oh! Mrs. Gurney, I feel so ashamed," and Dexie covered her hot cheeks for
a moment with her hands. "I never intended to suggest such a thing when I
made such a thoughtless remark. Oh! what can you think of me! Indeed I only
said it to make Elsie laugh."

"There, there; of