he said, "I am not at all sure that Lulu has not as
much right to an apology from me as I to this from her. I spoke to her
in anger, and with an assumption of authority to which I really had no
right, so that there was ample excuse for her not particularly
respectful language to me. I am sorry, therefore, she has had the pain
of apologizing."

"You are very kind to be so ready to over look her insolence," the
captain said; "but I cannot permit such exhibitions of temper, and must,
at whatever cost, teach her to rule her own spirit."

"Doubtless you are right," Edward said; "but I am concerned and
mortified to find that I have got her into such disgrace and trouble. I
must own I am quite attached to Lulu; she has some very noble and
lovable traits of character."

"She has indeed," said his mother; "she is so free from the least taint
of hypocrisy or deceit; so perfectly honest and truthful; so
warm-hearted, too; so diligent and energetic in anything she undertakes
to do--very painstaking and persevering--and a brave, womanly little
thing."

The captain's face brightened very much as he listened to these praises
of his child.

"I thank you heartily, mother and brother," he said; "for the child is
very dear to her father's heart, and praise of her is sweet to my ear. I
can see all these lovable traits, but feared that to other eyes than
mine they might be entirely obscured by the very grave faults joined
with them. But it is just like you both to look at the good rather than
the evil.

"And you have done so much for my children! I assure you I often think
of it with the feeling that you have laid me under obligations which I
can never repay."

"Ah, captain," Elsie said, laughingly, "you have a fashion of making a
great mountain out of a little mole-hill of kindness. Flattery is not
good for human nature, you know, so I shall leave you and go back to
papa, who has a wholesome way of telling me of my faults and failings."

"I really don't know where he finds them," returned Captain Raymond,
gallantly; but she was already out of hearing.

"Nor I," said Violet, replying to his last remark; "mamma seems to me
to be as nearly perfect as a human creature can be in this sinful
world."

"Now don't feel troubled about it, Ned," Zoe was saying to her husband,
who was again at her side. "I think it was just right that she should be
made to apologize to you, for she was dreadfully saucy."

"Yes; but I provoked her, and