ore could I ask? I always did want curly hair and
black eyes, but Pansy has one, and Louise the other, so I'm content. The
only disappointment I have, is that mama and Olive will not be with us
next Christmas."

"Well, I've a very small one," said Bea, as she rocked and trotted, with
a vain attempt to get small Bessie's eyes shut. "Walter isn't quite as
well as I should like to have him; he works too hard, poor fellow, and I
want him to go off to the mountains next summer, and get rested, but we
can't all afford to go, and he says he will not go and leave me at home
in the hot weather with the house and babies. So I can't help worrying
and wishing that I could help him some way."

"You do help him, dear," interposed Mrs. Dering promptly. "You keep home
bright and happy, and anticipate all his wants and wishes. In times of
weariness or trouble, he has you and the dear babies for comfort. You
love, sympathize and help him in a thousand ways, the want of which he
could not do without."

"And sew on his buttons," added Kat. "Don't leave that out, for if he's
anything like Ralph, it's a mighty big item."

"And here's my little girl," continued Mrs. Dering in a moment, and
looking down at Jean, whose head lay in her lap. "Has she any?"

"None, mama," answered Jean, looking up with happy eyes. "Except that
you are going away, and that Uncle Ridley is not here."

"Surely, no one supposes for an instant that I have any," said Olive,
and every one shook their heads in a decided negative, except Mrs.
Dering, and she looked across into Olive's eyes with a smile, and Olive,
catching the look, dropped them to the fire, and said no more. She had
intimated that she had none; but was it so in the depths of her heart?
Was she quite content?

"You do to-night, as you did before, and no one asks me for mine," said
Mrs. Dering with a smile. "Do you rightly guess that I have none?"

"We hope that you have none, mama," said Bea, lovingly.

"Indeed, I have not, my dear girls; instead, as I sit here to-night with
you all around me, I wonder if I am fully grateful for how good God has
been to me. I look at you, and I see in my girls just such good, true
women as their father would have them, and I am more than content. I
would that these three vacant places might be filled to-night, but God
knows best, and I feel only love, not regret. No, my dear girls, I have
no disappointments to-night, only a heart full of happiness and
content."