you expect me to keep it?"

"Of course, at least a part of it," and Olive looked so serious, as she
came and stood by his chair, that he became attentive in an instant,
saying heartily:--"Well, go on dear, I'm listening, and promise to keep
the secret."

Olive hesitated an instant, but she always hated to show any feeling,
especially of embarrassment, so pitched into her subject abruptly, with
her eyes down. "You know, papa, that we know that you have been troubled
with the hard times, and wanted to help you."

"Yes, Olive, and I can never forget the way that my girls and their dear
mother anticipated, and have done to help me."

"No," Olive answered, almost impatiently. "We have done nothing; it most
all falls on mama; she helps us with the work, and as for 'Prince,' of
course, we loved him, but we girls are able to walk, it's only mama, who
is denied; so all the help it is, she gives, not we."

"Then we should love her all the more, dear," said Mr. Dering; and the
tenderness and love that shone in his face would have gladdened the
heart of the wife of thirty years, had she seen it.

"I don't think we can ever love her enough," answered Olive heartily;
then hesitated again, while her hand went slowly into her pocket, and
came slowly out again.

"Hold your hand, papa."

He did so, and after placing a little roll in it, and closing his
fingers over it, she said hurriedly: "It is only a little, papa; just
thirty dollars that I have saved, but I want you to take it, and----"

"But Olive, my dear child----"

"Don't, please;" she interrupted hastily. "I know what you want to say,
but it's not denying me anything, and what if it was? I want you to have
it. You never gave us our allowance to buy our clothes with, and as for
fancy things, I don't care for them; I don't care to go out as the other
girls do, and I do not need it for anything. I only wish it was more."

There may have been many reasons why Mr. Dering said nothing as he drew
her on to his knee, and kissed her tenderly, but the right one would not
have been hard to guess had any one seen his eyes full of tears. Olive's
heart was beating happily, and she went on quite gayly: "And another
thing, papa; now don't say anything until I finish; I want to have all
my own way to-night. You know, sometime ago I helped Mr. Hess with some
writing, and he said that if I would draw his little girl's head, he
would teach me how to keep books; well, he did, you know, a