Oh, if only we could keep
papa all the time!"

"I wish we could," said Max. "But we won't have so hard a time as we've
had for the last two years whenever he was away."

They had reached the door of Lulu's room. "Max," she said, turning to him
as with a sudden thought, "what do you suppose papa is coming to our rooms
for?"

"What do _you_ suppose? have you done anything you ought to be punished
for?" asked Max, a little mischievously. "I thought you looked very cross
and rebellious about the hat and about having to come home so soon. I'm
very sure, from what I've heard of Grandpa Dinsmore's strictness, that if
you were his child you'd get a whipping for it."

Lulu looked frightened.

"But, Max, you don't think papa means to punish me for that, do you? He
has been so kind and pleasant since," she said, with a slight tremble in
her voice.

"You'll find out when he comes," laughed Max. "Good-night," and he
hastened away to his own room.

A guilty conscience made Lulu very uneasy as she hurried through her
preparations for bed, and as she heard her father's step approach the door
she grew quite frightened.

He came in and closed it after him. Lulu was standing in her night-dress,
just ready for bed. He caught up a heavy shawl, wrapped it about her, and
seating himself lifted her to his knee.

"Why, how you are trembling!" he exclaimed. "What is the matter?"

"O papa! are you--are you going to punish me for being so naughty this
evening?" she asked, hanging her head while her cheeks grew red.

"That was not my intention in coming in here," he said. "But, Lulu, your
wilfulness is a cause of great anxiety to me. I hardly know what to do
with you. I am very loath to burden our kind friends--Grandpa Dinsmore and
Grandma Elsie--with so rebellious and unmanageable a child, for it will be
painful to them to be severe with you, and yet I see that you will compel
them to it."

"I won't be punished by anybody but you! Nobody else has a right!" burst
out Lulu.

"Yes, my child, I have given them the right, and the only way for you to
escape punishment is not to deserve it. And if you prove too troublesome
for them, you are to be sent to a boarding-school, and that, you will
understand, involves separation from Max and Gracie, and life among total
strangers."

"Papa, you wouldn't, you couldn't be so cruel!" she said, bursting into
tears and hiding her face on his breast.

"I hope you will not be so cruel to yourself