d contracted brow.

"Strange!" he muttered, "that she is _so hard_ to conquer. I never
imagined that she could be so stubborn. One thing is certain," he added,
heaving a deep sigh; "we must separate for a time, or I shall be in
danger of yielding; for it is no easy matter to resist her tearful
pleadings, backed as they are by the yearning affection of my own heart.
How I love the perverse little thing! Truly she has wound herself around
my very heart-strings. But I _must_ get these absurd notions out of her
head, or I shall never have any comfort with her; and if I yield _now_,
I may as well just give that up entirely; besides, I have _said_ it; and
_I will_ have her to understand that my word is law."

And with another heavy sigh he threw himself upon the sofa, where he lay
in deep thought for some moments; then, suddenly springing up, he rang
the bell for his servant.

"John," he said, as the man appeared in answer to his summons, "I shall
leave for the North to-morrow morning. See that my trunk is packed, and
everything in readiness. You are to go with me, of course."

"Yes, Massa, I'll 'tend to it," replied John, bowing, and retiring with a
grin of satisfaction on his face. "Berry glad," he chuckled to himself,
as he hurried away to tell the news in the kitchen, "_berry_ glad dat
young Massa's got tired ob dis dull ole place at last. Wonder if little
Miss Elsie gwine along."

Elsie rose the next morning feeling very weak, and looking pale and sad:
and not caring to avail herself of her father's permission to join the
family, she took her breakfast in her own room, as usual. She was on her
way to the school-room soon afterwards, when, seeing her papa's man
carrying out his trunk, she stopped and inquired in a tone of alarm--

"Why, John! is papa going away?"

"Yes, Miss Elsie; but ain't you gwine along? I s'posed you was."

"No, John," she answered faintly, leaning against the wall for support;
"but where is papa going?"

"Up North, Miss Elsie; dunno no more 'bout it; better ask Massa Horace
hisself," replied the servant, looking compassionately at her pale face,
and eyes brimful of tears.

Mr. Dinsmore himself appeared at this moment, and Elsie, starting forward
with clasped hands, and the tears running down her cheeks, looked
piteously up into his face, exclaiming, "Oh, papa, dear are you going
away, and without me?"

Without replying, he took her by the hand, and turning back into his
room again, shut