n't talk in that
way!" he said. "All this is not for you to meddle with nor trouble
your little head with."

"Yes it is, if it troubles you, Papa."

"I can manage my own troubles, and I don't want any little girl like
you trying to take hold of the heavy end," Carroll said, and laughed
quite naturally.

"Then you must not look so ill, papa."

"I am going to have another cup of coffee," Carroll said, and showed
diplomacy.

Charlotte delightedly poured out the coffee. "Isn't it very good
coffee?" she said.

"Delicious coffee."

"I am going to get a beautiful dinner for you," Charlotte said. The
second cup of coffee had reassured her. She began to think her father
did not look so ill, after all. She was herself in a state of perfect
content and happiness. She felt a sense of triumph, of daring, which
exhilarated her. She adored her father, and how cleverly she had
managed this coming back. How impossible she had made it for any one
to gainsay her! After breakfast her father went out, telling her he
should be home by noon, and she busied herself about the house. She
was an absolute novice about such work, but she found in it a charm
of novelty, and she developed a handiness which filled her with
renewed triumph. She kept considering what would her father have done
if she had not returned.

"He would have had no supper when he came home last night," Charlotte
said--"no supper, for he evidently was not going to the inn, and the
fire was out. How dreadful it would have been for him!" She imagined
perfectly her father's sensations of delighted surprise and relief
when he espied her, to welcome him, when he felt the warmth of the
fire, when he smelled the supper. The pure delight of a woman over
the comfort which she gives a child or a man whom she loves was over
her. She realized her father's comfort as she had never realized any
of her own. She fairly danced about her work. She put the bedrooms in
order, she washed the breakfast dishes. Then she meditated going
down-town and buying a fish for dinner. Carroll was very fond of
baked fish. About ten o'clock she had finished her work, and she put
on her hat and coat and set forth. She ordered the fish, and paid for
it. She gave the man a five-dollar note to change. He looked at it
suspiciously. When she had gone out, he and two other men who were
standing in the little market looked at one another.

"Guess the world's comin' to an end," he said, laughing, "when they