away for a long time," explained Birdie. "He only came
home last night, and I cried myself to sleep, I was so glad. You see,"
said the child, growing more confidential, and nestling closer to
Daisy's side, and opening wide her great brown eyes, "I was crying for
fear he would bring home a wife, and mamma was crying for fear he
wouldn't. I wrote him a letter all by myself once, and begged him not
to marry, but come home all alone, and you see he did," cried the
child, overjoyed. "When he answered my letter, he inclosed a little
pressed flower, with a golden heart and little white leaves around it,
saying: 'There is no flower like the daisy for me. I shall always
prize them as pearls beyond price.' I planted a whole bed of them
beneath his window, and I placed a fresh vase of them in his room,
mingled with some forget-me-nots, and when he saw them, he caught me
in his arms, and cried as though his heart would break."

If the white fleecy clouds in the blue sky, the murmuring sea, or the
silver-throated bobolink swinging in the green leafy bough above her
head, had only whispered to Daisy why he loved the flowers so well
which bore the name of daisy, how much misery might have been spared
two loving hearts! The gray, dusky shadows of twilight were creeping
up from the sea.

"Oh, see how late it is growing," cried Birdie, starting up in alarm.
"I am afraid you could not carry me up to the porch. If you could
only summon a servant, or--or--my brother."

For answer, Daisy raised the slight burden in her arms with a smile.

"I like you more than I can tell," said Birdie, laying her soft, pink,
dimpled cheek against Daisy's. "Won't you come often to the angle in
the stone wall? That is my favorite nook. I like to sit there and
watch the white sails glide by over the white crested waves."

"Yes," said Daisy, "I will come every day."

"Some time I may bring my brother with me; you must love him, too,
won't you?"

"I should love any one who had you for a sister," replied Daisy,
clasping the little figure she held still closer in her arms; adding,
in her heart: "You are so like him."

Birdie gave her such a hearty kiss, that the veil twined round her hat
tumbled about her face like a misty cloud.

"You must put me down while you fix your veil," said Birdie. "You can
not see with it so. There are huge stones in the path, you would
stumble and fall."

"So I shall," assented Daisy, as she placed the child down on the
sof