ed chorus, for
they had supposed all the presents had been already shown them. "O
Rosie, how lovely!"

"I'm ever so glad for you Rosie," said Lulu; "but I'd about made up my
mind that Grandma Elsie thought about buying the pearls for you as papa
did about the ring I wanted."

"Mamma didn't buy them," explained Rosie; "they are a set grandpa gave
her when she was a little girl; and I think they are as handsome as any
she could have found any where. She said she valued them very highly as
his gift, but would never wear them again, and as I am her own little
girl, she was willing to give them to me."

"I think you're pretty big, Rosie," remarked Grace.

"Yes; in my fifteenth year; almost a woman, as grandpa tells me
sometimes--when he wants to make me ashamed of not being wiser and
better I suppose," returned Rosie with a laugh, closing the casket and
returning it to the drawer, just as Betty, the little maid, showed her
black face and woolly head at the half open door with the announcement,
"Dinnah's ready, Miss Rosie; an' all de folks gwine into de dinnin'
room."

"Very well; we're not sorry to hear it, are we girls? Let us pair off
and go down at once to secure our fair share," said Rosie gaily.
"There's just an even number of us--Maud and Lora, Lulu and Eva, Grace
and Rosie Lacey, Sydney and I. We're to have a table to ourselves; I
asked mamma if we might, and she gave consent."

"I like that," remarked Sydney with satisfaction; "we can have our own
fun and eat what we please without anybody to trouble us with
suggestions that perhaps such and such articles of food may not agree
with us."

"But we'll be in the same room with the older folks and they can
overlook us if they see fit," said Rosie.

"And I'd rather have papa to tell me what to eat," said Grace.

They were hurrying down the stairs as they talked and reached the
dining room just in time to take their places before the blessing was
asked--by Mr. Dinsmore at the larger table.

It was a grand dinner of many courses, and a good deal of time,
enlivened by cheerful chat, was spent at the table.

Quiet games--mirth provoking, yet requiring little exertion of mind or
body--filled up the remainder of the afternoon.

After tea they had romping games, but at nine o'clock were called
together for family worship; then the younger ones, including Lulu and
Grace, went to their beds; very willingly too, for the day--begun so
early because of their eagerness