thus day after day, getting such an insight into their domestic life
and true characters as years of ordinary intercourse would not have given
him. He learned to love them all--the kind, cheerful, unselfish older
people; the sweet-faced, gentle, tender mother; the fair and lovely
maiden, lovely in mind and person; the brave, frank, open-hearted lads,
and the dear, innocent little ones.

He studied them all furtively and with increasing interest, growing more
and more reconciled the while to his involuntary detention among them.

Oftentimes they were all there, but occasionally one of the grandparents
or the mother would be away at Roselands for a day or two, taking turns in
ministering to Mrs. Conly, and comforting and cheering her feeble old
father.

"You have no idea, my dear sir," the captain one day remarked to his host,
"how delightful it is to a man who has passed most of his life on
shipboard, away from women and children, to be taken into such a family
circle as this! I think you who live in it a highly favored man, sir!"

"I quite agree with you," Mr. Dinsmore said "I think we are an
exceptionally happy family, though not exempt from the trials incident to
life in this world of sin and sorrow."

"Your daughter is an admirable mother," the captain went on, "so gentle
and affectionate, and yet so firm; her children show by their behavior
that their training has been very nearly ii not quite faultless. And in
seeing so much of them I realize as never before the hardship of the
constant separation from my own which my profession entails, as I ask
myself, 'If I were with them thus day after day, should I find them as
obedient, docile, and intelligent as these little ones? Will my Max be as
fine a lad as Harold or Herbert? Can I hope to see Lulu and Gracie growing
up into such lovely maidenhood as that of Miss Violet?"

"I sincerely hope you may be so blessed, captain," Mr. Dinsmore said, "but
much will depend upon the training to which they are subjected. There is
truth in the old proverb, 'Just as the twig is bent the tree's inclined.'"

"Yes, sir; and a higher authority says, 'Train up a child in the way he
should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.' But my
difficulty is that I can neither train them myself, nor see that the work
is rightly done by others."

"That is sad, indeed," Mr. Dinsmore replied with sincere sympathy. "But,
my dear sir, is there not strong consolation in the thought th