ke you I may say that the cause is now perplexity; for
what can _I_ do to help you in your present difficulty?"

"Truly not much. But I like to tell you of my troubles, and to make
more of them than they deserve, for the sake of drawing forth your
sympathy. Bless your heart!" he said, in a sudden burst of enthusiasm,
"I would gladly undergo any amount of trouble every day, if by so doing
I should secure that earnest, loving, anxious gaze of your sweet blue
eyes as a reward!" Stanley imprinted a hearty kiss on his wife's cheek
as he made this lover-like speech, and then rose to place his
fowling-piece on the pegs from which it usually hung over the fireplace.

At that moment the door opened, and a little girl, with bright eyes and
flaxen hair, bounded into the room.

"O mamma, mamma!" she said, holding up a sheet of paper, while a look of
intense satisfaction beamed on her animated countenance, "see, I have
drawn Chimo's portrait. Is it like, mamma? Do you think it like?"

"Come here, Eda, my darling, come to me," said Stanley, seating himself
on a chair and extending his arms. Edith instantly left the portrait of
the dog in her mother's possession, and, without waiting for an opinion
as to its merits, ran to her father, jumped on his knee, threw her arms
round his neck, and kissed him. Edith was by no means a beautiful
child, but miserable indeed must have been the taste of him who would
have pronounced her plain-looking. Her features were not regular; her
nose had a strong tendency to what is called snubbed, and her mouth was
large; but to counterbalance these defects she had a pair of large,
deep-blue eyes, soft, golden hair, a fair, rosy complexion, and an
expression of sweetness at the corners of her mouth that betrayed
habitual good-nature. She was quick in all her movements, combined with
a peculiar softness and grace of deportment that was exceedingly
attractive.

"Would you like to go, my pet," said her father, "to a country far, far
away in the north, where there are high mountains and deep valleys,
inhabited by beautiful reindeer, and large lakes and rivers filled with
fish; where there is very little daylight all the long winter, and where
there is scarcely any night all the long, bright summer? Would my Eda
like to go there?"

The child possessed that fascinating quality of being intensely
interested in all that was said to her. As her father spoke, her eyes
gradually expanded and looked str