little family round him.

"Do not be anxious, I will come back soon," said the man. "While I am
away take care of everything, and especially of our little daughter."

"Yes, we shall be all right--but you--you must take care of yourself
and delay not a day in coming back to us," said the wife, while the
tears fell like rain from her eyes.

The little girl was the only one to smile, for she was ignorant of the
sorrow of parting, and did not know that going to the capital was at
all different from walking to the next village, which her father did
very often. She ran to his side, and caught hold of his long sleeve to
keep him a moment.

"Father, I will be very good while I am waiting for you to come back,
so please bring me a present."

As the father turned to take a last look at his weeping wife and
smiling, eager child, he felt as if some one were pulling him back by
the hair, so hard was it for him to leave them behind, for they had
never been separated before. But he knew that he must go, for the call
was imperative. With a great effort he ceased to think, and resolutely
turning away he went quickly down the little garden and out through the
gate. His wife, catching up the child in her arms, ran as far as the
gate, and watched him as he went down the road between the pines till
he was lost in the haze of the distance and all she could see was his
quaint peaked hat, and at last that vanished too.

"Now father has gone, you and I must take care of everything till he
comes back," said the mother, as she made her way back to the house.

"Yes, I will be very good," said the child, nodding her head, "and when
father comes home please tell him how good I have been, and then
perhaps he will give me a present."

"Father is sure to bring you something that you want very much. I know,
for I asked him to bring you a doll. You must think of father every
day, and pray for a safe journey till he comes back."

"O, yes, when he comes home again how happy I shall be," said the
child, clapping her hands, and her face growing bright with joy at the
glad thought. It seemed to the mother as she looked at the child's face
that her love for her grew deeper and deeper.

Then she set to work to make the winter clothes for the three of them.
She set up her simple wooden spinning-wheel and spun the thread before
she began to weave the stuffs. In the intervals of her work she
directed the little girl's games and taught her to read the ol