my back began to ache again. I wouldn't let mamma send for him, though,
because she said he was working for us all to make our fortunes, and
get doctors for me, and clothes and school for dear Joyce. So I sent
him my love, and told papa to work, and he and I would bring the family
out all right."

"What did your papa seem like in that dream, my little boy?"

"Oh! sir, his forehead was bright as the sun. Sometimes I see him now
when I am tired at night after running all day through Congress."

Reybold's eyes were full of tears as he listened to the boy, and,
turning aside, he saw Joyce Basil weeping also.

"My dear girl," he said to her, looking up significantly, "I fear he
will see his great Father very soon."

Reybold had few acquaintances, and he encouraged the landlady's
daughter to go about with him when she could get a leisure hour or
evening. Sometimes they took a seat at the theatre, more often at the
old Ascension Church, and once they attended a President's reception.
Joyce had the bearing of a well-bred lady, and the purity of thought of
a child. She was noticed as if she had been a new and distinguished
arrival in Washington.

"Ah! Reybold," said Pontotoc Bibb, "I understand, ole feller, what
keeps you so quiet now. You've got a wife unbeknown to the Remittee!
and a happy man I know you air."

It pleased Reybold to hear this, and deepened his interest in the
landlady's family. His attention to her daughter stirred Mrs. Basil's
pride and revolt together.

"My daughter, Colonel Reybold," she said, "is designed for the army.
The Judge never writes to me but he says: 'Tryphonee, be careful that
you impress upon my daughter the importance of the military profession.
My mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother married into the army,
and no girl of the Basil stock shall descend to civil life while I can
keep the Fawquear estates.'"

"Madame," said the Congressman, "will you permit me to make the
suggestion that your daughter is already a woman and needs a father's
care, if she is ever to receive it. I beseech you to impress this
subject upon the Judge. His estates can not be more precious to his
heart, if he is a man of honor; nay, what is better than honor, his
duty requires him to come to the side of these children, though he be
ever so constrained by business or pleasure to attend to more worldly
concerns."

"The Judge," exclaimed Mrs. Basil, much miffed, "is a man of hereditary
ijees, Colonel Re