erhaps they caught a ray or two
of the joy which beamed, like sunshine, from Jessie's heart.

The next morning after breakfast, filled with the idea of finishing the
quilt before dinner, Jessie found a parcel in her work-basket directed to
Miss Jessie Carlton.

"What can it be?" said she, as she hastily untied the string, and unfolded
the wrapping-paper.

"A pair of ladies' skates! Oh, how glad I am! I wonder who sent them. Oh!
here is a piece of paper. What does it say?"

Holding the paper to the light she read as follows:

"From a fond father to his beloved daughter."

"From pa! Oh, how good of him! It's too bad he didn't stop to let me thank
him. But I'll thank him to-night. I've been wishing all this fall for a
pair of skates, because all the girls are going to have them. Suppose I
just step out and try them a little while."

Thus did Jessie talk out her thoughts to herself. Thus did the impulse
come over her to leave her morning's duty and repeat the fault of the day
before. It was fortunate, perhaps, that her cousins, knowing she meant to
sew, had rushed off to find a slide before she discovered her new skates.
Their persuasions, joined to her own impulse, might have overcome her and
brought her into bondage to the little wizard again. Without their
presence, I confess, the temptation to try the skates was a very strong
one. Jessie was getting ready to go out when her eye fell on the paper
which was still pinned to the basket's edge. She paused, blushed, put down
the skates, and said aloud:

"No, no, little wizard, I won't obey you. The quilt shall be finished, and
the skates shall wait until the afternoon."

"Three cheers for my little conqueror!" shouted Uncle Morris, who, coming
in at that moment, overheard this last remark.

"O uncle! I was _almost_ conquered myself," said Jessie.

"Never mind that, for now you are _quite_ a conqueror," rejoined her
uncle, smiling and patting her head.

Need I say that the quilt was finished that morning? It was; and before
Jessie sat down to dinner, she had the pleasure of seeing it put into the
quilting-frame by Maria, the seamstress of the household. And thus did our
sweet little Jessie win her first really decisive victory over the little
wizard which had hitherto been to her like the fisherman's wife, Alice, in
the fairy tale--the plague of her life.

CHAPTER VIII.

Farewell to the Cousins.

Scarcely had Jessie feasted her eyes on her quilt, snug