ed my constitution. Yet it is sweet to die for one's country! I do
not grudge the price I pay to secure her liberties."

Elsie's eyes sparkled through her tears. "True patriotism still lives!"
she said. "Harold, I am proud of you and your brothers. Of dear Walter,
too; for his heart was right, however mistaken his head may have been."

"Walter? oh, yes, and I----"

But the sentence was interrupted by the entrance of his mother and
sisters, May and Daisy, Mr. Dinsmore, and his son and daughter. Fresh
greetings, of course, had to be exchanged all round, and were scarcely
finished when Mr. Travilla came in with his three children.

Elsie called them to her, and presented them to Harold with all a mother's
fond pride in her darlings.

"I have taught them to call you Uncle Harold. Do you object?"

"Object? far from it; I am proud to claim them as my nephew and nieces."

He gazed with tender admiration upon each dear little face; then, drawing
the eldest to him and putting an arm about her, said, "She is just what
you must have been at her age, Elsie; a little younger than when you first
came to Elmgrove. And she bears your name?"

"Yes; her papa and mine would hear of no other for her."

"I like to have mamma's name," said the child, in a pretty, modest way,
looking up into his face. "Grandpa and papa call mamma Elsie, and me wee
Elsie and little Elsie, and sometimes daughter. Grandpa calls mamma
daughter too, but papa calls her wife. Mamma, has Uncle Harold seen baby?"

"My namesake! ah, I should like to see him."

"There is mammy on the porch now, with him in her arms," cried the child.

"Go, and tell her to bring him here, daughter," Elsie said; and the little
girl hastened to obey.

It was a very fine babe, and Harold looked at it with interest.

"I am proud of my name-child," he said, turning to the mother with a
gratified smile. "You and Mr. Travilla were very kind to remember me."

The latter, who had been engaged in the exchange of salutations with the
others, hearing his name, now came up and took the hand of the invalid in
his. He was much moved by the sad alteration in the young man, who, when
last seen by him, was in high health and spirits--the full flush of early
manhood's prime.

Taking a seat by his side, he inquired with kindly interest how he was,
who was his physician, and if there had been any improvement in the case
of late.

"Thank you, no; rather the reverse," Harold said, in answer t