sible that anyone else can ever be half so dear to me, and I
am so glad that you want to keep me your own little girl for years
longer."

"For all our life on earth, daughter, if you are satisfied to have it
so," he returned, bestowing upon her a look and smile of tenderest
fatherly affection. "You are still one of my chief treasures, which I
should be very loath to bestow upon anyone else; dearer to me--as all my
children are--than tongue can tell."

"Yes, papa," she said, looking up into his eyes with a joyous smile, "so
you have told me many, many times; but I love to hear it just as if you
had never said it before."

"As I do your expressions of ardent love for me, daughter," he returned.
"Very glad I am that I am not the one who must to-day resign to another
the ownership of a daughter."

"I am sorry for Grandma Elsie," said Lucilla; "but then I suppose she
must feel rather used to it--having given away two daughters before."

"And having none left to be a care and trouble, eh?" laughed her father.

"No, sir; having both near enough to be seen and enjoyed every day if
she chooses. Don't you hope that will be the way with you if you have to
give any of yours up to somebody else?"

"I certainly do," he said. "I should be very loath to consent to having
any one of them carried off to a distance. But let us not trouble
ourselves with anxious thought of what may lie in the future. Remember
the dear Master's word, 'Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.'"

"Yes, papa; and I remember your teaching me that his 'Take no thought,'
means no anxiety, and that it tends greatly to one's happiness to live
one day at a time, just leaving all the future in his hands."

"Yes, daughter; just as a little child leaves its future and the supply
of its daily wants in the care of its parents."

"Such kind teaching, and easy to understand when one has such a father
as mine," she said, with a look of grateful love.

"I am thankful, indeed, daughter, if anything in my treatment and
teaching helps you to a clearer understanding of how the Master would
have you to act and feel," he said in tones that spoke full appreciation
of her filial affection.

"Ah! there is our mail," he added, as a servant was seen carrying it
toward the house; "so we will go in now and see if it contains anything
important for you or me."

"And if there is anything you want answered on the typewriter you will
let me do it at once, won't you, papa?"