nd laughed with all her heart at the fun. The merry going
to bed would have been the best of all, for Rose wanted someone to
cuddle under the blue blanket with her, there to whisper and giggle and
tell secrets, as girls delight to do.

Long after the rest were asleep, Rose lay wide awake, excited by the
novelty of all about her, and a thought that had come into her mind. Far
away she heard a city clock strike twelve; a large star like a mild eye
peeped in at the opening of the tent, and the soft plash of the waves
seemed calling her to come out. Aunt Jessie lay fast asleep, with Jamie
rolled up like a kitten at her feet, and neither stirred as Rose in her
wrapper crept out to see how the world looked at midnight.

She found it very lovely, and sat down on a cracker keg to enjoy it with
a heart full of the innocent sentiment of her years. Fortunately, Dr.
Alec saw her before she had time to catch cold, for coming out to tie
back the door-flap of his tent for more air, he beheld the small
figure perched in the moonlight. Having no fear of ghosts, he quietly
approached, and, seeing that she was wide awake, said, with a hand on
her shining hair,

"What is my girl doing here?"

"Having a good time," answered Rose, not at all startled.

"I wonder what she was thinking about with such a sober look."

"The story you told of the brave sailor who gave up his place on the
raft to the woman, and the last drop of water to the poor baby. People
who make sacrifices are very much loved and admired, aren't they?" she
asked, earnestly.

"If the sacrifice is a true one. But many of the bravest never are
known, and get no praise. That does not lessen their beauty, though
perhaps it makes them harder, for we all like sympathy," and Dr. Alec
sighed a patient sort of sigh.

"I suppose you have made a great many? Would you mind telling me one of
them?" asked Rose, arrested by the sigh.

"My last was to give up smoking," was the very unromantic answer to her
pensive question.

"Why did you?"

"Bad example for the boys."

"That was very good of you, uncle! Was it hard?"

"I'm ashamed to say it was. But as a wise old fellow once said, 'It is
necessary to do right; it is not necessary to be happy.'"

Rose pondered over the saying as if it pleased her, and then said, with
a clear, bright look,

"A real sacrifice is giving up something you want or enjoy very much,
isn't it?"

"Yes."

"Doing it one's own self because one loves