so far! Be sure to write
me long letters. I don't believe that there will be another girl in
school who will have a correspondent in foreign parts. It is nice in
some ways, but I shall miss you."

"I'll send you just as many pretty things as I can," promised Bee. "I'll
never see anything that is real pretty that I won't think of you. You
must write long letters too, Adele, and tell me all about the girls, and
the school, and everything that happens. Oh, there is the warning!"

Adele clung to her for a moment, then as her father and mother hastily
exchanged good-byes with Bee she flung her arms about her uncle.

"You must be awfully good to Bee," she sobbed. "And bring her home safe.
Oh, I do wish you were not going!"

Doctor Raymond kissed her gently without replying, and the three left
the boat.

The big vessel stirred sluggishly, and then with a hip! hip! hurrah!
from the sailors swung out from the pier, backed into midstream and
headed for the bay and the ocean.

Bee drew near her father and slipped her hand into his. Together they
bent over the rail and waved their handkerchiefs at the little group on
the wharf. Adele was sobbing convulsively.

"I did not think she would mind so much," said Bee. "It is nice to be
loved like that, isn't it, father?"

"Yes;" he said, passing his arm about her. "She has just begun to
realize your worth. I think the knowledge of how dear you are to us has
just come to us all."

"Father," she cried, looking up at him lovingly, "you really like me a
great deal, I do believe."

"I should have been very unhappy had I been obliged to leave you,
Beatrice. It is not given to many men to have a dear little companion
who embodies so much wit and cleverness. I am proud of my little
daughter."

Bee was silent through sheer delight. And so they stood. The ship swept
through the narrows and into the lower bay. America was getting farther
and farther away, but she was too happy to care. The Summer had passed.
The cool breezes of Autumn blew refreshingly. Like the ocean the future
stretched before them, and they were sailing toward the unknown. But Bee
glanced at the tender, earnest face of her father, and felt no fear.
Whatever came she was his companion and helper, and she was content.

End of Project Gutenberg's Bee and Butterfly, by Lucy Foster Madison

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