MARTHA FINLEY Ultimate Collection – Timeless Children Classics & Other Novels. Finley Martha

busy weeks followed, and a large box was packed and sent off.

      "If that arrives safely we will send another," they said; for news had reached them that such supplies were sorely needed.

      "What! at it again, little wife?" queried Mr. Travilla, entering Elsie's boudoir the next morning, to find her delicate fingers busy with knitting-needles and coarse blue yarn.

      "Yes, sir," she said, smiling up at him, "it seems a slight relief to my anxiety about my country, to be doing something, if it is only this."

      "Ah! then I'll take lessons, if you, or Aunt Chloe there will teach me," he returned, laughingly drawing up a chair and taking a seat by her side. "Mammy, can you supply another set of needles, and more yarn?"

      "Yes, massa;" and laying down the stocking she was at work upon, away she went in search of them.

      "Papa, see! so pitty!" cried a little voice; and "wee Elsie" was at his knee, with a diamond necklace in her hand.

      "Yes," he said, gently taking it from her, "but rather too valuable a plaything for my little pet. How did she get hold of it, dearest?" he asked, turning to his wife.

      "Mamma say Elsie may. Please, papa, let Elsie have it," pleaded the little one with quivering lip and fast-filling eyes.

      "I gave her leave to look over the contents of my jewel box; she is a very careful little body, and mammy and I are both on the watch:" answered mamma. "It is a great treat to her; and she takes up only one article at a time, examines it till satisfied, then lays it back exactly as she found it. So please, papa, may she go on?"

      "Yes, if mamma gave permission it is all right, darling," he said, caressing the child and returning the necklace.

      "Tank oo, papa, mamma; Elsie be very tareful mamma's pitty sings," she cried with a gleeful laugh, holding up her rosebud mouth for a kiss, first to one, then the other.

      "Let papa see where you put it, precious," he said, following her as she tripped across the room and seated herself on a cushion in front of the box.

      "Dere, papa, dus where Elsie dot it," she said, laying it carefully back in its proper place. "See, so many, many pitty sings in mamma's box."

      "Yes," he said, passing his eye thoughtfully from one to another of the brilliant collection of rings, brooches, chains, bracelets, and necklaces sparkling with gems—diamonds, rubies, amethysts, pearls, emeralds, and other precious stones. "Little wife, your jewels alone are worth what to very many would be a handsome fortune."

      "Yes, Edward, and is it not really a pity to have so much locked up in them?"

      "No, it is a good investment; especially as things are at present."

      "I could do very well without them; should never have bought them for myself: they are almost all your gifts and papa's, or his purchases."

      Aunt Chloe had returned with the needles and yarn, and now Elsie began giving the lesson in knitting, both she and her pupil making very merry over it. Rose and Mr. Dinsmore presently joined them, and the latter, not to be outdone by his son-in-law, invited his wife to teach him.

      Horace was at his lessons, but Rosebud, or Rosie as she had gradually come to be called, soon followed her parents. She was a bright, merry little girl of six, very different from what her sister had been at that age; full of fun and frolicsome as a kitten, very fond of her father, liking to climb upon his knee to be petted and caressed, but clinging still more to her sweet, gentle mamma.

      Mr. Travilla and she were the best of friends; she was devotedly attached to her sister, and considered it "very nice and funny," that she was aunt to wee Elsie and baby Eddie.

      "Oh," she cried, the moment she came into the room, "what is wee Elsie doing? Mamma, may I, too?"

      "May you what?" asked Rose.

      "Why, what is the child doing? playing with your jewels, Elsie?" asked Mr. Dinsmore in a tone of surprise, noticing for the first time what was the employment of his little granddaughter.

      "Yes, papa; but she is very careful, and I am watching her."

      "I should not allow it, if she were my child. No, Rosie, you may not; you are not a careful little girl."

      Rosie was beginning to pout, but catching the stern look in her father's eye, quickly gave it up, her face clearing as if by magic.

      "Papa," Elsie asked in a low tone, "do you wish me to take away those costly playthings from my little girl?"

      "My dear daughter," he said, smiling tenderly upon her, "I have neither the right nor the wish to interfere with you and your children; especially when your husband approves of your management. I only fear you may suffer loss. How easy a valuable ring may slip through the little fingers and roll away into some crevice where it would never be found."

      "I'm afraid it is rather hazardous," she acknowledged. "Mammy, sit close to Elsie and keep a careful watch, lest she should drop something."

      "I begin to think there's truth in the old saw, 'It's hard to teach old dogs new tricks,'" remarked Mr. Travilla, with a comically rueful face. "I've a mind to give it up. What do you say, Dinsmore?"

      "That you wouldn't make a good soldier, if you are so easily conquered, Travilla."

      "Oh, fighting's another thing, but I'll persevere as long as you do; unless I find I'm wearying my teacher."

      "Perhaps you would learn faster with a better teacher," said Elsie, "I'm sure the fault is not in the scholar; because I know he's bright and talented."

      "Ah! then I shall try harder than ever, to save your reputation; but take a recess now, for here comes my boy, reaching out his arms to papa. Bring him here Dinah. Papa's own boy, he looks beautiful and as bright as the day."

      "Mamma thinks he's a very handsome mixture of papa and grandpa," Elsie said, leaning over to caress the babe, now crowing in his father's arms.

      "I'm afraid he inherits too much of his grandpa's temper," remarked Mr. Dinsmore, but with a glance of loving pride bestowed upon the beautiful babe.

      "I, for one, have no objection, provided he learns to control it as well," said Mr. Travilla; "he will make the finer character."

      Little Elsie had grown weary of her play.

      "Put box way now, mammy," she said, getting up from her cushion; "wee Elsie don't want any more. Mamma take; Elsie so tired."

      The baby voice sounded weak and languid, and tottering to her mother's side, she almost fell into her lap.

      "Oh, my baby! my precious darling, what is it?" cried Elsie, catching her up in her arms. "Papa! Edward! she is dying!"

      For the face had suddenly lost all its color; the eyes were rolled upward, the tiny fists tightly clenched, and the little limbs had grown stiff and rigid on the mother's lap.

      Mr. Travilla hastily set down the babe, laid turned to look at his little girl, his face full of alarm and distress.

      Mr. Dinsmore sprang to his daughter's side, and meeting her look of agony, said soothingly, "No, dearest, it is a spasm, she will soon be over it."

      "Yes; don't be so terrified, dear child," said Rose, dropping her work and hurrying to Elsie's assistance; "they are not unusual with children; I have seen both May and Daisy have them. Quick, Aunt Chloe! a cloth dipped in spirits of turpentine, to lay over the stomach and bowels, and another to put between her shoulders. It is the best thing we can do till we get a doctor here. But, ah, see! it is already passing away."

      That was true; the muscles were beginning to relax, and in another moment the eyes resumed their natural appearance, the hands were no longer clenched, and a low plaintive, "Mamma," came from the little lips.

      "Mamma is here, darling," Elsie said, amid her fast-dropping tears, covering the little wan face with kisses, as she held it to her bosom.

      "Thank God! she is still ours!" exclaimed the father, almost under his breath; then, a little louder, "Elsie,