My dear, dear papa! Miss Rose, I love him so much." "I am so glad for you, my poor little one," murmured Rose, drawing the little girl closer to her.

"It seemed so sad and lonely for you, with neither father nor mother to love you.

And you were very ill last summer, darling?
and very unhappy before that?
Your Aunt Adelaide wrote me all about it, and my heart ached for my poor darling; oh, how I longed to comfort her!" "Yes, Miss Rose, that was a dreadful time; but papa only did what he thought was right, and you cannot think how kind he was when I was getting better." Elsie's eyes were full of tears.
"I know it, darling, and I pitied him, too, and often prayed for you both," said Rose.

"But tell me, dearest, was Jesus near to you in your troubles ?" "Yes, Miss Rose, very near, and very precious; else how could I have borne it at all?
for oh, Miss Rose, I thought sometimes my heart would break!" "It was a bitter trial, dearest, I know; and certain I am that you must have had much more than your own strength to enable you to be so firm," said Rose, tenderly.
"Ah, there is Sophy!" she added quickly, as a mass of flaxen curls, accompanied by a pair of dancing blue eyes, appeared for an instant at the door, and then as suddenly vanished.

"Sophy! Sophy, come here!" she called, and again the door opened and the owner of the blue eyes and flaxen ringlets--a little girl about Elsie's age, came in, and moved slowly towards them, looking at the stranger in her sister's lap with a mingled expression of fun, curiosity, and bashfulness.
"Come, Sophy, this is Elsie Dinsmore, whom you have so often wished to see," said Rose.