“You seemed to be strong as an eagle while you were singing,” responded her husband.

“I felt like a drenched humming-bird when Mr. Bright came in,” rejoined she; “but he and the music together lifted me up into the blue, as your Germans say.”

“And from that height can you say to me, ’Obey the call of duty, Florimond’?”

She put her little hand in his and answered, “I can.  May God protect us all!”

Then, turning to her children, she said:  “I am going to bring Mamita; and presently, when I go away to be alone with papa a little while, I want you to do everything to make the evening pleasant for Mamita.  You know she likes to hear you sing, ‘Now Phoebus sinketh in the west.’”

“And I will play that Nocturne of Mendelssohn’s that she likes so much,” replied Rosen Blumen.  “She says I play it almost as well as Aunt Rosa.”

“And she likes to hear me sing, ‘Once on a time there was a king,’” said Lila.  “She says she heard you singing it in the woods a long time ago, when she hadn’t anybody to call her Mamita.”

“Very well, my children,” replied their mother.  “Do everything you can to make Mamita happy; for there will never be such another Mamita.”

* * * * *

During the anxious months that followed Mr. Blumenthal’s departure, the sisters and their families were almost daily at the rooms of the Sanitary Commission, sewing, packing, or writing.  Henriet had become expert with the sewing-machine, and was very efficient help; and even Tulee, though far from skilful with her needle, contrived to make dozens of hospital slippers, which it was the pride of her heart to deliver to the ladies of the Commission.  Chloe added her quota of socks, often elephantine in shape, and sometimes oddly decorated with red tops and toes; but with a blessing for “the boys in blue” running through all the threads.  There is no need to say how eagerly they watched for letters, and what a relief it was to recognize the writing of beloved hands, feeling each time that it might be the last.

Mr. King kept up occasional correspondence with the officers of George Falkner’s company, and sent from time to time favorable reports of his bravery and good habits.  Henriet received frequent letters from him, imperfectly spelled, but full of love and loyalty.

Two years after Mr. King left his happy home, he was brought back with a Colonel’s shoulder-strap, but with his right leg gone, and his right arm in a sling.  When the first joy of reunion had expressed itself in caresses and affectionate words, he said to Rosa, “You see what a cripple you have for a husband.”

“I make the same reply the English girl did to Commodore Barclay,” she replied; “’You’re dear as ever to me, so long as there’s body enough to hold the soul,’”

Eulalia wept tears of joy on her father’s neck, while Flora, and Rosen Blumen, and Lila clasped their arms round him, and Tulee stood peeping in at the door, waiting for her turn to welcome the hero home.