“Enjoying my lovely, lovely rooms, papa, and examining the closets and wardrobe and bureau, to find out just where all my things have been put.”

“That was well.  Do you know any thing about housework,—­sweeping, dusting, and keeping things neat and tidy?”

“Not very much, papa.”

“That is to be a part of your education,” he said.  “I want my daughters to become thorough housekeepers, conversant with all the details of every branch of the business.  Gracie is not old enough or strong enough to begin that part of her training yet, but you are; so you must take care of your rooms yourself, except when something more than sweeping, dusting, and bed-making is needed.”

“I’d like well enough to do it sometimes, papa,” she said, looking a little crestfallen; “but I don’t like to be tied down to doing it every day, because some days I shall want to be busy at something else; and besides, it is so much like being a servant.”

“My little girl, that isn’t a right kind of pride; honest labor is no disgrace; and ‘Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work,’ is as much a command of God as the ’In it (the sabbath) thou shalt not do any work.’”

“Yes, papa:  and I don’t think I’m lazy; I like to be busy, and sometimes work for hours together at my fret-sawing.”

“No, I have never thought you an indolent child,” he said, smoothing her hair caressingly; “but I am afraid you are wilful, and inclined to think yourself wiser than your elders, even your father.”

“Please, papa, don’t think that,” she said, blushing, and hanging her head:  “I know you are much wiser than I am.”

“Is it, then, that you doubt my affection for you?” he asked seriously.

“Why, papa, how could I, when you are so good to me, and often tell me that you love me dearly?”

“What, then, is the trouble? if you believe your father to be both wise and loving, and if you love him, and want to please him, how can you object to his plans and wishes for you?”

“But, papa, who is to teach me how to take care of my rooms?  Not mamma Vi, I suppose?  I never saw her do any such work; and—­would you want me taught by one of the servants?” she queried, blushing vividly.

“No,” he said:  “I have a better plan than that.  I have engaged Christine to be housekeeper here, and she will instruct you in all housewifely arts.  She is a lady in education and manners, and you need feel it no degradation to be instructed by her.”

“Oh, that will be nice! and I’ll try to learn to do the work well, and to like it, too, to please you, my own, dear papa,” she said, looking up lovingly into his face, her own growing very bright again.

“That is right, my dear little daughter,” he returned, smiling kindly upon her.

“You asked just now,” he went on, “if your mamma Vi would teach you these things.  When I asked her to become my wife, I promised that she should have no care or responsibility in the matter of training and looking after the welfare of the three children I then had; because her mother objected, that she was too young for such a burden:  so now that I can live at home with my children, and have no business that need interfere, I shall do my best to be father and mother both to them.”