“Yes, I intend they shall,” replied her husband.  “Even Gracie can, I think, eat some ice-cream with safety.”

“Thank you, papa:  I’ll be satisfied with that, if you don’t think it is best for me to have any thing else,” Lulu said, recovering her spirits.

They had scarcely left the table when the guests began to arrive, those from Ion and Fairview coming first.

“Mamma, dearest mamma! welcome, a thousand times welcome, to our home!” exclaimed Violet, embracing her mother with ardent affection.

“I wish it were yours also, mother,” the captain said:  “there could be no more welcome inmate.”

There were cordial, affectionate greetings for each of the others also:  then, when outdoor garments had been laid aside, all were conducted over the house, to be shown the improvements already made, and told of those still in contemplation.

It was a great delight to Lulu and Grace to exhibit their pretty rooms to Evelyn and Rosie, and hear their expressions of surprise and admiration; and the pleasure was repeated several times, as the little folks from the Laurels, the Oaks, and the Pines arrived, and in succession went the same round.

“I am pleased with all I have seen, Vi; but this room is especially charming to me,” grandma Elsie said, when Violet led her a second time into the nursery, the rest of the Ion party having passed on down to the parlors.  “Baby should be a merry, happy child, if pleasant, cheerful surroundings can make her so.”

“I trust she will, mamma,” returned the young mother, leading the way to the dainty crib where the little one lay sweetly sleeping.

Elsie bent over the little form, gazing at the sweet baby face with eyes brimful of motherly love and tenderness.

“The lovely, precious darling!” she murmured softly.  “I am so rejoiced, so thankful, to see her looking almost herself again!”

“As we are,” said Violet, in low, tremulous tones.  “Her father is extremely fond of her, mamma, as he is of all his children.  I think he has no favorite among them, but loves each one devotedly.”

“As I do mine,” Elsie responded, a bright, sweet smile lighting up her face.  “I love you, my Vi, and all your brothers and sisters, very dearly,—­each with a love differing somewhat in kind from that given to the others, but not at all in intensity.”

They lingered a moment longer, watching the young sleeper:  then with a parting injunction to the nurse to be very careful of her, not leaving her alone for an instant, they went down-stairs again, and rejoined the rest of the company.

Everybody had come, the last party of children just descended from the inspection of the rooms of Max and his sisters.

“Now, have we seen positively every thing?” asked Rosie Travilla.

“Why, no!” cried Max, as with sudden recollection.  Then hurrying to his father, who was talking on the other side of the room to Dr. Conly, and Mr. Horace Dinsmore of the Oaks, he stood waiting respectfully for an opportunity to speak.