At that moment the little girls entered the room, and Rosie, hurrying up to her mother, asked, “Mamma, have you heard, has Vi told you what the captain intends doing? how he is going to reward his children for good behavior?”

“Yes; and I shall do the same by you and Walter.”

“That’s a dear, good mamma!” exclaimed Rosie with satisfaction.  “I thought you would.”

“And I intend to follow the captain’s lead in another matter,” Grandma Elsie went on, smiling pleasantly upon her young daughter; “That is in allowing each of my sons and daughters to select some good object for me to give to.”

“That’s nice too,” commented Rosie:  “I like to be trusted in such things—­as well as others,” she added laughing, “and I hope you’ll trust me with quite a sum of money to give or spend just as I please!”

“Ah, my darling, you must not forget that your mother is only a steward,” was the sweet toned response, given between a smile and a sigh; for Grandma Elsie was not free from anxiety about this youngest daughter, who had some serious faults, and had not yet entered the service of the Lord Jesus Christ.

“Evelyn, dear, you too, as my pupil and a sort of adopted daughter, must share the reward of good behavior,” she said, with a tenderly affectionate look at the fatherless niece of her son-in-law.

Evelyn flushed with pleasure; but more because of the loving look than the promise of reward.  “Dear Grandma Elsie, how very kind and good you always are to me!” she exclaimed feelingly, her eyes filling with tears of love and gratitude.

“Dear child, whatever I have done for you has always been both a duty and a pleasure,” Mrs. Travilla returned, taking the hand of the little girl, who was standing by her side, and pressing; it affectionately in her own.

“Well, Eva,” said Rosie, lightly, “you can calculate to a cent what you’ll have for benevolence, for you’re sure to earn the quarter every day of your life.”

“Not quite, Rosie,” Evelyn answered in her gentle, refined tones, “I am liable to fall as well as others, and may astonish both you and myself some day by behaving very ill indeed.”

“I certainly should be astonished, Eva,” laughed her Aunt Elsie.  “I am quite sure it would be only under great provocation that you would be guilty of very bad behavior; and equally certain that you will never find that at Ion.”

“No,” Evelyn said, “I have never received anything but the greatest kindness there.”

“And you are so sweet-tempered that you would never fly into a passion if you were treated ever so badly,” remarked Lulu, with an admiring, appreciative look at her friend, accompanied by a regretful sigh over her own infirmity of temper.

“Perhaps my faults lie in another direction; and how much credit do people deserve for refraining from doing what they feel no temptation to do?” said Evelyn, with an arch look and smile directed toward Lulu.