“And would have been glad if you could have come to us sooner,” added Max.

“Have you been laying plans for the entertainment of our expected guests who are to keep New Year’s day with us?” she asked.

“No, my dear; your help will be needed in that,” replied her husband.

“Can’t we have some charades again?” asked Lulu.

“I see no objection,” answered her father, “provided something new can be thought of.”

“Misunderstand, I think might do for one,” said Max.

“Yes, Max, I think that might be very good,” Violet said; “and perhaps madman would do for another.”

“We’ll need several words for our charades, I think,” said Lulu, “and a number for the sports at Fairview.”

“But fortunately we are not responsible for the entertainment there,” remarked Violet pleasantly.

“No,” said the captain, “and I think we will dismiss thought for our own for the present.  It is time now for evening worship.  Max you may ring for the servants.”

As usual the captain went into Lulu’s room for a bit of good night chat with her, about the time she was ready for bed.

“Papa,” she said, nestling close in his arms.  “I have been thinking more about the kind of year this has been to me, and oh I think I must always remember it as a good one because in it I have learned to love Jesus!  I know I have done some very wrong things even since I begun to try to be his servant,” she went on, hanging her head in shame and contrition, “but O papa I do love him and want to serve him all my life!  How glad I am that he is so loving and forgiving, and that he says he will never let any one pluck me out of his hand!”

“Yes, dear child, it is a most precious assurance and we may well rejoice in it;—­you and I and all his people.

“But ever let us keep in mind and obey those other words of our blessed Master, ‘Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation.’

“Remember that we are to be good soldiers of Jesus Christ, and that we have a great battle to fight with the evil that is in our own hearts, the snares of the world, and the powers of darkness;—­Satan and his hosts of wicked spirits whose great desire and aim is to ruin our souls and drag us down to the dreadful place prepared for them.”

“Papa, sometimes I feel so afraid of them,” she sighed, shuddering.  “But Jesus is stronger than any of them, and will not let them hurt me if I trust in him?”

“Stronger than all of them put together, and will not let any, or all of them, pluck you out of his hand.  We are safe there.  In the eighth chapter of Romans we find these triumphant words,

“’I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord!’”