Little Elsie, too, missed her sister, and returning from her walk, went in search of her.  She found her at last in their mamma’s dressing-room seated at the window, her cheek resting on her hand, the tears coursing slowly down, while her eyes gazed longingly out over the beautiful fields and lovely orange groves.

“Oh my own Vi, my darling little sister! what’s the matter?” asked Elsie, clasping her in her arms, and kissing the wet cheek.

A burst of bitter sobs, while the small arms clung about the sister’s neck, and the golden head rested for an instant on her shoulder, then the words, “Ah I’d tell you, but I can’t now, for you must run right away, because mamma said I must stay here all alone till bedtime.”

“Then I must go, pet; but don’t cry so:  if you’ve been naughty and are sorry, Jesus, and mamma too, will forgive you and love you just the same,” Elsie said, kissing her again, then releasing her, hurried from the room, crying heartily in sympathy.

On the upper veranda, whither she went to recover her composure, before rejoining her mates, she found her mother pacing slowly to and fro.

“Is my Elsie in trouble, too?” Mrs. Travilla asked, pausing in her walk and holding out her hand.

“For my Vi, mamma,” sobbed Elsie, taking the hand and pressing it to her lips.

“Yes, poor little pet! mother’s heart aches for her too,” Mrs. Travilla answered, her own eyes filling.  “I am glad my little daughters love and sympathize with each other.”

“Mamma, I would rather stay with Vi, than be with the others.  May I?”

“No, daughter, I have told her she must spend the rest of the day alone.”

“Yes, mamma, she told me so and wouldn’t let me stay even one minute to hear about her trouble.”

“That was right.”

Time crept by very slowly to Violet.  She thought that afternoon the longest she had ever known.  After a while she heard a familiar step, and almost before she knew it papa had her in his arms.

With a little cry of joy she put hers around his neck and returned the kiss he had just given her.

“Oh I’m so glad!” she said, “but, papa, you’ll have to go away, because nobody must stay with me; I’m—­”

“Papa may,” he said, sitting down with her on his knee.  “So you told mamma about the naughtiness?”

“Yes, sir.”

“I am glad you did.  Always tell mamma everything.  If you have disobeyed her never delay a moment to go and confess it.”

“Yes, papa:  but if it’s you?”

“Then come to me in the same way.  If you want to be a happy child have no concealment from father or mother.”

“Shall I tell you about it now, papa?”

“You may do as you like about that since your mother knows it all.”

“Papa, I’m afraid you wouldn’t love such a naughty girl any more.”

“Mamma loves you quite as well, and so shall I; because you are our own, own little daughter.  There were tears in mamma’s eyes when she told me that she had had to punish our little Vi.”