“No, dear child, you are more His than mine, and I dare not, would not interfere if He has sent you work; but the question is, has He done so?”

“If you please, papa, we will take a little time to consider that question; shall we not?”

“Yes,” he said, “it need not be decided to-day.  The right training and educating of those children would certainly be a good work, and could it be so managed that I could do all the hard and unpleasant part of it——­” he said musingly.

“Oh no! no! my dear father,” she hastily interposed, as he paused, leaving his sentence unfinished, “the work should be mine if undertaken at all.”

“Perhaps,” he said, “it might be tried for a short time as a mere experiment, to be continued only if the children do not prove ungovernable, or likely to be an injury to our own; for our first duty is to them.”

“Yes indeed, papa!” responded his daughter earnestly.  “And nothing can be really decided upon until Capt.  Raymond comes.  He may have other plans for his children.”

“Yes, it is quite possible he may think best to place Max and Lulu at school somewhere.”

“But poor little sick Gracie!” said Violet, the tears springing to her eyes.  “Mamma, I do want to have her to love and pet, and I think if we had her here with our good old mammy to nurse her, and Cousin Arthur to attend her, she might grow to be strong and healthy.”

“Dear child!  I am glad to hear you say that!” said Elsie, “for it is just as I have been thinking and feeling.  My heart yearns over the poor motherless children, and that little feeble one very especially.”

Capt.  Raymond was deeply touched when, shortly after his arrival at Ion to claim his bride, he learned what was in her heart and her mother’s toward his children.

After due deliberation it was settled that the experiment should be tried.  Arrangements were made for the whole family to spend the summer in two adjoining cottages at a lovely seaside resort on the New England coast, Mrs. Dinsmore to be mistress of one house, Violet of the other, while the captain could be with her, which he had reason to expect would be for several months.

In the fall he would probably be ordered away; then Violet would return to Ion with her mother and the rest of the family, taking his children with her, if Mr. Dinsmore and Elsie should still feel willing to take them in charge.  He had a high opinion of Dr. Conly’s skill as a physician, and was extremely anxious to place Gracie under his care.  Also he thought that to no other persons in the world would he so joyfully commit his children to be trained up and educated as to Mr. Dinsmore, his daughter and granddaughter, and he was more than willing to delegate to them his own authority during his absences from home.

The marriage would take place at Ion, the bride and groom start northward the same day on a wedding tour.  On the return trip to the spot which was to be their home for the summer, they would call for the captain’s children.