too, that Mrs. Stanhope comes in to listen.  After this, we get our lessons ready for the next day.  But time passes much too quickly here; and Fani and I are always sorry when the day is over and we have to go to bed.  I am almost never tired now; and, oh, it is so lovely to live here and to be with Fani.  When we go in to our meals, Aunt Clarissa always says, “Thank God that we have children again with us at table!” And yesterday Mrs. Stanhope answered:  “I think you would like to have the house full of children.”  And Aunt Clarissa replied, “I should never have too many of them.”  Then Mrs. Stanhope said:  “Next year we must invite our friends from Switzerland to visit us; all four of the doctor’s children; and you can take little Rikli under your special charge.”  At these words Fani shouted for joy; but I couldn’t utter a sound; I could scarcely swallow, I was so delighted.  Aunt Clarissa clapped her hands and said, “Elsli must write directly and invite them, so that we may make sure of them”; and, afterwards, she said to me again, “What a splendid plan that is of Mrs. Stanhope’s!” In the evening Fani and I went all round the garden to pick out all the places that we particularly want to show you.  Fred will be able to catch his own insects.  Fani is going to write you a long letter, and then one to Oscar; but first he wants to draw a picture of the linden trees and the little spot under them, to send you for a present.  We send our love to you all a thousand times, and beg you to give it to our father and mother and the little boys.

     Fani sends his special love to you.

     Your true friend,

     ELSLI.

When the letter was finished, there came a burst of shouting and hand-clapping that seemed as if it would never stop.  Such good news for the children!  What a prospect of delights!  The mother and aunt sympathized in their pleasure; but they took the greatest satisfaction in the thought that their anxiety for Fani was forever relieved, and that God had led the two children whose welfare lay so near their hearts, by such unlooked-for ways, into a happy and hopeful life.

Which of the four children was most pleased with the prospect of the visit to the villa on the Rhine, it would be impossible to say.  They could talk of nothing else, and think of nothing else.  Oscar saw in imagination whole armies of Swiss collected there, and united in one fraternal society by his efforts, with Fani’s help.  He began at once to employ every spare moment in searching for a motto for the promised banner.  Emma was in a condition of almost feverish joy.  Fani was really on the road to become a painter, and her long-cherished wish was being accomplished.  Now that Mrs. Stanhope was evidently so fond of him, surely everything would be done for his improvement.  But she could hardly wait for the time to come for their visit, for every day she had some new idea for his future that she longed to tell him.  Fred had his hands full of preparations.  He looked forward to making such an increase of his collections that he was afraid he should not have room to contain them all.  He induced his aunt to promise him all the useless boxes in the house, and all winter long he stored them away in his room in readiness for the expected occupants.