“My little Grace looks tired,” the captain said, bending down and taking her in his arms as the little folks were bidding good night.  “I shall carry you up stairs, darling, after the old custom.”

“Thank you, papa; I’m very willing,” replied Grace, clasping his neck with her small arms.

“Lulu, shall I say good night to you first?” he asked, smiling down at his eldest daughter, standing by his side; “as you have Eva with you, you will perhaps not care for the usual bit of good night chat with your father?”

“Yes, indeed I do care for it, papa!” cried Lulu.  “Why, I sha’n’t have another chance this year!  I wouldn’t miss it for anything!”

“Then you shall not,” he said, looking both pleased and amused; “that sounds as though the next opportunity were far in the distance.”

He passed out of the room as he spoke, and on up the wide stairway, Lulu and Eva following, each with an arm about the other’s waist.

“Those talks must be so delightful,” remarked the latter in a low tone, and with a slight sigh, “I’m very glad you don’t let me hinder them, dear Lu.”

“I knew you wouldn’t want me to,” said Lulu; “you are always so kind and thoughtful for others; and though papa sometimes gives me a quarter of an hour or more, when we have a great deal to say to each other, I think he won’t stay more than a minute or two to-night! so that it won’t keep me long away from you.”

“Oh please don’t hurry for my sake,” said Eva, adding softly, “You know I, too, shall be glad of a few minutes alone with my best Friend.  So if you like, I will go into the little tower room while your papa is with you.”

“You can have both that and my bedroom to yourself, dear,” returned Lulu, “for I shall receive papa in the little sitting room that is Gracie’s and mine.”

They had reached the upper hall.  The captain passed into Gracie’s bedroom, Lulu into her own, Eva with her.

“Such a sweet, pretty room!” Eva said, glancing around it; “I am always struck with that thought on coming into it, though I have seen it so often.”

“Yes,” returned Lulu, her face lighting up with pleasure, “I think it so myself.  Our dear father is constantly adding pretty things here and there to our room, and doing oh so much to make his children happy!  Yet, would you believe it, Eva?  I am sometimes both ill-tempered and disobedient to him.”

“Not now! not lately?” Evelyn said half in assertion, half inquiringly and with a look of surprise.

“Yes,” Lulu replied in a low, remorseful tone, her eyes downcast, her face flushing painfully; “only last month, one day Max was teasing me and I was in very bad humor, so answered him very crossly.  Papa happened to be in the next room and overheard it all, and called to us both to come to him.  His voice sounded stern, and I felt angry and rebellious.  Max, never does feel so, I believe, anyway he’s always obedient, and he went at once, but I waited to be called a second time, and O Eva, I’m dreadfully, dreadfully ashamed! but I feel as if I must tell you because I can’t bear to have you think me so much better than I am.”

“Dear Lu, don’t tell it if it hurts you so.  I’m sure if you were not a good girl you wouldn’t feel so very sorry and ashamed,” Evelyn interrupted, putting both arms round her friend and kissing her with warmth of affection.

“No, indeed, I’m not!” said Lulu; “and I’ll tell it, if only to punish myself for my badness.  Papa has never punished me for it, though I really did wish he would and asked him to over and over again.”

“That seems very odd,” Eva said, half smiling.  “Most people are only too glad to escape punishment.”

“Maybe I’m different from most folks,” said Lulu, “but I always want to beat myself when I’ve been so hateful, and so if papa punishes me I always feel a good deal happier after it’s over.

“But I must finish my story.  Papa asked, ’Lulu, did you hear me bid you come to me?’ and I answered, ‘Yes, sir’; then muttered, ’but I’ll not come a step till I get ready.’”

Evelyn seemed lost in astonishment.  “Oh Lu! did you really say that? could you venture to speak so to your father a man whom everybody respects so highly, and who is so dear and kind to you?”

“I did,” acknowledged Lulu, her head hanging still lower and her cheek flushing more hotly.  “You see when I lived with Aunt Beulah I got into the way of being very saucy to her, and I suppose that’s how I came to speak so to papa.  Oh don’t you think I ought to be dreadfully ashamed, and that papa should have punished me very severely?”

“I suppose he is the best judge of that,” Eva answered, doubtfully.  “But what did he do?  Surely he didn’t pass it over as of no consequence?  I think he couldn’t feel it right to allow his own child to refuse obedience to his commands.”

“No; of course not.  The minute I’d said the words I could have bitten my tongue off for it.  I hoped papa hadn’t heard, but he had, and he rose from his chair and came toward me (very quietly; not at all as if he was in a passion), and I jumped up, saying ‘I will, papa; I’m coming.’”

“Then he said in a tone as if he were grieved and astonished that his own little girl could talk so to him ’Tardy obedience following upon a most insolent refusal to obey,’ and took my hand and led me to the side of his chair.

“Then he sat down and talked to Max a little, and sent him up to his room, and after Max had gone he talked to me.

“He said he must punish me, but he would try a new way, and for four days I shouldn’t be his child at all at least not be treated like it, but just as if I were only a little girl visitor; he wouldn’t give me any orders, or advice, or direction, or instruction; and I mustn’t take any liberty with him that I wouldn’t feel free to take with a stranger gentleman.

“He said I must understand that he did not intend to subject me to any harsh treatment, but would be as polite and attentive to my wants as if I were a guest in the house.”

“O Lu, did you like it? was it nice?”

“No, indeed!  I thought they were the longest days I’d ever lived, and wondered how I could ever have thought I’d like to be my own mistress instead of having to obey papa.

“He didn’t give me one cross word or even look, but he didn’t invite me to sit on his knee, and I didn’t dare do so; he didn’t call me pet names and hug me up in his arms, as he so often does when I haven’t been naughty, and I couldn’t wait on him as I always love to do; he wouldn’t let me do the least thing for him.  I just felt as if I wasn’t one of the family at all, and would ten times rather have had the hardest of whippings; at least so far as the pain was concerned.”

“Yes, of course; it wouldn’t have been half so hard to bear.  At least I can imagine that to be made to feel yourself only a stranger in your father’s house would be a great deal worse than having to endure quite severe bodily pain.  So I think you may feel that you have been punished.”

“Not so severely as I deserve,” returned Lulu, shaking her head and sighing; “no not half.  There, I can hear Gracie calling me to say good-night.  Excuse me while I run into her room for a few minutes.”

She found Grace alone and just getting into bed.

“Where’s papa?” Lulu asked.

“Gone down stairs; but he said he’d be back in a few minutes to have his bit of chat with you in our sitting-room.”

“Then I’ll just kiss you good night and hurry back to get ready for him.”

When the captain came he found Lulu ready and waiting for him, seated by the fire with her Bible open in her hand.

“I was learning my verse for to-morrow morning, papa,” she said, closing the book and laying it aside, as she rose to give him the easy chair she had been occupying.

“That was right,” he replied, sitting down and drawing her to his knee; “one could hardly end the old year, or begin the new, in a better way than by the study of God’s word.  Well, has my little daughter anything particular to say to her father to-night?”

“Only that I wish I’d been a better daughter to you, papa, and that I hope I shall be this no next year:  the year that’s to begin in a few hours.  I do hope that when its last night comes you can say, ’My daughter Lulu hasn’t been once disobedient or in a passion for a whole year.’”

“It will be a very happy thing for me for us both if I can,” he said, “and I am not without hope that it may be so.  But my dear child, you will need constant watchfulness lest your besetting sins overcome you when you least expect it.”

“I wish I could ever get done with the fight,” she sighed.  “It’s such a hard one.”

“Yes, I know, dear child, for I am engaged in the same conflict; but we must keep on resolutely till the dear Master calls us home.

“But we have the promise of His help all the way, and that we shall be ‘more than conquerors through Him that loved us.’  And the prize is eternal life at God’s right hand.”

“It will be always easy to be good when we get to heaven?”

“Yes; the last remains of the old evil nature will have been taken away, and we will have no more inclination to sin.”

“I am very glad of that! and that God gave me such a good Christian father to help me in my hard fight!  And, papa, I must tell you again that I am very, very sorry and ashamed because of my naughtiness last month.”

“Dear child, my dear humble penitent little girl!” he said tenderly, “it was all long since fully and freely forgiven.  Now good night, my darling; and good bye till next year,” he added in playful tone, kissing her fondly over and over again, “unless something unforeseen should make you want your father before morning.  In that case you will not have far to run to find him.”

“Oh no; and it makes me glad always at night to remember that you are so near, and the doors all open between our rooms, so that you could hear me if I should call out to you, papa.  I know you wouldn’t be displeased at being wakened if I were in trouble and needed you.”

“No, indeed, daughter; in that case I should be only too glad to be roused that I might hasten to your assistance.

“But let your greatest rejoicing be in the thought that you and I and all of us are under the care of Him who neither slumbers nor sleeps.  ’It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man.’”

Rosie in her mamma’s room, which she shared at this time, as on a former occasion, was preparing for bed, Grandma Elsie quietly reading in an easy chair beside the fire.

Presently Rosie went to the side of the chair and dropping on her knees on the carpet, looked up smilingly into the sweet placid face bent over the book.

“Mamma, dear, I have come for my good night kiss before getting into bed,” she said softly, adding sportively, “the last I shall solicit from you this year.”

“And you are going to be satisfied with one?” her mother asked letting the book fall into her lap, while she laid one hand gently on her young daughter’s head and gazed tenderly down into the blooming face; with a somewhat sad expression too, Rosie thought.

“I say, no to that, mamma,” she returned, laying her head in her mother’s lap and taking into her own the hand that had been resting on it, to press it again and again to her lips with ardent affection, “for I shall not be satisfied with less than half a dozen.”

Elsie gave them in quick succession, gathering her child in her arms and making her rest her fair head on the maternal bosom, and Rosie felt a warm tear fall on her cheek.

“Mamma!” she exclaimed in concerned surprise, “you are crying!  What can be the matter? have I said or done anything to grieve you, dear heart?” reaching up an arm to clasp her mother’s neck, while she scanned the loved features with earnest, tender scrutiny.

For a minute or more there was no reply.  Then Elsie said, in moved tones, softly smoothing the hair back from Rosie’s temples as she spoke, and gazing tenderly down into her eyes, “My heart is sad for you, my darling, because, while another year is rapidly drawing to a close, I have yet no reason to hope that you have sought a refuge within the fold of the good Shepherd who gives to his sheep eternal life; the dear Saviour who has been all these years inviting you to come to him and be saved.”

“Mamma, I am very young yet,” murmured Rosie, hanging her head and blushing.

“Old enough to have become a disciple of Jesus years ago,” her mother said in sorrowful tones.  “O my darling, give him the best years of your life; the whole of your life, whether it be long or short.  Is he not worthy of it?”

“Yes, mamma; surely there can be only one answer to that and I do mean to to try to turn over a new leaf with the coming of the new year.  But, mamma, I know of a number of good Christians who didn’t begin to be such till they were many years older than I am.  There is grandpa for one.”

“Yes, my child,” sighed her mother, “but he has always deeply regretted having so long delayed beginning the Christian course entering the service of the dear Master whom now he loves better than wife or child or any created being.  There are many reasons, my darling, why delay is both dangerous and unwise as well as basely ungrateful.”

“You allude to the uncertainty of life, mamma?”

“Yes, and of the continuance of health and reason.  How many have been suddenly overtaken by fatal illness that at once robbed them of the power to think, so that if preparation for the solemn realities of another world had not been already made, the opportunity for so doing was forever lost!

“There is also danger that God’s Spirit may cease to strive with you, and without His help you can not come to Christ.

“Nor do we know how soon Jesus may come again in the clouds of heaven.  He himself has told us that he will come as a thief in the night; that is when he is not expected.

“But, Rosie, my dear child, even if you could know certainly that delay will not cost you the loss of your soul, it will bring you other loss great and irreparable.”

“What, mamma?” Rosie asked with a look of mingled surprise and alarm.  “I can not think what you mean.”

“While it is a precious truth that all who finally repent and accept of Christ as their only Saviour, will inherit eternal life a life of holiness and unspeakable happiness at God’s right hand,” answered her mother, “yet there will be a difference in the portions of those who have spent many years in the faithful service of the Master using their time and talents for the advancement of his cause and kingdom, and striving to win others to know and serve him, and themselves to grow in grace and conformity to his likeness and his will and that of others who have been saved only at the last and so as by fire.  All will be perfectly happy but some will have a greater capacity for happiness than others.

“According to the teachings of God’s word sin is the greatest folly, the service of God the highest wisdom.

“’Doth not wisdom cry? and understanding put forth her voice?...  Riches and honor are with me; yea, durable riches and righteousness.  My fruit is better than gold, yea, than fine gold; and my revenue than choice silver!

“’They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness, as the stars forever and ever.’

“Rosie, my darling, it is the dearest wish of my heart to see you engaged in that work; but you cannot teach others what you do not know yourself; you must first give your heart to God and learn for yourself the sweetness of his love.  Will you not do it now? at once?  Oh listen to his gracious invitation, ‘Give me thine heart.’”

For some moments a deep and solemn hush seemed to fill the room, Rosie still kneeling there with her head pillowed on her mother’s breast, Elsie’s heart going up in an almost agonizing petition for her child.

At length Rosie lifted her head looking up into her mother’s face with dewy eyes and a very sweet smile.

“Mamma,” she said in low tremulous tones, “I have tried to do it; I have asked the Lord to forgive all my sins, to cleanse me from mine iniquities, and to take me for his very own; and I think he has heard and granted my petition.

“You know when the leper came to him saying, ’Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean,’ Jesus at once put forth his hand and touched him saying, ‘I will; be thou clean’; and immediately the leprosy departed from him.  Mamma, I have been praying the leper’s prayer, and I think the dear Lord Jesus has said the same words to me.”

“I am sure of it,” Elsie said with emotion, “for he is the unchangeable God; ‘Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever’; as ready to be moved with compassion for a sin-sick soul to-day, as he was for the leper when on earth.  And he has said, ’Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.’”

Clasping her hands and looking upward, “Bless the Lord, O my soul,” she exclaimed; “‘and all that is within me, bless his holy name!’”