Martha Finley

“ Lulu made the same remark as they all gathered about the open grate in Violet’s boudoir that evening after tea.
“Yes,” said her father, dandling the baby on his knee, “I think it does; though we all enjoy visits from our other dear ones, yet sometimes we prefer to be alone together.”
“Up, up!” said baby, stretching up her arms and looking coaxingly into her father’s face.
“She wants you to toss her up, papa,” said Lulu.
“So she does,” said the captain. Then followed a game of romps in which everybody took part, much to Miss Baby’s delight. ”

“ Lora too; and that besides, I did look when I was supposed to be hiding my eyes in the other games.”
She ended with a burst of tears, half turning her back upon her companions, as if too much mortified to meet their glances.
There was a moment of surprised silence, in which no one either moved or spoke; then Eva said, in a kindly, sympathizing tone:
“It is noble in you to own it, Rosie; so I think we should all love you more than ever.”
“Yes,” said Lulu, hurrying to Rosie’s side, and putting her arms affectionately about her, “so we will, Rosie, dear; so don’t cry. ”

“ Max said with hearty good-will. “I really don’t think you have more or worse faults than I have myself.”
“Yes, I have, Maxie; you’re a thousand times better than I am,” sighed Lulu, nestling closer in her father’s embrace; “I get dreadfully discouraged with myself sometimes, and I do believe I’d give up trying to be good if I didn’t know that papa loves me in spite of my badness.”
“Papa does indeed, dear child!” the captain said in tender tones. “And he knows by experience how hard a fight it takes to rule a fiery temper.” ”

“ I see the children have forsaken us. Max seems half wild with delight at being at home again—it is so new and pleasant a thing for him and his sisters to have a home of their own.”
“With their father in it,” added Violet. “I think they never forget that that is the best part of it.”
“As he does not that wife and children are the best part of it to him,” responded the captain, feelingly.
“I think we are a very happy family,” Violet said with joyous look and tone, “and really it does seem extremely nice to be quite by ourselves occasionally.” ”

“ CHAPTER VIII.
“I can scarce bear to think of such a possibility,” the captain said a trifle huskily, and tightening his clasp of Violet’s slender waist, “it seems that one such loss should be enough in a lifetime. But it is just like my own sweet Violet to desire to have Grace’s children remember her with affection.”
“Her name was Grace?”
“Yes; our little Gracie wears her name as well as her looks; also inherits from her the frail health which causes us so much anxiety, as well as her timidity and sweet gentleness of manner and disposition.” ”

“ They gazed eagerly and with intense interest, Lulu almost holding her breath in her excitement.
“How sweet mamma looks!” murmured Grace, close at her side.
“And how handsome papa is!” said Max, who stood near enough to hear the remark.
“He always is the very handsomest man in the world!” said Lulu.
“It’s ’most like being at their wedding,” remarked Grace. “I wonder if mamma wore that very dress.”
“Yes,” answered Rosie, “that is her wedding dress, not altered at all. And the one sister Elsie wore was hers.”
“It’s nice that they’ve kept them,” said Sydney Dinsmore. ”

“ The strictness and occasional severity absolutely needful in dealing with Lulu, would be quite crushing to the tender, timid nature of my little Grace; a gentle reproof is all-sufficient for her in her worst moods, and she is never willfully disobedient.”
“Nor is Max, so far as I am aware,” remarked Violet with a look and smile that spoke fond appreciation of the lad.
“No; when Max disobeys or is guilty of any other misdemeanor, it is pretty certain to be from mere thoughtlessness; which is bad enough to be sure, but far less reprehensible than Lulu’s willful defiance of authority. ”

“ In our case it is bondage to sin and Satan, it is God’s justice, which demands the death eternal of every sinner who is not ransomed by the blood of Christ.”
“Are all the people who don’t love and serve God, servants to sin and Satan, papa?”
[285]
“Yes: ‘Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey: whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?’
“Oh, my dear children, I can not bear to think of any one of you being a servant of sin and Satan, instead of a servant of God and Christ!” ”

“ Ah, Max and Lulu,” as his eye fell upon them. “What, crying, my dear children? You should rather rejoice that your father is alive and able to speak to you.”
“But you are in pain, papa,” sobbed Lulu. “Oh, I wish I could help you to bear it!”
“Ah, my darling, I shall expect a good deal of help from you and the rest while serving out the doctor’s hard sentence,” he said, with an attempt at pleasantry that was almost a failure, his features contracting with pain as he spoke.
“No more talking for the present,” said Arthur. ”

“ I shouldn’t like to miss it,” she said gayly; “I believe Zoe and I are about as eager over these holiday doings as either of the children.”
“I’m glad to hear it,” he responded; “a man enjoys having a young wife even when not young himself.”
“And the older he is, the younger he wants his wife to be,” remarked Zoe in a lively tone: “at least so I have heard people say.”
“But papa isn’t old, aunt Zoe!” exclaimed Lulu, indignantly.
“My dear child,” laughed her father, “it’s no sin to be old, so you need not be so ready to take up the cudgels for me.” ”

“ Violet hastened to say.
“Yet I am glad she has made the confession,” the captain said gravely, and with a slight sigh, sitting down as he spoke, and drawing Lulu into his arms, “for it is a proof of honesty and truthfulness that gives me great hope that my dear, eldest daughter will yet make a noble [219] woman, the pride and joy of her father’s heart.”
“Dear papa, how kind in you to say that,” sobbed Lulu, hiding her face on his breast. “Oh, I will try to be every thing you wish.” ”

“ O papa, if I could only bear it for you!”
“My dear, loving little daughter,” he said, with emotion, and holding her in a close embrace, “it would be far worse to me to see you suffer than to bear the pain myself. Don’t be so distressed for me, my child, it is no more than I can very well bear; especially remembering those sweet Bible words: ‘We know that all things work together for good to them that [271] love God,’ and that my kind heavenly Father will not suffer me to have one pang that is not needed to make me fit to dwell with him at last.” ”

“ Nor would even that rob you of his love.”
“Then, papa, I think I shall never try to hide my faults from you,” returned the lad with impulsive warmth; “for I’m sure a fellow feels a great deal more comfortable when he isn’t trying to make believe to his father that he is a better boy than he is really.”
“Yes; when his effort is not merely to seem, but to be all that he knows his best earthly friend would have him. You needn’t stand in awe of me, Max, as of one who knows nothing by experience of sinning and repenting. ”

“ I thought no other man had ever been blest with such darlings; and I’m afraid I must confess that I am of pretty much the same opinion yet,” he concluded, gathering all three of his little girls into his arms and looking down lovingly upon them, for Gracie too had come to him and was standing beside her older sister.
“It can’t be for goodness, as far as I’m concerned,” sighed Lulu half under her breath; but he heard her.
“No, nor for beauty; but just because you are my very own,” he said, caressing them in turn, Violet looking on with shining eyes. ”

“ Never be ashamed or afraid though the whole world should know that you do this. Jesus said, ‘Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I also confess before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in Heaven.’”
“Papa,” said Lulu, “I don’t think I’d hesitate to say my prayers before others, even if I expected they’d laugh at me. I mean if I could not go by myself to do it; but when we can find a private place where no one but God can see or hear us, oughtn’t we to choose it for the purpose?” ”

“ He stroked her hair and kissed her before he spoke.
“I think,” he said at last, “that here is an opportunity for my little girl to put in practice her good resolution to deny herself for the sake of others.”
“I don’t like to,” she said in a half jesting tone, and with an arch look and smile, “I wasn’t born good, and I’d rather please myself.”
“Yes, daughter, that is the way with us all; none of us were born good, and we all love self-indulgence.”
“Papa,” she exclaimed in her vehement way, “I don’t believe you do! not one bit! ”

“ Max said with emotion, calling to mind how he had once fallen under Ralph’s influence.
“I know you don’t intend to,” his father said, “and I trust you will have strength given you to resist, if the temptation comes; but I know too, that it is very difficult for a boy to stand out against the sneers, ridicule and contempt of his mates. But how much better to have the smile and approval of God, your heavenly Father, than that of any number of human creatures! ”

“ I shouldn’t like to hurt Grandma Elsie’s feelings, or Mamma Vi’s or even Rosie’s own, by leaving her out.”
“I am rejoiced to hear you say that; I trust there is little or no malice in your nature,” he said, repeating his caresses.
“Papa, I think Lu’s very good ’cept her temper,” said Grace, putting an arm affectionately round her sister’s neck.
“No,” said Lulu, “I’m willful, too; I’ve disobeyed papa more than once because I liked my own way best; and I’m bad other ways, sometimes. ”

“ I have no greater pleasure than in loving and petting my children. But how came you to be so hungry for that kind of fare? you have not been very long without it.”
“No, sir; I was on your knee awhile last night, and had a kiss this morning; but that kind of hunger comes back very soon, papa; and its only your love and petting that can satisfy it. I hardly care to have any body else pet me. Oh I’m so glad you’re not like Anne Ray’s father!”
“Who is Annie Ray, and what is her father like?” he asked with an amused smile. ”

“ One morning when the sun had scarcely shown his face for a week, Lulu woke feeling dull and irritable; all the more out of humor on discovering that she had overslept herself, and would have scarcely time to attend properly to the duties of the toilet before the breakfast-bell would ring.
[310]
She sprang up and began dressing in feverish haste.
Punctuality was one of the minor virtues which the captain was particular in enforcing; but to appear at the table looking otherwise than neat, would be a still more serious breach of discipline than to be a trifle behind time. ”

“ Max said in a low tone between inquiry and assertion.
“Yes, my boy; for all human righteousnesses are as filthy rags in the sight of Him who is of purer eyes than to behold evil, and can not look upon iniquity.”
“Papa,” Max said, after a moment’s thoughtful silence, “I’m afraid you wouldn’t think it from the way I act and talk, but I have really been trying to be a Christian ever since that time when I wrote you that I hoped I had given myself to God.” ”

“ Dear Lord Jesus, I am a great sinner, just as papa has said, and oh, I am afraid I don’t want to be any better, but please make me want to, and to love to belong to thee even more than I do to be papa’s very own. ”

“ Then again he poured out an earnest supplication on her behalf, asking that she might be kept ever near the Saviour’s side, growing in grace and conformity to his will all the days of her life on earth, and at last be taken to dwell forever with him in heaven.
Again a solemn hush, broken at length by Lulu’s voice in low, sweet tones, “Papa, I think he has heard our prayers. I do begin to love him in my heart and to want to be his.” ”

“ It was a great pleasure to the captain to see the delight the children took in them.
It was some weeks before timid little Gracie would venture to mount hers, or ride it without “papa” to hold the bridle and walk by her side to care for her safety; but after awhile she was content to sometimes let Max take his place, and at length grew bold enough to ride about the grounds at a moderate pace, guiding her small steed herself with only Lulu, mounted on Fairy, by her side. ”

“ Ah, dearest, what a feast it is just to lie and look at you.”
“I echo your sentiments,” she returned, gayly, then sobering down, “My dear husband, I want you to promise me that you will never mount that horse again.”
“You are making common cause with Lulu against the poor fellow, I perceive,” he said, with a humorous smile.
“Poor fellow, indeed! he must be very vicious to throw so good a master, and that without the slightest provocation.” ”