She was speaking to a servant, "Go, Prilla, look for the children, and
bring them in. It is getting late for them to be out."

The girl went, and Elsie saying to her father that Prilla had brought
word that Mr. Travilla was now sleeping, begged him to sit down and talk
with her for a moment. The tears fell fast as she spoke. It was long
since he had seen her so moved.

"Dear daughter, why distress yourself thus?" he said, folding her in his
arms, and drawing her head to a resting place upon his breast; "your
husband's injuries are not very serious. Dr. Burton is not one to
deceive us with false hopes."

"No, papa, oh, how thankful I am to know he is not in danger; but--oh,
papa, papa! to think that Eddie did it! that my own son should have so
nearly taken his father's life! I grow sick with horror at the very
thought!"

"Yet it must have been the merest accident, the child almost idolizes
his father."

"I had thought so, but he must have been disobeying that father's
positive command else this could not have happened. I could never have
believed my son could be so disobedient, and it breaks my heart to think
of it all."

"The best of us do not always resist temptation successfully, and
doubtless in this case it has been very strong. And he is bitterly
repenting; I heard him crying somewhere in the grounds as I rode up the