creeping swiftly up her white throat, played joyously in her golden
curls, and even darted into her soft blue eyes, making them sparkle
as brilliantly as the diamond.

"The sun shines directly in your face, Fanny," said Mr. Legrange,
admiring the color in his wife's hair. "Shall I lower the shade?"

"Oh, no! thank you. I never want the sunshine shut out," replied
she, moving her chair a little.

"Not to-day of all days in the year, I suppose; not on the birthday
of our little Sunshine. And where is she?" asked Mr. Legrange, half
turning his chair from the table to the fire, and unfolding the damp
newspaper beside his plate.

"I told Susan to send her down as soon as she had done her
breakfast. Hark! I hear her." And the Sun, drawing his finger across
the mother's lips, helped them to so bright a smile, that her
husband said,--

"I am afraid we have more than our share of Sunshine, or at least
that I have, little wife."

The bright smile grew so bright as the lady bent a little toward her
husband, that the Sun whispered,--

"There's no need of sun here, I plainly see," but, for all that,
crept farther into the room; while the door opened, and in skipped a
little girl, who might have been taken for the beautiful lady at the
head of the table suddenly diminished to childish proportions, and