Elsie talked much and thought more of her absent and unknown
father, and longed with an intensity of desire for his return
home. It was her dream, by day and by night, that he had come,
that he had taken her to his heart, calling her "his own darling
child, his precious little Elsie;" for such were the loving
epithets she often heard lavished upon Enna, and which she longed
to hear addressed to herself. But from month to month, and year to
year, that longed-for return had been delayed until the little
heart had grown sick with hope deferred, and was often weary with
its almost hopeless waiting. But to return.

"Elsie," said Adelaide, as Miss Allison and the little girl
entered the breakfast-room on the morning after Elsie's
disappointment, "the fair is not over yet, and Miss Allison and I
are going to ride out there this afternoon; so, if you are a good
girl in school, you may go with us."

"Oh! thank you, dear Aunt Adelaide," exclaimed the little girl,
clapping her hands with delight; "how kind you are! and I shall be
so glad."

Miss Day frowned, and looked as if she wanted to reprove her for
her noisy demonstrations of delight, but, standing somewhat in awe
of Adelaide, said nothing.

But Elsie suddenly relapsed into silence, for at that moment Mrs.
Dinsmore entered the room, and it was seldom that she could utter
a word in her presence without being reproved and told that
"children should be seen and not heard," though her own were