So Elsie went to bed very happy in the thought of the pleasure
Arthur would have in receiving her present.

She was hurrying down to the breakfast-room the next morning, a
little in advance of Miss Rose, who had stopped to speak to
Adelaide, when Arthur came running up behind her, having just come
in by a side door from the garden, and seizing her round the
waist, he said, "Thank you, Elsie; you're a real good girl! She
sails beautifully. I've been trying her on the pond. But it
mustn't be a _present;_ you must let me pay you back when I
get my allowance."

"Oh! no, Arthur, that would spoil it all," she answered quickly;
"you are entirely welcome, and you know my allowance is so large
that half the time I have more money than I know how to spend."

"I should like to see the time that would be the case with me,"
said he, laughing. Then in a lower tone, "Elsie, I'm sorry I
teased you so. I'll not do it again soon."

Elsie answered him with a grateful look, as she stepped past him
and quietly took her place at the table.

Arthur kept his word, and for many weeks entirely refrained from
teasing Elsie, and while freed from that annoyance she was always
able to have her tasks thoroughly prepared; and though her
governess was often unreasonable and exacting, and there was
scarcely a day in which she was not called upon to yield her own
wishes or pleasures, or in some way to inconvenience herself to
please Walter or Enna, or occasionally the older members of the