"Did he, papa? I am sure it was very good of him, and I will try to
like Miss Stevens for that. But won't you tell me about it?"

"It was when they were both quite young men," said Mr. Dinsmore,
"before either of them was married: they were skating together and
your grandfather broke through the ice, and would have been drowned,
but for the courage and presence of mind of Mr. Stevens, who saved him
only by very great exertion, and at the risk of his own life."

A few days after this, Elsie was playing on the veranda, with several
other little girls. "Do you think you shall like your new mamma,
Elsie?" asked one of them in a careless tone, as she tied on an apron
she had just been making for her doll, and turned it around to see how
it fitted.

"My new mamma!" exclaimed Elsie, with unfeigned astonishment, dropping
the scissors with which she had been cutting paper dolls for some of
the little ones. "What can you mean, Annie? I am not going to have any
new mamma."

"Yes, indeed, but you are though," asserted Annie positively; "for I
heard my mother say so only yesterday; and it must be so, for she Miss
Stevens told it herself."

"Miss Stevens! and what does she know about it? what has she to do
with my papa's affairs?" asked Elsie indignantly, the color rushing
over face, neck, and arms.

"Well, I should think she might know, when she is going to marry him,"