ing off on its
travels. I have no words to tell, but everybody after that listened to
the comical talk of the Nightcap children, who caused so much
merriment, that they arrived at West Point before they knew it; but
had to burst out with laughter again as Minnie, gravely looking up,
said, "Is this West Point? Well, I don't think it looks so very,
_very_ Pointy."

The first stars were peeping out, and the little birds had sung their
evening hymns and were hushed into stillness, as the children got into
the stage, the strong horses of which toiled up the short but steep
ascent, and they soon arrived at their summer home. "Oh, what a
beautiful cottage!" exclaimed Harry, and George, and Clara; "it seems
covered with roses; it must be the Castle of Perfect Happiness."

They all hurried in, in the most delightful bustle; and the children
had a grand time assisting the little mother to unpack every thing.
You would have imagined, to look in at the windows, that the house was
full of fishes out of water; they kept up such a continual bouncing
and fluttering about, but they were not fishes, nor pollywogs, nor
tadpoles, nor any thing like them; they were a company of capering
children, taking all sorts of little boxes and bundles out of trunks,
and putting them in the wrong places, and then running to get some
more, because they liked the fun of _helping_.

The good-natured little mother did not think them at all in the way:
she only laughed softly to herself, and would not for forty new
bandboxes have given them any _ear_-boxes for what they were doing.
No, indeed! she just let them trot about as much as they liked with
the pillows, boxes, bags, and bundles, of which there seemed to be
about a hundred and fifty; and when they were tired of _helping_, she
quietly arranged the things in their proper places.

Oh! how soundly the children slept that night with the "fragrant
stillness" all around them, far away from the roar and whirl of the
great city. The moonlight, sweet and mournful, flooded the earth, and
a white ray stole into the room where Charley lay and rested lovingly
above his head.

The next day Charley was very ill indeed. Even the short journey from
the city had overtasked his strength. He lay in a darkened chamber,
for his mother had to shut out the sweet sunshine, his head and side
were so racked with pain.

The children crept lovingly up to the door of the room they were not
permitted to enter many times dur