in Auntie Alice's nut-brown waves there were streaks
of silver that lent a chastened charm to her faded face. Firgrove was
their birthplace, and there in his boyhood Captain Dene had spent many a
happy holiday.

Auntie Alice was a little, slender body, whose gentle voice and quiet
ways just matched her meek brown eyes; while Aunt Catharine was a tall
and stately lady, with a prim, severe manner, and a fixed belief in the
natural naughtiness of all children, whom she kept down accordingly. And
although he knew how truly good and kind she was at heart, Captain Dene
wondered somewhat anxiously how Darby's unbroken spirit would bear the
curb of such strict, stern rule. But there was Auntie Alice as well, and
Captain Dene smiled as he remembered how she had petted and indulged him
in his juvenile days. The aunts between them, like John Gilpin's
bottles, would keep the balance true. The children would be all right.
Besides, he did not expect to be very long away--six months or a year at
most. The time would soon pass, and when he came home from Africa he
would have his little ones to live with him again, until Darby should be
old enough for school at any rate.

CHAPTER II.

LEFT BEHIND!

"If I could but wake and find it a dream!
But I can't--oh, what shall I do?
It's only the good things that change and seem,
The bad ones are always true.
And miracles never happen now,
And the fairies all are fled;
And mother's away, and the world somehow
Is dark--and Flopsy's dead!"

M. A. WOODS.

The group on the lawn had been silent for a long time--far too long,
thought Darby, who liked to use his tongue freely as well as his sturdy
little legs.

At length Joan raised her head from its resting-place on her father's
shoulder, and flinging her arms round his neck, she burst into a storm
of sobs.

"Daddy, daddy!" she cried, "we can't do wifout you. Don't go away and
leave me and Darby all alone!"

"I must go, my pet," replied Captain Dene gravely. "I am a soldier,
dear, and soldiers must obey orders. Besides, I am not leaving you
alone. You shall have the aunts to take care of you. They will know
better how to look after a wee girlie than a great blundering fellow
like father."

"You isn't a great blun'rin' fellow; you's my own dearest, sweetest
daddy!" declared Joan warmly. "And I doesn't want no aunties. Auntie
Alice is nice, but we doesn't love Aunt Cath