h a great kiss, which seemed to include her
whole rosy face pressed betwixt his two hands, picked up her rejected
silver from the floor, put it away in the little box in which she
kept it, and sat down in a window of the south room to nurse her
doll. She nodded and laughed dutifully when her father, going forth
at last to the still pools and the brook courses, with his tackle in
hand, looked back and nodded whimsically at her.

However, her childish heart was sore beyond immediate healing, for
the wounds received from kindness spurned and turned back as a weapon
against one's self are deep.

Chapter VII

In every household which includes a beloved child there is apt to be
one above another, who acts as an intercessor towards furthering its
little plans and ends. Little Lucina's was her father. Her mother was
no less indulgent in effect, but she was anxiously solicitous lest
too much concession spoil the child, and had often to reconcile a
permission to her own conscience before giving it, even in trivial
matters.

Therefore little Lucina, having in mind some walk abroad or childish
treasure, would often seek her father, and, lifting up her face like
a flower against his rough-coated breast, beg him, in that small,
wheedling voice which he so loved, to ask her mother that she might
go or have; for well she knew, being astute, though so small and
innocent and gentle, that such a measure was calculated to serve her
ends, and allay her mother's scruples through a shift of
responsibility.

However, to-day, since her father was away fishing, Lucina was driven
to seek other aid in the carrying out of a small plan which she had
formed for her delectation.

Right anxiously the child watched for her father to come home to the
noonday dinner; but he did not come, and she and her mother ate
alone. Then she stole away up-stairs to her little dimity-hung
chamber, opening out of her parents' and facing towards the sun, and
all twinkling and swaying with little white tassels on curtains and
covers and counterpane, in the draught, as she opened the door. Then
she went down on her knees beside her bed and prayed, in the
simplicity of her heart, which would seek a Heavenly Father in lieu
of an earthly one, for all her small desires, and think no
irreverence: "Our Father, who art in heaven, please make mother let
me go to Aunt Camilla's this afternoon. Amen."

Then she rose, with no delay for lack of faith, and went strai