your two are not to be found in a long day's journey. Veronica will fully
repay you for what you have done for her."

"I have been repaid long ago by the child's attachment to me. She has
never given me anything but satisfaction ever since her mother died. If I
have any anxiety about Veronica it is lest she over-work herself. There is
something feverish in her love of work; she can never do enough. No matter
how late I go into her room at night, she is always finishing off some
piece of work; and no matter how early I get up in the morning, she has
already begun something new. If I had not positively forbidden it, she
would keep at it even on a Sunday. It is a real source of anxiety to me,
lest she should over-work and break down."

"Oh, I don't think you need be afraid of that, Gertrude; work never yet
hurt any one, least of all the young folks. Let her work away. But I don't
see the need of her scowling so all the time. She looks for all the world
as if she were fighting and struggling against enemies and difficulties
of all sorts. I like better Dietrich's laughing eyes; they are so full of
fun. When he goes down the street singing--

'Gladly and merrily
Live to-day cheerily,
Black care and sorrow
Leave till to-morrow,'

it goes right to my heart, and I could sing too for very joy. No one can
help loving him."

Gertrude listened with sunshine in her face to these words of praise, but
a little cloud of anxiety shadowed her eyes as she said,

"Yes, God be praised, he is a good boy and means well, but I do wish that
he had a little of Veronica's firmness of purpose. It is very pleasant to
have every one like him, but too great popularity is not always a good
thing. And those two companions that are always hanging about him, are not
such as I myself would choose for his friends."

"If they could all be put to some steady work it would be the best thing
for them," said Judith. "Idleness is the mother of mischief. Blasi is not
an ill-meaning fellow, but he is lazy, greatly to his own injury. Long
Jost is the worst of the two; a sly-boots, and a rare one too. It is to be
hoped that he will break his own leg, when he's trying to trip some one
else up with it."

"No, no, Judith, on this holy Easter day, we will not have such unkind
hopes as that. I hope and believe that the good God holds the children in
his protecting hand. We have given them to him; that is my comfort and
support Good-bye, Judi