The House by the Sea--the Round Window--God's Eyes in Flowers--the
Day-Dreamers--A Picture--An Angel--Old Nanny--On the
Sea-Shore--Shell-Hunting--Bell's Freak and Mortimer's Dream--Asleep._

Imagine, if you will, one of the quaintest old country mansions that was
ever built--a big-chimneyed, antique-gabled, time-browned old pile, and you
have a picture of the Ivyton House as it was in summers gone by.

The pillars of the porch were not to be seen for the fragrant vines which
clambered over them; lip-tempting grapes purpled[A] on the southern gable
of the house, and the full, bright cherries clustered thicker than stars
among the leaves. The walks of the garden were white with pebbles brought
from the sea-shore; the dewy clover-beds, on each side, lay red with
luscious strawberries, as if some one had sprinkled drops of fire over
them; and among the larches and the cherry trees there was a salt sea-smell
pleasantly mingled with the breathing of wild roses.

A large, round window in one of the gables looked toward the ocean--a fine
place for a summer view, or to watch, of a gusty afternoon, the billows as
they swell and break in long waving battalions on the beach.

One evening near the end of summer, two children were sitting at this
circular window. Ten Aprils had half ripened them. The boy had dark hair,
and a touch of sunlight in his darker eyes. The girl was light and
delicate--with a face of spiritual beauty, dream-like, heavenly, like the
pictures of the Madonna which genius has hung on the chapel walls of the
Old World.

"Bell," said the boy, "we never grow weary of looking at the sea."

"No; because while we are watching, we think that father may be coming home
to us across its bosom; and we count the waves as if they were moments. We
like to see them roll away, and feel that time grows shorter between father
and us."

"Yes, that is so," he replied; "but then, we love night almost as much as
the sea."

"That is because we have a Father in heaven as well as one at sea," and the
girl shaded her angel face with a dainty little hand.

"And we love the sunbeams and the flowers, Bell!"

"We do, indeed!" cried Bell, and the sunshine nestled among her curls. "We
do, indeed! because God, like the good fairy in our story-book, comes in
sunlight, or hides in flowers; and he reveals himself in ever so many ways,
to all who love him."

"Hides in flowers," repeated the boy, musingly; "I never thought of th