srepresented to him, that at times he was wellnigh
convinced that her seeming affection was all hypocrisy, and that she
really regarded him only in the light of a tyrant, from whose authority
she would be glad to escape in any way.

"Pick up your flower and leave the room," he said. "I have no desire for
your company until you can learn to obey as you ought."

Silently and mechanically Elsie obeyed him, and hastening to her own room
again, threw herself into her nurse's arms, weeping as though she would
weep her very life away.

Chloe asked no questions as to the cause of her emotion--which the
flower in her hand, and the remembrance of the morning's conversation,
sufficiently explained--but tried in every way to soothe and encourage
her to hope for future reconciliation.

For some moments her efforts seemed to be quite unavailing; but suddenly
Elsie raised her head, and wiping away her tears, said, with a convulsive
sob, "Oh! I am doing wrong again, for papa has forbidden me to cry so
much, and I must try to obey him. But, oh!" she exclaimed, dropping her
head on her nurse's shoulder, with a fresh burst of tears, "how can I
help it, when my heart is bursting?"

"Jesus will help you, darlin'," replied Chloe, tenderly. "He always helps
his chillens to bear all dere troubles an' do all dere duties, an' never
leaves nor forsakes dem. But you must try, darlin', to mind Massa Horace,
kase he is your own papa; an' de Bible says, 'Chillen, obey your
parents.'"

"Yes, mammy, I know I ought, and I _will_ try," said the little girl,
raising her head and wiping her eyes; "but, mammy, you must pray for me,
for it will be very, very difficult."

Elsie had never been an eye-servant, but had always conscientiously
obeyed her father, whether present or absent, and henceforward she
constantly struggled to restrain her feelings, and even in solitude
denied her bursting heart the relief of tears; though it was not always
she could do this, for she was but young in the school of affliction, and
often, in spite of every effort, grief would have its way, and she was
ready to sink beneath her heavy weight of sorrow. Elsie had learned from
God's holy word, that "affliction cometh not forth of the dust, neither
doth trouble spring out of the ground;" and she soon set herself
diligently to work to find out why this bitter trial had been sent her.

Her little Bible had never been suffered to lie a single day unused, nor
had morning or ev