s example.' He said to
both of us: 'You are too ready, my dear children, to sit with your hands
on your laps, looking at nothing and thinking of nothing; I want to try
a new way of employing your leisure time.'

"He opened a parcel on the table. He made each of us a present of a
beautiful book, called 'Journal.' He said: 'When you have nothing to do,
my dears, in the evening, employ yourselves in keeping a diary of the
events of the day. It will be a useful record in many ways, and a good
moral discipline for young girls.' Helena said: 'Oh, thank you!' I said
the same, but not so cheerfully.

"The truth is, I feel out of spirits now if I think of papa; I am not
easy in my mind about him. When he is very much interested, there is a
quivering in his face which I don't remember in past times. He seems to
have got older and thinner, all on a sudden. He shouts (which he never
used to do) when he threatens sinners at sermon-time. Being in dreadful
earnest about our souls, he is of course obliged to speak of the devil;
but he never used to hit the harmless pulpit cushion with his fist as he
does now. Nobody seems to have seen these things but me; and now I have
noticed them what ought I to do? I don't know; I am certain of nothing,
except what I have put in at the top of page one: I love him, I love
him, I love him."

.......

There this very curious entry ended. It was easy enough to discover the
influence which had made my slow-minded sister so ready with her memory
and her pen--so ready, in short, to do anything and everything, provided
her heart was in it, and her father was in it.

But Eunice is wrong, let me tell her, in what she says of myself.

I, too, have seen the sad change in my father; but I happen to know
that he dislikes having it spoken of at home, and I have kept my painful
discoveries to myself. Unhappily, the best medical advice is beyond our
reach. The one really competent doctor in this place is known to be an
infidel. But for that shocking obstacle I might have persuaded my father
to see him. As for the other two doctors whom he has consulted, at
different times, one talked about suppressed gout, and the other told
him to take a year's holiday and enjoy himself on the Continent.

The clock has just struck twelve. I have been writing and copying till
my eyes are heavy, and I want to follow Eunice's example and sleep
as soundly as she does. We have made a strange beginning of this
journalizing exper