-house, and danced about gleefully, planning
where this should go, and that; how papa's desk should have a corner
by one window, and her little chair by the other, and the big mahogany
table, which Wealthy had persuaded them to bring, by the wall. She
showed a good deal of cleverness and sense in their arrangement, and
papa was well content that things should be as she liked.

"We must have the upstairs rooms plastered, I suppose," he said.
"That'll require some time, I'm afraid. Plaster takes so long to dry.
We must arrange to wait at Mr. Downs's for a week or two, Eyebright."

He sighed as he spoke, and sat down on the door-step, his elbows on
his knees, his chin in his hands, looking tired and discouraged.

"Oh, must we?" cried Eyebright, her face falling. "That won't be nice
a bit. Papa! I've got an idea. Don't plaster the walls. Let me fix
them. I'll make them real nice, just as nice as can be, if you will,
and then we shan't have to wait at all."

"Why, what can you do with them? How do you mean?" demanded her
father.

"Oh, papa, it's a secret, I'd rather not tell you. I'd rather have it
a surprise,--mayn't I?"

Papa demurred, but Eyebright coaxed and urged, and at last he said,--

"Well, I don't care about it one way or the other. Try your idea if
you like, Eyebright. It will amuse you perhaps, and any thing will do
for the summer. We can plaster in the fall."

"I don't believe you'll want to," remarked Eyebright, shaking her head
mysteriously. "My way is much prettier than plaster. Just you wait and
see, papa. I'm sure you'll like it."

But papa seemed down-hearted, and it was not easy to make him smile.
To tell the truth, the look of the farm was rather discouraging. He
kicked the earth over with his foot, and said the soil was poor and
every thing seemed run down. But Eyebright would not give in to this
view at all. It was a lovely place, she insisted, and she ran about
discovering new beauties and advantages every moment. Now it was a
thicket of wild roses just budding into leaf. Next a patch of
winter-green, with white starry blossoms and red berries. Then,
peeping over the bank, she called papa's attention to a strip of
pebbly beach on the side of the island next the sea.

"Here's where we can take baths," she said. "Why, I declare, here's a
path down to it. I guess the people who used to live here made it;
don't you? Oh, do come and see the beach, papa!"

It was a rough little path which led t