here. 'Twas a regular boy's
dream, a tournament, or something of that nature, where I was victor,
the queen--you know who she was--giving me her token--a Daisy Chain."

"That is why you like to call us your Daisy Chain," said Ethel.

"Did you write it in verse?" said Margaret. "I think I once saw some
verses like it in her desk."

"I was in love, and three-and-twenty," said the doctor, looking drolly
guilty in the midst of his sadness. "Ay, those fixed it in my memory,
perhaps my fancy made it more distinct than it really was. An evening
or two ago I met with them, and that stirred it up I suppose. Last
night came the tournament again, but it was the melee, a sense of being
crushed down, suffocated by the throng of armed knights and horses--pain
and wounds--and I looked in vain through the opposing overwhelming
host for my--my Maggie. Well, I got the worst of it, my sword arm was
broken--I fell, was stifled--crushed--in misery--all I could do was to
grasp my token--my Daisy Chain," and he pressed Margaret's hand as he
said so. "And, behold, the tumult and despair were passed. I lay on the
grass in the cloisters, and the Daisy Chain hung from the sky, and was
drawing me upwards. There--it is a queer dream for a sober old country
doctor. I don't know why I told you, don't tell any one again."

And he walked away, muttering. "For he told me his dreams, talked of
eating and drinking," leaving Margaret with her eyes full of tears, and
Ethel vehemently caressing the baby.

"How beautiful!" said Ethel.

"It has been a comfort to him, I am sure," said Margaret.

"You don't think it ominous," said Ethel with a slight tremulous voice.

"More soothing than anything else. It is what we all feel, is it not?
that this little daisy bud is the link between us and heaven?"

"But about him. He was victor at first--vanquished the next time."

"I think--if it is to have an interpretation, though I am not sure we
ought to take it so seriously, it would only mean that in younger days
people care for victory and distinction in this world, like Norman, or
as papa most likely did then; but, as they grow older, they care less,
and others pass them, and they know it does not signify, for in our race
all may win."

"But he has a great name. How many people come from a distance to
consult him! he is looked upon, too, in other ways! he can do anything
with the corporation."

Margaret smiled. "All this does not sound grand--it is not as