“An early bird as usual, my darling!” he said.

“Yes, sir, like my father, my dear, dear father,” she returned, twining her arms around his neck and holding him fast for a moment.

“Did you sleep well?” he asked, releasing himself and taking her hand in his.

“Oh, yes, indeed, papa!  Did not you?”

“I did; I think we all did,” he answered.  “God has been very good to us.  And what a lovely, lovely Sunday morning it is!”

“We can all go to church, can’t we, papa?” she asked.

“I think so,” he said.  “And now you would like to walk down across the lawn, to the water’s edge, with me?”

“Oh, yes, indeed, papa,” she cried delightedly.  “It was just what I was wanting to do.”

“It might be well for you to have a bit of something to eat first,” he said.  “Ah, here is just the thing!” as a servant approached with a waiter on which were some oranges prepared for eating in the way Grandma Elsie had enjoyed them in her young days.

“Thank you, Aunt Sally,” the captain said, helping Lulu and himself; “you could have brought us nothing more tempting and delicious.  Will you please carry some up to my wife?”

“Ise done it already, sah,” replied the woman, smiling all over her face, and dropping a courtesy; “yes, sah; an’ she say dey’s mighty nice, jes like she hab when she’s heah in dis place yeahs ago.”

“Papa,” remarked Lulu, as they presently crossed the lawn together, “I’m so glad to be here again, and with you.  It was a delightful place the other time, I thought, but, oh, it seems twice as pleasant now, because my dear father is with us!” and she lifted her eyes to his face with a look of ardent affection.

“Dear child, it is a great pleasure to me to be with you and the rest,” he returned, pressing affectionately the little hand he held in his, “and if you do not have a happier time than you had here before, it shall not be because your father does not try to make it so.

“But, my dear little daughter, remember you have the same spiritual foes to fight here as in other places.  If you would be happy you must try to live very near to Jesus and to watch and pray lest you enter into temptation.  Particularly must you be ever on your guard against that quick temper which has so often got you into trouble.”

“Papa, I do intend to,” she said, with a sigh; “and I am very glad I shall have you close at hand all the time to help me in the fight; for you do help me, oh, so often—­so much, dear papa!” and again she lifted loving eyes to his face.

“I am very thankful that I can, my darling,” he returned.  “I feel that God has been very good to me in so changing my circumstances that I can be with you almost constantly to aid you in the hard task of learning to control the fiery temper inherited from me.  Yet, as I have often told you, dear child, the hardest part of the fight must inevitably be your own, and only by the help of him who has all power in heaven and in earth can you conquer at last.