that evening, when john returned from the forest, he found his little daughter flushed and excited, with her eyes shining purple in the twilight and a strange earnestness in her manner, which, he feared, spoke of a sudden uprising of fever,—that fever which was so slowly but surely wasting away her little life.

"thou hast not been very long by thyself, hast thou, my sweet one?" he said anxiously, as he looked at the eyes raised up so lovingly to his, but still full of some strange and hidden tremor.

"oh no, fritz has been here; and, besides, i have been reading." she glanced with almost the nervousness of guilt at the little table beside her, and moved herself restlessly on her chair.

"my darling has been tiring herself, i fear," said john, sitting down on the window-sill beside her, and putting his great arm round her lovingly. "well, now that father is returned, dost thou know—canst[pg 44] thou guess what he has been about all the afternoon?"

"no, father," she said softly, laying her head down on his shoulder with a long, weary breath. her thoughts were evidently engrossed by some subject of which he knew nothing.

"ah, my sweet one must not sigh like that," he said, drawing her tenderly towards him; "it makes father's heart ache; and, besides, when violet hears father's news, instead of crying, she will almost fly out of her chair with joy."

"what!" she cried, sitting so suddenly up that john was almost terrified, and had to loose his close grasp of his little girl; "tell me, father, quickly, quickly, tell violet thy news."

john gazed at her in silent wonder. he did not understand this mood—the brightly-glittering eyes, the deepening flush, the expression of a burning but unspoken anxiety, and the constant restless motion of the little hand which lay hot and dry in his palm.

"what hast thou been reading?" he asked curiously, stretching out his arm towards the little table beside her, on which now for the first time he had noticed a book—a strange book with a yellow-spotted paper cover and red edges. it was open, but was turned[pg 45] down upon the bible which always rested on the table beside her chair—her mother's bible, the most precious thing she had in all the world.

"who gave thee this new book, and what story hast thou been troubling thy poor head with?" he asked kindly, as he would have lifted it from its resting-place.

"ah, do not touch it," she cried quickly, as she withdrew one hand from his grasp and laid it on the yellow-spotted cover; "i have not finished it yet. it is too lovely a story, and—first—first i must tell it all to fritz; and then—then, father, if fritz says it is true, then i will tell it all to thee." she ended her sentence with a quick sob of excitement.

"who gave thee the book, violet?"

"i do not know, father." she rubbed her fingers up and down the cover restlessly.

"thou dost not know?"

"no; i have tried to think, but cannot tell. fritz said perhaps it was the lantern-man gave it to me; but then his girl never had any mother."

"my little life, my heart's blood, what ails thee? let us talk no more of books or lantern-men, but instead, we will speak of the grand carriage that father is going to make for his violet," cried john, beside himself with a sudden fear that the fever had[pg 46] risen to the sick child's head, and was filling the poor, weary brain with distracting fancies.

he lifted her out of her chair with tenderest love, and, sitting down by the stove, all forgetful of the evening meal which he so much needed after his day's work, he told her, in quiet, unexcited tones, as he rocked her gently to and fro on his knee, how all the week he had been thinking over a design of a little carriage which he was going to make for her, and for which he had gone that afternoon to the forest to choose wood—a carriage with springs, which could go over the cobbles outside and not shake her poor back, and into which her pillows could all be put, and in which she would be as comfortably propped up as if she were in her chair at home. "and if that does not succeed, and my little one is too tired to drive, then we shall make a carriage with handles to it, and we shall carry thee everywhere thou choosest to go. fritz and i can take thee out on sundays for long drives. is it not so, violet?"

"yes, thou and fritz," she echoed softly; "and then i can go down the hill and see the place where mother is asleep; cannot i, father?"

"yes, my heart, we will go there first."

"will she know i am there? is she too far up, father?"

[pg 47]

"i cannot tell, darling."

"but if—if—if violet had—"

the question died on her lips, and john had become strangely silent. by-and-by, as the room darkened and the long summer evening grew shadowy, he rose up and lifted his little weary daughter in his arms and laid her down on her bed. this time the knots came undone without trouble, and no kate was needed to assist in putting on the white frilled night-dress, or to shake up the pillows behind her aching shoulders. john seemed to-night to have hands like her mother's, so softly did he lay her down and so quietly did he sit by her side stroking her hair while she said the prayers her mother had taught her, and to which her little lips remained ever faithful. as he leaned over her to give her his good-night and a kiss, she said softly, "another kiss, father;" which having received, she murmured to herself lovingly, "good-night, father; good-night, mother;" and soon she was fast asleep.