"Oh no, papa, I did not mean that; but she is going to be married—at least, she would have been married a year ago, nurse says, but the man she is to be married to is working hard to try and get a house for her to live in first—"
"And how did you hear all this, Florence? Did nurse know of my promise to you, and did she ask you to speak of this?"
"Oh no, papa! she does not know any thing about it. I thought when I had such a good chance, I ought to do something for nurse; so, when she was putting me to bed last night, I asked her what she wished for most in the world, and she said she was so well taken care of that she had not any thing to wish for; and I said, 'Not if anybody was to promise to give you just what you should ask for, nurse, could you not find any thing to wish for then?' and so nurse told me about her daughter, and said she did wish sometimes she had a home for her, and I thought my third wish should be for a house for her. Just a small house, you know, papa, with flowers all about it, and a garden, and a poultry yard, and a dairy, and—"
"Stop, Florence—here are half a dozen wishes at once. I will tell you what I will do. I will have a small but comfortable house built—"
"And a garden to it, papa?"
"Yes, a garden and a poultry yard; the dairy can wait until it is wanted, and the flowers they can plant themselves. This house you shall give to nurse, and she can let her children have it until she wants to occupy it herself. It is only right, as you say, that something should be done for her."
"Oh, thank you—thank you, papa! That will be my very wish."
"And now, Florence, your three wishes have been wished, and not one of them for yourself. Have you no selfish desires, my child?"
"Oh yes, papa!" said Florence, in a serious tone, "a great many."
"I should like to know how you find them, Florence?"