"I am reserving the present for Christmas," he said, in answer to her inquiring look.
Elsie turned to the trunk again.
"Dear papa, how good you are to me!" she said, looking up at him almost with tears of pleasure in her eyes, as she lifted out, one after another, a number of costly toys, which she examined with exclamations of delight, and then several handsome dresses, some of the finest, softest merino, and others of thick rich silk, all ready made in fashionable style, and doing credit to his taste and judgment; and lastly a beautiful velvet pelisse, trimmed with costly fur, just the thing to wear with her pretty new hat.
He laughed and patted her cheek.
"We must have these dresses tried on," he said, "at least one of them; for as they were all cut by the same pattern—one of your old dresses which I took with me—I presume they will all fit alike. There, take this one to mammy, and tell her to put it on you, and then come back to me."
"Oh! I wondered how you could get them the right size, papa," Elsie answered, as she skipped gayly out of the room.
She was back again in a very few moments, arrayed in the pretty silk he had selected.
"Ah! it seems to be a perfect fit," said he, turning her round and round, with a very gratified look.
"Mammy must dress you to-morrow in one of these new frocks, and your pretty hat and pelisse."
Elsie looked troubled.