"Dear papa, I like it very much; I would rather have it than anything else on the tree."
"Still you have not answered my question," he said, with a smile, as he sat down and drew her to his side, adding in a playful tone, "Come, I am not going to put up with any evasion; tell me truly if you would have preferred something else, and if so, what it is."
Elsie blushed and looked down; then raising her eyes, and seeing with what a tender, loving glance he was regarding her, she took courage to say, "Yes papa, there is one thing I would have liked better, and that is your miniature."
To her surprise he looked highly pleased at her reply, and giving her another kiss, said, "Well, darling, some day you shall have it."
"Mr. Horace Dinsmore," called Adelaide, taking some small, glittering object from the tree.
"Another present for me?" he asked, as Walter came running with it.
He had already received several, from his father and sisters, but none had seemed to give him half the pleasure that this did when he saw that it was labelled, "From his little daughter."
It was only a gold pencil. The miniature—with which the artist had succeeded so well that nothing could have been prettier except the original herself—she had reserved to be given in another way.
"Do you like it, papa?" she asked, her face glowing with delight to see how pleased he was.
"Yes, darling, very much; and I shall always think of my little girl when I use it."