"What shall you do with yours?" asked Philip, remarking upon that fact.
"Read," she answered, looking back at him with a smile as she tripped lightly up the stairs.
Dinah was in waiting to smooth her hair and help her change the pretty riding hat and habit for a dress better suited to the house; then Elsie, left alone, seated herself by a window with her Bible in her hand.
For a moment her eyes rested upon the blue distant mountains, softly outlined against the deeper blue of the sky, watched the cloud shadows floating over the nearer hills and valleys here richly wooded, there covered with fields of waving grain her ear the while drinking in with delight many a sweet rural sound, the songs of birds, the distant lowing of cattle, and bleating of sheep—her heart swelling with ardent love and thankfulness to him who had given her so much to enjoy.
Dinah had left the door open, that the fresh air might course freely through the room, and Gertrude coming, some minutes later, in search of her friend, stood watching Elsie for a little unperceived.
"Dear me!" she exclaimed at length, "how many times a day do you pore over that book?"
Elsie looked up with a smile as sweet as the morning, "I am allowed to read it as often as I please."
"Allowed? not compelled? not ordered?"
"No, only I must have a text ready for mamma every morning."
"Getting one ready for to-morrow?"