“So do I, my darlings; and we must not content ourselves with idle wishing, but earnestly strive to do all we can to spread the glad tidings and win souls to Christ.”
CHAPTER XIV.
The remaining winter months sped swiftly by, nothing occurring to mar the domestic felicity of our friends at Woodburn; then came gentle spring with her soft breezes, buds and blossoms, bringing new delights.
The captain planned and carried out various improvements in the grounds, taking not his wife only, but his children also, into his counsels, consulting their tastes and wishes in a way that gave them a very enjoyable sense of joint proprietorship with him. He had a pleasant fashion of saying “ours” instead of “my” house, grounds, flower-garden, etc.
But Max was given a garden spot to be all his own; Lulu and Grace each had hers; and they were encouraged to work in them according to their strength, the gardener being instructed to do for them whatever they were not able to do for themselves, and to provide each with whatever plants and seeds were called for.
It was but little Grace could do with her own small hands, but she found great pleasure in directing the laying out of her own tiny domain, selecting the seeds and plants and deciding upon the order of their arrangement.
The captain was a firm believer in the efficacy of fresh air, and in suitable weather there were daily drives and walks about the grounds, through the woods and along the country roads.
It was a dear delight to the children to hunt for wild wood flowers in their walks, and if they spied any in their drives, papa was always indulgently ready to stop the carriage and gather the floral treasures for his darlings, or even to permit them to alight and pluck the tempting beauties for themselves.
Such a free, glad life was theirs, so filled with pleasant duties and pastimes, so surrounded with an atmosphere of tender parental care and love, that their young hearts seemed brimming over with happiness, and even Gracie’s face grew round and rosy with health.
Violet, too, was very happy, gay and light-hearted as a child: the captain sometimes said that he felt as if he were renewing his youth; at which Violet would laugh and say, “That is not so very strange, my dear; for you are some years younger than mamma—whom we all indignantly refuse to consider old—and you have neither gray hairs nor wrinkles.”