"Me too," said Grace; "the happiest place for me is always where my own dear father is with me," hugging him tight and kissing him again and again.
"My darling! my precious darlings!" the captain said in response and caressing them in turn.
"I'm so sorry for poor Maxie," remarked Grace presently, "that he can't see you every day, papa, as we do, and be kissed and hugged as we are; and that he can't go to Viamede with the rest of us." She finished with a heavy sigh.
"Yes," her father said, "I am sorry for him, and for ourselves, that he is not to be with us. But my dear boy is happy where he is, and I in the thought that he is preparing himself to do good service to our country; to be a valuable and useful citizen."
"And we are all ever so proud of him—our dear Maxie; but I'm glad I am not a boy. Women can be very useful in the world too, can't they, papa?"
"Yes; yes, indeed, my darlings; the world couldn't go on without women, any more than without men; both are necessary, and the one sex to be as much honored as the other, and I hope and trust my daughters will all grow up to be noble, true-hearted, useful women, always trying to do earnestly and faithfully the work God has given them to do."
"I hope so, indeed, papa!" responded Lulu in an earnest, thoughtful tone; "if I know my own heart I do want to be a very useful woman when I'm grown up—a useful girl now—serving God with all my might; but oh, I do so easily forget and go wrong!"
"Yet I can see very plainly that my dear little girl is improving," her father said, softly smoothing her hair with his hand, "and I'm sure—for the Bible tells us so—that if you fight on, looking to God for help, you will come off conqueror and more than conqueror in the end."
"Yes, papa; oh, I am so glad the Bible says that!"
There was a moment's silence; then Grace said, with a sigh and a voice full of tears, "Oh, I do so wish I could see Maxie before we go so far away from him! Papa, wouldn't they let him come home for just a little while?"