"Yes, indeed; till you grow quite, quite tired of me, papa."
"And that will never be, my pet. Ah, little wife, how rich we are in our children! Yet not rich enough to part with one without a pang of regret. But we will not trouble about that yet, since the evil day is not very near."
"Oh isn't it?" cried Violet joyously.
"No; Lester goes to Italy in a few weeks, and it will be one, two, or maybe three years before he returns to claim his bride."
"Ah, then it is not time to begin to fret about it yet!" cried Vi, gleefully, smiles chasing away the clouds from her brow.
At her age a year seems a long while in anticipation.
"No, daughter, nor ever will be," her father responded with gentle gravity. "I hope my little girl will never allow herself to indulge in so useless and sinful a thing as fretting over either what can or what cannot be helped."
"Ah, you don't mean to let me fret at all, I see, you dear, wise old papa," she returned with a merry laugh. "Now I must find Elsie and pass the lesson over to her. For I shrewdly suspect she's fretting over Lester's expected departure."
"Away with you then!" was the laughing rejoinder, and she went dancing and singing from the room.
"The dear, merry, light-hearted child," her father said, looking after her. "Would that I could keep her always thus."