"No, I did not get to bed early, papa," she replied. "I thought you would excuse me for staying up, for once, to try my fortune. For you see, we all wanted to know who were to be our future life partners, Rosie telling us that there was 'many a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip,' so that our engagements didn't make us safe."
She concluded with a light laugh and look that seemed to say she felt no fear that he would be seriously displeased with her.
"You stayed up to try your fortune, did you?" he returned, with a look of amusement. "Why, my child, I thought you considered it already made."
"So I do, papa, and last night's experience only confirmed my belief."
Then she went on to tell him the whole story, he seeming to enjoy the tale as she told it.
"You are not vexed with me, papa, for staying up so late, just for once?" she asked, when her tale was told.
"No," he replied, "though I should be far from willing to have you make a practice of it.
"'Early to bed and early to rise,
Makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise,'
the old saying is, and I want you to be all three."
"As you are, father; and I am the first, at all events," she returned, with a happy little laugh. "You have never had to pay a big doctor's bill for me."