his
lips? what meant this bitter weeping? His eye sought that of the
physician, who promptly answered the unspoken query with the same
cheering report he had just given her.

Mr. Dinsmore was intensely relieved. "Thank God that it is no worse!" he
said in low, reverent tones. "Elsie, daughter, cheer up, he will soon be
well again."

Mr. Leland, taking leave, offered to return and watch by the sick bed
that night; but Mr. Dinsmore, while joining Elsie in cordial thanks,
claimed it as his privilege.

"Ah, well, don't hesitate to call upon me whenever I can be of use,"
said Mr. Leland, and with a kindly "Good evening," he and the doctor
retired, Mr. Dinsmore seeing them to the door.

Returning, he found Elsie still in the parlor where he had left her.

She was speaking to a servant, "Go, Prilla, look for the children, and
bring them in. It is getting late for them to be out."

The girl went, and Elsie saying to her father that Prilla had brought
word that Mr. Travilla was now sleeping, begged him to sit down and talk
with her for a moment. The tears fell fast as she spoke. It was long
since he had seen her so moved.

"Dear daughter, why distress yourself thus?" he said, folding her in his
arms, and drawing her head to a resting place upon his breast; "your
husband's injuries are not very serious. Dr. Burton is not one to
deceive us with false hopes."

"No, papa, oh, how thankful I am to know he is not in danger; but--oh,
papa, papa! to think that Eddie did it! that my own son should have so
nearly taken his father's life! I grow sick with horror at the very
thought!"

"Yet it must have been the merest accident, the child almost idolizes
his father."

"I had thought so, but he must have been disobeying that father's
positive command else this could not have happened. I could never have
believed my son could be so disobedient, and it breaks my heart to think
of it all."

"The best of us do not always resist temptation successfully, and
doubtless in this case it has been v

Martha Finley (1828 - 1909) was a teacher and author of numerous works, the most well known being the 28 volume Elsie Dinsmore series which was published over a span of 38 years. The daughter of Presbyterian minister Dr. James Brown Finley and his wife and cousin Maria Theresa Brown Finley, she was born on April 26th, 1828 in Chillicothe, Ohio. Finley wrote many of her books under the psodonym Martha Farquharson. She died in 1909 in Elkton, Maryland, where she moved in 1876.

Anonymous may refer to: Anonymus, the Latin spelling, may refer to: