"Yes, papa, very; just full of pleasure; and now that night has come, I'm so glad that I have my own dear papa to hug me up close, and that he's going to sleep in the next room to Gracie and me."

"I'm glad too," he said. "Yes, we have a great deal to be thankful for--you and I. Most of all for G.o.d's unspeakable gift--the dear Saviour whose birth and life and death have bought all our other blessings for us.

"My child, try to keep in mind always, even when engaged in your sports, that you are his and must so act and speak as to bring no disgrace upon his cause; make it your constant endeavor to honor him in all your words and ways."

"I do mean to, papa; but oh it is so easy to forget!"

"I know it, my darling; I find it so too; but we must watch and pray, asking G.o.d earnestly night and morning, on our knees, to keep us from temptation and from sin, and often sending up a swift, silent pet.i.tion from our hearts at other times when we feel that we need help to overcome.

"I want you, my little daughter, to be particularly on the watch against your besetting sin--an inclination to sudden outbursts of pa.s.sion. It is not to be expected that everything will move on as smoothly, with so many children and young people together, every day, as they have to-day, and I fear you will be strongly tempted at times to give way to your naturally quick temper."

"Oh I am afraid so too papa; and it would be perfectly dreadful if I should!" she said with a half shudder, twining her arm round his neck and hiding her face on his shoulder. "Oh won't you ask G.o.d to help me to keep from it?"

"Yes, I shall, I do every night and morning, and we will ask him together now."

CHAPTER VII.

It had been growing colder all the afternoon, and continued to do so very rapidly through the night. The next morning at the breakfast table some of the lads announced, with great glee that the lakelet was frozen over; the ice so thick and solid that it was perfectly safe for skating in every part.

The news caused quite a flurry of pleasurable excitement among the younger ones of the company.

"I move that we spend the morning there," said Zoe.

"How many of us have skates, I wonder?"

"You have I think, have you not?" said Edward.

"Yes; yours and mine are both in good order; I examined them only the other day."

The captain asked how many knew how to use skates, and from the replies it seemed that all the lads had been more or less accustomed to their use, some of the girls also. Zoe had had quite a good deal of practice before her marriage, a little since.

The winters were usually too mild in this part of the country to give much opportunity for that kind of exercise. She was therefore the more eager to avail herself of this one; for she was very fond of the sport.

Edward, Harold, and Herbert were all in the mood to join her in it and were prepared to do so; and Rosie and Max too were equally fortunate; but most of the others had come without skates.

But that difficulty could be easily remedied; their homes were not far off, nor was the village, with its stores where such things could be bought. It was decided to despatch messengers for the needed supplies.

"Papa," said Lulu, "may they get a pair for me? I'd like to learn to skate."

He turned to her with an indulgent smile. "Would you? then you shall; I will send for the skates and give you a lesson in the art myself. I used to be reckoned a good skater in my boyhood. Would my little Grace like to learn too?"

"No, thank you, papa, I'd rather walk on the ground, or ride."

"You shall ride on the ice if you will, little girlie," said Harold. "I think I can find a conveyance that will suit your taste."

"You're kind to think of it, Uncle Harold," she said, with a dubious look, "but I'm afraid the horses would slip and fall on the ice."

"I think not," he said; "but if they should they will only have to pick themselves up again, and go on."

"But I'm afraid they might get hurt and maybe tip me over too."

Harold only smiled at that, as he rose and left the room to attend to the despatching of the messengers.

Grace wondered what he meant, but as the older people all about her were busily talking among themselves, she went on quietly with her breakfast and said no more.

"Are you a skater, my dear?" asked the captain, addressing his wife.

"I used to be a tolerably expert one and moderately fond of the exercise," she replied.

"I should like the pleasure of taking you out this morning, for a trial of your skill," he said. "Shall I send for skates for you?"

"Thank you, no; I think I have a pair somewhere about the house, and perhaps can find another for you."

"There are several pairs of gentlemen's skates," said her mother. "I will have them brought out for the captain to try."

He thanked her, adding that in case a pair should be found to fit, he could have the pleasure of taking his wife out without waiting for the return of the servant despatched to the village.

Upon leaving the breakfast table they all repaired to the parlor for family worship, as was their custom morning and evening. Then those who had skates, and some who wanted the walk and a near view of the skating, Lulu among them, got themselves ready and went to the lakelet, while the others waited for the return of the messengers; most of them meanwhile gathered about the windows overlooking the lakelet, to watch the movements of the skaters--Edward, Zoe, Harold, Herbert, Rosie, Evelyn and Max; presently joined by Capt. Raymond and Violet, a pair of skates having been found to fit each of them.

When all were fairly started the scene became very animated and pretty.

The two married couples skated well, but Harold, and especially Herbert, far exceeded them, the swift, easy movement with which they glided over the gla.s.sy surface of the lake, the exact balancing of their bodies, and the graceful curves they executed called forth many an admiring and delighted exclamation from the onlookers, both near at hand and farther away at the windows of the mansion.

Among the latter were Grandma Elsie, her father and his wife--Grandma Rose--and Cousin Ronald.

"Bravo!" cried the two old gentlemen simultaneously, as Herbert performed a feat in which he seemed to fairly outdo himself. Mr.

Lilburn adding, "I feel the old ardor for the sport stir within me at sight o' the lad's adroit movements. At his age I might have ventured to compete with as expert a skater as he. What say you, Cousin Horace, to a match atween the two auld chaps o' us down there the noo?"

"Agreed," Mr. Dinsmore said with a laugh. "There are skates that will answer our purpose I think, and we will set off at once if you like."

At that moment Lulu came running in. "The skates have come, Grandma Elsie," she said, "just as I have got back to the house. Papa sent me in because it was too cold, he said, for me to be standing still out there.

He'll come for me when Mamma Vi is tired and wants to come in."

"Does she seem to be enjoying it?" asked the person addressed.

"Oh yes, ma'am, very much indeed! Aren't you going to try it too?"

"Yes, do, Elsie," said her father. "And you too, Rose," to his wife.

"Let us all try the sport while we have an opportunity."

The ladies were nothing loath, everybody seemed to catch the spirit of the hour, the skates were quickly distributed, and all hurried away to the lake, but Lulu and Grace who were to stay within doors, by their father's orders, till he came, or sent for them.

Lulu having taken off her hood and coat, now sat before the fire warming her feet. Grace was watching the skaters from an easy chair by the window.

"It does look like good fun," she said. "Is it very cold out there, Lu?"