Elsie at the World's Fair

by Martha Finley

  CHAPTER VIII.

  It was late when at last all the _Dolphin's_ passengers were gathered in.The party to which the Raymonds belonged were the first, the young men whohad accompanied them in the electric launch bidding good-night at thePeristyle, and all had retired to their respective state-rooms before thecoming of the others; all except the captain, who was pacing the deckwhile awaiting their arrival.

  His thoughts seemed not altogether agreeable, for he walked with droopinghead and downcast eyes and sighed rather heavily once or twice.

  "Papa dear, what is the matter? Oh, have I done anything to vex or troubleyou?" asked Lucilla's voice close at his side.

  "Why, daughter, are you there?" he exclaimed, turning toward her with afatherly smile, then taking her hand and drawing her into his arms,stroking her hair, patting her cheeks, and pressing a fond kiss upon herlips. "No, I have no fault to find with my eldest daughter, and yet----"He paused, gazing searchingly and somewhat sadly into the bright youngface.

  "Oh, papa, what is it?" she asked, putting her arms about his neck andgazing with ardent affection and questioning anxiety up into his eyes."You looked at me so strangely two or three times to-night, and I sofeared you were displeased with me that I could not go to my bed withoutfirst coming to ask you about it, and get a kiss of forgiveness if I havedispleased you in any way."

  "No, daughter, you have not displeased me, but--your father is soselfish," he sighed, "that he can scarce brook the thought that someoneelse may some day oust him from the first place in his dear child'sheart."

  "Oh, papa!" she exclaimed in half reproachful tones, "how can you betroubled with any such idea as that? don't you know that I love _you_ tenthousand times better than anybody else in the whole wide world? I just_love_ to belong to you, and I always shall," she added, laying her headon his breast and gazing with ardent affection up into his eyes. "Besides,I am only a little girl yet, as you've told me over and over again, andmust not think about beaux and lovers for at least five or six years tocome; and I'm sure I don't want to think of them at all so long as I havemy own dear father to love and care for me."

  "That is right," he said, holding her close; "I think I can say with truththat I love my dear daughter much too well ever to intentionally stand inthe way of her happiness, but I feel sure that the best place for her, forthe next six or eight years at least, will be in her father's house,trusting in his love and care."

  "I haven't a doubt of it, father," she said, lifting loving, laughing eyesto his, "and really I don't believe Chester or anybody else cares half somuch about me as you do, or wants to get me away from you. I like rightwell to laugh and talk with him and the others just as I do with thegirls, but I'm, oh, so glad I belong to you, and will for years to come,if not always. Yes, I do hope it will be always, while we both live. AndGracie feels just the same. We had a little talk about it not very longago, and agreed that we could not bear to think the time would ever comewhen we would have to leave our dear father, and the sweet home he hasmade for us, to live with anybody else in the loveliest that could beimagined."

  "That pleases me well," he said, his eyes shining; "Gracie is no less dearto me than you are, and so frail that I should be far from willing toresign the care of her to another. But now, dear child, it is high timeyou were resting in your bed; so give me another good-night kiss and go atonce."

  "I will, papa, and are not you going too? for I am sure you must beneeding rest as well as I."

  "Presently," he replied, glancing toward the pier. "I have been waiting tosee the last of our party on board, and here they come."

  Lucilla went to her bed a very happy girl, her heart full of love to herfather and singing for joy in the thought of his love for her. She had along dreamless sleep, but woke at her usual early hour and, when morningduties had been attended to, went noiselessly up to the deck where, as shehad expected, the captain had preceded her by a moment or more. She ran tohim to claim the usual morning caress.

  "You look bright and well, dear child," he said, holding her close for amoment, then a little further off to gaze searchingly into the smiling,happy face.

  "As I feel, father," she said, laying her head against his breast. "I wentto sleep last night thinking of all you had been saying to me and feelingso glad of your dear love and that you want to keep me all your own forever so long." Then she added, with an arch look up into his face, "Don'tyou think, papa, it will be best for you to have me under eye all thetime wherever we go?"

  "I am not afraid to trust you, my darling," he answered with a smile, "butof course I want you near me that I may take the very best care of youalways and all the time."

  "Well, then, I'll get and keep just as close to you as I can," sheanswered with a merry look and smile. "But, papa----"

  "Well, daughter, what is it?" he asked, as she paused and hesitated, as iffearful that he might be displeased with what she was about to say.

  "I was just thinking,--please don't be vexed with me,--but wasn't Mamma Vionly nineteen when you married her?"

  "Yes," he said, with a slight smile, "but circumstances alter cases, and Ihave changed my views somewhat since then."

  "Yes," she said, reflectively; "she had no father, and it was you shemarried, you who know so well how to take care of both her and yourdaughters."

  At that her father merely smiled again and patted her cheek, saying. "I amglad you are so well content with my guardianship."

  He did not think it necessary to tell her of a talk with Violet the nightbefore, in which he had expressed his determination to keep his daughterssingle for some years to come,--certainly not less than five or six,--andhis fear that Chester and one or two others had already begun to perceivetheir charms, and might succeed all too soon in winning their affections;in reply to which Violet had, with a very mirthful look, reminded him howyoung she herself was at the time of their marriage, and that he did notseem to think it at all necessary to wait for her to grow older.

  In answer to that he had laughingly insisted that she was far more maturethan his daughters bid fair to be at the same age; adding that besides hecertainly ought to have gained something in wisdom in the years which hadpassed since their marriage.

  "Ah," said Violet giving him a look of ardent affection, "after all I amglad you had not attained to all that wisdom some years earlier, my dearhusband, for my life with you has been such a happy, happy one. Your dearlove is my greatest earthly treasure, our little son and daughter scarcelyless a joy of heart to me."

  "To me also," he said, drawing her into his arms and giving her tenderestcaresses, "yet not quite so dear as their mother; for you, my love, havethe very first place in my heart."

  "And you in mine," she returned, her eyes dewy with happy tears; "and Ilove your daughters dearly, dearly; I could hardly bear to part with them,and I am glad to perceive that they, as yet, care nothing for beaux, butare devoted to their father and happy in his love."

  "Yes, I think they are, and fondly hope they will continue to be, for anumber of years to come," was his pleased response. "I have no doubt theywill," said Violet, and there the conversation ended.

  * * * * *

  "More than content, papa; for as I have often said, I just delight inbelonging to you," was Lucilla's glad response to his last remark in thatmorning talk.

  "Yes, I know you do, and so we are a very happy father and daughter," hesaid. "I often think no man was ever more blest in his children than I amin mine."

  The talk about the breakfast table that morning was of the places it mightbe most desirable to visit that day, and the final conclusion that theywould go first to the battleship _Illinois_, then to the lighthouse andlife-saving station, both near at hand.

  "I am glad we are going aboard a battleship--or rather the model of one, Ipresume I should say, and especially in company with a naval officer whocan explain everything to us," remarked Rosie in a lively tone.

  "Yes, we are very fortunate in that," said Mrs. Dinsmore, g
iving CaptainRaymond an appreciative look and smile.

  "Papa, didn't you say she wasn't a real ship?" asked little Elsie, lookingup enquiringly into her father's face.

  "Yes, my child, but in all you could perceive in going aboard of her sheis exactly like one--a fac-simile of the coast-line battleship _Illinois_,which is a very powerful vessel."

  "And are her guns real, papa? Mightn't they go off and shoot us?"

  "No, daughter, there is no danger of that. The largest ones are woodenmodels, and though quite a number are real and capable of doing terribleexecution, there is not the slightest danger of their being used on us."

  "I'm not one bit afraid of them!" cried little Ned, straightening himselfup with a very brave, defiant air. "Not with papa along, anyhow."

  "No, you needn't be, Ned," laughed Walter, "for most assuredly nobodywould dare to shoot Captain Raymond or anybody under his care."

  "No, indeed, I should think not," chuckled the little fellow, with aproudly affectionate look up into his father's face.

  "No, nor any other visitor to the ship," said the captain. "We may gothere without feeling the least apprehension of such a reception."

  "So we will start for the _Illinois_ as soon as we are ready for the day'spleasures," said Violet, smiling into the bright little face of her boy.

  Harold and Herbert joined them at the usual early hour, bringing Chesterand Frank Dinsmore with them, and in a few minutes they were all upon thedeck of the model battleship.

  They were treated very politely and shown every department from sleepingquarters to gun-deck. They were told that she was steel armor-plated belowthe berth-deck, and were shown that above the decks were steel turrets,through portholes of which deep-mouthed wooden guns projected. Also thatshe was fully manned and officered with a crew of two hundred men, whogave daily drills and performed all the duties required of them when inactual service on the high seas.

  From the battleship they went to the lighthouse and life-saving station.

  On the plaza in front of the Government Building was the camp of thelife-saving corps. It was neat and pretty, and close beside it was themodel of a government lighthouse. Some of our party went to the top ofthat, and all of them viewed the paraphernalia used in the saving of lifewhen a vessel is wrecked within sight of the shore. Some of them hadalready seen it on the Eastern shore, but were sufficiently interested tocare to look at it again, while to the others it was altogether new, aswas the drill through which the company of life guards were presently put,for both the benefit to themselves of the practice, and the edification ofvisitors.

  That over Grandma Elsie asked, "Shall we not, now we are here, go into theGovernment Building and look at the military exhibit?"

  "I should like to do so," said Mr. Dinsmore. "In what part of the buildingis it, Harold?"

  "The southeastern, sir. I have been in once, and found many things wellworth looking at more than once."

  Harold led the way as he spoke, the others following.

  The first department they entered contained exhibits of metal work, gunand cartridge-making machines, campaign materials, and battleflags.

  All were interesting to the gentlemen, and to some of the ladies also, butto the others and the children the battleflags were far more so thananything else. It was the greatest collection ever seen outside of agovernment museum; for they were mementoes of all the wars our countryhas passed through since the settlement of Jamestown, Va.

  There were also mountain howitzers mounted on mules, forage wagons,propeller torpedoes, and every kind of camp appliance, garrison equipage,pack saddles, etc. Famous relics, too, such as a beautifully carved bronzecannon captured from the British at Yorktown in 1781, and a great guncalled "Long Tom," with which the privateer _General Armstrong_ repelled aBritish squadron off the shores of the Azores in 1814, and many othersouvenirs of American history.

  "'Long Tom,'" repeated little Elsie, gazing curiously at the great gun,about which some remark had been made a moment before, "I s'pose there's astory to it. I wish somebody would tell it to Neddie and me."

  "You shall hear it one of these times," said her father, "but not here andnow;" and with that she was content, for papa's promises were sure to bekept.

  "Don't refrain on my account from telling it here and now, captain," saidCousin Ronald with a humorous look and smile. "I'm not so patriotic as toendorse wrong-doing even on the part of Britons."

  "We are all sure of that, sir," returned the captain, "but this time andplace are not the most favorable for the telling of a story of thatlength."

  "And grandma will sit down somewhere with the children presently for arest, in some quiet place, and tell them the story of the gun should theywish to hear it," said Mrs. Travilla; and with that promise the childrenseemed well content.