"You are a good girl," replied her father, "and deserve to go to school. You shall go there next week, and learn to do so many pretty things."
"Will Eda go with us?" asked Ellen.
"No," replied Mrs. Dalton, "she is to stay at home to take care of you."
"Am I not going to school?" said the child in faltering voice.
"No, you are to stay at home," answered her father, "with mamma and me: your mamma is going to teach you herself to play on the piano in the drawing-room." The children became silent, at once; their little hearts were too full to speak, the large tears swelled in their eyes, but they were afraid to shed them.
"Don’t cry," said Mr. Dalton, "you are too old to be babies now, go and tell Eda the good news of how clever you are soon to be."
"I thought," observed Mrs. Dalton, as they left the room, "that Ellen would not like to stay at home."
