At a Girl's Mercy, or, The Fortunes of War — page 165: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

154 AT A GIRL’S MERCY. should leave it for the night, to see the smile re- turn that used to be her great delight to waken. It had been so long since she had seen that. He had been so brave and thoughtful of her comfort that she had seen a smile when she knew the heart ache was only uppermost, but the smile she loved had not stirred his lips since the boys went away, and the silence of the great. house was wakened - only by her light feet and her weak efforts to keep the cheery life going to comfort the troubled hearts. ‘‘T was just thinking, papa,’’ she said, letting her eyes reflect the smile on her lips, ‘‘of the time when Charlie and Frank and I played truant, and stole-our ponies from the stables that we might go nutting in the woods back here instead of going to the plodding old school, and how you discovered our intentions, and punished us with your stern face, though never a word did you say of blame or reproof. It was al- ways your face that punished me more than any other thing could have done. When you smiled [I ° knew I had done nothing to displease you, but when- ever | think of your face as it was that day, I wonder how I could ever have done what must have brought that look upon it.’’ _ He patted the curly head under his hand, and there was the flickering of the old look upon his face as he met the earnest blue eyes under the fluffy golden hair fallen low upon the white brow. The old memories came back to him, too, but they were not all so sweet as she would have them in her ten- der thought for him. There was a touch of the bit- ter in his smiling as he added to her merry words: “And how young Travers stood up in his manly way—he was always manly, that boy—and took the blame upon himself, when he knew full well he was Comicbooks.com > oe _ ed oe : 2 = a? eo” a