“You are sure you quite forgive me, Pa? Please, Pa, please, forgive me quite!” Half laughing at him and half crying to him, Bella besought him in the prettiest manner; in a manner so engaging and so playful and so natural, that her cherubic parent made a coaxing face as if she had never grown up, and said, “What a silly little Mouse it is!”

“But you do forgive me that, and everything else; don’t you, Pa?”

“Yes, my dearest.”

“And you don’t feel solitary or neglected, going away by yourself; do you, Pa?”

“Lord bless you! No, my Life!”

“Goodbye, dearest Pa. Goodbye!”

“Goodbye, my darling! Take her away, my dear John. Take her home!”