"Yes, it was here," he said, as he ushered them in, "but I have had it
altered and fitted up expressly for my children's use: you see, it is a
little away from the house, so that the noise of saws and hammers will
not be likely to prove an annoyance to your mamma and visitors. See,
this is a workroom furnished with fret and scroll saws, and every sort
of tool that I know of which would be likely to prove useful to you, Max
and Lulu."

"Papa, thank you! how good and kind you are to us!" they both exclaimed,
glancing about them, then up into his face, with sparkling eyes.

"You must have spent a great deal of money on us, sir," added Max
thoughtfully.

"Yes, indeed," chimed in Lulu with a slight look of uneasiness. "Papa, I
do hope you won't have to go without any thing you want, because you've
used up so much on these and other things for us."

"No, my dears; and if you are only good and obedient, and make the best
use of what I have provided, I shall never regret any thing of what I
have done for you.

"See here, Gracie."

He opened an inner door as he spoke, and showed a playroom as completely
fitted up for its intended use as the room they were in. It was about
the same size as the workroom, the two occupying the whole of the small
building.

A pretty carpet covered the floor, a few pictures hung on the delicately