"I can if Papa will hold me in his arms and you take one hand and he the other," she said, eagerly.
Gordon took her and told the surgeon to take the stitches without delay.
The first one she bore bravely. But when the steel needle cut the flesh the second time, and the sharp pain sent its chill to her heart, the little face went white and she gasped:
"Kiss me, Papa—Mama, quick"
They both bent at once, and the blond locks of the man mingled with the dark hair of the woman as their lips touched her face.
The doctor paused, and Lucy smiled faintly.
"I'm better now. I can stand it."
Gordon felt a strange thrill to the last depths of his soul as he sat there holding one of his daughter's hands while Ruth held the other. A sense of mysterious unity with their life came over him.
The little woman saw his emotion and knew its meaning.
She bent close and, while a smile played around her eyes, whispered softly and triumphantly:
"Frank, I'd go through another wreck for this."
And the man was silent. ······· At Florence, clothes were brought to the train, and those who had none were rigged out after a fashion for the return home.
Not a passenger on the train wished to continue his journey except the fat drummer. He went on to
