"Very well," he said, "I have tried to satisfy everybody's taste, so I trust everybody will be contented. Here, Paula, this little package is for you. Catalina assured me that this would give you more pleasure than anything else." Paula took the package and turned it over and over. "It is a book," she said in a voice that was none too steady. "Do you think so?" said Catalina with a smile. "In that case hurry up, and show us." "Hurry up," cried Louis, handing her his jack-knife. "Cut the string and open the package. We want to see what it is." She obeyed, a bit confused to see all eyes fixed upon her. Inside she found a little black book with a much-used cover. She raised her eyes in gratitude to father and tried to thank him, but could not find a word to say. Eagerly her fingers turned the precious pages. Suddenly out fell a five-franc-piece. "There, there," said my father, as she tried to express her thanks, "I am more than satisfied, if I have made you happy." "Happy!" said Paula, "I am more than happy!" She took her beloved Book, and as she turned its pages she found still other treasures--a few faded flowers which to my mind appeared to have no value whatsoever, and yet I could see that they seemed to call up once more the precious memories of her past life in that far-off Waldensian Valley. "Dear uncle," said Paula, "Did you read the Book?" "Yes, I read part of it, but if I have returned it to you today, it is not because I have finished reading it, nor is it because Catalina has begged me to return it to you. It is because you have obliged me to read another book." "I, uncle? What book can that be?" "Yes, it may seem strange to you, but you see, you have lived among us in such a way that I am to confess that I wish that my three daughters would imitate your manner of living. You have made me comprehend the love that your Bible speaks of, and of which Christ gave us an example, and which He apparently has put into your life, and so I give back your Bible to you with all my heart." One can imagine our feelings as we listened to this strange discourse from the lips of him who only a short time before had been so opposed to such things! "And then, Paula, I have something more to say," said my father. "Do you remember the day when I hit you on the head with your Bible as I took it away from you? I wish to say that I am sorry beyond expression for what I did that day;--and now have you pardoned me, little daughter?" For reply Paula took my father's hands in hers, then in a flood of generosity and forgetfulness of self she gave her Bible back to him, simply saying, "I give it back to you, dearest uncle!" "You give it back to me!" said my father, stupefied, "You give me back the Bible you loved so much!" "Yes," answered Paula, "because Teresa has promised to give me another." "But do you mean to tell me that you would care for a new Bible as much as this one?"