A conscious twinkle might have been observed playing about the blue eyes of the doctor, and a shrewd observer might have surmised that the offense was not always strictly involuntary, for the doctor, though a most docile and tractable husband, still retained here and there traces of certain wild male instincts and fell at times into singular irregularities. He had been known to upset all Mrs. Cushing's nicely arranged yarn-baskets and stocking-baskets and patch-baskets, pouring the contents in a heap on the floor, and carrying them off bodily to pick up chestnuts in, when starting off with the children on a nutting expedition. He would still persist at intervals in going to hunt eggs in the barn with Dolly, and putting the fruits of the search in his coat-tail pocket, though he had once been known to sit down on a pocketful at a preparatory lecture, the bell for which rung while he was yet on the hay-mow. On this occasion, therefore, Spring made an opportune diversion in the mournful turn the conversation was taking. The general tone of remark became slightly admonitory on the part of Mrs. Cushing and playfully defensive on the part of the doctor. In their "heart of heart" the boys believed their father sometimes fed Spring when he _did_ know what he was about, and this belief caused constant occasional lapses from strict statute law on their part. That morning, in prayers, their father read: "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in time of trouble. Therefore will we not fear, though the earth be removed; though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea;" and at those verses he stopped and said: "There, my dear, there must be our comfort." And then they sung: "Our God, our help in ages past, Our hope for years to come, Our shelter from the stormy blast, And our eternal home." Then in prayer he plead for the Church--the Church of God, the vine of his planting--and said: "When the enemy cometh in like a flood, may Thy spirit lift up a standard against them;" and again Dolly trembled and wondered. But after prayers Bill suddenly burst back into the house. "Oh! mamma, there _is_ a bluebird! Spring is come!" "A bluebird! Impossible so early in March. You must be mistaken." "No. Come to the door; you can hear him just as plain!" And, sure enough, on the highest top of the great button-ball tree opposite the house sat the little blue angel singing with all his might--a living sapphire dropped down from the walls of the beautiful city above. A most sanguine and imprudent bluebird certainly he must have been, though the day was so lovely and the great icicles on the eaves of the house were actually commencing to drip. But there undoubtedly he was--herald and harbinger of good days to come. "It is an omen," said the doctor, as he put his arms fondly round his wife. "The Lord liveth, and blessed be our rock!" And the boys and Dolly ran out, shouting wildly,