"She is like her father," said Ruth; "the resemblance is quite startling when she is sleeping; the same breadth of forehead, the same straight nose, and full lips. "Yes, it has often been a great solace to me," said Ruth, after a pause, "to sit at Katy's bedside, and aid memory by gazing at features which recalled so vividly the loved and lost;" and she kissed the little nestler. "Nettie," said Mr. Walter, "is Ruth 2d, in face, form and feature." "I wish the resemblance ended there," whispered Ruth, with a sigh. "These rose-tinted dawns too often foreshadow the storm-cloud." CHAPTER LXXXII. An hour after the conversation narrated in the last chapter, the driver stopped at a fine-looking hotel. "This is the place, then, where you are going to stay for a few weeks, before you leave this part of the country for ----," said Mr. Walter; "allow me to speak for a dinner for us all; such a day as this does not dawn on us often in this world;" and he glanced affectionately at little Katy. The party was soon seated round a plentifully-furnished table. Nettie stopped at every other mouthful to look into Katy's eyes, or to kiss her, while little Katy gazed about bewilderingly, and grasped her mother's hand tightly whenever her ear caught the sound of a strange voice or footstep. "Will you have some soup, little puss?" said Mr. Walter, after they were seated at the table, pulling one of Nettie's long curls. "Ask my mother," replied the child, with a quizzical look; "she's the _soup_-erintendent." Mr. Walter threw up his hands, and a general shout followed this precocious sally. "Come, come," said Mr. Walter, when he had done laughing; "you have begun too early, little puss; come here and let me feel your head. I must take a phrenological look at you. Bless me! what an affectionate little creature you must be," said he, passing his hand over her head; "stick a pin there now, while I examine the rest of your bumps." "You must not stick a pin in my head," said Nettie; "I don't like that way of expressing an o-_pin_-ion." "No further examination is necessary," said the extinguished Mr. Walter; "I have done with _you_, Miss Nettie. What do you mean?" whispered he to Ruth, "by having such a child as that? Are we going to have another genius in the family?" "I don't know about that," said Ruth, laughing; "she often says such things when she gets excited and hilarious, but I never encourage it by notice, and you must not; my physician told me not to teach her anything, and by all means not to let her see the inside of a schoolroom at present." "Well, well," said Mr. Walter, "Miss Nettie and I must have a tilt at punning some day. You had better engage, Ruth, to furnish the Knickerbocker with smart repartees for his 'Children's Table,' from your own fireside." "_Prenez garde_," whispered Ruth, "don't spoil her. Such a child needs careful training; she is high-spirited, warm-hearted, and sensitive;" and Ruth sighed.