One day in the early spring, Alice Winter came home from school, and, after the usual question at the door, "Is mamma at home?" rushed upstairs, and found to her great surprise that her papa was at home, talking very earnestly to Mrs. Winter.

When Alice came into the room, Mr. Winter stopped talking, and she wondered very much what they could have been talking about so earnestly, as all she heard was her papa asking, "Do you think we had better take her with us?" "Why, papa! What is the matter? Are you going away? Are you sick? What made you come home so early?" were the questions which Alice gave rapidly, without waiting for an answer.

Mr. Winter said, "Yes, dear, I am obliged to go to Nuremberg, Germany, on business immediately, and mamma is trying to make up her mind whether it is best for her to go with me. She does not like to leave you for so long a time, and we do not think it wise to take you with us, when you are getting on at school so nicely."

"O papa, please take me with you. I shall learn just as much on such a lovely trip as at school, and you know I can take care of mamma, and keep her from being lonely when you are busy. O papa, please ask mamma to let me go. I should be so unhappy to stay without you, even with dear Aunt Edith, and I know there is where you would send me."

"Alice, dear, go to your room and get ready for dinner, and leave us to talk it over," said Mr. Winter. "My dear little daughter knows that no matter which way we decide, it will be as we think is best for all of us. You know it is as hard for us to leave you as it will be for you to let us go."

Alice left the room without another word, with her heart beating very fast from the excitement of it all.

The thought of going to Europe across the great ocean was a very happy one to a bright girl of fifteen who was studying all the time about the places she would visit and the objects of interest she would see, if her papa would only decide to take her.

Alice sat down by the window of her pretty room, and looked out on the village street, far away in the northern part of the State of New York. She wondered how the ocean looked, as she had never seen any larger body of water than that of Lake Erie, when she went with her mother to make a visit in Cleveland.

She also wondered if her state-room on the steamer would be as large as the room she was in; also, would she be sick, and how would all those wonderful cities look; if they could be as beautiful as the pictures she had seen of them.

Then she remembered that only last week she had been studying about the quaint old city of Nuremberg, and wishing she could go there and see all its curiosities.

Alice was startled by the dinner-bell, and could not even wait to brush her hair, she was so anxious to know what her papa had decided.

As Alice went into the dining-room with a very wistful look in her deep-brown eyes, Mr. Winter said, "Well, dear, we have decided to take you with us, and as it is now Wednesday, and we sail Saturday from New York on the 'Etruria,' you will be very busy getting ready, and you must help your mamma all you can."

Alice threw her arms around Mr. Winter's neck, crying with joy, saying at the same time, "Oh, you dear, darling papa, how kind and good you are, and how I do love you!"

After kissing him again and again, she went to her mamma and nearly smothered her with kisses. Mr. Winter had never been abroad, though he had large business interests there, which had been attended to by a clerk in whom he had the utmost confidence. This clerk had been taken very suddenly and dangerously ill, Mr. Winter had no one else he could send, and found he must go himself and at once.

He telegraphed to the Cunard office for state-rooms, and went home to tell his wife, hardly thinking she would go with him at such short notice, or leave Alice.

Mrs. Winter was not willing he should go without her, and soon decided not only to go, but to take Alice with them.

Alice could hardly eat any dinner, she was so happy and full of excitement.

The next morning Alice went to school to get her books and tell the wonderful news to her teacher and school-mates.

They were nearly as interested as she, for it was quite an event for any one to go to Europe from that quiet village. It was decided then and there that all would be at the station to see her off on Friday.

When Alice went to her room she found there a new steamer-trunk marked "A.W." in large letters, and then she was busy indeed getting it packed and deciding what to take with her.

Mrs. Winter came in while Alice was almost in despair and said, "This is to be such a hurried trip you will need only a couple of dresses, but you must take all your warm wraps."

Alice laughed and said, "I do not think I shall need them in the spring;" but mamma said, "It is always cold at sea, and you will need your winter clothes."

Friday afternoon our little party started for New York, with the best wishes of their friends, who came to the station for the very last "good-byes." Alice even shed a few tears, but they were soon wiped away, and a happy face looked from the car window, which fortunately was on the side overlooking the Hudson River.

Alice had never seen that lovely river before, and naturally was delighted. When they passed the Catskill Mountains it was so clear she could see the famous old Mountain House, and, beyond, the immense Kauterskill Hotel, which seemed almost in the clouds, it looked so high.

West Point was the next object of interest, and Alice did hope she could go there sometime and see the cadets do some of their drills.

When they were opposite the Palisades, which stood up in their grandeur, with the softened tints of the setting sun settling upon them, Alice said, "I know I shall see nothing in Europe any finer than that."

Very soon the tall spires and smoke in the distance showed that they were drawing near New York, and after leaving the Hudson they followed the pretty Harlem River, which makes an island of New York City.

Alice was much interested in the bridges, there seemed to be so many of them, and papa told her that the one then in sight was the new Washington bridge, just completed. The next was High bridge, which carries the water over the river into the city. When it was finished it was said to be the finest engineering in the country.

The next bridge was the continuation of the elevated railroad, and then came Macomb's Dam bridge, the oldest of them all, and used simply for driving and walking across, and looked, Alice thought, quite unsafe.

The pretty Madison Avenue bridge was the last they saw as they crossed their own bridge, and were soon in a tunnel which Alice thought would never end.

When they came out of the tunnel the train was nearly at the station, where the noise and bustle were very confusing, and they were glad to get into a carriage to be driven to the Fifth Avenue Hotel.

As it was quite dark, Alice thought it was like a glimpse of fairyland when they reached Madison Square, with its electric lights shining on the trees, and all the bright lights around the hotel.