"
"In a week or two more."
"Papa, who is going?"
"Everybody, I suppose."
"But I mean, is anybody to be invited?"
"I think we must ask Dr. Sandford."
"Oh, yes, papa! I wish he would go. But is anybody else to be
asked?"
"I do not know, Daisy. Whom would you like to have invited?"
"Papa, I would like very much to have Nora Dinwiddie. She has
come back."
"Well, tell your mother so."
Daisy was silent a little; then she began on a new theme.
"Papa, what is a 'vocation'?"
"What is what, Daisy?"
"Vocation, papa."
"Where did you get that word?"
"I found it in a book."
"It means commonly a person's business or employment."
"Only that, papa?"
"There is another sense in which it is used, but you would
hardly understand it."
"Please tell me, papa."
"Why?"
"Papa, I like to know the meanings of things. Please tell me."
"Daisy, it means a 'calling' — in the idea that some persons
are particularly appointed to a certain place or work in the
world."
Daisy looked a little hard at him, and then said, "Thank you,
papa."
"Daisy, I hope you do not think you have a 'vocation,' " said
Mr. Randolph, half smiling.
"Papa," said the child, "I cannot help it.
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