your father and I, and Charley too, want you to be just the nicest and best little girl in the world. You have every reason to be happy; you have a pleasant home; God has been very good to you; and you should show your appreciation of His goodness by enjoying all his benefits with a thankful heart."

By this time they had reached home, where they found dinner awaiting them, and after they had partaken of that meal Mrs. Burke resumed the sewing which had occupied her attention on the previous day.

"Will Mrs. Fay die, Mother ?" asked Kitty, after an unusual silence, on her part.

"I really cannot tell, my dear, although it is very probable."

"I mean soon, Mother."

"God only knows; she is very ill; her mind is affected; and in all diseases of the mind the patient is apt to feel irritable even towards those she loves the best, and that is the reason Mrs. Fay seems so cross to Ellen. But why do you ask such a question, Kitty ?"

"Well, I was thinking," answered Kitty, hesitatingly, "that if Ellen's mother died, Ellen wouldn't have any home."

66 "No, poor child; and very likely she would have to live

on charity; for there is very little to do with, I am certain." "What is living on charity, Mother ?"

"Depending on others for the support we need; though working for one's living is quite a different thing, for there we give an equivalent for what we receive."

"I was thinking-I wonder

"Well, what is it, Kitty ?" asked her mother, rather amused at Kitty's manner.

"I wish Ellen Fay could come and live here."

"My dear child," said her mother, drawing Kitty towards her and embracing her tenderly, "you have expressed the sentiment of my own heart and your father's also. We have

spoken of it often lately, since Mrs. Fay's case seemed so hopeless. Do you think you could agree as sisters, Kitty ? because you know it is better to think of and arrange these things beforehand, than to be regretting them afterward."

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Oh, Mother," said Kitty, weeping on her mother's shoulder, "I know Ellen can, and I mean to try."

Was not that resolution enough to cheer that mother's heart? How fervently she prayed that night that it might be strengthened, and that a loving Father's hand would gently lead her erring but repentant child through the fire that should purify without consuming.

It was with a beating heart that Kitty went to school the next morning. She dreaded a return of those feelings which had made her so uncomfortable; and, doubting the strength of her good resolutions, she feared they would give way at the least provocation on the part of her schoolmates.

She did not trust herself to look around very often to see whether the scholars were making remarks about her, as had been her custom heretofore; and when her teacher reproved her for not having prepared her lessons, it was only by giving several hasty winks and good hearty swallows, that she was able to keep down the tears that begged to drop over her eyelids.

"Look," said George Tabor, turning toward Charley, and yet speaking loud enough to be heard by several of the boys, "look, there's a shower coming-hoist the umbrellas, quick," which was received with smiles and knowing winks by all within hearing; but Charley looked sad and reprovingly at George, and the boys took the hint for Charley was a favourite-and went on with their studies.

The first step toward any good is an earnest of success. If the mind is once made up, and the heart fixed upon attaining any desired end, there is little opposition to be met with, and many a helping hand is held out.

As soon as the scholars understood that Kitty was endeavouring to be good and happy, and they could see how

difficult a strife it was, they were all as anxious to show their good-will toward her as before they had been to trouble and tease her.

When you see little boys or girls, who have been noted for their peevishness and irritable disposition, trying to be good, do all you can to make the way easy. Don't throw stones and briars in their path, so that they will become discouraged and go back, and be as disagreeable as ever; but try and overlook the hasty words that are regretted as soon as spoken, and meet them always with a smile, though they oppose you with frowns.

Going to school became, to both Charley and Kitty, a pleasure, as well as a duty, though you must not think that the latter overc ame, in a moment, the disposition to cry whenever she was opposed. Oh no, but her tears are now a weightier appeal to the sympathies of all, since she only weeps when she really suffers.

Mrs. Fay lingered through the summer, and when the leaves began to fade and fall, and only a few flowers were in bloom around the little cot, they bore her body to the churchyard and laid it beneath the sod. Who could grieve that the tried and and anxious spirit was at rest!

Ah! one mourner went weeping to the grave, and the tears that were shed from other eyes but hers were for the living and not for the dead. She had lost her all on earth; but a strength not her own supported her in that trying hour; and while the loneliness of her situation oppressed her, as she thought of her self as orphaned and dependent on her own exertions and the kindness of her friends for support, she felt that there was one home for her now, and that was in Heaven; and as her mother had often told her that God would "help those who helped themselves," she would take courage and trust in Him.

When Mrs. Burke and Kitty went down, the day after the funeral, and offered Ellen a home with them, the poor

child was so overcome with joy that she hardly knew what she did.

Already she began to feel that Mrs. Burke was a second mother to her; she had been so kind during her own mother's protracted illness, and now, as the crowning point of all her good deeds, had offered a home to the orphan.

Kitty was wild with delight, and hardly knew whether to laugh or cry; I rather think she made pretty easy work of either.

There were a few keepsakes, dear to Ellen from associa tion with her dead mother; these were removed to Mrs. Burke's, and Ellen was duly installed as the elder daughter.

The natural refinement of her character displayed itself in her every-day life; the delicate attentions, the unvarying kindness of manner, were noticed by Mr. and Mrs. Burke, and their effect upon Kitty anxiously looked for and commented

upon. Even Charley felt himself gradually drawn under her influence, and used often to boast of his "big sister" who could play with him just as well as any of the boys, and who could read him a lecture on good behaviour as well as the schoolmaster.

Kitty, as she grows older, begins to understand the "Sermon on the Mount," in the fifth chapter of Matthew, and a few of the lessons it is intended to convey; and she has so accustomed herself to looking on the bright side of things, that her face wears an expression of peace and happiness, and she enjoys all God's gifts with a joy that is increased by a sense of her own unworthiness.

Remember that "a merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance."

EOLA.

KEEP YOUR WORD.

HE head clerk of a large firm in Charlestown promised an old customer, one day, half a bale of Russia duck to be on hand precisely at one o'clock, when the man was to leave town with his goods. The firm were out of duck, and the clerk went over to Boston to buy some. Not finding a truckman, he hired a man to take it over in his wheelbarrow. Finishing other business, on his return to Charlestown, the clerk found the man not half way over the bridge, sitting on his barrow, half dead with the heat.

What was to be done? It was then half-past twelve, and the goods were promised at one. There was not a moment to lose. In spite of the heat, the dust, and his fine light summer clothes, the young man seized the wheelbarrow and pushed on.

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Pretty soon a rich merchant, whom the young man knew very well, riding on horseback, overtook him. "What,' said he, "Mr. Wilder turned truckman!"

"Yes," answered the clerk. "The goods are promised at one o'clock, and my man has given out; but you see I am determined to be as good as my word."

"Good, good!" said the gentleman, and started on.

Calling at the store where the young man was employed, he told his employer what he had seen, " And I want you to tell him," said the gentleman "that when he goes into business for himself, my name is at his service for thirtythousand dollars.

Reaching the store, which he did in time, you may be sure the high price set on his conduct made amends for the heat, anxiety, and fatigue of the job.

Keeping his word. You see how important it is regarded. It is one of the best kinds of capital a business man can have. To be worth much to anybody, a boy must form a