ws-hardly s

y o'er the

resses, li

famili

le a treat," said Tremaine to

ad for our people to have a little pleasure, as at present the annual tea-meeting at East Lane Chapel seems to be their one and

ften our minds jump together! Not only am I anxious to give the Osierfield people something more enjoy

e Elisabeth was always ready to teach Christop

a mistake that the pleasures of the poor-the innocent pleasures, of course-are generally inseparable from religious instituti

they like it, and not because they are

of them. Religion is as much a part of their dissipation as evening dress is of ours, and just as muc

u will succeed

o make the poor people enjoy themselves thoroughly. Of course, it is a good thing to have one's pills always hidden in

was the one person of her acquaintance t

shadow over purely human and natural joys; and it increases their sorrow and want by teaching them to lean upon some hypothetical Power, instead of trying to do the best that they can f

believe in relig

on I do not believe in is Christianity, because that spoils all the rest by condemning art as fleshly, science as untrue, and humanity as sinful. I w

as as yet too young to beware of false prophets. "I should love to make people happy,"

e English? I mean to teach them to find it, and I

" asked the girl, w

ion until I have shown the people a more excellent way. I shall first show them nature, and then art-nature to arouse their highest instincts, and art to express t

on a bank-holiday; and the workmen, with their wives and sweethearts, were taken by Alan Tremaine in large b

of them were of the same shade. The hedges were covered with a wreath of white May-blossom, and seemed like interminable drifts of that snow in summer

f content, to Alan, who was driving her in his mail-phaeton. "I do

own interpreter. Surely such a glimpse of nature as we are now enjoying

his, just as something-I forget what-slid into

uty as ever the Greeks were. The fault has not been with the poor for not having worshipped beauty, but with the rich for not having shown them suff

y will elevate these people more and make

without its charm for those unfortunate ones to whom poverty and disease have stood sponsors, and have renounced all life's good things in their name before ever they saw the light. Man makes his god in his own image; and thus it comes to pass that while the strong and joyous Greek ador

ked up at him with gratitude and admiration. "I saw them all when they were starting, and t

bout their religion; they will save it for the gloomy days, as

is more of a reality to them th

s guests were enjoying themselves in theirs; and as they dro

nettes rolled along the country roads. "I never saw it finer than it is this year-no

ays a one for the May-blossom. Why, when she was ever such a little girl she'd come home carr

ng in the same vehicle as the Batesons, "she'll be feeli

ime to feel homesick when they've got a husband to look a

d settled before the Lord has been pleased to take

k after himself-never. Men have no sense to know what is good for 'em and what is bad for 'em, poor things! But Lucy Ellen is a different thing. Of course I'm pleased for her to have a home of he

son, with a big sigh; "and I nev

ateson," argued Mrs. Hankey; "Lucy E

er grow up to them as loves 'em. They are always our children, just as we are always the Lord's children; and we never

bour in vain that build it; and the Lord can't do much unless He has a good minister to help Him. I don't deny as He

; "they have an ex-president as superintendent, and three ministers under him, and a supernume

ester," added Caleb; "they held

ve in a place where they hold C

to see so many ministers about, all in their black coats and white neckcloths. And then such

eal pleasure. Nothing in this world comes up to it, and I doubt if there'll be a

e rest of the drive, to discuss the respective merits

and the little hamlet smiled in the summer sunshine, as if with kindly memories of those old warriors whose warfare had been accomplished so many centuries ago, and who lie together, beneath the white blossom, in the arms of the great peacemaker called Death, waiting for the resurrection morning which that blossom is sent to foretell. On, between man's walls of gray stone, till they came to God's walls of red sandstone; and then up a steep hill to another common, where the sweet-scented gorse made a golden pavement, and where there suddenly burst upon their sight a view so wide and so wonderful that those who look upon it with the seeing eye and the understanding heart catch glimpses of the King in His beauty through the fairness of the land that is very far off. On past the mossy stone, like an overgrown and illiterate milestone, which marks

when all the doors were open any one could see right from one end of the castle to the other. Dinner was to be served in the large saloon at the back, built over what was once the courtyard; and while his servants were laying the tabl

e expression of her face. You know that it is the duty of art to interpret nature-that is to say, to show to ordinary people those hidden beauties and underlying meanings of common things which they would never be able to find out for themselves; and I think that in the expression on this wo

hat a gown she has got on! I should say that satin is worth five-and-six a yard if it is worth a penny. And I call it a sin and a shame to have a dirty gr

rrots," joined in Mrs.

r one can't see it. But if she did, it was all a pack of rubbish. What had she to

first sight you see nothing but two well-dressed people sitting at table; but as you look into the picture y

oth might have been cleaner. There's another of your grumbling fine ladies! Now for sure sh

a cantankerous ch

omplexion that he is out of order, and that all that rich dinner will do him no good. It was his wife's duty to see that he had something plain

if he'd a temper," p

ll get married and have a man of their own; and then cry their eyes out because the man isn't an old woman. If they want meekness and obedience, let 'em remain single and kee

he way for it, knowing all the while that its fuller light and wider freedom are not for them; they lead their fellows to the very borders of the promised land, conscious that their own graves are already dug in the wilderness. No great social or political movement has ever been carried on without t

John the Baptist when he sees him! Forerunners and heralds indeed! Why, it's John the Bap

ho it was when she was three y

apped her if she hadn't, and r

rs. Hankey, not a whit behind the others as regards shocked sensibili

dren hadn't known John the Baptist by sight, I should have been that

hooling was neglected through having lost his parents; and there's some things as you never seem t

, without stopping to take breath, when they were

ready to take pity on them poor orphans as have

shouldn't have said a word-I can't always tell Jonah myself unle

was not one of Alan's strong points. Now Christopher could generally see when a thing was funny, even when the joke was at his own expense; but Alan took life more seriously, which-as Elisabeth assured herself-showed what a much more earnest man than Christopher he was, in spite of his less orthodox opinions. So she made up her mind that she would not catch Christopher's eye on the present occa

abeth the more excellent ways whereby the poor may be enabled to share the pleasures of the rich; and Christopher spent most of his in carrying Johnnie Stubbs to the mere and taking him for a row, and so

re standing on the steps leadin

ng to Jemima Stubbs on the far side of the lawn. Caleb certainly justified this admiration, for he was a fine sp

s one of your an?mic and neurotic

s, and had tried his best to cure her of it. To a great extent he had succeeded (for the time being

force of convention than of conviction." Tremaine never failed to enjoy his own rounded sentences, and this one

der and a local pr

onvey no meani

ally supports the government of Providence, but is p

minine one-Miss Farringdon, in invariably deducting general rules from individual instances. Believe me,

rted; "and if you get to the right place, I don't see that it matters how you go there. I never bother my head about the 'rolling stock' or the

g out a recital of her grievances into t

he had said in his cheery voice, laying a big han

rst mother to nurse when I was a little gell, and then havin' Johnnie to look after, I've never had time to make myself look pretty

ard life as you've h

ght-hearted and gay, I should like to know, when it's work, work, work, all the day, and nurse, nurse, nurse, all the night? Yet the men don't make no allowanc

it, my lass," repeated Bate

d my hands a sight o' roughness and ugliness, till I'm a regular old woman and a frig

't you more than that, Jemim

k little more than gells when they are thirty-five; and the men run after 'em as fast as if they was only twenty

hard with you; but never you fret yourself; He'll explai

e He may, M

arks of the Lord Jesus'? Now it seems to me that all the gray hairs and the wrinkles and the roughness that come t

n' view of the mat

hall be in their foreheads'; and when folks talk o' their gray hairs, He says, 'They shall walk with Me in white: for they are worthy.' And why do we mark the things that belong to us? Why, so as we can k

you're right. But all the same, I'd have liked to have had a beau of my own just for onst, like other gells. I dessay it's very wicked o' me to feel like this, an

ber the Book says, 'as one whom his mother comforteth'; and I hold that means as He understands women and their troubles better than the kindest father ever could. And He

m afraid you have no real foundation for your consoling belief," e

om I have believed; and what a man has once known for ce

You may imagine and pretend that it is

n, as well as I know you are standing h

he thought in his pride of intellectual superiority. "I do not unde

ly to a gentleman like you; but the Lord will explain it to you when He thinks fit. You are young yet, sir, and the way stretches long before you, and the mysteries of God are hidden from your eyes. But

and children would teach me more tha

te the law on tables of stone, they got broken; but when He writes it on the fleshly tables of our hearts, it lives forever

ent, Bateson. Very pretty and poetic

for her equal never has been seen in this world, and never will. But when you've got a little lass of your own, and know as you'd be tortured to death quite cheerf

quite s

d of saying. Not he; he'd too much sense. He says to his sons, 'Look here: a leaf here means a tree somewhere, and the sooner we make for that tree the better!' And so it is with us. When we feel that all at onst there's somebody tha

-where the Bible is studied until it becomes as household words, the children are accustomed to a "well of English undefiled"; and so, unconsciously, moul

ally is any pleasure to the poor to see the homes of the rich, or whet

kes 'em dissatisfied

self; and I know I should feel it very hard if I were poor, while oth

tly understand as it's all the Master's doing, and that He knows what He's about a sight better than we could teach Him, it makes a wonderful difference. Whether we're rich or poor, happy or sorrowful, is His

y smiled, and

and not to go hankering after each other's. Why, Mr. Tremaine, if at our place the puddlers wanted to do the work of the shinglers, and the shinglers wanted to do the work of the rollers, and th

ple contented and happy? So do I; but I don't think th

ks the dinner and makes my little home like heaven to me-it's my wife herself; it wasn't my children's faith in their daddy that fed 'em and clothed 'em when they were too l

r-Alan with the scornful pity of the scholar who has delved in the dust of dreary negatives which generations of doubters have gradually he

gone to their homes, Tremaine sat smoking in t

its pathos might appeal to those whose health was spoiled and whose physique was stunted by poverty and misery; but it puzzles me to find a magnificent giant such as Bate

g the day, as was his custom, with f

e the operations of Thy Hands; but he is not very far from Thy Kingdom. Lead him, Heavenly Father, in the way that he should go; open his eyes that he may behold the hidden things of Thy Law; look upon him and love him, as Thou didst aforetime another young man who had g

not hear him, and could not have u

One who heard,