Mary drew a long sigh and quietly replied, "In heaven." "Dead!" exclaimed the man, springing to his feet. "Yes, dead; she died ten years ago."

Hard-hearted and selfish as he had ever been, and still was, Ted Carroll could not hear of Kitty's death without some emotion; and he sank back into his chair shaking from head to foot. "Dead," he murmured to himself, "dead, and so many years younger than I am;" and covering his face with his hands, he wept like a child. After a time he recovered himself, and looking towards Mrs. Edmonds and Nelly, said, "It's hard, ma'am, very hard indeed; here have I been toiling for nigh upon thirteen years, and now I've got a few pounds together and come back to enjoy myself, why if Kitty has not died before I could see her! I did mean to be so happy; but there's no happiness here nor no where else I do believe."

"Your wife was happy when she died," observed Mary Edmonds, quietly.

"Oh I dare say she was, ma'am," replied the man, in a sort of aggrieved tone; "she was always light-hearted and let nothing trouble her; I knew she would not fret herself to death after me, or I should have written to her to tell her where I was gone to."

Mary Edmonds' face flushed with pain, and the tears filled Nelly's eyes, as Ted Carroll so slightingly alluded to his departed wife: and the little woman said with some warmth, "The only care she had upon her death-bed was for you; the only sorrow on her heart, lest you and she should be parted for ever. She died of decline from sheer want of the necessaries of life, which your absence deprived her of."

"God forgive me, ma'am," replied the man, evidently moved; "I thought she would do better without me than with me."

"You did wrong, sir," said Mary, solemnly; "but it's not for the like of me to judge you; for you have proved what the Bible says is true, 'The way of transgressors is hard.'"

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Hard indeed!" muttered the man loud enough for them to hear him. First I was shipwrecked, then I had the fever; then I was just upon starved, and now I have scraped a little money together, I have no one left to enjoy it with."

"You have two children left to you," said Mary.

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Two, ma'am?”

"Yes, sir-Charley, Kitty's little baby boy; and this dear girl."

Oh, I forgot about the baby, poor little fellow; but what's the good of children who perhaps have been taught to hate their father?"

"Oh no!" cried Nelly, "there's not a day of our lives but mother and father here have prayed that God would bring you back to us; they could not teach anybody to hate one another; they took to Charley and me when poor mother died; and they have been so good to us-oh, so very good!" here Nelly's voice failed her, and she sobbed. aloud.

"Don't cry, child," said Mrs. Edmonds. "Go and finish the ironing, whilst I talk to Mr. Carroll."

With a heavy heart Nelly complied. She felt as if a dark shadow had fallen upon her bright happy life; and that shadow was her own father, to whom it was her duty to render obedience and love. "I shall never be his lass like dear father Edmonds," thought Nelly. "I shall have to leave here and live with him; and he will not love me. I said, I would not leave father and mother for Tom Hopkins, and he did care for me; and now I must go whether I will or no. Oh dear! oh dear!" and Nelly's tears fell faster and faster as she bent over her work. Poor Nelly, the trial of her faith was now to be tested; and she was about to prove the all-sufficiency of her Lord and Master. Hitherto her life had glided calmly on; cheerful resignation had sweetened her adopted parents' poverty, making the sharing of it with them a blessing rather than a sorrow; but now had come the time for her to step into actual life, and receive that needful discipline perfectly necessary for its Christian fulfilment.

When Jim Edmonds returned home from work that evening he was surprised at finding a stranger sitting by his fireside; and it was with mingled feelings of regret and pleasure that he bade Ted Carroll welcome there. Daily had the worthy couple prayed for Ted's return; but they had never allowed the thought of the separation that his return would entail upon them to intrude upon their minds. Now the prayer was granted, and now they ceased to be Nelly and Charley's rightful guardians. When Mr. Carroll was leaving, he received an invitation from Mary and her husband to pass the next day (Sunday) with

them, telling him he would then see Charley, whom they assured him he might well be proud of; which invitation he gladly accepted. That night Jim Edmonds read from his big Bible to his wife and Nelly, the fourth of Hebrews; but his heart was too full to make his usual homely comments: he merely repeated the last verse a second time, Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need," as they bent their knees in the presence of their great High Priest and gracious Saviour.

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Long after Nelly had gone to bed and was vainly trying to go to sleep, Mary Edmonds stole into her room, and finding she was awake, sat down on the edge of the bed by her side. 66 My child," said the loving little woman, as she pressed the weeping Nelly to her bosom, for Nelly had sprung up in the bed and thrown her arms round her neck when she came to her side, "our dear Lord said to his disciples, What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter;' for Peter at first resisted his Master's wishes. And so it is with us: we want to follow our Master in our own way, but only his way is the good and right way; and when he condescends to point it out we must not turn aside from it, or grieve about it, but just pray him to support and bless us whilst we strive to do his will."

"I do, I do," sobbed the girl.

"I know you do, my darling; and I and Jim have just as much need to pray for strength as you; for we do love you so; but we know it's God's will. And Nelly, my child, perhaps you might be made the blessed means of bringing your own father to the Lord. Think what a crown of rejoicing that would be to you."

"Oh, mother!"

"Let the good Saviour work in you, and then hereafter you shall know; if not in this world, in the next." "Oh, mother! who will comfort me if I am taken from you," cried the weeping girl, clinging closely to her.

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Jesus, my child. The blessed Jesus who heareth at all times. Has he not brought your father back to his native place? and do not you think he will answer your mother's dying prayers? Prayer is never wasted, my child; it is laid up in a sure place, and is repaid with unnumbered blessings. And now God bless and keep you,

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my darling," said Mary, laying Nelly back in the bed. Try to sleep, and remember these blessed words, Cast thy bread upon the waters; for thou shalt find it after many days.'

THE NEW YEAR'S BELLS AT MIDNIGHT.

KNELL of departed years!

Thy voice is sweet to me;

It wakes no sad foreboding fears,
Calls forth no sympathetic tears,
Time's restless course to see;
From hallowed ground

I hear a sound

Diffusing through the air a holy calm around.

Thou art the voice of love

To chide each doubt away;
And as thy murmur faintly dies
Visions of past enjoyment rise,
In long and bright array:
I hail the sign

That love Divine

Will o'er my future path in cloudless mercy shine.

Thou art the voice of hope,

The music of the spheres;

A song of blessings yet to come,
A herald from my future home,
My soul delighted hears:

By sin deceived,

By nature grieved,

Still am I nearer rest than when I first believed.

Thou art the voice of life;

A sound which seems to say

O prisoner in this gloomy vale,

Thy flesh shall faint, thy heart shall fail;

But fairer scenes thy spirit hail

That cannot pass away:

Here grief and pain

Thy steps detain;

There in the image of the Lord shalt thou with Jesus reign,

PART I.

"I CANNOT conceive what Johnson does with all his money. He is always in one difficulty or another; and yet he earns more than three-fourths of the people in his line. I am pretty nearly tired of it :" so the head of the firm said. "And I am quite tired of it," added Mr. Rowe, who stood second in the business. "It puts our books into confusion, and gives me no end of trouble. We have no sooner drawn a fair balance than another long running account is begun, and always on the wrong side, as far as we are concerned."