Esther

were over, and with them the

little spotted calves; to caress our favorite pigeons for the last time, and to feed the greedy old turkey-cock, who had been the terror of our younger days. It was well, perhaps, that we were too busy for a prolonged leave-taking. Fred had gone to L

Jack without her favorite sable attendant, and then Dot was devoted to him. Jack used to come to us with piteous pleadings to take first one and then another of her pets; now it was the lame chicken she had nursed in a little basket by the kitchen fire, the

of these interesting captives was consolatory to Jack, though she rained tears over them in secret, and was overheard by Allan telling them between her sobs that "they were all going to live in a little pokey house, without chickens or

age our efforts; even Jack plucked up heart then, and hung up the canaries, and hid away the dormice out of Smudge's and Jumbles' reach, and conse

hearted, delicious roses, and a basket of nectarines, that some patient had sent to Uncle Geoffrey. The parlors looked very pretty and snug; we had arranged our books on the shelves, and had hung up two or three choice engravings, and there was the gleam of purple and gold china

oned glass dish full of our delicious Combe Manor honey; but Uncle Geo

wake. "Don't expect your mother to notice much to-night

he entered the room. She was trembling like a leaf, and her face was all puckered and d

gh she were a child. "Take your mother upstairs, children, and let her have quiet!

Geoffrey was right and wise, as he always was, and I was still more ashamed of myself when I e

lped me remove the heavy widow's bonnet and cloak, and moved the big chintz couch nearer to the window, and then he told me to be quick and bring her some tea; and when I re

o hard, and I cannot thank you," she whis

rdily. "Now you will take your tea, won't you, mother? an

her?" I observed, dubiously

ntly obeyed her. I was too young to understand the healing effects of quiet and silence in a great gri

e remembrance of your dear father and his words and looks ever before me, and God is so ne

had done Dot good, and he was in better spirits; and then C

a child, and the evening sun streamed full on it, and a pleasant smell of white jasmine pervaded it; part of the window was framed with the delicate tendrils and tiny buds; and there was her little prayer-desk, with its shelf of devotional books, and her litt

o bed, but he would not hear of going to sleep; he had his dormice beside him, and Jumbles was curl

king very wide-awake and excited. "I used to fall asleep listening to the long wash a

, Dot; and s

" I nodded; Dot did not always need an answer to his childish fancies, he used to like to tell them all out to Allan and me. "One night," he went on, "my back w

e shaking out tiny stars in play; and there was one broad golden path-oh! it was so beautiful-and then I thou

en I repeated softly the well-k

of the l

command

ost have cros

are cross

lden path; it shone so, he could not have missed his way or fallen into the dark waters. Carrie to

, to belong to the higher life. Think of all the cruel wrecks, of all the drowned people it has swallowed up in its rage; it devours men and women, and little

ncle Geoffrey and repeated our conversation, to

htfully; "but I think there is another meaning in

perfected life that lies before us there can be no barrier, no division, no separating boundaries. In the new

the moonlight sea. No, he could not have fallen in the dark water, no fear of that, Dot, when the angel of His mercy would hold him by the hand; and then I rem

the world would have a dull, work-a-day look. I tried to tell him so as we took our last walk together. There was a little lane just by Uncle Geoffrey's house; you turned right into it from the High street, and it led into the country, within half a mile of

"and oh, Allan! how I shall miss you to-morrow," and I touched his coat sleeve furtively, fo

thing seemed to impede my utterance at that moment, he went on more seriously, "You have a tough piece of work before you, Esther, you and Carrie; you wi

call her. I am afraid her work will not be quite to her mind, but you must smoothe her way as much

ld me about the hospital and his student friends, and the great bustling world in which we lived

sister ought to dwell in the heart of a brother and keep it warm for that other and sacred love that must come by-and-by; not that the wife need drive the sister into outer darkness

ome cherished sister to stand a little aside while another takes possession of the goodly mansion, yet if she be wise and bend gently to the new influence, there will be a "come up higher," long before the dreg

rapping up his portmanteau in the hall, and shook his head at her in comic disapproval. "Fie, what pale cheeks, Miss Carrie! One would think you had

good-by very affectionately, and told us to be good girls

not peep behind the urn. Dot did, and slipped a hot little hand in mine, in an old-fashioned sympathizing way. Carrie, w

Esther or I ought to go over to the Th

ddle of the leading article. "The Thornes? Oh, yes, somebody was saying something to

I can go across before mother comes down. I must speak to Debor

rly way, "I may as well tell you, Esther, that I mean to apply for the place myself; it will

into ours; already I had had a sufficient glimpse of three rather untidy little heads over the wire blind, and the spectacle had not attracted me. I ventured to hint

asket of keys. I thought Uncle Geoffrey was deep in his paper again. "I think a

," returned Carrie, rather dryly. Poor girl! her work outside was

slavish notion of duty-pure labor, and nothing else. Carrie did not answer, she leaned rather wearily against the window

door; "but if I were little Annie Thorne, I know I should choose Esther;" an