closer about her, and were very still.

"While you were away, a great Lord sent for little brother, too."

"What for? to adopt him as his heir?" asked Robert.

"Yes, my son; and Ally has gone to a mansion far grander than the
Castle, where the gardens are fairer, and the fields greener than any
you have ever seen; and, Robert, the sun never sets over that beautiful
land."

"Did he go in a carriage with a coronet on it, and two powdered footmen
behind?" asked Maud.

"No, love; but gentle beings, more good and beautiful than those kind
ladies of the Castle, bore him away, and will tend him, lovingly."

"I think he will miss nurse Elspeth, and cry for her, and they will
have to send him home again," said poor, bewildered little Maud.

"Why, mamma," cried Margaret, "we can't spare baby to the greatest lord
on earth!"

"But, my daughter, to the 'Lord of lords' we must spare him. He will
'lead' him as you were led to-day, 'beside the still waters, and cause
him to lie down in pleasant pastures,' and our darling will never know
pain, nor hunger, nor sorrow."

"O mamma, mamma, I know what you mean now!--baby is dead!"

Then went up the children's united voices, like one sad wail, "Baby is
dead!"

"Yes, my children," said their father, in a voice broken by grief, "our
precious little Alfred is gone. But, try to say, and try to help us
say, 'The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name
of the Lord.'"

The poor children could not say it then, for their bitter crying; but,
before they went to bed, they sobbed forth the sacred words, as they
knelt by the crib where little Ally lay, still, and very pale, dressed
in a snowy muslin frock, with his waxen hands clasped on his breast,
and holding a tiny white rose-bud, an emblem of his sinless little life.

A CHARADE.

In the wet rice-swamps and canebrakes tall
My _first_ the driver wields;
It sounds among the dusky gang
In the snowy cotton-fields;
But fast comes on the day that ends
Its reign of blood and fear,--
Comes with the sound of breaking chains,
And the freedman's joyous cheer.

Be kind to such as are my _second_,
In spirit and in truth;
Have pity on their helpless age
And on their joyless youth.
Remember them whene'er you feast,
And on your downy bed,
For the sake of Him who "had not where
On earth to lay his head."

Good may my _third_ be in your hearts
Towards all of h