you must have done your best.'

'I hope I have, Sir,' she said sadly; 'I've tried, but my ability is not
much, and he is a lively lad, and I'm sometimes afraid to be too strict
with him.'

'If you have taught him to keep himself in order, that's the great thing,
Mrs. King; if he has sound principles, and honours you, I would hope much
for him.'

'And, Sir, that boy he has taken a fancy to; he is a poor lost lad who
never had a home, but Harold says he has been well taught, and he might
take heed to you.'

'Thank you, Mrs. King; I will certainly try to speak to him. You said
nothing of Alfred; do you think he will not be well enough?'

'Ah! Sir,' she said in her low subdued voice, 'my mind misgives me that
it is not for Confirmation that you will be preparing him.'

Mr. Cope started. He had seen little of illness, and had not thought of
this. 'Indeed! does the doctor think so ill of him? Do not these cases
often partially recover?'

'I don't know, Sir; Mr. Blunt does not give much account of him,' and her
voice grew lower and lower; 'I've seen that look in his father's and his
brother's face.'

She hid her face in her handkerchief as if overpowered, but looked up
with the meek look of resignation, as Mr. Cope said in a broken voice, 'I
had not expected--you had been much tried.'

'Yes, Sir. The Will of the Lord be done,' she said, as if willing to
turn aside from the dark side of the sorrow that lay in wait for her;
'but I'm thankful you are come to help my poor boy now--he frets over his
trouble, as is natural, and I'm afraid he should offend, and I'm no
scholar to know how to help him.'

'You can help him by what is better than scholarship,' said Mr. Cope; and
he shook her hand warmly, and went away, feeling what a difference there
was in the ways of meeting affliction.

CHAPTER V--AN UNWELCOME VISITOR

'The axe is laid to the root of the tree,' was said by the Great
Messenger, when the new and better Covenant was coming to pierce, try,
and search into, the hearts of men.

Something like this always happens, in some measure, whenever closer,
clearer, and more stringent views of faith and of practice are brought
home to Christians. They do not always take well the finding that more
is required of them than they have hitherto fancied needful; and there
are many who wince and murmur at the sharp piercing of the weapon which
tries their very hearts; they try to escape from it, and to forget