hat is Ellen Wilson and her
brother beside their father's grave. I read the name on the stone as I
came in this morning. And Mrs Stirling's husband and children are
buried there in the corner where she is sitting. She told me about them
the last time she was in. I think the folk here must mind their friends
better than they would if they never saw their graves."

"But we'll never forget our father and mother, though we can't see their
graves," said Archie, eagerly; "I do wish they were lying here beside my
grandfather and all the rest."

Lilias did not answer, for they were about to be interrupted. Only one
of the persons who were approaching them was known to her, and she did
not think her a very agreeable acquaintance, and a slight feeling of
impatience rose within her as she drew near.

Mrs Stirling was one of those unfortunate persons who constantly move
in an atmosphere of gloom. Her face seemed to express a desire to
banish all cheerfulness and silence all laughter wherever she came. She
had never, even in her best days, been blessed with a heavenly temper,
and much care and many sorrows had made it worse. Men had dealt hardly
with her, and God, she believed, had done the same. One short month had
made her a widow and childless, and then other troubles had followed.
From circumstances of comfort she had been reduced, by the carelessness
and dishonesty of those whom she had trusted, to a state of comparative
poverty. This last trouble had been, in a measure, removed, but the
bitterness it had stirred in her heart had never subsided.

If a subject had a dark side, she not only chose to look at it herself,
but held it up before the eyes of all concerned. Having once been
deceived, she never ceased to suspect, and, which was still worse, she
even strove (from the best of motives, as she believed) to excite
suspicion and discomfort in the minds of others; and, notwithstanding
her well-known character as a prophesier of evil things, she did
sometimes succeed in making people unhappy. She was, as the minister
said, a pitiable example of the effects of unsanctified affliction, and
a warning to all who felt inclined to murmur under the chastening hand
of God.

During one or two visits at Mrs Blair's cottage, Mrs Stirling had made
Lilias uncomfortable, she scarce knew why; and now, though she did not
say so to Archie, she heartily wished she would stay at the other end of
the kirk-yard.

"Weel, bairns," s