en occupation for him,--the way in
which he will employ him to bring him to himself, and then use him to be
a preacher to seamen, for example, and so to scatter the truth in many
parts of the earth. We are not our own, Mrs. B., and this dear boy was
not given you, as we say, to keep. 'For thou hast created all things,
and for thy pleasure they are and were created.'"

"I want him brought up at college," said Mrs. B., looking at your
mother, who, she probably thought, would understand her motherly
anticipations about her boy so far ahead.

"Well," said I, "let us send him to college. I suspect that you would
feel a good deal the morning he left you, would you not?"

"O," said she, "I should so want him to be good first! If he should not
be a good man, I would not have him get learning to do harm with it, and
make himself more miserable hereafter."

The little gate, with its chain and ball, swung to at this moment, and
a woman and girl came up the walk. It was Mrs. Ford, who used to be your
dress-maker, and her daughter Janette, now about thirteen. It was a
farewell call from Janette, who was going to the neighborhood of
Philadelphia, into a coach-lace manufactory.

"So Janette is going to leave us, to-morrow, Mrs. Ford?" said your
mother.

"Yes, madam, and I feel sorely about it; so young, and such a way off,
and all strangers except the foreman, who spoke to me about her coming!
O, sir," said she, changing her undertone, and turning to me, "what
should we do without that promise, 'I will be a God to thee and to thy
seed after thee'?"

I looked at Mr. and Mrs. B., and we all smiled, while I said:

"Now we have got the second part of the 'Abrahamic covenant.' So now we
have the whole of it. Mrs. Ford, when you came in, we were talking about
baptizing children, and about the 'Abrahamic covenant.' What do you
understand by that covenant?"

"I understand by it, sir," said she, slowly gathering her words into
proper order; "why, I think I understand by it, that God promises to be
a God to a believer's child, as he was in such a wonderful way to
Abraham's people."

_Pastor._ Well, that is the substance of one part of it, at least. Did
you know, Mrs. Ford, that when you came in we were just entering Mrs.
Benson's son at college?

_Mrs. Ford._ Not this Mrs. Benson, of course. Whom do you mean, sir?

_Pastor._ This Mrs. Benson;--her little son.

_Mrs. Ford._ O, I understand! Well, you will send him to P., I suppos