ild.

"Yes," Elsie said again, watching them, with a joyous smile still
wreathing her lips and shining in her eyes; "and it is just so with my
dear Elsie and Lester. I am truly blest in seeing my children so well
mated and so truly happy."

"Zoe, little wife," Edward was saying, out on the veranda, "can you
spare me for a day or two?"

"Spare you, Ned? How do you mean?"

"I should like to join the boys--Bob, Harold, and Herbert--in a little
trip on a sailing vessel which leaves here early to-morrow morning and
will return on the evening of the next day or the next but one. I should
ask my little wife to go with us, but, unfortunately, the vessel has no
accommodations for ladies. What do you say, love? I shall not go without
your consent."

"Thank you, you dear boy, for saying that," she responded,
affectionately, squeezing the arm on which she leaned; "go if you want
to; I know I can't help missing the kindest and dearest husband in the
world, but I shall try to be happy in looking forward to the joy of
reunion on your return."

"That's a dear," he said, bending down to kiss the ruby lips. "It is a
great delight to meet after a short separation, and we should miss that
entirely if we never parted at all."

"But oh, Ned, if anything should happen to you!" she said, in a
quivering voice.

"Hush, hush, love," he answered, soothingly; "don't borrow trouble;
remember we are under the same protection on the sea as on the land, and
perhaps as safe on one as on the other."

"Yes; but when I am with you I share your danger, if there is any, and
that is what I wish; for oh, Ned, I couldn't live without you!"

"I hope you may never have to try it, my darling," he said, in tender
tones, "or I be called to endure the trial of having to live without
you; yet we can hardly hope to go together.

"But let us not vex ourselves with useless fears. We have the promise,
'As thy days, so shall thy strength be.' And we know that nothing can
befall us without the will of our Heavenly Father, whose love and
compassion are infinite. 'We know that all things work together for good
to them that love God.'"

"But if one is not at all sure of belonging to Him?" she said, in a
voice so low that he barely caught the words.

"Then the way is open to come to Him. He says, 'Come unto me.' 'Him that
cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out.' The invitation is to you,
love, as truly as if addressed to you alone; as truly as if you could