the cause of Ida's prolonged absence, Mary?"

"I don't know," said Mrs. Crump, seriously. "It seems to me, if her
mother wanted to keep her longer than the time she at first proposed,
it would be no more than right that she should write us a line. She must
know that we would feel anxious."

"Perhaps she is so taken up with Ida that she can think of nothing
else."

"It may be so; but if we neither see Ida to-morrow, nor hear from her, I
shall be seriously troubled."

"Suppose she should never come back," said the cooper, sadly.

"Oh, husband, don't think of such a thing," said his wife, distressed.

"We must contemplate it as a possibility," returned Timothy, gravely,
"though not, I hope, as a probability. Ida's mother has an undoubted
right to her; a better right than any we can urge."

"Then it would be better," said his wife, tearfully, "if she had never
been placed in our charge. Then we should not have had the pain of
parting with her."

"Not so, Mary," said the cooper, seriously. "We ought to be grateful for
God's blessings, even if he suffers us to possess them but a short time.
And Ida has been a blessing to us, I am sure. How many hours have been
made happy by her childish prattle! how our hearts have been filled with
cheerful happiness and affection when we have gazed upon her! That can't
be taken from us, even if she is, Mary. There's some lines I met with in
the paper, to-night, that express just what I feel. Let me find them."

The cooper put on his spectacles, and hunted slowly down the columns of
the paper, till he came to these beautiful lines of Tennyson, which he
read aloud,--

"I hold it true, whate'er befall;
I feel it when I sorrow most;
'Tis better to have loved and lost,
Than never to have loved at all."

"There, wife," said he, as he laid down the paper; "I don't know who
writ them lines, but I'm sure it's some one that's met with a great
sorrow, and conquered it."

"They are beautiful," said his wife, after a pause; "and I dare say
you're right, Timothy; but I hope we mayn't have reason to learn the
truth of them by experience. After all, it isn't certain but that Ida
will come back. We are troubling ourselves too soon."

"At any rate," said the cooper, "there is no doubt that it is our duty
to take every means to secure Ida if we can. Of course, if her mother
insists upon keeping her, we can't say anything; but we ought to be
sure, before we yield her up, that such is t