dside of the suffering; it was laid upon
the caskets of the dead; it was planted by the door of the cottage and
reared in the conservatories of the rich,--everywhere admired and
welcomed. Was not this life indeed worth all the pain and heat of the
flames, and the loss of its once statelier and loftier form?

It never sighed for its forest home, but often longed to know of the
fate of its brother trees. One day a child, bearing in her hand one of
its blossoms, wandered to the ground where once arose the tall trees. The
eyes of the oak, through the flower, looked in vain for its kindred. None
were standing. They had all been felled and their wood converted into
dwellings,--a useful but less beautiful form of existence than that which
the oak possessed,--and they learned, after a time, that it is only by
apparent destruction that life can be reconstructed. But they could only
have the experiences which came within the scope of their life; and the
oak was more than ever satisfied with its own, and rejoiced that it had
passed through the refining element, losing thereby only its grosser
form. It filled the air with the fragrance of its gratitude. Whenever it
wished to journey, the winds, who were its friends, conveyed its seeds to
any portion of the earth it designated. Its blossoms were not only bright
to the eye, and their odor sweet to the sense of smell, but the leaves of
the plant were healing. Three forces connected it with human life: so
that it was in constant action, and its highest joy lay in the
consciousness of its increased usefulness.

XXIII.

STRANGERS.

In a large and elegant mansion dwelt a wealthy man who had three lovely
daughters. The house was built on an eminence upon the banks of a river
which wound like a thread of silver through the valleys for many miles.
Afar from the mansion were a large number of cottages, in which dwelt
carpenters, shipbuilders, gardeners, and some of every trade. Most of
them were good and honest people, though tinged with the love of earthly
gains, and many of them, too, often crushed many of the soul's finer and
better emotions in the greedy love of material things. The owner of the
mansion sorrowed over this failing of theirs, and, to rid them of it,
devised a plan by which to give those who wished an opportunity to be led
by their better nature, and forget, for the time, self and gain.

Accordingly, he told his daughters to deck themselves in their richest
appa