und ready to
be produced just at the time when its contents would be most
appreciated. If the weather was cold, then, in the time of greatest
need, Juniper had always an extra flask of spirits to supplement what
his master carried. And the crafty fellow so contrived it that Frank
should feel that, while he was quite moderate in the presence of his
parents and their guests, he might go a little over the border with his
groom without any danger.

Things were just in this state at the time when the conversation took
place at the hall, which resulted in the permission to Mr Oliphant to
persuade Frank--if he could--to become a pledged abstainer. A day or
two after that conversation, Frank walked over to the rectory. He found
Mary busily engaged in gathering flowers to decorate the tables at a
school feast. His heart, somehow or other, smote him as he looked at
her bright sweet face. She was like a pure flower herself; and was
there no danger that the hot breath of his own intemperance would wither
out the bloom which made her look so beautiful? But he tossed away the
reflection with a wave of his flowing hair, and said cheerily,--

"Cannot I share, or lighten your task, dear Mary?"

"Thank you--yes--if you would hold the basket while I gather. These
autumn flowers have not quite the brightness of the summer ones, but I
think I love them more, because they remind me that winter is coming,
and that I must therefore prize them doubly."

"Ah, but we should not carry winter thoughts about us before winter
comes. We should look back upon the brightness, not forward to the
gloom."

"Oh, Frank," she replied, looking earnestly at him, with entreaty in her
tearful eyes, "don't talk of looking back upon the brightness. We are
meant to look forwards, not to the gloom indeed, but beyond it, to that
blessed land where there shall be no gloom and no shadows."

He was silent.

"You asked me just now, dear Frank," she continued, "if you could
lighten my task. You could do more than that--you could take a load off
my heart, if you would."

"Indeed!" he exclaimed; "tell me how."

"And will you take it off if I tell you?"

"Surely," he replied; but not so warmly as she would fain have had him
say it.

"You remember," she added, "the day you dined with us a long time ago,
when you asked papa about becoming an abstainer?"

"Yes; I remember it well, and that my mother would not hear of it, so,
as in duty bound, I gave up