me_, and that is what can make any
spot in the world beautiful, while without it, even an enchanted city
would be but drear and lonely. No wonder Phyllis and Jennie felt
miserable during those first days in London. Their parents were
feeling it much more keenly, though they said nothing.

Dear children, can you see what I mean by this little story? If you
have a good, kind home, try to be very happy in it, for the time may
come when you would give everything you possessed to be back in
it--"Home, Sweet Home."

[Illustration]

OUR SUNDAY AFTERNOONS.

A DREAM FOR ALL AGES.

The sun was fast sinking in the west; and the shades of night were
spreading a deep gloom overall, as a poor, lone traveller, foot-sore
and weary, looked around him for some place of rest. His face wore
its saddest expression, for his heart was nearly bursting with grief;
and, as he rolled along a big stone for his pillow, and laid his
weary head upon it, it was watered with his tears. But only the fair
moon and the twinkling stars seemed to see his grief; and, as he
thought of his loneliness, he heaved a deep sigh, and wept afresh.

Far behind him, in the lovely and peaceful Beersheba, he had left the
home of his youth, the mother whom he loved so dearly, the old sheep
that he had so fondly tended, and the little pet lambs that had
nestled in his bosom and gambolled by his side. There was his aged
father, too, who lay stretched on his death-bed, and whom he might
never hope to see again. And still fresh in his memory were all the
old familiar scenes to which he might never again return: the soft
green pastures, where, morning and evening, he had rested with his
sheep, the great rock behind which he had led them to hide them from
the noonday heat, and the quiet waters to which he had taken them
that they might slake their thirst.

From one loved spot to another his thoughts would wander; and he
shivered, as from cold, while he thought of the land all unknown to
him to which he was journeying, of the strange faces that he would
have to meet, and the strange voices that would fall upon his ear.

But saddest of all came the remembrance of the cause that had led to
his banishment, the deep sin that he had committed, the cruel deceit
that he had practised upon his father, the great wrong that he had
inflicted upon his brother, the grief of the dying Isaac, the wrath
of Esau, and the consequent necessary parting with all he held dear.

If