en into my arms, and, laying my hand upon her
head, said: 'Yes, my child, I promise to be a father to you; you shall
be my dear little daughter, and I will love and take care of you
always.'

[Illustration: "I lifted the little maiden into my arms."]

"How happy this promise made my sister-in-law words fail me to describe.
Her joyful excitement alarmed both the physician and myself. Joy,
however, seldom kills. 'Brother! brother!' she murmured; 'how my
thoughts have wronged you! Forgive me!' Her gratitude stung my
newly-awakened conscience more sharply than any reproach could have
done. I hastened to change the subject to that of the sick woman's
removal to a better dwelling. The doctor, with ready kindness, undertook
the task of house-hunting, for which I, a stranger to the place, was not
so well qualified.

"He found for us a delightful cottage in the neighbourhood of
Marseilles. There we three--my sister-in-law, my niece, and
myself--lived for three months. At the end of that time the mother
passed peacefully away, leaving her child to my care, with full
confidence in my affection. Marie has been with me ever since. Her joys
have been my joys, her life has been my life. Do I not owe her much?
That tear of hers--a precious pearl gathered by my heart--has been to it
what the dewdrop of morn is to the unopened flower--expanding it for the
entire day of its existence!"

_The Queer Side of Things._

THE DWINDLING HOUR.

A STORY OF IMPRESSION AND CONVICTION; BEING, POSSIBLY, A TRUE WORD
SPOKEN IN JEST.

I.

[Illustration]

"In an hour," sang the minstrel to his harp, whose frame was the curved
black horn of a deer--"in an hour thy forefather strode from this spot
whereon we sit to the summit of yon blue hill; and there, as the sinking
sun would bend to caress his feet (as grovels a vanquished foe), he
would touch its face with his hand in token of friendliness. 'Twixt
dawning of day and noon would thy great forefather slay three hundred
red-eyed wolves--one hundred shuffling bears!

"In a day did he carve and hew this bowl from the hardest rock, and
fashion and form it thus; and bore a hole in its base for the water to
trickle and ooze, and number the hours that sped!"

Then up rose the hunter to whom he sang; and broad was his chest, and
active his limb; and he cried aloud, "What my forefather did that will I
do; in an hour will I stride from here to the summit of yon blue hill."

And those that sa