s the revelation calls it, must
be eternally connected to insure a perfect being. Somehow, I always
sympathize with one whose beautiful spirit is tabernacled in a plain
body. And yet, my pity is a hundred times more profound for one whom God
has given a beautiful face and form, but whose heart and soul have been
made ugly by sin--but there, if I don't look out, I'll be preaching."

"Well, your congregation likes to hear you preach."

Space will not permit the recording of the number of times emphasis was
given to various expressions in this conversation by the hand pressure
under the shawl.

"Now," continued he, "I can't conceive of your not having any admirers."

"I didn't say admirers--I said beaux."

"Well, I suppose there is a difference," he laughed.

"Of course, I have known a good many young men in my time, but those
matrimonially inclined usually passed by on the other side."

"Perhaps they knew I was coming on this side."

"Perhaps--There's papa. He looks lonesome. We ought to be ashamed of
ourselves to hide from him as we did yesterday."

"I agree; but he'll find us now."

Lucy drew the father's attention, and he found a chair near them.

"Isn't the sea beautiful," said Lucy, by way of beginning the
conversation properly, now a third person was present. "And what a lot
of water there is!" she continued. "What did Lincoln say about the
common people? The Lord must like them, because he made so many of them.
Well, the Lord must like water also, as He has made so much of it."

"Water is a very necessary element in the economy of nature," said the
father. "Like the flow of blood in the human body, so is water to this
world. As far as we know, wherever there is life there is water."

"And that reminds me," said Lucy eagerly, as if a new thought had come
to her, "that water is also a sign of purity. Water is used, not only
to purify the body, but as a symbol to wash away the sins of the soul.
Paul, you remember, was commanded to 'arise, and be baptized, and wash
away thy sins'." Lucy looked at Chester as if giving him a cue.

"In the economy of God," said Chester, "it seems necessary that we must
pass through water from one world to another. In like manner, the
gateway to the kingdom of heaven is through water. 'Except a man be born
of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God' is
declared by the Savior himself."

Whether or not the father understood that this brief sermonizing