ne
up bravely--now utterly overcome.

"It is a hard lesson to learn, darling, but some hearts have learned
it, and when the agony was passed have blessed God for so teaching
them. Sorrow sooner or later comes to all, and it works in the heart
of each patience or despair. It all depends upon the way and manner in
which they receive it."

"Perhaps you have the power to choose," said Maggie, "but I have not.
It is not so much for you to be patient; it is your nature, and then
you can't have so great cause for grief."

How Miss Levick's heart went backward at the words of this weeping
child, while she repeated to herself many a precious promise.

Hour after hour they sat there; the sun had gone down, and the purple
twilight shrouded the outer world; while Maggie's thoughts were busy
with memories of the beautiful past, that was gone from her
forever--shrinking from the future that looked so blank and
cheerless, and keen agony as the present sorrow rose up in all its
intensity--a radiant cup of joy dashed from her lips just as she was
beginning to taste its sweetness, and her heart was full of murmuring
and despair.

Miss Levick's words irritated instead of soothed her, and she could
not help feeling there was not so much sympathy as she had a right to
expect.

The teacher felt all this, and her tears dropped silently as she
thought over Maggie's words.

"You have not so great cause for grief." There was a lesson in her
past life that her heart prompted her to unveil for the instruction of
the young mourner, and though she shrank from the task she determined
it should be done.

"Maggie," she began in a low voice, "I have no home, Maggie. There are
times when my path looks dreary to me. Once loving hands clasped mine,
but one by one they have all lost their hold upon me and crumbled away
into dust, while I am left to walk alone. I do not murmur at this,
though there have been times when my heart has said, 'The Almighty
hath dealt very bitterly with me.' And if you will listen I will tell
you how a heart more impulsive and passionate than yours was brought
to rest quietly in the hands of One who doeth all things well.

"I was born in New England, and amid its wild, picturesque scenery I
grew to love nature most devoutly--not calm, serene, quiet; I gloried
in the war of elements, the play of the winds, the lightning, the
thunder. When very young it was one of my pastimes to be out in the
rain-storms; there was some