us
waiting and nervous tremors, but her uncle came not; and as the night
drew near, a sense of perfect loneliness and desertion came over her,
and she leaned her head upon her hands, and tears, wrung from the
heart, trickled through them. All around her was bustle; every one had
an object, all had a home, and a place in the world, and some to love
them--all but she; she felt completely the orphan. Some think that
children do not suffer mentally as their elders do--what a mistake!
Their emotions are more transitory, but frequently more violent while
they last. Many an angry child, if he had the physical strength, would
commit deeds from which reason and conscience deter the man--and keen
and bitter, although fleeting, are the sorrows they experience. As the
little creature, so tenderly reared and now so utterly desolate, sat
upon the deck, with no earthly being to look up to for love and
sympathy, surely a pitying angel must have wafted into her heart her
mother's dying words, "When thy father and thy mother forsake thee, then
the Lord shall take thee up." It stole into her soul like oil upon the
troubled waters: it seemed as if a voice had said to the tempest within
her, "Peace, be still." She felt that there still was one who cared for
her--one who could neither die nor change; and the prayer of faith
ascended from those young lips to "_Our father_ who art in heaven."
Soothing, blessed influence of religion! felt by young as well as
old--how, in trouble, could we dispense with it? would not our hearts
sink under their load? would not our spirits be crushed within us?

The next day the Captain set himself in earnest to fulfill his promise
to the dying woman. The head of the firm to which his goods were
consigned was absent from home, but a very kind-hearted young fellow, a
junior partner, attended to the business during his absence, and
accordingly he directed his inquiries to him. "Mr. Alan Roscoe, a
merchant of Charlestown!" said young Howard, "why, I never heard the
name--there is surely some mistake. I know all the business men of the
place, and there is no such person. Have you the direction?" "Yes, sir,
No. 200 Meeting-street." "Why, Captain, here is a complete blunder!
there is no street of that name in Charlestown. I should not wonder, now
I come to think of it, if Charleston, South Carolina, were meant;
Meeting-street is, I know, one of the most fashionable promenades. And I
remember hearing of a Mr. Roscoe, a