s at last over, and the children, made happy for
one day at least, were slowly dispersing to their dreary homes, drifting
away from the better influences good men and women had been trying to
gather about them even for a little while. The children were beginning
to leave the tables when Edith, who had been busy among them, remembered
the little boy who had so interested her, and made her way to the place
where he had been sitting. But he was not there. She looked into the
crowd of boys and girls who were pressing toward the door, but could not
see the child. A shadow of disappointment came over her feelings, and a
strange heaviness weighed over her heart.

"Oh, I'm so sorry," she said to herself. "I wanted to see him again."

She pressed through the crowd of children, and made her way down among
them to the landing below and out upon the street, looking this way and
that, but could not see the child. Then she returned to the upper rooms,
but her search was in vain. Remembering that Mrs. Paulding had called
him by name, she sought for the missionary's wife and made inquiry about
him.

"Do you mean the little fellow I called Andy?" said Mrs. Paulding.

"Yes, that's the one," returned Edith.

"A beautiful boy, isn't he?"

"Indeed he is. I never saw such eyes in a child. Who is he, Mrs.
Paulding, and what is he doing here? He cannot be the child of depraved
or vicious parents."

"I do not think he is. But from whence he came no one knows. He drifted
in from some unknown land of sorrow to find shelter on our inhospitable
coast. I am sure that God, in his wise providence, sent him here, for
his coming was the means of saving a poor debased man who is well worth
the saving."

Then she told in a few words the story of Andy's appearance at Mr.
Hall's wretched hovel and the wonderful changes that followed--how a
degraded drunkard, seemingly beyond the reach of hope and help, had
been led back to sobriety and a life of honest industry by the hand of a
little child cast somehow adrift in the world, yet guarded and guided
by Him who does not lose sight in his good providence of even a single
sparrow.

"Who is this man, and where does he live?" asked Mr. Dinneford, who had
been listening to Mrs. Paulding's brief recital.

"His name is Andrew Hall," was replied.

"Andrew Hall!" exclaimed Mr. Dinneford, with a start and a look of
surprise.

"Yes, sir. That is his name, and he is now living alone with the child
of whom w