the boy face
before me.

"You will think of us sometimes," he said as I held his hand at
parting, "and when you pray to our heavenly Father, ask Him to look
upon us in mercy."

"I will ask Him, Erwald; and I shall always remember the journey from
Geneva to Chamouni as the most varied and interesting of my life."

"The Bride Of The Aar."

It was the day after Christmas; a heavy fall of snow during the night,
the tiny flakes full of graceful motion till long past noon, had made
a gloomy day for the inmates of Myrtlebank. True, there was many a gay
trill and clear silvery laugh ringing through the old rooms. Alick was
spending his college vacation at home, and Frank and Carry were merry
as school-girls are wont to be, when books are flung aside, and fun
and frolic take the place of study and recitation.

"What are you dreaming about, uncle Paul?" and Carry perched herself
on the arm of her uncle's chair, and patted his cheek with her little
dimpled hand.

"I have been thinking, child"--and there was a choking sensation in
uncle Paul's throat, and a strange mist in his clear gray eyes.
Carry's sympathies were awakened.

"Thinking about something long time ago, uncle Paul?" and the rosy
cheek was laid close to the thin, pallid one.

"Tell us, uncle Paul; you know you promised us;" and Carry slid her
arms about her uncle's neck, and felt his great heart beat against her
own.

"It was a long time ago," began uncle Paul. "I had just finished my
studies, and not being strong, the physician advised a year's travel
on the continent. My father was a merchant, and had friends in the
different European cities, and there was little danger that I should
lack for attention; and with a supply of letters, and one in
particular to a friend of my father's, a pastor among the mountains
of Switzerland, I started. I pass over the leave-taking; finding
myself alone on the sea; the nights of calm when leaning over the
ship's side, looking down into the dark depths, murmuring snatches of
home songs, bringing up vividly before me faces of those I loved; and
as the ocean swells came rocking under us, down we went into the
valleys and up over the hills of water. I felt as safe, rocked in the
great cradle of the deep, as when at home. His eye was upon me; His
arm encircled me.

"But pleasant as the voyage and full of memories, I see that you are
impatient to pass over to the mountains of Switzerland. Words are weak
to describe