bered down a little since then", said Adele.

"Yes, I remember. Gray Eagle knew well enough that the little sprite
he carried, liked a scamper as well as himself. The animal is quite
well, I thank you, and is on good behavior. So are your other
acquaintances, Cherry, the cow, and Hodge, the cat".

"I am glad to hear it. I had a charming visit at Rockdale last
summer. Johnny and Gabrielle are wild to go there. But mamma and I,
and all of us, were so disappointed because you would not consent to
Fanny and Jenny coming to spend the winter with us. Mamma says she
does not quite understand yet why you objected".

"Ah! well, my dear, I'll make it all right with your mamma. The fact
is, I wish to get a few rational ideas into the heads of those
precious little ladies before they are launched out into city life.
Just a little ballast to keep them from capsizing in a gale".

"Mamma says they are both very much like you", said Adele, archly.

"True, my dear. That makes it all the more necessary to look after
them carefully".

After a few moments of chat, Adele left the room to give orders for
hastening supper.

During her absence, Mr. Norton, with his eyes fixed upon the glowing
grate, fell into a fit of musing. Look at him a moment, while he sits
thus, occupied with the memories of the past. Twenty years have passed
since he was introduced to the attention of the reader, a missionary
to a remote and benighted region. He is now sixty years old, and very
few have passed through greater toil and hardships than he has
endured, in asserting the claims of the Redeemer to the gratitude and
love of the race. Yet his health and vigor of mind are scarcely
impaired, and his zeal continues unabated.

Beginning his journey early each spring and returning to his family
late every autumn, he had spent sixteen successive summers in
Miramichi, engaged in self-imposed labors. Each winter, he wrought at
his anvil, and thus helped to maintain an honest independence.

Four years previous, a parish having become vacant, in the town where
he resided, it was urged upon his acceptance, by the unanimous voice
of the people. By his efforts, a great change had been wrought in the
field of his past labors and a supply of suitable religious teachers
having been provided there, he accepted the invitation as a call of
Divine Providence, and had ministered to the spiritual wants of the
people of Rockdale since.

Business called him occasionally to t