spirit could not yet rise to confidence in man. The mingled indignation
and pity with which Captain Durbin heard the simple but touching
narrative of his life--the earnest kindness with which, at the
conclusion, he drew him to his side, and told him that he would be his
father, and Emily his sister, adding, "God gave you to me, and as His
gift I will love you and care for you," first taught him that his friend
Emily was not the one only angel of mercy in our world. As time passed
on, and Captain Durbin kept well the promise of those words, instructing
him with care and guarding him with tenderness as well as with fidelity,
his faith became firm, not only in his fellow-men, but in Him who had
brought such great good for him out of the darkest evil. His long
repressed affections sprang into vigorous growth, his intellect expanded
rapidly in their glow, his eye grew bright, his step elastic, and his
whole air redolent of a joy which none but those who have suffered as he
had done can conceive. In the handsome youth who returned two years
afterwards with Captain Durbin to Boston, and who walked so proudly at
his side, leading Emily by the hand, few could have recognized the wild
boy of that western Island.

Such was the transformation which the spirit of love, breathing itself
through the lips of a little child, had effected. "Verily, of such"
children "is the kingdom of heaven."

CHAPTER VI.

The entertainment of the evening gave its character to our conversation
on the following morning. It was a conversation too grave for
introduction into a work intended only to aid in the entertainment of
festive hours: it commenced with the English "poor-laws," and ended with
a discussion of the tenure of property in that land, and the wisdom of
our own republican fathers in abolishing entails--a subject affording a
fair opportunity to us Americans, to indulge a little in that
self-glorification which we are accused of loving so well.

"What a curious book would a 'History of Entails' be!" exclaimed Mr.
Arlington, "how full of the romance of life!"

"Romance!" ejaculated Annie.

"Yes, romance; for under this system, the poor man, whose life seemed
doomed to one unbroken struggle with fortune, for the necessaries of
existence, finds himself, by some unexpected casualty, the possessor of
rank, and of what seems to him boundless wealth."

"Ah, yes!" said I, "but you have given us only the bright side of the
picture. To