of me as being happy in that blessed society. Do not fancy
that it is your duty to grieve, but, on the contrary, know that it is
your duty to be as cheerful and happy as possible. Do you heed me, my
daughter?"

"Oh, yes, yes, dear father!" said Clara, heroically repressing her
grief.

"Seek for yourself, dear child, a nearer union with Christ and God. Seek
it, Clara, until the spirit of God shall bear witness with your spirit
that you are as a child of God; so shall you, as you come to lie where I
do now, be able to say of your life and death, as I say with truth of
mine: The journey has been pleasant, but the goal is blessed."

The doctor pressed his daughter's hand and dropped suddenly into an easy
sleep.

Mrs. Rocke drew Clara away, and the room was very still.

Sweet, beautiful and lovely as is the death-bed of a Christian, we will
not linger too long beside it.

All day the good man's bodily life ebbed gently away. He spoke at
intervals, as he had strength given him, words of affection, comfort and
counsel to those around him.

Just as the setting sun was pouring his last rays into the chamber
Doctor Day laid his hand upon his child's head and blessed her. Then,
closing his eyes, he murmured softly: "'Lord Jesus, into thy hands I
resign my spirit:'" and with that sweet, deep, intense smile that had
been so lovely in life--now so much lovelier in death--his pure spirit
winged its flight to the realms of eternal bliss.

CHAPTER XXX.

THE ORPHAN.

"Let me die, father! I fear, I fear
To fall in earth's terrible strife!"
"Not so, my child, for the crown must be won
In the battle-field of Life."
--_Life and Death._

"He has gone to sleep again," said Clara, with a sigh of relief.

"He has gone to heaven, my child," said Marah Rocke, softly.

The orphan started, gazed wildly on the face of the dead, turned ghastly
pale and, with a low moan and suffocating sob, fell fainting into the
motherly arms of Mrs. Rocke.

Marah beckoned Traverse, who lifted the insensible girl tenderly in his
arms and, preceded by his mother, bore her to her chamber and laid her
upon the bed.

Then Marah dismissed Traverse to attend to the duties owed to the
remains of the beloved departed, while she herself stayed with Clara,
using every means for her restoration.

Clara opened her eyes at length, but in reviving to life also returned
to grief. Dreadful to witne