lf understood, yet
awakened the chords which had been already touched to a trembling
response.

Even little Harry in some measure abstained from indulging in his
ordinary train of meditation during church-time, consisting chiefly of
planning fishing excursions and games for the holidays. How many older
and wiser heads are prone to the same kind of reverie, and could not
have given a better account of "papa's sermon" than he was usually
able to do! Fred, the quiet student, listened with kindling eye and
deep enthusiasm to his father's earnest exposition of the divine truth
which had already penetrated his own mind and heart; and Alick heard
it with a reverent admiration for the beautiful gospel which could
prompt such noble sentiments, and with a vague determination that
"some time" he would think about it in earnest.

Stella alone, of all the young group, carried away nothing of the
precious truth which had been sounding in her ears. She had gone to
church merely as a matter of form, without any expectation of
receiving a blessing there; and during the service her wandering eyes
had been employed in taking a mental inventory of the various odd and
old-fashioned costumes that she saw around her, to serve for her
sister's amusement when she should return home. It is thus that the
evil one often takes away the good seed before it has sunk into our
hearts. Stella would have been surprised had it been suggested to her
that the words of the last hymn, which rose sweetly through the church
in the soft summer twilight, could possibly apply to her that evening:

"If some poor wandering child of thine
Have spurned to-day the voice divine,
Now, Lord, the gracious work begin;
Let him no more lie down in sin!"

III.

_More Home Scenes._

"Tell me the story often.
For I forgot so soon;
The early dew of morning
Has passed away at noon."

When Bessie Ford parted from Lucy at the gate, she had still a long
walk before reaching home. Mill Bank Farm was a good mile and a half
from the village if you went by the road, but Bessie shortened it very
considerably by striking across the fields a little way beyond the
village. There were one or two fences to climb, but Bessie did not
mind that any more than she minded the placid cows browsing in the
pasture through which her way led. The breezy meadows, white with
ox-eye daisies, and in some places yellow with buttercups, with the
blue riv