a sad vacancy next Sunday! I don't
believe I shall love this room any more after you are gone, dear
cousin!"

"I am glad if my presence makes it happier to you, Carrie," replied
Jennie; "but you forget that uncle, and aunt, and Mary, and Ellen will
be left to you besides the pleasant associations that cluster about all
these familiar objects, while I shall be deprived of every thing but
dear mamma."

"But every body will love you, Jennie," said Mary, "and you have the
power to draw around you whoever you wish, so that your life will be
sure to be sunny wherever you go."

"Not every body, Mary," said Jennie, looking thoughtfully upon the
glorious view that was spread out before them, "if so, my heart would
feel no weight upon it to-day. It is not well," she continued, "to have
too much sunshine; else the storms would never be permitted to come; I
don't believe we should truly appreciate and love this bright landscape
if the shadows were not often flitting over it, thus making the glory
more apparent!"

"You are right my child," said Mr. Halberg, "the trying dispensations of
our life are wisely ordered, and who of us would dare to wish it
otherwise!"

"And yet it seems," said Mary, "as if sorrow never came to some people,
they glide through the world so unruffled and cheerful!"

"How little can we judge!" replied her father. "Every heart knoweth its
own bitterness, and the outer surface is not always the index to the
inner emotions or passions."

"Do you think, dear uncle," said Jennie, "that one can ever learn so to
bear the ills of his lot, as always to present a cheerful and happy
exterior to the world?"

"Not always, my child," said her uncle, "there is often a weakness of
the flesh, when the spirit without its depressing influence, would be
strong to endure; yet we may cultivate such a feeling of confidence in
the will of God as never to murmur at His decrees, and even to welcome
His chastisements, as blessings in disguise."

"That seems so difficult," said Carrie, "I am afraid I could never learn
to welcome a sorrow."

"Not simply as a sorrow, my dear child," returned Mr. Halberg; "but as a
means to a future good which could not be attained without it; there is
a great deal that is hard for our sinful natures to comprehend; but
there are spiritual aids of which we may all avail ourselves. Do not let
us slight them, my dear children," continued he, rising from his seat,
and gathering the three in one e