e good and the tender in the man's
nature, and diminished the distance between the two, so that the son
could again feel the link that bound his father to the departed.

They could now talk together of his mother and look over the little
mementoes that were so treasured, and both were happier for the hallowed
communion.

"You'll lay me by her when I'm gone, lad, won't you?" said the man. "I
couldn't sleep elsewhere, and I've faith to think you'll live to see me
buried, much as we all watched for your own last breath."

The boy didn't like to talk of death now. He had passed through the
danger, and had a motive in wishing to live. There was a great deal to
be done--a mighty work, but he felt strong to do it--and when he was
alone he hobbled across the room, and unlocked a small chest and found a
portfolio that had been his mother's, and every day the white pages grew
black with marks; but bright and radiant with the overflowing treasures
of a rich and gifted mind. Like a miser he hid the product, down, down,
amid heaps of household rubbish in an uncared for nook by the chimney,
and only drew it forth to add to its value when there was no witness
that could betray him. It was a worthless-looking thing, that old
leather portfolio, with the wear and tear of years upon it; but the boy
felt a sort of inward consciousness that the gloomy and dismal
hiding-place beneath the refuse truck was not its irrevocable destiny;
and this feeling buoyed him up when he was inclined to despondency or
sadness, and kept him busy with his new labor during many an otherwise
weary and painful hour. And so his days passed on until the pain and the
lassitude left him, and he could again go forth to work amid the erect
and strong, with his own frame bent still lower by his long sad
illness.

CHAPTER VII.

"Cousin Willie, I have not seen him for several days, and I do want to
go so much!"--besides, pleaded the little girl, "you promised to walk
there with me some day, long ago, and you have never been there yet."

The cousins were standing together on the green slope, whence they could
see the poor boy's home, and Kittie's attention had been particularly
drawn to the spot by a crowd of laborers that were gathered around the
house seemingly engaged in some exciting subject, for they were
gesticulating violently, while the old woman stood without the group
wringing her hands, and now and then applying her apron to her face with
a passiv