chie did not know what he meant by the "only thing," neither could he
tell why Patrick went so suddenly out brushing his sleeve across his
eyes, all the way to the gate; but the circumstance weighed with him,
and it made him jump from his study so soon as the least symptom of
weariness came, and resort to his out-of-door occupations. Kittie had
gone off to boarding-school and the boy sadly missed the white figure
that he used to watch so fondly for in the walk that led to his cottage.
She would not come again for many a year, and there was loneliness and
desolation in the very thought; but so it must be, and he strove to find
solace in his books, and with his plants; but every thing recalled the
past. His books were thrown aside for awhile, because she was not there
to question him as to their contents, and the flowers were hueless and
scentless, since the eye that loved so to look upon them, and the sense
that delighted so in their sweet odor were gone. Willie, too, missed the
gentle cousin that bore his caprices so patiently, and he murmured at
the decree that banished her from his presence. "She knew enough to
please him, and what more could they want?" "That was all such a little
mouse as she was good for!"

The "little mouse," though, made a great hole in the house, and there
was nothing in all the big world that could fill it acceptably to the
lad, and so it remained empty until the school-days should be
accomplished, save that her shadow was ever there, palpable--to the
vision of the two lads at least. How differently was she cherished!--by
the one as a grateful sort of appendage that contributed vastly to his
comfort in various ways--to the other as a guardian presence, inciting
him to every virtue and grace, and sanctifying and spiritualizing his
whole being. Strangest of all mysteries, the transforming power of that
wondrous and precious essence!

Thanks be to Him who has so diffused it over this lower world that there
is no spot that may not be akin to heaven!

CHAPTER XI.

Mrs. Lincoln's time was wholly taken up in inventing new pleasures for
her son, so that she had not one moment for the poor youth at the foot
of the garden, who, but for the benevolence and kindness of Kittie's
mother, would have led a weary life of it indeed.

Archie's father had, at last, laid down both trowel and pipe, and was
taking his long rest beside the dead wife. The boy had purchased a small
lot in a secluded and rom