nent. Are you the young lady who, some months since, sold a
diamond ring to a jeweller on Grafton street?" Mrs. Harris raised her
eyes to the stranger's face, and the proud English blood which flowed in
her veins mantled her cheek as she replied, "before I permit my daughter
to answer the questions of a stranger, you will be so kind as to explain
your right to question." The stranger sprang from his seat at the sound
of her voice, and exclaimed, in a voice tremulous from emotion, "don't
you know me Eliza, I am your long lost brother George." The reader will,
doubtless, be better able to imagine the scene which followed, than I am
to describe it. Everything was soon explained, many letters had been
sent which never reached their destination; he knew not that his sister
had left England, and after writing again and again, and receiving no
reply, he ceased altogether from writing. During the first years of his
sojourn in California, he was unfortunate, and was several times brought
to the brink of the grave by sickness. After a time fortune smiled upon
his efforts, till he at length grew immensely rich, and finally left the
burning skies of California to return to England. He landed at New York
and intended, after visiting the Canadas, to sail for England. The
brother and sister had parted in their early youth, and it is no wonder
that they failed to recognize each other when each had passed middle
age. The brother was most changed of the two. His complexion had grown
very dark, and he had such a foreign look that, when convinced of the
fact, Mrs. Harris could hardly believe him to be one and the same with
the stripling brother from whom she parted in England so many years ago.
He was, of course, not aware of his sister's marriage, and he listened
with sorrow to the story of her bereavement and other misfortunes. "You
must now place a double value upon our family ring," said he, as he
replaced the lost treasure upon his sister's hand; "for it is this
diamond ring which has restored to each other the brother and sister who
otherwise might never have met again on earth. And now, both you and
your daughter must prepare for a voyage to dear old England. You need
have no anxiety for the future; I have enough for us all and you shall
want no more." Before leaving the City, accompanied by her brother, Mrs.
Harris visited the grave of her husband; and the generous brother
attended to the erection of a suitable tombstone, as the widow