on the
_safe side_, in support of which he appealed to me. I was saved from
deciding the question by the entrance of the father and mother. My old
friend knew me at once, and presented his pretty wife to me with the
same look of exultation with which he used to hold up a string of trout
or an uncommonly fine perch of his own catching for my admiration, and
then looking round on his fine family of children, two more of which he
had brought home with him, seemed to say to me, "There! what do you
think of that, now?"

And, in truth, a very pretty sight it was--enough to make any one's old
bachelor coat sit very uneasily on him. Indeed, there is nothing that
gives one such a startling idea of the tricks that old Father Time has
been playing on us, as to meet some boyish or girlish companions with
half a dozen or so of thriving children about them. My old friend, I
found, was in essence just what the boy had been. There was the same
upright bearing, the same confident, cheerful tone to his voice, and the
same fire in his eye; only that the hand of manhood had slightly touched
some of the lines of his face, giving them a staidness of expression
becoming the man and the father.

"Very well, my children," said Mrs. Fletcher, as, after tea, William and
Susan finished recounting to her the various matters that they had set
in order that afternoon; "I believe now we can say that our week's work
is finished, and that we have nothing to do but rest and enjoy
ourselves."

"O, and papa will show us the pictures in those great books that he
brought home for us last Monday, will he not?" said little Robert.

"And, mother, you will tell us some more about Solomon's temple and his
palaces, won't you?" said Susan.

"And I should like to know if father has found out the answer to that
hard question I gave him last Sunday?" said Willie.

"All will come in good time," said Mrs. Fletcher. "But tell me, my dear
children, are you sure that you are quite ready for the Sabbath? You say
you have put away the books and the playthings; have you put away, too,
all wrong and unkind feelings? Do you feel kindly and pleasantly towards
every body?"

"Yes, mother," said Willie, who appeared to have taken a great part of
this speech to himself; "I went over to Tom Walter's this very morning
to ask him about that chicken of mine, and he said that he did not mean
to hit it, and did not know he had till I told him of it; and so we made
all up again,