care that they receive no harm; and their presence and influence will do much to insure the success of my experi ment. Pray consent!"

Mrs. Danforth is the incarnation of good-nature, Despite her ingrained pride, and her occasional hauteur, no woman of my acquaintance finds it so hard to say "no" to a direct appeal for help. She looked half-amazed, halfprovoked, but amusement prevailed at last. Bursting into a loud laugh, she said, with a most expressive outward gesture of her jewelled hands,

"Take them! take all! But don't send them home to me with vermin outside their heads, nor Yankee phrases inside them, or the compact does not hold good a moment longer. But what would Mark Danforth say if he knew I had let his children go into a Ragged Class! Shouldn't I get 'Hail Columbia,' and every other tune that would send a body quickly to the right-about-face!”

XXX.

GATHERING IN.

EXT morning, I began the real work of gathering in. The first step was easy: it

took me to a house where I had twice watched, and where Death had prepared the way for me. The sad-faced widow promised me her little Jamie without a dissenting word. Only, she feared that his wardrobe was not all that could be desired. A suggestion that its deficiencies might be supplied did not brighten her face.

I stopped next before a rough, weather-browned house, in the midst of a potato field; above whose low roof a huge stone chimney rose like a watch-tower. Here, I had often noticed, in passing, two or three neglected looking children playing around the bar-place which served in lieu of gate. The premises seemed to be deserted, now; nevertheless, I knocked at the door, and, getting no answer, lifted the latch. It admitted me into a small, dingy kitchen. A sturdy boy sat on the hearth, amusing himself by sifting ashes through his fingers into his hat; near the window was a cradle with a sleeping babe in it; and by its side sat a pale, quiet, little girl, rocking it with a patient foot and face, as if she had come unusually early to. a comprehension of what was to be her chief business in life. Both stared at me.

"Where is your mother?" I asked.

"She's gone a-washin'," said the girl.

"And left you to take care of baby and brother?”

The small hero in the ashes resented the implication. "She takes care o' baby, but she don't tetch me, I can tell ye! I takes care o' myself,"-with immense dignity.

"And he will get inter the ashes," added the small woman. "Though mother said he mustn't, and she'll give it to him, when she gets home." The prediction being uttered, not with a righteous exultation over merited punishment, but in the sad tone of a prophet heart-heavy with his own foresight.

"Did you ever hear the story of Cinderella?" I inquired.

Libby shook her head; Bob vouchsafed no answer. "If you will come here," said I, addressing the latter, "I will tell it to you."

He looked tempted, but doubtful. He was balancing the attractions of stories and mischief. I settled the matter by lifting him quietly by the collar, giving him a little shake, to clear him of the ashes, and setting him down on the other side of me, remote from the hearth. He put his finger into his mouth, and looked at me, speculatively. He was uncertain whether to take offence or not. Without giving him time to decide, I commenced the story of Cinderella-with variations. The heroine's worst trial was a boy-brother, ingenious in methods of torment, and with a perverse inclination for ashes. The fairy godmother gave him wonderful gifts; but, precisely at the wrong moment they turned to ashes in his hands, or his mouth. The details were harrowing, and the finale was made to suit this new version. When I finished, the eyes of my audience were like saucers.

Then, without more pause than was necessary to disconnect the two, I told the story of Samuel. It was not received with the breathless, wide-eyed interest awakened by

the other; but, having won the ear of my audience with that, it listened quietly and soberly to this.

"Tell me another," commanded my male auditor, when I stopped.

"Not this morning. But if you will come to me, in the church, next Sunday noon-you and Libby-I will tell you another, with pleasure."

His face fell.

"And I should not wonder if it would be about the tigers and crocodiles in Africa,-that eat up women and children," I went on.

He looked eager.

"Shan't I have ter larn lessons? ""

"Not unless you choose."

"Then I'll come," pronounced he, decidedly.

"I'm afraid mother won't let us come," said the little woman, sorrowfully.

Not to burden my narrative with too many details, I left a note for the mother, begging her to let the children come to me; and departed, in the firm conviction that the young rascal who stood kicking his heels together on the doorstep would give her no peace until he had worried a consent out of her. Which proved to be well-founded.

My next visit was to a red-haired virago, who had just set her foot into the middle of a pie sent her by a kind neighbor, as the readiest way of resenting the implication that she needed charity; while the bearer stood by, crimson with mortification and discomfiture. She lost no time in giving me to understand that "stuck-up city folks," meddling with what was "none o' their business," need not look for much better treatment at her hands. Nevertheless, by dint of a few good-humored, but sharp retorts,which seemed greatly to her taste,-I got her first to listen to me, then to ask a question or two, and finally, to say, grumpily ;

"If Mr. Taylor wants my younguns in his Sunday School, he'd better come arter 'em."

"I think he has called," replied I. you at home."

"He did not find

""Twouldn't hurt him to come again, would it ? "

"Doubtless he will come again, in due time. You must recollect that he has been in Shiloh only a few weeks."

"Who's agoin' ter be in yer class?"

"I have but three promised positively-Jimmy Lang' (her lip curled), "and Mrs. Danforth's two children." "Mis' Danforth! that's the city woman down on Hope Plain; ain't it?"

"The same."

"Did

ye

ask her if she was willin' ter hev' her younguns go with mine?"

"Did I ask you if you were willing that yours should go with hers?"

"Um!-Be they all go'n' ter set in the same seat?" "Certainly, if the seat will hold them."

"What's idee in gittin' up

yer

sech a class?

"To keep myself out of mischief on Sundays." Her stern features relaxed into a smile. "I guess ye'll make it out, if they're all like my Jim an' Bess. Ye'll hev' yer hands full, with them two younguns, an' no mistake; they're as full of the Old Nick as an egg is of meat. If ye think ye kin git any on't out on 'em, ye kin hev' 'em, an' welcome."

"Thank you; I will try. Please give me their names in full." And I wrote them down with great satisfaction.

Shiftlessness reigned absolute in the dwelling which I visited next. It creaked in the crippled gate (swinging painfully on one hinge), it looked out of the patched, dingy windows, it greeted me in the pots and pails round the doorstep, it had made the kitchen its headquarters, and it smiled me a good-natured welcome from the mistress' face. She was a woman athirst for knowledge. Before I had