house was kept by a very worthy kindhearted woman, who encouraged Charles in all his benevolent plans. Close by the gate leading to his father's farm, lived a very poor man of the name of Parsons. He too had one child, this little Mary, whose mother, never well after her birth, died when the child was a year old. Charlie, at that time between six and seven, used, day after day, to take broth or sago to the sick woman, whose distress he had himself discovered and represented to the housekeeper; he would nurse the child, who soon grew very fond of him, whilst the mother rested, would sweep the hearth, scour the floor, and help the poor woman in every possible way. Parsons himself was a hardworking man, but having done his work, and brought home his scanty wages, he thought he had no further duties to perform, and he expected his wife to wait upon him, this she would not have been equal to,

had not Charlie's help in the day enabled her to rest herself then, to prepare for her husband's return. Charlie was with the poor woman when she died, and he promised never to forget the child. He wished to have taken it home, but its father would not allow that, but said that he might take care of it as much as he liked; and this boy, with an uncommonly lively spirit, and as fond of play as boy could be, devoted himself to this little girl, sickly and delicate as she was. The poor child repaid him as well as she could, by being passionately fond of him. When she was ill, she could not bear him to be very long away, unless she was with the housekeeper; but when she was pretty well, she was so unselfish in her love that she would lie quite happily on a bank out of doors, and watch him playing with his little companions. This day, however, he knew very well that she

was not well enough to be left, and no persuasion could induce him on such occasions to neglect her for his own amusement. She was such a quiet child, that the master of the school where Charlie went, a kind-hearted man, allowed him to bring his little nursling with him to school. He was now beginning to teach her the alphabet.

Part only of this Agnes heard from Charlie himself, but enough to interest her in him very much; and Miss Horton and Caroline coming up to them, she wished her new friends good-bye, and told them what she had heard. From Miss Mitchell she heard the remainder of the story, and day after day she went to the same place, hoping to meet them again, but they were not there. Many children were playing about, but she missed the beautiful boy and his young protegée; she asked one of the group, but received no satisfactory answer.

One day,

G