she spoke in this manner throughout the night. The storm gradually abated, as the first dim rays of morning broke on the dark sky; and then she dropped off into a quiet sleep, murmuring faintly like a wornout child, 'And so He bringeth them to the haven where they would be.' I covered her lightly over, and sat down on the foot of the bed to keep watch. But I was young, and new to grief and care, and wearied out with the fatigue and excitement of the previous day; and so at last I dropped down at the foot of the bed and fell asleep, so long and so heavily that I never woke till the bright morning sun was shining well up in the sky. My mother still slept, so I crept quietly down to light the fire and get her breakfast ready for her. I had just done so, when, to my astonishment, I saw Aunt Greenwood at the little front gate. I opened the door quietly but quickly, and replied to her eager inquiries that my mother was asleep. She then beckoned in a short sailor-looking man, and said to me, 'This is your uncle David, my dear; he would come over with me, though he only came ashore yesterday. You give him some breakfast, child, while I go up and see your mother;' and before I could interfere, she was half-way up-stairs. Uncle David shook hands with me in a sort of solemn, formal way, and then said he should walk out o'

doors a bit till his missus came down,-an arrangement I was not sorry for. But my aunt's step came slowly down again in a short time; and as she came in, her white face and shocked expression quite prepared me for her words, as, taking both my hands, she said solemnly, 'My poor child, God has seen fit to take your poor mother to Himself: she is gone.'

'Thou, as a gallant bark from Albion's coast
(The storms all weather'd, and the ocean cross'd),
Shoots into port at some well haven'd isle,
Where spices breathe, and brighter seasons smile,
There sits quiescent on the floods, that show
Her beauteous form reflected clear below,
While airs impregnated with incense play
Around her, fanning light her streamers gay;
So thou, with sails how swift! hast reach'd the shore,
"Where tempests never beat, nor billows roar !"'

COWPER.

WAS too stunned at the time to realize much of death and bereavement, for I had never known sorrow before, and therefore, coming now in this sudden manner, it fell with a crushing weight on heart and brain. I can only remember of this period of numbness or mental paralysis, that I sat quietly about, moved, ate, and drank mechanically, and did what I was told like an automaton. My aunt did just as such

a strong-minded woman would do,-took the entire government of all into her own hands; and sending word back that she was detained for a day or two, she remained with me. I am sure the thought of her maid, left to her own devices, weighed sorely upon her, for she insisted on her husband returning home to mount guard in her absence. Poor Uncle David! as if he would ever exercise any amount of authority over the errant damsel. But I suppose my aunt thought he would look a sort of moral scarecrow, and so packed him off every evening, in spite of his piteous remonstrances. 'He is sure

to be back in the morning in time for breakfast,' said she. And she was right enough; for as soon as ever the cloth was laid, and the tea things set out, punctual to a moment, in came Uncle David with a parcel under his arm, containing some good thing for breakfast or dinner. I think my aunt must have grumbled a little in her thrifty way privately to him; for in the middle of breakfast he would burst out all of a sudden, 'No, Bessie, no; let the poor little creetur eat and drink well: there's nothing cures grief so well as plenty of vittles!' and then the kind old soul would heap my plate, till I could but smile faintly and resist any further supplies.

The day of the funeral arrived, and I saw my

dear mother—my only friend and comforter — laid in the earth, and the sense of my desolation was very, very sore. True, my father was still living, and shortly expected home, and my aunt was in her way most kind, and did her best for me. But I missed the fond patience that had borne with all my childish wants and wishes, the tender sympathy, and the loving greeting that I was to know never more. On the evening of this day, after my uncle had gone, my aunt sat down opposite to me, as I was sitting hopelessly beside the fire, and thus began:

'Now, my dear, your uncle and I have been talking over what's best to be done, and we think you had better come to us till your father comes home to arrange his own affairs. Your uncle has made inquiries, and finds he will most likely be home in October, but not before. Now I can't leave my house and my own people very well for even a week, and have been sorely put about as it is, what with your uncle's coming home, and that hussey Susan's wild ways. We can't leave you here, for it wouldn't be safe nor right for such a child all alone; and so, child, you had better come with us, and we'll lock up this house till your father returns. There are a good many things that won't be safe to leave here; so I'll pack 'em all