her and quite unconscious of what he was doing knelt down beside her so that he could open the letter at her knee and they made a pathetic picture the father and mother whom grief had aged before their time the soft april wind playing with their grey hairs and the flush of excitement on their cheeks it was a short letter written by the clergyman of a church in a little among the distant wheat of and it ran thus � march y th madam � it is my sad duty to write to you concerning your son robert gray whom i was called a long distance to see yesterday only to find him d of a severe attack of of the lungs contracted through exposure in one of the most terrible we have had for many years i had not met or heard of him before as the place where he has been working as hired man is thirteen miles from my and difficult of access it seems he had been there for about ten months working for a decent well to do german jew to whom he has given the land o the the greatest satisfaction being sober industrious and of an amiable disposition i was grieved to find him too weak to say much but he was to tell me a little about himself and to instruct me to carry out his last wishes he had been wandering about a good deal as young men must do out here without introduction or but so far as i could gather he had never been in any sore straits though sometimes in rather low water i was surprised to find him possessed of a university training though indeed i have met many similar instances he did not detail to me his reasons for having left a home so comfortable and happy and the memory of which he cherished so passionately that i was quite overcome one thing you may take to comfort you that he has not been living a prodigal s life out here but the reverse he was reserved about his own state of mind but told me quite frankly he had no fear of death he asked me to send you the enclosed which i have not opened but which he told me he had carried within his next his heart during the last two years i remained with him till his death which was and beautiful and i feel sure that you may with the utmost confidence look forward to a happy re union in a world where these sorrows are unknown i regret that my letter most of necessity be meagre and unsatisfactory as i only saw him once he has been buried in a little not far from the farm on which he died his employer the whole expenses and all the neighbours turned out showing that he was a general favourite if there is anything further you would like to know pray write and i shall do my best to reply � meantime with sincere christian sympathy i remain madam yours faithfully they were able to read the letter through with that wondrous self control which had distinguished them throughout and to the string and cut the which held their boy s iq to them there was no letter within lay a little old testament with brass which his mother had given him on the day he first went to church the were but would not close over something within � a thick roll of american the land o the dollar bills they fell out upon her lap and then the book seemed to open naturally where lay the of ivy now dry and faded which had once been living green on the end of on that open page two passages were deeply � a message from the unseen to those who had now no child as ye know that ye were not with things as silver and gold but with the precious blood of christ as of a lamb without and without spot and again behold we count them happy which endure the lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy by what ways that wandering soul had returned to the fold they would never know and though the hand of god seemed heavy upon them they were not without their of comfort bowed his head now so nearly white on his wife s knee and a great sobbing shook him like the wind of winter in the trees but she sat still and quiet with a wondering and deep light in her meek sweet eyes conscious for the moment that the veil between the seen and the unseen was so thin that her sharpened vision could almost pierce it her life during the past two years had been one long prayer and lo the sore of lier soul had its answer � her boy was safe being thus assured she could wait for daybreak and the l t of heaven so she is waiting still worthy of his hire i worthy of his hire mrs was waiting for her husband to come to tea it was a quarter past five on a january afternoon and the light and day by day still lingered in that pleasant dining room where solid comfort reigned it was furnished in warm crimson the substantial mahogany chairs in rich the walls were a sea green and several fine chiefly of times adorned them the recesses on either side of the fireplace held well made mahogany filled in every shelf a black marble clock and handsome decorated the which was further relieved by two graceful glasses filled with white the did not dine late but had a set tea at five o clock it was very spread the linen was of the and finest the china good the silver shining the land o the mary was sitting on a before the fire glad of its 