Year: 1868

the door you could see the great wheel
slowly turning and when the air was
still you could hear the dull rumbling of
machinery.


The miller's family lived in tie brown
cottage. Shall | tell YOU nov many
were in this family? Just three Two
little girls and 4 baby, But where was
the mother you ask.


There was no mother i'll the miller
brown cottage; only two little girls and
earthly life had failed and fiickered, as
you have seen the light of a lamp when
the Oil was consumed Then it went
out and there were tears and grief i'll
the brown cottage.


As for the mother, sorrow and sick
ness had made both aeart and body
weak For long time before she died
great shadow rested on her lite-a
shadow that grew darker day by day.
But she was loving and pure, and, in lis
own goood time, the Lord closed her
fearful eyes in this lower world that he
might open them i'll heaven. And SO
she went TO dwell with angels, leaving
her helpless baby with only her two lit
tie girls-babcs almost themselves-to
care for him. 1t was not her wish TO
90 Sad as her life was, she would have
clung to it if it had been Il thousand
times sadder, for tie sake OF her little
ones But God knew what was best for
her and those she loved, and 50 took her
to himself.


"Where was the baby's father l here
asked '.Did he not love and care for
it, and for his two little girls also p


said that a shadow rested on the
poor mothers heart "a shadow that
grew darker every day. Such shadows
rest on many hearts. The miller had
once been the kindest of husbands and
the tenderest of fathers What had
changed him? Drink You know too
well what that means.


Once he took glass OF beer only now
and then not that it made him feel any
better, but really worse, for it produced
a heaviness of head and limbs that was
very unpleasant while it lasted Some
times headache was the consequence.
/ But others drank beer, and he joined in
/ the useless and unsafe custom.


After a while this unwholesome stuff
so changed the healthy, natural state Of
his stomach, that IL began 10 crave the
bitter and stimulating draught. Ihen
he drank oftener, which, Of course,
OnIy made it worse-incrcaslng the uh-
healthy condition, and likewise the crav-
inc thirst that could never be satisfied
no, moi even with beer and so, ut times,
whisky, gin, and brandy were taken.
these lead TO ruin by ! quicker way
than ale or beer because they are more
iierv and burn with fierccr flame.


You can understand now why q
shadow had rested on the mother of these
children, and why it had grown darker
every day.


The baby was year old. Hester, or
Het,y as she was called, had just passed
her tenth birthday, and -iary was seven.
So young, and motherless


At first thought it seems as il it would
have been better for them TO be father
less also. But God knows what is best
ALWAYS. His tender care was orel
- these little ones, and over their father
TOO.


: Now, that baby was one OF the ioveil
est things alive-so SWEEP and pure; st
gentle, and yet so full of intantlIe Joy
and so winning in all his ways that non'
could help loving him.


This neighbor and that offered to TAX
him when his mother died, but Iletty


who had seemed to grow into woman


all at once, said, "No, no, L can't par


from baby"


Then a lady, who had no children
~ took the halt-drunken, wretchcd tathe
- aside and talked to him till he consente'


to let her have the baby and bring hiI
II, up as her own. She wanted TO carr
"a "a him right off, but the miller said, NC
y" uot till tomorrow"


n, s.Better let me take him now,' urge
= the lady.


For Hetty's sake the miller repeate
i his no" He knew how great was he
love for the baby, and there was enouS


of tenderness left in his heart TO keep hiI


from adding this to her grief on the da
ted of her mothers burial.


Now 1t happened that Hetty, unknow
F.. to her father and the woman, had hear
what had passed between them. At fir
@ she was almost beside herself with pail
md 1t was as much as her heart could he;
liss TO lose her mother, and she felt to tai
IS baby also, would, as she said atierwar


'just kill her."


= 6 The funeral over, all the nelghb1
IS went home, except two more tend


hearted and plying than the rest.