Year: 1873

dear papa. But I never did hear of
any ghost that had money. 1 wonder
what Aunt Mary will say when she
comes tomorrow p


The stranger went back to the Four
Swans. Next morning he went to the
cathedral, and stole into shady cor
ner to take part in the service. The
sharp little widow came in, looking
sweeter and happier than would have
seemed possible the night before. Be-
side Margery and Tom, she had lady
with her-an elderly, fragile-looking
lady, with one of those pale, fair faces,
that look as if perfect repose was their
only remaining atmosphere of life, and
any jarring element, even of joy, would
shake and rend the tender spirit from
its feeble dwelling. A face bright with
spiritual Joy, and pleasant fancics and
sentiments. God often sends pleasant
fances to those pure but weakly souls
that could never rise to create and
grasp pleasant facts. What are such
fancies but the daints aroma of the
royal feast awaiting them at their
Fathers mansion?


Lowly kneeled the stranger through
the cid familiar prayers. He sat lean
ing forward with his face in his hands,
while the white-stoled choir chanted
the glorious anthem: "Glory be to
God in the Highest, and on earth peace,
good will toward men,"


Then he came out, silently, among
the crowd of worshipers. People were
exchanging good wishes with each
other-actually Peter, the old waiter,
saluted even him with "a merry
Christmas.


A merry Christmas


The stranger stayed and wandered
among the graves. There was n world
of silent memory scething in his heart.
Beside that vision of the little boy, lis
tening awe-struck to the choir, there
were others of young man, vain, ex-
trayagant, selfish, counting as of naught,
or of little value, all the love and pride
and household joy which looked 80
very fair from this point of view, this
lonely wandering among the dead
More pictures still. OF n young man.
and cruel in his sins, full of
that bravado which dares God and good
men out of fear of tho devil and his
of the ghastly horrors of
convict ship; of Stunned man on q
wild, lawless shore-the prodigal feed
ing on the swinc's husks. Then of
little rough, miscellaneous group, lis
tening to simple mission sermon.
which even "black fellows" could I'M
derstand, and which, perhaps, was the
more likely to touch the white men, be-
cause it was so like what they had
heard at their mothers knee, or in their
Sabbath-school of hard heart brok
en-, of a sinner seeking salvation, as
men dying of thirst seek for water
springs. And then the sweet household
Instincts, dried and dead under the for
yetfulness of God, stirring again in the
of Him, and the return to
His ways. o God such longings for a
word in the old familiar
voices- dreams of atonement and
reconciliation


AL these memories between that lit
lie boy and this strange, silent man,
whom nobody knew.


Was there any long-tried servant of
God in Norham that afternoon, poor,
humble, stricken, and tempted to think
that God in his mercy forgets his JUS
lice, and tears the moral from the page
which He purihes with His pardoning
blood? Or was there any needless
young sinner, hattering himself that he
will repent in time, and that then all
will be as if he had never sinned :?
Could either have read the secrets of
that silent wanderer, each would have
got lesson never to be forgotten.


GLOW can I bear it ?" he said within
himself. 81 wanted to hear the divine
love and forgiveness in dear human
voice; but | must not tear open old
that are healed as much as
such wounds can ever heal. 1t is just.
They cannot forget My life lies
among theirs like waste field, whence
noxious weeds creep into other peoples |
gardens. Will God himself forget?
How can I bear even His pardon, if His
eye is fixed ever on the sins that hang
,bout my neck? And yet, o God,
hough Thou slayest me, yet will
rust in Thee"


And so he made his way through the
ong grass to a square, old-fashioned
all the names on it very
I'D, except one, which, with its remar-
liable epitaph, had only been written
he very last year.


To the Memory OF


BARBARA HERON,