sooner than she'd give you a kind word. I'll try and not take so much notice of her words. I wanted to tell you that I've read more of Ben's little Bible since I told you all my troubles than I have done since the lad left us."

"I am very glad," said Margaret, heartily; "I am sure that we do not love God much, if we do not try to know His will."

"But I can't believe, Miss Margaret, that the words I read (which sound very beautiful, and remind me so much of Ben) can be for me. I think of all I've done amiss, especially tempting young Ben, and then I feel outside everything that is good."

"Do you remember," said Margaret, looking kindly at Mrs. Hayden's tired, anxious face, "how your husband told me the last time that I saw him, that if all his dear ones were 'out of captivity,' he would have 'very little left to pray for, and everything to praise God for?""

"I don't remember him saying that to you, but I've heard him say it scores of times."

"I thought of you last evening," said Margaret, "when I read the words, 'And I will be found of you, saith the Lord: and I will turn away your captivity"" (Jeremiah xxix. 14).

Without speaking Mrs. Hayden ran up-stairs, and before Margaret had time to do more than wonder why she had left her so abruptly, Mrs. Hayden returned with her own little Bible, and asked Margaret to turn down the page for her, that she might read those words for herself, "For," added the woman, earnestly, "I do want to believe."

At this moment Ruth rushed in, looking flushed and excited, and cried

"Mother, it's Uncle George! He's coming up the garden walk with Frank Jenkinson !"

Mrs. Hayden jumped up from her chair, and in a moment Frank came in, saying, cheerfully

"You won't mind a friend of mine coming in to have his tea with me to-night? Good evening, ma'am!" he continued to Margaret, whom he had not seen at first.

Margaret scarcely noticed what he said, for she was anxiously watching Mrs. Hayden and George Ellis.

With a loud cry Mrs. Hayden threw herself at the feet of the astonished man, and when he would have raised her, she cried

"George! George! I did it! It wasn't young Ben's fault, I put it into his head; and as to my good, honest husband, he wouldn't have touched a penny of anybody's to save his life!"

There was a flush of shame on Ellis' brow as he lifted his sister from the ground, and Margaret touched Frank on the arm, and pointed towards the door, which they just reached in time to prevent the entrance of Mrs. Jenkinson, who had followed her son and his friend as fast as she could, bent on hospitality.

They got her away from the door with difficulty, for she said she "might surely go into her own bit of a place when she'd a mind." They explained to her that George Ellis was Mrs. Hayden's brother, and that the meeting was so unexpected that it would be better to leave them to themselves a little while.

CHAPTER XIX.

Safe to be Trusted.

66 Light us in life, that we may see Thy will,
The track Thine hand hath ordered for our way;
Light us, when shadows gather o'er our day:

Shine on us in that passage lone and chill,

And then our darkness with Thy glory fill."-Dean Alford.

ARGARET stayed for nearly half an hour talking to Mrs. Jenkinson and Frank; for she saw that if she went away Frank would not be able to keep his mother "out of her bit of a place."

Did you know that she had a brother?" asked Mrs. Jenkinson.

"Yes; but I did not know his surname.

Mrs. Hayden did not know where he was, so that the meeting is a great surprise for them both," said Margaret.

"There's something queer about it all

me; if things are on the square, Miss Margaret, you've no call