sphered thy soul, was felt within that home. One face turned lovingly thy way, one heart expanded wide to let thee in, one little hand was placed confidingly in thine, one guileless head pillowed itself upon thy breast, and sought a mother's lost caresses there. Childhood's pure instinct, that has quicker knowledge of the good and true than older and more dull perceptions, found out maternal throbs in the "step-mother's" heart and proclaimed them with responsive tenderness. The youngest darling of the house, she who had been lifted up to sit upon a mother's death-bed, who had received upon her sinless brow the glorifying halo of a mother's dying smile; (oh! precious and mysterious benison that has illumined and enriched her life with manifold blessings from that hour to this!) 'Twas she, that little child, who knew and loved thee first! Quickly another and another face turned towards thee; another and another heart unclosed to let thee in; another and another hand grasped thine with warm and trusting clasp, and formed a sacred compact never to be broken.
What was the talisman that drew those alien hearts until they moved around thine own, harmonious as the stars about their sun? When sickness stretched some frail one, of that group, upon the couch of pain, thine was the cooling hand upon the throbbing brow; thine the voice that fell in soothing cadence on the ear; thine the patient ministering that brought relief and peace. When sorrow
