blind Sorrel
die; I tremble so I do' no what I'm saying." It was poor Mopsey's
agitation which had shaken out the light.

"Never shall we know a more faithful servant, a truer friend, than poor
blind Sorrel," they all agreed; and bound still closer together by so
simple a bond as common sympathy in the death of the poor old blind
family horse, they returned within the homestead.

They were scarcely seated again when William Peabody, turning to Mrs.
Carrack, said, "Certainly!" referring to the transfer of the money of
hers in his hands on loan, to Elbridge, "he will need some ready money
to begin the world with."

All was cheerful friendship now; the family, reconciled in all its
members, sitting about their aged father's hearth on this glorious
Thanksgiving night; the gayer mood subsiding, a sudden stillness fell
upon the whole house, such as precedes some new turn in the discourse.

Old Sylvester Peabody sat in the centre of the family, moving his body
to and fro gently, and lifting his white head up and down upon his
breast; his whole look and manner strongly arresting the attention of
all; of the children not the least. After a while the old man paused,
and looking mildly about, addressed the household.

"This is a happy day, my children," he said, "but the seeds of it were
sown, you must allow an old man to say, long, long ago. If one good
Being had not died in a far country and a very distant time, we could
not have this comfort now."

The children watched the old grandfather more closely.

"I am an old man, and shall be with you, I feel, but for a little while
yet; as one who stands at the gate of the world to come, looking
through, and through which he is soon to pass, will you not allow me to
believe that I thought of the hopes of your immortal spirits in your
youth?"

As being the eldest, and answering for the rest, William Peabody
replied, "We will."

"Did I not teach you then, or strive my best to teach, that there was
but one Holy God?"

"You did, father--you did!" the widow Margaret answered.

"That his only Son died for us?"

"Often--often!" said Mrs. Carrack.

"That we must love one another as brethren?"

"At morning and night, in winter and summer; by the hearth and in the
field, you did," Oliver rejoined.

"That there is but one path to happiness and peace here and hereafter,"
he continued, "through the performance of our duty towards our Maker,
and our fellow men of every name, and