strength in good
resolutions, if there is any power of good left within me, if God will
not utterly forsake one who has so long forsaken her better nature,
never, never, from this time, henceforth and forever, to touch, taste,
or look upon the accursed thing.'

That night, at the foot of the tall poplar, the flickering sunlight
falling through the leaves on his head, making the brown hair golden
where it fell, Harry sat watching the coming of his brother. He had not
long to wait; in a little while the red, slanting rays fell on that
other head of darker brown. The well-known form appeared at the gateway,
and Harry went bounding down the gravel walk to meet him.

'Ma wants to see you,' panted the little brother. 'She wanted you to
come up to her room as soon as ever you got home. She sent me to tell
you so.'

The message was such an unusual one, he was so flushed and excited, so
_proud_ to give it, and the look of joy shining in the pale face was
such a stranger to it, that the great brown eyes of the elder brother
opened wide in silent wonder, and the excited Harry had caught him by
both hands, and was dragging him by main force toward the house before
he had recovered from his astonishment sufficiently to speak.

'I don't want to go,' cried the unwilling Charley, ruefully drawing
back. 'I don't _want_ to go, Harry. _Why_ does she want to see me? What
_makes_ her want to see me? I a'n't done nothing to be whipped for!'

'Oh! it isn't _that_,' returned the little fellow eagerly. 'We a'n't
going to be whipped any more, unless we're real naughty, and then not
very hard; and ma is going to send Betty away, and we a'n't going to be
scolded any more; and she's going to take us to walk and ride with her
sometimes, as the other mothers do. Why,' cried the eager child, all
glowing at the delightful prospect, 'Why, Charley, we're going to be
happy now.'

'Oh, I don't believe we are,' sadly sighed the more experienced Charley,
scratching his curls disconsolately, and looking at his brother in a
maze of perplexity and doubt. 'I've thought we were going to be happy a
great many times, but we a'n't been never, and I don't believe we ever
will be. The first thing I remember was being lonesome, and I've been as
lonesome as could be ever since. No, no; we shall never be happy. Ta'n't
no use thinking about being happy,' and the forlorn child threw himself
upon the grass in a hopeless and dejected manner. 'But they _do_ say,
Harry,