ing aloud to his wife from a book
which the latter had received from Mrs. Willet. The rest of the
family had retired. Mrs. Markland was plying her needle busily.
Altered circumstances had made hourly industry on her part a
necessity; yet had they in no way dimmed the cheerful brightness of
her spirits.

"Come, Agnes," said her husband, closing the book, "it is growing
late; and you have worked long enough. I'm afraid your health will
suffer."

"Just a few minutes longer," replied Mrs. Markland, smiling. "I must
finish this apron for Frank. He will want it in the morning." And
her hand moved quicker.

"How true is every word you have been reading!" she added, after a
few moments. "Manifold indeed are the ways in which a wise
Providence dispenses good to the children of men. Mercy is seen in
the cloud as well as in the sunshine. Tears to the spirit are like
rain to the earth."

"The descent looked frightful," said Markland, after a pause--"but
we reached the lower ground uninjured. Invisible hands seemed to
bear us up."

"We have found the land far pleasanter than was imagined; and the
sky above of a purer crystal."

"Yes--yes. It is even so. And if the flowers that spring up at our
feet are not so brilliant, they have a sweeter perfume and a diviner
beauty."

"In this land," said Mrs. Markland, "we see in the visible things
that surround us what was rarely seen before--types of the invisible
things they represent."

"Ah, yes, yes! Scales have fallen from my eyes. I have learned a new
philosophy. In former times, Mr. Allison's words seemed full of
beautiful truths, yet so veiled, that I could not see their genuine
brightness. Now they are like sudden gleams of sunlight on a
darkened landscape."

"Seekers after happiness, like the rest of the world," said Mrs.
Markland, resting her hands upon the table by which she sat, and,
gazing earnestly into her husband's face, "we had lost our way, and
were moving with swift feet in the wrong direction. Suddenly, our
kind Father threw up before us an impassable mountain. Then we
seemed shut out from the land of promise forever, and were in
despair. But he took his weeping, murmuring children by the hand,
and led them gently into another path!"

"Into a narrower way"--Mr. Markland took up the words of his
wife--"and sought by few; yet, it has already brought us into a
pleasant region."

"To speak in less ideal language," said Mrs. Markland, "we have been
taught an a