hat I
am much obliged, but--"

"Now, Mr. Cowles," exclaimed Tom, seizing his hand, "you must come. I
shall feel dreadfully hurt if you refuse,--and they all want you to so
much. And, you know that if it was not for your kindness--"

"There, there, boy," interrupted the storekeeper, his black eyes
flashing through tears, "don't talk in that way. All is, if it will
please you, I'll come. But how do you go to the river, Monday?"

"O, the missionary is to get a team."

"Well, just say to him that my horses are at his service."

We will not dwell upon the dinner in the log-cabin parsonage, during
which "irrepressible" Bub--his clerical tastes sharpened by Tom's
example--took clandestine possession of the attic study, and,
constituting himself preacher, audience, and choir, undertook to
conduct divine service. Having given out the first hymn, he drowned
the missionary's words, as the latter said grace, by stoutly
singing,--

"I want to be an angel,
An angel with a stand."

Neither may we linger amid the tender, solemn scenes of the Sabbath
following, the last Tom was to spend in the rude frontier sanctuary.

It was evening of a beautiful day in May, when the money-lender's
capacious carriage, drawn by his trusty grays, deposited its
passengers at the landing, to await the steamer. What a lifetime of
thought and emotion seemed crowded into that interval of waiting, as
Mrs. Jones stood with Tom clasped closely, whispering words of mingled
foreboding, hope, and caution!

"To be a _good_ minister of Jesus Christ, how glorious, how sublime!"
said she. "There is nothing I so much desire for you. But you are
going into scenes very different from those in which you have been
reared--scenes which will have their peculiar and insidious perils. I
foresee that you will rise to distinction in your studies. But do not
seek high things for yourself. Be not anxious to become what is called
a great preacher, nor aspire to a 'brilliant settlement.' Sacrifice
not conscience for place and power and the applause of sect. Keep
humble. Keep Christ ever before you; and may he watch between me and
thee while we are separated from each other;" and she kissed him a
fond farewell. Tom stepped aboard the steamer, which rapidly bore him
away, carrying in his heart the images of the godly missionary,
fair-haired Alice, and his mother--the little group that stood on the
shore gazing so lovingly after