light
The vexed eddies of its wayward brother,
A leaning and upbearing parasite,
Clothing the stem, which else had fallen quite.
Shadow forth thee; the world hath not another
Of such refined and chastened purity.

--TENNYSON

Patience and prayer brought their fruit in due season.

'Violet, you will not be able to go to church on Christmas-day.'

'No, I am not strong enough, even if you could spare me.'

'Do you think Mr. Rivers could come to us?'

'O, thank you!'

Those were the words, but the flush that gave colour to Arthur's face
showed the effort which they cost, and his wife's brief answer was cut
short by the sweetest tears she had ever shed.

She wrote a note to the clergyman, which was answered by a call the same
afternoon. It took Arthur by surprise; but his mind was made up, and
colouring deeply, he desired that Mr. Rivers should be shown up. Violet
left them alone together, her heart throbbing with grateful hope and
supplication.

Arthur's honest though faltering avowal, 'I have never thought enough of
these things,' was his whole history.

It had been grace missed and neglected, rather than wilfully abused.
There had of course been opportunities, but there had been little
culture or guidance in his early days; his confirmation had taken place
as a matter of form, and he had never been a communicant, withheld at
once by ignorance and dread of strictness, as well as by a species of
awe. Even his better and more conscientious feelings had been aroused
merely by his affections instead of by the higher sense of duty; and now
it was through these that the true voice had at length reached him.

He had learnt more from his little boy's devotions than all the years of
his life had taught him. The ever-present influence under which his wife
and that child lived and acted, impressed itself on him as a truth and
reality, and the consciousness of his full responsibility dawned upon
him. In the early part of his illness, his despair had been at the
thought of his failures as husband, father, and son. Now there came
on him the perception that not merely in his human relations had
he transgressed, but that far more had he slighted the Almighty and
Long-suffering Father. He looked back on his life of disregard, his dire
offences--

Thus awakened, he watched each word from his little unconscious teacher,
to gather from them clearer hopes of mercy and pardon. Happily, Johnnie,
i