beasts had gone to rest, and the stillness of the moors was awful. It
was night, and dark. Suddenly she heard a child's feeble voice, and in
an instant she pressed on towards the spot from which the sound came;
soon she heard Fly's loud howl for aid. At last she reached the spot,
and found a little boy half asleep, a kind of drowsiness which
precedes death. He could not speak; he could only moan. She moistened
his lips with the gin, and poured a little down his throat. She then
raised him up and carried him a short distance down the hill; then she
stopped to rest awhile; and then she got as far as the woods, where
the winds were not so cold. Again she gave him a few drops from her
vial, and now he was able to walk a few steps; then Martha, put up a
fervent prayer to God for assistance, as she dragged the lost boy
to her cottage. She now laid him down to the warm fire, while Fly
snuffed around him in great joy. She took off his wet clothes, and
wrapped him in her woollen cloak. He soon recovered and was able to
tell his story.

[Illustration]

His father had sent him up to the fells for a sheep that was missing.
The dog left him, and night and snow came on, and he got lost on the
fells. The family had lately come to live near Rydal, and the boy did
not know all the landmarks. Martha took the best of care of the boy
till the morning, when his mother came, with a grateful heart towards
God for the means which had guided Martha to her lost boy.

* * * * *

THE BROTHER AND SISTER.
(In three Stories.)

THE PARTING SCENE.

In one of our western cities was a poor woman, in the garret of a
lonely house, who was very sick, and near dying. She had two children,
a brother and sister, who knelt beside her bed to catch her dying
words. "Annie, my daughter," said the mother, "soon, and your young
brother will have no earthly friend but you; will you, my daughter, be
to him a faithful sister?"

"Yes, mother, _I will_," said the daughter, as she wiped away her
tears.

And then she laid her hand upon the head of her son, and said, "Be a
good boy, Willy, and mind your sister; she is but three years older
than yourself, but as far as her knowledge goes, she will be a guide
for you; and she and you have a Father in Heaven who will never leave
you. Will you promise to do as she wishes?"

Willy raised his eyes to his mother, and bowed his head in token of
assent, and then burst into tears.