uy
that little basket of fruit at the window, what was her astonishment
when the gardener looked civil and sorry, answering that he would not
sell those strawberries if she offered him a guinea a-piece.

"No!" exclaimed Mrs. Crabtree, getting into a rage; "then what do you
put them up at the window for? There is no use pretending to keep a
shop, if you will not sell what is in it! Give me these strawberries
this minute, and here's your five shillings!"

"It's quite impossible," replied the gardener, holding back the basket.
"You see, ma'am, every day last week a little Master and Miss came to
this here shop, buying my strawberries for a young gentleman who is very
ill; and they look both so sweet and so mournful-like, that I would not
disappoint them for all the world. They seem later to-day than usual,
and are, may be, not coming at all; but if I lose my day's profits, it
can't be helped. They shall not walk here for nothing, if they please to
come!"

When Mrs. Crabtree explained that she belonged to the same family as
Harry and Laura, the gardener looked hard at her to see if she were
attempting to deceive him; but feeling convinced that she spoke the
truth, he begged her to carry off the basket to his young friends,
positively refusing to take the price.

CHAPTER XVII.

THE LAST BIRTH-DAY.

Mere human power shall fast decay,
And youthful vigour cease;
But they who wait upon the Lord,
In strength shall still increase.

Frank felt no unnatural apathy or indifference about dying, for he
looked upon it with awe, though not with fear; nor did he express any
rapturous excitement on the solemn occasion, knowing that death is an
appointed penalty for transgression, which, though deprived of its
sharpest sting by the triumphs of the cross, yet awfully testifies to
all succeeding generations, that each living man has individually
merited the utmost wrath of God, and that the last moment on earth, of
even the most devoted Christian, must be darkened by the gloom of our
original sin and natural corruption. Yet, "as in Adam all die, so in
Christ are all made alive;" and amidst the throng of consolatory and
affecting meditations that crowded into his mind on the great subject of
our salvation, he kept a little book in which were carefully recorded
such texts and reflections as he considered likely to strengthen his own
faith, and to comfort those he left behind--saying one day to Major
Graham,

"Tell g