not
transitory ones, they had taken deep root; while the Divine precepts and
heavenly counsels, which she had heard daily from her most loving and
tender nurses, sank deep into a heart out of which had been weeded, to
make room for them, the rank and bitter weeds of pride and passion.

Mabel Ellis was indeed an altered character, when able once more to sit
up in the arm-chair; though so weak that she could scarcely speak above
her breath, her looks of love and thankfulness, and the soft eyes often
filled with glad tears, spoke most expressively to the hearts of her
aunt and cousin, for they felt that their labour of love had not been in
vain; and though all Aunt Mary's usual routine had been put aside, and
for a time a new phase of life had been set before her, in this trial
she could feel thankful.

'The seeds of affliction and pain,
When the soil has been moistened with rain
That flow'd from a penitent heart,
Into beauty, and fragrance will start.

'Oh flowers of celestial birth!
Though springing from clods of the earth,
How rich are the odours ye shed
O'er the couch where the languishing head

'Is pillow'd in gentle repose,
Forgetting awhile its past woes;
Then waking, the incense of praise,
With your odorous breathings, to raise.'

None but those who are recovering from a serious illness can conceive
the feelings of gratitude and love which take possession of the heart
when it is rightly disposed, what time the rod of affliction is removed.
Mabel seemed to feel herself a new creature, and as she threw her arms
round her cousin's neck, she gave expression to feelings of thankfulness
and love for the kind attention she had received from her and from her
aunt. She did not fail to lament bitterly the pride and sinful temper,
which now appeared to her to have been the principal cause of all her
trouble.

It was while she was thus bitterly lamenting the past, and weeping on
Clara's shoulder, that Aunt Mary came rather suddenly into the room and
surprised them.

'Come, my children,' said the kind lady, 'this will never do! Nurse and
convalescent both in tears,' she added, for Clara was also weeping; 'I
am afraid, dear Mabel, I shall have to dismiss your young attendant, and
engage one with more judgment and with less sympathy.'

'Oh no, no, dear aunt,' was the ready response. '_I_ will behave better,
I assure you,' said Clara. 'Poor Mabel is weak, and a little thing makes
her cry. She