sinking fast; and as he had but a
short time to live, he expressed a desire to see them, though he could
see no others.

They came, and were amazed to see how bright, how beautiful, the dying
boy looked. They received his last farewells--he would die that night.
Sweetly he blessed them, and made them promise to avoid all evil, and
read the Bible, and pray to God. But he had only strength to speak at
intervals. Mr Rose, too, was there; it seemed as though he held the
boy by the hand, as fearlessly now, yea, joyously, he entered the waters
of the dark river.

"Oh, I should _so_ like to stay with you, Monty, Horace, dear, dear
Eric, but God calls me. I am going--a long way--to my father and
mother--and to the light. I shall not be a cripple there--nor be in
pain." His words grew slow and difficult. "God bless you, dear
fellows; God bless you, dear Eric; I am going--to God."

He sighed very gently; there was a slight sound in his throat, and he
was dead. The gentle, holy, pure spirit of Edwin Russell had passed
into the presence of its Saviour and its God. O happy and blameless
boy, no fairer soul has ever stood in the light of the rainbow-circled
throne.

A terrible scene of boyish anguish followed, as they bent over the
lifeless brow. But quietly, calmly, Mr Rose checked them, and they
knelt down with streaming eyes while he prayed.

They rose a little calmer, and as they turned back again and again to
take one last fond look at the pale yet placid face, Mr Rose said in a
solemn tone--

"For ever with the Lord,
Amen so let it be
Life from the dead is in that word,
And Immortality."

VOLUME ONE, CHAPTER FIFTEEN.

HOME AGAIN.

O far beyond the waters
The fickle feet may roam,
But they find no light so pure and bright
As the one fair star of home;
The star of tender hearts, lady,
That glows in an English home.

That night, when Eric returned to his dormitory, full of grief, and
weighed down with the sense of desolation and mystery, the other boys
were silent from sympathy in his sorrow. Duncan and Llewellyn both knew
and loved Russell themselves, and they were awestruck to hear of his
death; they asked some of the particulars, but Eric was not calm enough
to tell them that evening. The one sense of infinite loss agitated him,
and he indulged his paroxysms of emotion unrestrained, yet silently.
Reader, if ever the life has been cut short which you most dearly loved,
if e