in useless longings. I have got five pupils in
Dringenstadt already, and several more applications, and next week I
begin my life-work as a teacher of the violin.--Don't you envy me,
Hans?"

"That is what I do, Fraeulein Frida," said Hans. Somehow as he looked at
the fair young lady the old familiar name of Frida seemed too familiar
to use. Frida turned quickly round on him as he uttered the word
"Fraeulein."

"Why, Hans--for I will not call thee Herr--to whom did you speak? There
is no Fraeulein here--just your old sister playmate Frida; never let me
hear you address me again by such a title. Art thou not my brother Hans,
the son of my dear friends Elsie and Wilhelm?" and a merry laugh
scattered Hans's new-born shyness.

And to the end of their lives Frida and Hans remained as brother and
sister, each rejoicing in the success of the other in life; and in after
years they had many a laugh over the day that Hans began to think that
he must call his sister friend, the companion of his childhood, his
instructor in much that was good, by the stiff title of Fraeulein Frida.

Ere Frida left the hut that day, they all knelt together and thanked God
for past mercies, and it was Elsie's voice that in faltering accents
prayed that Frida might still be used in the Forest to lead many to the
knowledge of Christ Jesus through the reading of the Word of God.

CHAPTER XII.

IN THE GREAT METROPOLIS.

"There are lonely hearts to cherish
While the days are going by,
There are weary souls who perish
While the days are going by.
If a smile we can renew,
As our journey we pursue,
Oh, the good we all may do
While the days are passing by!"

The London season was at its height, but though the pure sunshine was
glistening on mountain-top and green meadow, and beginning to tinge the
corn-fields with a golden tint in country places, where peace and
quietness seemed to reign, and leafy greenery called on every one who
loved nature to come and enjoy it in its summer flush of beauty, yet the
great city was still filled not only by those who could not leave its
crowded streets, but by hundreds who lingered there in the mere pursuit
of pleasure, for whom the beauties of nature had no charm.

On one peculiarly fine day a group of people were gathered together in
the drawing-room of a splendid mansion in one of the West End crescents.

There was evidently going to be a ridin