more than attained the prime of
middle-age when the original of the precious little miniature first
enchained his affections,) never revived for any other, but spent itself
in a doting fondness for this fair image of the lost one. Indeed it seemed
that every throb came with a double import from his burdened heart; the
parent's fondness ever mingling a tribute to the memory of her whose life
had been the price of the costly gift.

It is not always that the devotion of a parent is so entirely appreciated
as in this case; all Mr. Lee's efforts to promote his daughter's happiness
were crowned with entire success, and until the period mentioned above, no
one had ever detected on her lovely brow the semblance of a cloud. But the
course of nature cannot be altered; the petted child will one day grow
into the wilful woman; and however it may have been only a pleasant task
to follow the windings of the childish fancy ingenious in its caprice; and
only amusing to submit to the childish tyranny which pursues its own
beau-ideal of sport with reckless pertinacity; there sometimes comes a
change when the spoiled darling takes her first step upon the threshold of
maturity; when, with all the fresh vigor of youth in her untutored will,
she begins to assert her privilege, to cater for her own happiness, and
fashion her future according to the visions of her own fancy. Then comes
in the world with its many and diversified claims; claims so vigorously
enforced, but from which it is the first impulse of the young heart to
turn with loathing: it cannot bear to believe its happy independence of
all such considerations at an end; it does not submit easily to these new
trammels. Ah! how differently has passed the previous life! Something holy
gathers round a child; it seems to move superior to the base claims of the
world and its paltry rewards; and although often, it must be confessed,
the young intellect is early impressed with the idea that its best efforts
should be devoted to the insuring of worldly approbation, still the little
one's course of life is so distinct from the busy race to which we would
train it, that we cannot if we would entirely chain down its thoughts;
nay, we shrink before the pure innocence which cannot even understand our
weakness; and often yield a tribute to its superior dignity by concealing
our own care for such distinctions.

To those too who have seen much of life, and learnt to feel its
hollowness, real childis