own hand as she asked the question,--

"Has that cloud a silver lining?"

Bolton glanced up at a very black, lowering cloud, which seemed to
blot the sun quite out of that part of the sky.

"Why do you ask me, Kate?" said the sailor.

"Because mother often says that every cloud has a silver lining, and
that one looks as if it had none."

Tom Bolton gave a short laugh.

"None that we can see," he replied; "for the cloud is right atween us
and the sun. If we could look at the upper part, where the bright
beams fall, we should see yon black cloud like a great mass of silvery
mother-o'-pearl, just like those that you yesterday called shining
mountains of snow."

Katie turned round, and raising her eyes, watched for some minutes
the gloomy cloud. It was slowly moving towards the west, and as it did
so, the sun behind it began to edge all its dark outline with
brightness.

"See, see!" exclaimed Katie; "it is turning out the edge of its silver
lining. If I were up there in the sky, I suppose that all would look
beautiful then. But I don't know why mother should take comfort from
talking of the clouds and their linings."

The mother, Mrs. Vale, who was standing near, leaning against the
bulwarks, heard the last words of her child, and made reply,--

"Because we have many clouds of sorrow here to darken our lives, and
our hearts would often fail us but for the thought, 'There is a bright
side to every trial sent to the humble believer.'"

And Mrs. Vale repeated the beautiful lines,--

"Yon clouds, a mass of sable shade
To mortals gazing from below,
By angels from above surveyed,
With universal brightness glow."

Katie did not quite understand the verse, but she knew how patiently
and meekly her mother had borne sudden poverty, the sale of her goods,
and the bitter parting from her beloved husband. Bolton also had been
struck by the pious courage of one who had had a large share of
earthly trials.

"_Your_ clouds at least seem to be edged with silver," he observed,
with a smile; and as he spoke, the glorious beams of the sun burst
from behind the black mass of cloud, making widening streams of light
up the sky, which, as Katie remarked, looked like paths up to heaven.

The vessel arrived at New York, after rather a rough voyage, and Mrs.
Vale, to her great delight, found her husband ready at the port to
receive her. He brought her good tidings also. A fortnight before her
landing he had pr