rain
of the imaginative child? Or was it a providential suggestion sent by
an all-pitying Father to this desolate and wandering lamb?

Thus time slipped by uneventfully, as far as external circumstances
were concerned, but not purposelessly. The hard lot of the poor
suffering old woman was being lighted, and her spirit trained for that
eternity which was now growing large upon her vision, as earthly
affairs shrank into a smaller compass. Elsie, too, who had never yet
crossed the hill that seemed to meet the sky at the top of the glen,
was learning lessons of perseverance and patient endurance, which would
not be lost upon her, whatever the future of the child might be. Jim
was seldom at home, and, alas! but little of the old childish
attachment survived. The boy was ambitious, business-like, and
plodding. His heart was in the town, and he seemed to retain no
affection for the associations of his childhood: some of them were
absolutely abhorrent to him. George Hendrick was profoundly
disappointed in the lad. Not that a word could be said against his
character. He was steady, diligent, and submissive. And when he was
placed in a position where he could earn something, he never failed to
send what he could to the old woman who had sacrificed so much to bring
him on. But there seemed a total absence of feeling or religious
sentiment about the lad. If he was sober and steady, it was merely
because he scorned the weakness and waste consequent upon dissipation.
He was pushing and ambitious, well spoken of and respected, but his old
teacher failed not to see that all his thoughts were "of the earth,
earthy."

When she was nearly fifteen (as far as her ago was known) a new world
was opened up for Elsie. The rector's family were now growing up, and
he was blest enough to find in his children, not a hindrance, but the
greatest comfort and assistance in his arduous and often cheerless
work. Miss Smith and her sister Louisa had recently taken the musical
arrangements of the church in hand, and not before it was needed, were
now busying themselves to select and train a rustic choir. The fame of
Elsie's vocal abilities had been brought to Rossleigh Rectory by
Hendrick, and so one day Mrs. McAravey was surprised by a visit from
two bright, fresh young girls. In her reception of them you could not
recognise the hard, rude woman who had so sorely repulsed their father
on his first visit to the glen.

"Mr. Hendrick has