lastic than is the little
child's soul in the hands of those who tend it. Alas! how many shapeless,
how many ill-formed, how many broken do we see! Who does not believe that
the image of God could have been beautiful on all? Sooner or later it will
be, thank Christ! But what a pity, what a loss, not to have had the sweet
blessedness of being even here fellow-workers with him in this glorious
modelling for eternity!

The King's Friend.

We are a gay party, summering among the hills. New-comers into the little
boarding-house where we, by reason of prior possession, hold a kind of
sway are apt to fare hardly at our hands unless they come up to our
standard. We are not exacting in the matter of clothes; we are liberal on
creeds; but we have our shibboleths. And, though we do not drown unlucky
Ephraimites, whose tongues make bad work with S's, I fear we are not quite
kind to them; they never stay long, and so we go on having it much our own
way.

Week before last a man appeared at dinner, of whom our good little
landlady said, deprecatingly, that he would stay only a few days. She knew
by instinct that his presence would not be agreeable to us. He was not in
the least an intrusive person,--on the contrary, there was a sort of mute
appeal to our humanity in the very extent of his quiet inoffensiveness;
but his whole atmosphere was utterly uninteresting. He was untrained in
manner, awkwardly ill at ease in the table routine; and, altogether, it
was so uncomfortable to make any attempt to include him in our circle that
in a few days he was ignored by every one, to a degree which was neither
courteous nor Christian.

In all families there is a leader. Ours is a charming and brilliant
married woman, whose ready wit and never-failing spirits make her the best
of centres for a country party of pleasure-seekers. Her keen sense of
humor had not been able entirely to spare this unfortunate man, whose
attitudes and movements were certainly at times almost irresistible.

But one morning such a change was apparent in her manner toward him that
we all looked up in surprise. No more gracious and gentle greeting could
she have given him if he had been a prince of royal line. Our astonishment
almost passed bounds when we heard her continue with a kindly inquiry
after his health, and, undeterred by his evident readiness to launch into
detailed symptoms, listen to him with the most respectful attention. Under
the influence of th