tect
our boy! If in danger, help and save him. And, O Father, give me
strength to bear whatever may come."

The mother closed her eyes and laid her head back upon her husband's
bosom. The rigidity and distress went out of her face. In this hour of
darkness and distress, God, to whom she looked and prayed for strength,
came very close to her, and in his nearer presence there is always
comfort.

But as the day declined and the shadows off another dreary winter night
began to draw their solemn curtains across the sky the mother's heart
failed again, and a wild storm of fear and anguish swept over it.
Neither policemen nor friends had been able to discover a trace of the
missing young man, and advertisements were given out for the papers
next morning offering a large reward for his restoration to his friends
if living or for the recovery of his body if dead.

The true cause of Archie's disappearance began to be feared by many of
his friends. It did not seem possible that he could have dropped so
completely out of sight unless on the theory that he had lost his way
in the storm and fallen into the river. This suggestion as soon as it
came to Mrs. Voss settled into a conviction. Her imagination brooded
over the idea and brought the reality before her mind with such a cruel
vividness that she almost saw the tragedy enacted, and heard again that
cry of "Mother!" which had seemed to mingle with the wild shrieks of
the tempest, but which came only to her inner sense.

She dreamed that night a dream which, though it confirmed all this,
tranquilized and comforted her. In a vision her boy stood by her
bedside and smiled upon her with his old loving smile. He bent over and
kissed her with his wonted tenderness; he laid his hand on her forehead
with a soft pressure, and she felt the touch thrilling to her heart in
sweet and tender impulses.

"It is all well with me," he said; "I shall wait for you, mother."

And then he bent over and kissed her again, the pressure of his lips
bringing an unspeakable joy to her heart. With this joy filling and
pervading it, she awoke. From that hour Mrs. Voss never doubted for a
single moment that her son was dead, nor that he had come to her in a
vision of the night. As a Christian woman with whom faith was no mere
ideal thing or vague uncertainty, she accepted her great affliction as
within the sphere and permission of a good and wise Providence, and
submitted herself to the sad dispensation w