othing that should unsettle that
belief. But he found it more difficult than he had supposed it would be
to preserve this resolution, for he was subjected to the action of a
more potent influence than any he had yet encountered--kindness. All
were ready to show him this in its common forms, but none so touchingly
or so tenderly as the little Emily Durbin. It was a beautiful sight to
see that gentle child, with eyes blue as the heavens, whose pure and
lovely spirit they seemed to mirror, gazing up at the dark boy as though
she hoped to catch some ray of the awakening spirit flitting over the
handsome but stolid features. Sometimes she would sit beside him, take
his hand in hers, or stroke gently the dark locks that began again to
hang in neglected curls around his face, and speak to him in the
tenderest accents, saying, "I love you very much, pretty boy, and my
father loves you too, and we all love you--don't you love us?--but you
can't tell me--I forgot that--never mind, I'll ask our Heavenly Father
to make you talk. Don't you know Jesus made the dumb to speak when he
was here on earth? Did you ever hear about it? Poor boy! you can't
answer me--but I'll tell you all about it:" and then in her sweet words
and pitying voice she would tell of the Saviour of men--how he had made
the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak, and she would repeat his lessons
of love, dwelling often on her favorite text, "This is my commandment,
that ye love one another--even as I have loved you, that ye also love
one another."

Thus by this babe, God was in his love leading the chilled heart of that
poor, desolate boy, back to himself--to hope--to heaven. It was
impossible that the dew of mercy should thus, day by day and hour by
hour, distil upon a spirit indurated by man's cruelties, without
softening it. Edward Hallett began to love that sweet child, to listen
to her step and voice, to gaze upon her fair face, to return her loving
looks, and to long to tell her all his story. Emily became aware of the
new expression in his face, and redoubled her manifestations of
interest. She entreated that he should be brought in when her father
read the Bible and prayed with her, night and morning. "Who knows, it
may be that our Heavenly Father will make him hear us," was her simple
and pathetic response to Captain Durbin's assurance that it was useless,
as he either could not or would not understand them. Never had Edward
Hallett's resolution been more seve