I am not blind, am I?'

Then, as she could not for very anguish reply to his eager question, his
noble courage gave way, and, throwing himself upon his pillow, he
uttered a piercing cry of untold despair.

The poor mother knelt beside him with arms closely folding him to her
heart, unable to soothe, save with loving caresses, her child's
unutterable anguish.

'Nay, Davie, my man,' cried the old miner, wiping his eyes with the back
of his rough hand, 'ye did no greet when death a'most stared us in the
face; why do ye sorrow now, my brave lad?'

'Oh, but then I should have been with God! Now'--and his sobs
redoubled--'I shall never see mother's dear face again, nor yours,
Master Morgan; and for me my Evening Primrose will never open its buds
again. And oh, if I am blind, I can never more be mother's little
bread-winner.'

* * * * *

The parable is told!

Little Davie eventually recovered his sight, thanks to the generous
kindness of the manager, who spared no means to procure the best
surgical aid for the poor little lad; and in the years that quickly
followed, he became the stay and comfort of his widowed mother,
retaining ever his filial affection for her, and cherishing fond
recollections of those early days when his only treasures were her love
and his Evening Primrose.

PARABLE FIFTH.

THE LITTLE SEED--KINDNESS.

'Why, what have you got in your beak?' asked a dingy London Sparrow of
another, just as dingy as himself.

'Well, I hardly know,' replied his friend, laying down the article in
question, and surveying it critically with his head on one side; 'but it
seems to me as though it is a seed--of some sort!'

'So it is,' assented the other, as he hopped nearer and attentively
examined the treasure-trove. 'Yes,'--as if the idea had suddenly
suggested itself,--'yes, it _is_ a seed. Where did you find it?'

'I did not steal it,' exclaimed the owner of the property, who evidently
resented a something in his companion's manner of questioning; 'I
honestly picked it up in a garden, where it was lying on the _top_ of
the earth, not _in_ it,' he added, with emphasis. 'I expect the wind
blew it there, for the gales have been very high these last few days.'

'Yes, yes,' replied the questioner with alacrity; perhaps he feared he
had wounded his friend's feelings, and dreaded lest there might ensue a
squabble, for sparrows, it must be confessed, are easily affronted over
t