preach for us to-day, sir," said Mr. Brown, after
the accustomed salutations had passed between them.

"Ah! where is our own rector?" asked Mr. Halberg.

"I suppose he is supplying this young minister's pulpit," returned the
warden. "It is seldom that we have an exchange, and they say that this
stranger is uncommonly eloquent."

"We shall have an opportunity to judge for ourselves," said Mr. Halberg,
as he turned from his friend and entered the church with his niece. The
service commenced, and as the rich deep tones of the minister fell upon
Jennie's ear, there rushed upon her mind a tide of joyous memories that
transported her to a sunny home amid the mountains, and a little tomb,
and a quiet avenue, and a bench beneath the old maples, where she used
to sit and listen to a calm and gentle voice that seemed to reach her
even now; and then her thoughts came back to her hallowed employment,
and as she raised her eyes to be sure that it was not all a dream, they
fell, not upon a strange minister, but upon the same kind friend who had
beguiled her childhood's hours.

How many years had passed since she had roamed with him among the hills,
not a gay and sportive child, as one who had known nothing of trouble or
poverty; but a young being whose gleesomeness had been crowded down by
premature cares and sorrows, so that it seldom gushed out as a little
child's mirth should always do. Will he recognize her now? She must be
so changed! She would scarcely know him but for the voice, and the broad
pale forehead that seems to have been expanding all these many years, so
wide and high does it appear.

He does not see her, he is all absorbed in the solemn worship, as she
too should be--now he is in the pulpit, and as he glances around upon
the congregation, his eyes meet the earnest soul that once beamed upon
him in his own parish church.

There is no mistaking it. For many a weary hour has it cheered him in
his labors. It was but a child's soul, but it was an eager one, on
which the seed fell availingly--and now it is a woman's soul, and the
good fruit has been nourishing the faint old man who needs it no longer.
The minister knows nothing of that, he only sees that it is before him,
as desirous as ever of spiritual nourishment, and the people wonder at
his zeal and fervor, little thinking of the power there is in a
thirsting spirit to awaken the energies of him who dispenseth to them of
the waters of life.

The service is o