face with the cherished portrait, he does not know!
That something strange has occurred he is sure; yet he stands there in
his bewildered mood, a long, long time, wondering whether he is in or
out of the body, and why Betty Lathrop could not have been spared to
cheer his declining years? What! Peter Bond is not sad!

Isn't it enough to depress any one to be surprised by such a novel and
unwelcome announcement when his own heart is dead to all but the one
beloved?

Of course Mr. Bond could not remain in Mrs. Kinalden's house after this,
and so he took a room in the same house with his young friends, and
Nannie's mother went in every day to keep it in order, and it soon grew
to be as dear as the old spot, for the same furniture was there, and the
same face upon the canvas.

CHAPTER XXXII.

The good man can now make one of the party that assembles every evening
in the pleasant attic. He has not the distance to keep him away, nor the
weather, nor a feeble state of health, and right glad he is that every
obstacle to so welcome a privilege is removed. A stranger, used to the
polish and luxury of a different sphere, would wonder how such content
and happiness could reign amid apparent lowliness and effort, for
although things present a neat and thrifty aspect in the little room, it
is evident that much toil is necessary in order to maintain even this
degree of prosperity. The busy fingers of the mother are ever engaged
with the needle, and the child is separated from her home by a needful
economy; yet there is a real joy in every moment spent together, which
might well excite the envy as well as the curiosity of a spectator.
People are so long a time learning that harmony is of more value in a
household than thousands of gold or silver--that "a dinner of herbs,
where love is, is better than the stalled ox and hatred therewith."
Perhaps if they could look in upon some of their wealthy neighbors, who
are rich in every thing but the blessed element that money can not
purchase, and then return to the humble place that overfloweth with
love and peace, they would be ready to acknowledge wherein true
happiness consists, and to search for it with as much ardor as they now
do for an increased treasury or a higher station. Mrs. Bates never
troubled herself as to who was better off than she in point of tangible
good, but she perfectly reveled in the sunny atmosphere of her pleasant
home, endeavoring so to fix its present ble