value of these perfections in his
estimation, and helped him to feel that of all the objects in the wide
world, he was the most horribly repulsive. He did not mind the brutal
sneers of the rabble that surrounded his grandmother's hovel on this
day, however, for the sweet lady and the beauteous child were constantly
before him, and the look so like his departed mother's; that had
penetrated his inmost soul, exalted him far above the trivialities of
earth, and he entered the door with a face so radiant, that his old
grandmother cried out in surprise,

"Why, Archie, my boy, what's the matter with ye now? you look as if the
angels had been with ye."

"And so they have, grandmother," replied the boy. "Do you remember what
dear mother used to tell us? That all were God's angels that do His
will; and what can be His will if not the outpouring of kindness and
love upon all the world?"

"It is strange, child!" continued the old woman, raising her hands in
utter amazement; "last night, and almost all the nights before it, the
cloud has been upon ye, and to-night I'm frightened by the change," and
she sat down with her hands folded upon her lap, not daring to turn from
the lad "for fear he was crazed," as she said to herself.

"I know I have been dark, and gloomy, and wicked," replied he, "for I
was maddened by the foolish and thoughtless; but I learned to-day that
there are those who can forget the body and its defects, and see the
real and perfect man that is hidden beneath. No, no, grandmother, I do
not any longer wish to be otherwise than as God has made me, and I'll be
valued yet for something better than this shell!" and the boy-man went
away to his humble room, and shut himself in to dream out his future,
while his bewildered grandparent wondered within herself what it all
could mean.

There was little in that carpetless room, with its narrow cot, and its
one chair, and its small window with the cracked and puttied panes, to
inspire hopefulness or even cheerfulness, if the spirit looks to
external objects for its coloring; and yet the one eye that pierced
within the bosom of the solitary lad, saw the blessed light that was
beginning to dawn there, and the invisible hand that so affectionately
helpeth us in our necessity, was stretched forth to lift him out of the
despondency that had hitherto pressed him continually downward.

The sun was near its setting, and the evening was coming on with its
slow, midsummer pace,