lt as if he had indeed an impregnable fortress to
resort to in every emergency.

It was just the spot for meditation, too, and the musty portfolio came
forth oftener from its obscurity, and began to grow really bulky, and
that not only in size but in matter.

Nobody would have thought him more than a common lad as he bent to weed
the vegetables and flowers, or brushed down the white pony, or sauntered
about the grounds with bowed head, and hands behind him; but Mrs. Fay
had fathomed the secret depths, as from time to time she sought to draw
him out from the reserve in which he was enveloped, and Kittie knew by
her own pure and blessed instincts, all that there was of light and
wisdom in the poor boy, who had attracted her from the very beginning.
True, Cousin Willie would take every opportunity to disparage the lad,
but what cared she? It is not so easy to bias the mind of a
properly-taught child; and her own heart told her what was good in the
boy and what was evil in her cousin. As for Willie, he walked about like
some evil genius, making the deformity of the body more conspicuous by
the deformity of the soul, and casting a huge and ugly shadow over the
lovely home that God had so graciously given him. There was a constant
antagonism between him and the poor lad; not that Archie ever gave
occasion of offense, or encouraged the antipathy that he could perceive
in Willie; but his patience, and gentleness, and intelligence, were a
constant reproach to his rich young neighbor, who so continually wearied
his friends by fretfulness and ill-humor, and who spurned all the
efforts of his tutor, never trying to improve the privileges lavished
upon him, but deeming it very hard that he should be expected to confine
himself to books--"As if it were not punishment enough to carry about a
repulsive body!" he would say.

Ah! quite enough. This Archie felt as he applied himself diligently to
the task of adorning and embellishing his higher and imperishable
nature. And the lady and the child had learned to look at that only, so
that they really forgot often the outer man, as the soul-lit eyes
sparkled and beamed upon them when they talked together. _He_ did not
forget it, and so it served its true purpose, making him humble, and
keeping under the majesty of his spirit that might otherwise have grown
into a revolting and self-sufficient pride. It is so vain to struggle
against these fetters and restraints; God knows what we need, and