she spoke.

"I don't know why it makes others feel sad to think of heaven," said the
favorite. "I should love dearly to go there."

"But then it is so dreadful to die!"

"I know it; but mother was so happy when she died!"

"Would you be willing to leave your sisters, dear Sue?"

"No; not unless I could see my mother and Christ. Oh, I do love Christ more
than all the rest of my friends! Do you think that is wrong?"

The three sisters slowly and thoughtfully bent their steps homeward, and
just as the sun was setting, and the western clouds were spread with the
beauty and glory of twilight, they entered that cottage which, though the
abode of sorrow, was yet dear and sacred to them, because it was once the
home of their mother.

From that time, the gentle, loving, thoughtful little Sue, faded--faded as
a flower in the autumn wind. She had not been well for weeks; and soon it
was evident that she was rapidly declining. Was her dream a cause or an
effect--a cause of her decline, or an effect of an illness already preying
upon her frail system? Perhaps we cannot tell. There is something very
remarkable about many dreams. It is not easy to account for them all, by
what is known of the laws of the mind. But we must not stop now to inquire
into this matter.

Step by step, that cherished sister went downward to the grave; and before
the summer had come, while the early violet and the pure anemone were still
in bloom, God called her home. Peacefully and beautifully her sun went
down. "They have come," she said. So died the youngest--the favorite child.

THE MINE.

[Illustration: THE MINE.]

There are three kingdoms in nature--the Mineral kingdom, the Vegetable
kingdom, and the Animal kingdom--the former for the sake of the latter, and
all for the sake of man. Without the Vegetable kingdom animals could not
exist, and without the Mineral kingdom vegetables could not exist.

It is also worthy of remark, that in all the inferior kingdoms of nature,
there is an image of what is superior. The lowest of all the kingdoms is
the Mineral kingdom, where every thing takes a fixed form, and where all
changes are the work of centuries, instead of days and months, as in the
Vegetable and Animal kingdoms. Yet, in this dull, inert kingdom, we find a
certain image of the one next above, in the upright or orderly forms into
which many of its substances arrange themselves. Under circumstances o