d us no
enjoyment, and the question, "what shall we do with ourselves?" began to
pass from one to the other among the group of eager, restless boys.
"Would you like me to tell you a story, boys?" enquired Harry's mother,
after observing for a time our vain attempts at enjoyment. Mrs. Knights
was a lady of high culture, and possessed the happy faculty of rendering
herself an agreeable companion to either the young or old; and more than
one pair of eyes grew bright with pleased anticipation when she proposed
telling us a story; and, of course, we all eagerly assented to her
proposal. Seating herself in our midst, she took up a piece of
needlework, saying, "I can always talk best when my hands are employed,"
and began as follows:

"I suppose none of you, perhaps not even my own Harry, is
aware that my home has not always been in Canada; but I will now inform
you that the days of my childhood and youth were passed in a pretty town
near the base of the Alleghany Mountains in the State of Virginia. I
will not pause at present to give you any further particulars regarding
my own early years, as the story I am about to relate is concerning one
of my schoolmates who was a few years older than myself. The pastor of
the Church in the small village where my parents resided had but one
son; and, when quite a little girl, I remember him as one of the elder
pupils in the school I attended. I was too young at that time to pay
much attention to passing events, but I afterward learned that, even
then his conduct was a source of much anxiety and sorrow to his parents;
his ready talent, great vivacity, and love of amusement continually led
him into mischief and caused him to be disliked by many of their
neighbors. It was in vain that the villagers complained, in vain that
his father admonished and his mother wept; still the orchards were
robbed, the turkeys chased into the woods, and the logs of wood in the
fireplaces often burst into fragments by concealed powder. Time passed
on, till he reached the age of sixteen years, when spurning the
restraints of home, the erring boy left his father's house and became a
wanderer, no one knew whither; but it was rumored that reaching a
seaport town he had entered a merchant vessel bound upon a whaling
voyage for three years. During the last year of his stay at home his
conduct had been very rebellious, and his father almost looked upon him
as given over to a reprobate mind. After his departure, his f