id he, "may God bless you, and grant you further
luck. But you won't blame me if I take the money,--I can do with it, and
in oats, as you know, there's some chance of good business just now. But
I am glad to see that you 're so prompt at paying. Never give too much
credit! That 's always my motto; trust means ruin, and eats up a man's
business, as rats devour the contents of a corn-barn."

There was but one thing that constantly threw its dark shadow across
these two budding lives,--it was the dark figure in a distant prison.
This it was that saddened the souls of the two children with a gloom
which no sunshine could dispel. When on Fridays Ephraim returned,
fatigued and weary from his work, to the home over which Viola presided
with such pathetic housewifely care, no smile of welcome was on her
face, no greeting on his. Ephraim, 't is true, told his sister where he
had been, and what he had done, but in the simplest words there vibrated
that tone of unutterable sadness which has its constant dwelling-place
in such sorely-tried hearts.

Meanwhile, a great change had come over Viola. Nature continues her
processes of growth and development 'mid the tempests of human grief,
and often the fiercer the storm the more beautiful the after effects.
Viola was no longer the pale child, "the little spit-fire," by whom her
Uncle Gabriel's arm had been seized in such a violent grip. A womanly
gentleness had come over her whole being, and already voices were heard
in the _Ghetto_ praising her grace and beauty, which surpassed even the
loveliness of her dead mother in her happiest days. Many an admiring
eye dwelt upon the beautiful girl, many a longing glance was cast in the
direction of the little house, where she dwelt with her brother. But
the daughter of a "gambler," the child of a man who was undergoing
imprisonment for the indulgence of his shameful vice! That was a picture
from which many an admirer shrank with horror!

One day Ephraim brought home a young canary for his sister. When he
handed her the bird in its little gilt cage, her joy knew no bounds, and
showering kisses by turns upon her brother, and on the wire-work of the
cage, her eyes sparkling with animation:

"You shall see, Ephraim, how I 'll teach the little bird to speak," she
cried.

The softening influence which had, during the last few months, come over
his sister's nature was truly a matter of wonder to Ephraim. Humbly
and submissively she accepted the sl