e home-sick days when she first
came; and she could not always smile at her folly. Sometimes her
disappointment would send her home sad and dispirited enough. Almost
always the smile that met her as she entered Mrs Lee's room brought
back her content; but often it needed a greater effort to be cheerful
than an on-looker could have guessed. Still, the effort was always
made, and never without some measure of success.

One morning she rose more depressed than usual. A quiet half-hour with
her little Bible was not sufficient to raise her spirits, though she
told herself it ought to be; and she said to herself, as she went
down-stairs, "I will speak to-day about going home."

Mrs Lee was able to go down-stairs now. On this particular day a
friend was to visit her, and Christie determined to say nothing about
the matter till the visitor should be gone. But the prospect of a long
day in the solitary nursery did not tend to brighten her face, and it
was sadly enough that she went slowly down the street on an errand for
Nelly when breakfast was over.

She did not look up to-day in her usual vain search for a "kenned face,"
or she would never have passed by the corner so unheedingly. A pair of
kind eyes, for the moment as grave and sad as her own, watched her as
she came on, and after she passed. In a little while a very gentle hand
was laid on her shoulder.

"What's your haste, Christie, my lassie?"

With a cry she turned to clasp the hand of John Nesbitt. Poor little
Christie! She was so glad, so very glad! It was almost like seeing
Effie herself, she told him, amid a great burst of tears that startled
the grave John considerably. For a moment her sobs came fast. The open
streets and the wondering passers-by were quite forgotten.

"Whisht, Christie, my woman," said John, soothingly, "that's no' the way
we show our gladness in Glengarry."

Drawing her hand under his arm, he held it firmly in his own. Christie
made a great effort to control herself, and the face which she soon
turned towards her friend had grown wonderfully brighter for the tears
that fell.

"Effie bade me notice how you looked and what you said; and I'm afraid
she'll no' be pleased to hear that I got such a tearful welcome," said
John, with his grave smile.

"Oh, Effie will understand. Why, it's almost like seeing Effie herself
to see you, John!" she repeated, giving him a tearful smile. She felt
sure it was a true friend's hand that