e sorest need. Has there been a single day when you could
have been easily spared? And you could have done little for her, I dare
say, poor lassie. And you may be sure the Lord has been caring for her
all this time. He has not forgotten her."

"She says that in her letter many times," said Effie.

"My dear, there is a bright side to this dark cloud, you may be sure.
Whichever way this trouble ends, it will end well for this precious lamb
of Christ's fold. And you are not to go to her in a repining spirit, as
though, if you had but known, you could have done other and better for
her than the Lord has been doing. We cannot see the end from the
beginning, and we must trust the Lord both in the light and in the
darkness."

Effie made no answer for a moment. She then said, in a low voice:

"But I never felt sure that it was right for her to go from home. She
never was strong."

"But you were not sorry, when you saw her in the winter, that she had
gone. You mind you told me how much she had improved?"

"Yes; if I had only brought her home with me then. She must have been
worse than I thought. And it must seem to her so neglectful in us to
leave her so all the summer."

"My dear lassie," said Mrs Nesbitt, gravely, "it is in vain to go back
to that now. It has been all ordered, and it has been ordered for good,
too. The Lord has many ways of doing things; and if He has taken this
way of quickly ripening your little sister for heaven, why should it
grieve us?"

"But," said Effie, eagerly, "you did not gather from the letter that she
was so very ill? Miss Gertrude said not dangerously, and oh, I cannot
but think she will be better when we get her home again."

"That will be just as God wills. But what I want to say is this. You
must go cheerfully to her. If, by all this, God has been preparing her
for His presence, you must not let a shadow fall on her last days. It
is a wonderful thing to be permitted to walk to the rivers brink with
one whom God has called to go over--an honour and blessing greatly to be
coveted; and you must not lose the blessing it may be to you, by giving
way to a murmuring spirit. Not that I am afraid for you," she added,
laying her hand on Effie's arm. "All will be well; for I do believe
you, and your sister too, are among those whom God will keep from all
that can really harm. Don't vex yourself with trying to make plain
things which He has hidden. Trust all to Him, and not