g my
fancy had cheated me.

"I don't know why it was that what failed to reach my strained ear found
its way to mother's; but all at once, from having been in a stupid state
from which I could hardly rouse her, she opened her eyes, and said,
'What is that?'

"'Do you hear anything?' I asked, trembling. But before she could
answer, I too heard a shout.

"Help was at hand! And mother might yet be saved!

"I burst into tears, and Jem and David set up a loud cry for company.
Those outside heard it, for the next instant there was a great halloo.
They were cutting their way through the drift,--they came every minute
nearer and nearer. Pretty soon I heard a voice that set my heart beating
and made me sob again. It was Ephraim's.

"'Are you all alive?' he cried.

"'We are all alive, but mother is very sick.'

"I don't know how long it took to tunnel that huge snow-drift. I sat
holding mother's hand till there was a noise at the door. I sprang up
then, and the next instant stood face to face with Ephraim. And we did
not meet as we had parted.

"I was glad to think that we owed our deliverance to him. He had roused
up the neighbors, and they came over that trackless waste on snow-shoes.
On snow-shoes Ephraim went for the doctor, and mother began to mend from
the time of his coming.

"It was a week before father got home. Yet he had come as fast as the
roads would let him, travelling night and day in his eagerness to reach
us. He told us of houses snowed up, and people and animals perishing
miserably. And by God's grace we were saved, even to the cows, which in
their hunger had broken loose from their stalls, and eaten the hay from
the mow.

"And so my life's greatest joy and pain came to me by the storm. It gave
Ephraim back to me. For forty years as man and wife we had never a hard
word.

"'Tis thirty years since he went,--thirty years of Heaven's peace for
him. I did not think to wait so long when he went. The children have
been very good to me, but I've missed their father always. But I shall
go to him soon. Son Ephraim, I am ninety-two to-morrow!"

TOUJOURS AMOUR.

Prithee tell me, Dimple-Chin,
At what age does Love begin?
Your blue eyes have scarcely seen
Summers three, my fairy queen,
But a miracle of sweets,
Soft approaches, sly retreats,
Show the little archer there,
Hidden in your pretty hair:
When didst learn a heart to win?
Prithee tell me, Dimple-C