ead the luncheon on a broad flat stone,
near which our boat was now curtseying listlessly on the water, and take
our repast ashore. George and Ralph lifted out the hamper, and spread
the cloth, and arranged the various good things we found inside.

"And don't let us forget," said old George, reverently, lifting his hat,
"the thanks we owe to our Father, which art in heaven, for His bounties
provided for us."

The train of thought thus started seemed to go on in his mind, after we
had set to the serious business of luncheon. "You see, young gentlemen,"
he presently continued, "we're to remember that all the good things He
sends us come from the same hand that sends us our disappointments too;
and though we don't always see it, it's true that the troubles and
trials are amongst the _good_ things. Many a time I've kept a-thinking
of that verse which says, 'He that spared not His only-begotten Son, but
delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not, with Him, also freely
give us all things'--the _all things_ there meaning, you see, the
troubles and losses as much as the gains, and successes, and pleasures.
And I think it's the same with children as with grown people; _their_
trials, which are small to grown-up people, are great to _them_, and
they don't come by chance. And, when we are able to feel this way, young
gentlemen, it's easier to bear up when the wind seems dead against you,
and to say, when things go wrong, and there's a deal of beating about,
and a shipping of heavy seas, as you're taught to say in the Lord's
prayer, 'Thy will be done.'"

I forget what was said after George finished this homely, but practical
and excellent children's sermon; but I can remember that Aleck's face
looked somewhat lighter; the words seemed to have touched some inner
chord, and to have met _his_ troubles more than they did _mine_. _My_
load, on the contrary, lay all the more heavily on my conscience; as I
realized that I was entirely shut out from such consolations as George
tried to offer, so that I became _more_ rather than _less_ gloomy.

The old man resumed the thread of conversation soon again.

"It seems strange now," he said, "to think how we're grieving over this
bit of a toy ship, and then to think of how one's felt seeing, as I did
once, a good ship with her crew, men and boys, clinging to the rigging,
and going down before your eyes, and you not able to help them, though
they kept a-screeching out and a-calling to you a