misunderstanding was removed, and he 110), at the age of seventy-five, leaving bepassed the closing years of his life in a con- hind him a fame and a character which are scientious administration of his exalted of- the heritage and pride of the Church in all fice. He died in peace at Canterbury, in after time.

J. P. Lacroir.

TOM'S HEATIIEN.*

BY JOSEPHINE R. BAKER.

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CHAPTER VII.

out the cares and anxieties incident to TOM'S STORY.

parentage. They were a comely lot. There The next morning I was still in a specu- was lal, student and incipient physician, lative mood, and we were sitting gravely a good-looking fellow, and he knew it. And about the breakfast-table, an unusual occur- Maud, a just-graduated school-girl, fair as rence; for I insist that a mirthful breakfast the dawn, and as sentimental as her sensiis essential to a healthy day-a vantage- ble mother would permit. And Jack, scapeground from which to meet for the next goat, responsible for all the mischief on the twenty-four hours foes, spiritual and phys- premises--and there was enough of it-a ical. Suddenly the door burst open and in big-headed boy, with touseled hair and genrushed Hal like a north-west wind.

erous mouth that was always whistling, unIlolloa, mother! IIolloa, Uncle Doctor! less he was eating. Ilal insisted that there Holloa, everybody!”

was a muchness every way about that boy - Milder! Milder! you young hurri- that ought to be pruned. But when he atcane! Did

you

leave your manners in tempted the pruning business he found more New Ilaven?"

than he could conveniently manage, and lat“Yes, and everything else but my prec- terly Jack had his own way, and a long way ious self. Chum vows I have been up and it was too. There was no telling what he dressed all night, else I should never have would prove to be. I was prepared for anygotten off by the early train. You under- thing not absolutely vicious. stand it is Saturday, and I thought it would “I tell you, mother,” said IIal, passing up be healthier for body and mind to run home his coffee-cup the second time, “I just for Sunday. I assure you it is purely a ached to bring Chum home with me. The sanative measure,” rattled he, kissing his poor prodigals home is three thousand miles mother on either cheek.

away, and he has not seen it for more than Kate came in to set a plate for master three years.” Hal, her favorite in the household, and “ Three years,” repeated Mary with tenwhen he had established himself at his der concern, wondering how his mother mother's side I looked at the group of could live without seeing him for three long happy faces and dismissed my speculations years. for the present.

“What is his name, and where is his Few men are so fortunate as to have all home?” asked Maud. the comforts, conveniences and civilizing “ You must have a good memory. I am influences of a family home, who have always talking about him.” neither wife nor child. Yet such had fallen “ You rave about Chum, without naming to my lot. Sister Mary came to me at once

or placing him.” after her husband's death, and from board- “Out with your note-book, then, and ing I went to housekeeping. Iler children down with the items. Name, Northrop P. had become, in a sense, my children, with- Duff; called North, for short. But, as he is *Copyright, 1877, by Josephine R. Baker.

long, fearfully long, he is dubbed North

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Pole by most of the fellows. There is a “Why, mother, when I was home last, tradition among the Sophs that he sleeps in Uncle Doctor inoculated me, and it has been the halls, the bed-rooms being too short taking effect ever since.” for his accommodation. As for his home, “ For what?" asked Mary looking at me it is in San Francisco, which accounts for in alarm. his absurd growth ; and, as to himself, he is " For lunacy, lest he should become an a capital fellow, every way.”

idiot.” After consultation it was decided that Ilal “ Useless; he was born one,” muttered could invite him home, only he was not to Jack. ponce upon us in this unexpected fashion. “Maud, do explain, or I shall believe the

Maud said we should have to put another house has turned into a lunatic asylum in story to the house, and Jack muttered that sober earnest,” said Mary with increasing his legs would take up so much room under perplexity. the table, that the family would have to " It is nothing else when Hal is at home.” stand, and for his part, he should dine in “ Be still Jack, Maud and I are sane at the kitchen.

all events,” and she looked appealingly at After breakfast Ilal picked up Maud as Maud. he would pick up a kitten, and carried her “ It is nothing, mother, only this : when off, protesting that she would be treated as Hal was here a few weeks ago, Uncle sent a baby no longer. Was she not almost him over to the Dyer place with medicines. eighteen and just graduated ? As I passed ble saw Miss Dyer, and it seems did not the hall door a few moments later, I saw aquaint himself to his own satisfaction, and Maud and IIal busily whispering together, has been brooding over the matter ever and knew that some precious scheme was since. Ile is a little sensitive, you know.” incubating.

“Conceited!” ejaculated the youngest And a precious scheme it proved, for at member of the council. dinner Hal came cracking his fingers about “Don't interrupt me! This morning Hal iny ears like an Ethopian end-man, calling, took me into his confidence, and upon com“Wake up! Uncle Doctor; wake up! For paring notes found that Miss Dyer and myonce you are caught napping."

self were classmates before she went to “Don't be silly, Ilal. Draw off your ar- Vassar. Consequently I dressed, Hal got tillery or you will deafen me.”

the carriage, and we went to call on Miss At that he flew around the table, postur- Dyer. She received us graciously, seemed ing like a dancing master, and with a pro- pleased to renew our acquaintance, smiled found bow said, solemnly, “ I have gone and upon Ilal, though I must say that I never done it, Uncle Doctor."

saw him so stupid before, and he came away " To the discredit of us all ?"

gratified. That is the beginning and end of “Ask Miss Dyer?”

the wonderful mystery." For a moment I felt as if a hand were “I am afraid not,” said Mary, gravely, clutching my throat. A preposterous faney. before whose maternal eyes, visions of enHal was waiting for remarks, and I said, tanglements began to float. “You must look “ I have something else to do.”

out for him, Doctor,” as if some dire evil “ But you should have kept betterwatch." was impending “Of what?”

“ There is no cause for anxiety. It is “Of Miss Dyer."

only a sort of internal measles, and when “I watch her father.”

the onslaught is so fierce, it runs to the rear “All right," with tremendous emphasis. by rapid and easy stages; no danger of “You watch the old gentleman, and I will striking in." watch the daughter."

At this, Ilal flamed; said he was a man, “Ilal, Ilal, what nonsense are you up to and not a boy; knew his own mind, and now?” asked Mary, looking mystified and so forth; at which we all laughed uproarconcerned.

iously.

6

The afternoon was a busy one, but I him and that you no longer spoke of him, I found time to scud through Tom's article in thought he might be dead.” the Revierc, written in one of his metaphys- Tom grasped my hand before I was half ical moods, feeling in the dark for answers through, and when I paused I found his to questions that are unanswerable this side eyes were full of tears, and still holding my of the grave. It was prudent to read it, for hand he said with unsteady utterance: I knew that he would run in before he slept “ Would to God he were dead, or had for “my impressions,” as he phrased it. In died years ago.” our long talks he opened himself more freely Intense as my interest had now become, I to me than to any one else, and he insisted could question him no farther. Unless he that I had a straightforward way of putting chose to tell me I should never know. things that often helped him out of his most In the silence that followed he buried his obstinate difficulties. Be that as it may, his face in his hands and groaned. Presently talk was a rare feast to me, and we passed he reached for his hat and went to the door. many and many a pleasant and I believe There he paused and turned, facing me. I profitable hour, discussing the interests that sincerely regretted my hasty question, and lie close to every human soul. Just now, probably he saw it, for he looked steadily however, my concern centered not in Tom, and sorrowfully in my eyes for a moment, but in Tom's half brother, upon whose fate threw his hat on the table, and to my great much would seem to depend.

relief came back to his seat, saying apoloIt was past nine o'clock when he came getically: quietly in after his Thursday evening prayer- “I am unreasonably depressed to-night, meeting, and with only a nod for greeting, and your question fell upon an old hurt that stretched himself on the lounge a little has been dumbly aching for days. Otherwearied and a little depressed, by some wise I should have treated you with more church matter which he afterwards men- consideration." tioned, but did not explain.

You acquit me of any intent to wound?” I plunged into his article, dwelling on the “Certainly, certainly. You know nothmain question, but failed to arouse his ing of poor Bob, and how could you know wonted enthusiasm. Ile lay motionless and the pain, shame and indignation his name said yes, or no, or nothing,-generally noth- called up. And having said so much, I will ing. lle was in one of his “oyster moods,” explain, and we will never tonch the matter as he called them, when one could get noth- again.” ing into him or out of him without breaking Ile stopped and thrust back that lock his shell. To-night, of all nights, I would of hair, visibly mored and pained. My have him communicative. The direct way thoughts ran back twenty-four hours, and I was the best way to deal with him, and I saw Joel Dyer sitting with his thin hands turned upon him suddenly, asking:

clasped back of his head, his deep eyes “ Tom, what ever became of that brilliant gleaming like smothered coals, while he told half brother of yours, Bob Lyon?”

me of the Robert Lyon he had used to save If I had struck him a stinging blow, the himself, and whose shadow followed him effect could not have been more immediate relentlessly. And now here was Tom stung or surprising. IIe came instantly to his with pain and humiliation, while I waited fect, and glared at me; pained, outraged, with the growing conviction that to-night I and defiant.

should hear the counterpart of the same sor" That is a matter I never speak of,” said rowful story. he between set teeth.

“You remember,” began he, speaking “Pardon me, Tom,” said I quickly, with slowly, as if the words were dragged out of outstretched hand. “You know I have no him, “what a good-hearted, generous fellow wish to hurt or offend. As I sat here last he was; genial and happy, carrying sunnight thinking of you I thought also of shine wherever he went, and how we all him, and remembering how much you loved loved him and how proud we all were of

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him. I had no other brother and no sister. alarm, I thought needlessly; for I was so My father died before I could know iny loss, fully absorbed by the duties of my first parish and Bob and I had no one but each other that I saw but little of these moods or the and our mother. No boys ever loved each changes that were manifest in his personal other more, and our mother said we were appearance; and besides, the thought that the two halves of her heart. Bob's father Bob could go astray never occurred to me. left him quite a little fortune—a yearly “One day mother sent for me and told me allowance and an inheritance when he should all her fears and apprehensions. She had be twenty-five. My father left me only his not seen Bob for more than three weeks, good name. When Bob knew this he in- and begged me to find him and bring sisted that I should share his allowance, half him home. For one long, terrible week and half, and would have made it more but I sought him, going from one gambling hell that our mother interfered. Bob cared little to another, till I found my once innocent, for books and insisted that I could study happy brother in a place I shall never forenough for both, and would not hear a word get. I got him away, re-clothed him in of college for himself. It was his allow- body and mind, and took him home to our ance generously shared that gave me my mother. Then he told us the whole story. opportunities and set me on my feet. Ile If ever a man was full of penitence and reused to say that study was my forte and morse he was. I went with him through all money-making his; in which he divined his sin and sorrow; it seemed laid upon me. himself as many another man has done- And at length I thought, and do still somemistaking the desire for the ability. He times believe, a.crisis was reached and had little of the shrewdness and forethought passed. Ile reformed and appeared to manthat in some men amount to prescience, and ifest all the symptoms of a truly penitent none of the concentrated selfishness that en- and regenerate soul. But-_” and Tom ters so largely into the characters of most stopped, breathing hard, as if he was bearmoney-making men. Nor do I think he ing an insufferable burden. “In a few cared for money for himself. It was always months he went to the bad again,-how or for some one else; for mother and for why I cannot tell. Ile who knows all only

We should be rich ; we should have an knows. I followed him to no purpose. He abundance. Full of his hopes and plans, he would not return and could not be found. took his inheritance as soon as it came into It killed our poor mother; she died with his possession; confidently expecting to her hands in mine, and her last words were make a fortune for himself and us.” Tom a solemn charge : Bring your brother paused, mentally going through the past, and back to Christ, as a seal of your ministry.' when he spoke again he said rapidly : “ To I have seen her face and heard her words make the story short, Bob fell into the hands ever since. And God knows how I have of a sharper who had all along been waiting striven to obey my mother's charge, and for him, and under a pretence of friendship how unavailing my efforts have been. He and disinterested kindness fleeced him has fled from me as if I were his mortal clean."

enemy, and all I could do was to hope and “Do you know who the sharper was?” pray.

He was followed to California and “ No; Bob never told his name, nor the beyond.” fact till long after. Disappointment and Had he heard the rumor to which Mr. chagrin kept him silent. We only know Dyer alluded? I could not tell. lle had that he made desperate struggles to re- stopped speaking, his head was bowed and cover himself, getting deeper in at every his lips silently moving as if in prayer. attempt.

The genial, happy fellow grew " And now," said he, raising his head, capricious and unaccountable. Seasons of “there is nothing more to be said. It is one boisterous gaiety alternated with periods of of those hopeless things that cannot be deepest gloom. We saw the change long touched and that must be borne, and that before we knew the cause. Mother took tries a man's faith in God more than almost

me.

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anything else. lle is all powerful. I ask me feel uncomfortable. Then, too, there not for myself, I ask only that He will for was Agnes to be kept in the dark. Never Christ's sake reach out and take Ilis own. in all my life was I so disquieted with myIf He will, Ile will; and I must leave it self and my position ; and with all my ponthere. You understand now why I cannot dering I could see no way out of it except speak of this.”

through it—and the end I could not conjec“Yes; and after you have answered one ture. question we will allude to it no more. Do An impression of which I was at first but you know where he is now, or where he was vaguely conscious now began to verify itself. last?

Mír. Dyer found early occasion to send “ No, I am totally in the dark," answered for me, and the moment we were alone he, too deeply filled with his own thoughts plunged into the matter of Robert Lyon and to wonder if I had a special reason for ask- the growing necessity of finding him. Ilaving. “ Ile was reported dead more than ing once vented himself, and finding the two years ago. But I cannot think it true, relief experienced thereby, he fastened upon though sometimes I feel as if it would be a

me as a pent-up pond fastens upon a sluicerelief to know that the worst was passed. way. There was no denying or getting And then at times I have a belief, uncertain away from him. Before I knew it I was and tremulous, but still a belief strong appropriated. lle was constitutionally a enough to be a little comfort, that Ile who man of one idea; "one thing at a time,” remembered the Prodigal will also remem- was his maxim, and to that one thing he ber him, and that I shall yet see his face devoted all his energies of body and mind. and hear his voice and know that his soul Ilis ability to concentrate was almost frightis saved, if not here, why then hereafter.” ful. To that he owed his financial success,

Tom stood with a far-off look in his eyes, and to that I owed my present unwilling seeing beyond the walls of the room and the vassalage. gathered darkness without, an unknown It had come to be always and altogether place that held the brother he had loved and “we,” and not “ I,” till I began in an absurd lost, and whose ruin lay so heavily on his and unaccountable way to feel at times that own soul. Poor Tom! I understood him somehow I shared his guilt, and to be opbetter now; and as he gave me his hand at pressed by the burden a thousand times parting both knew, though neither spoke, more than he. For in fact he did not feel that this night had brought us closer than it at all, or if he did coull not be induced to ever before.

recognize it for what it was; to him it was

an abnormal condition he called disease. CHAPTER VIII.

Soon a change for the better was apparent

in Mr. Dyer's physical condition. Ile was This promised to be a very uncomfortable attaining a reasonablo degree of health. The and unsatisfactory affair, and I wished my- motive for living increased daily, and I knew self well out of it. If Joel Dyer must have that he would live till that man was found, help, why not pitch upon some one having dead or alive, if it took twenty years. more leisure and an aptitude for the detect- Scarcely a day passed that he did nt send ive business? The hope that I might help for or come to me to tell something he had Tom as well as Joel Dyer was the only con- heard, or propose a different plan of action, sideration that made it at all endurable. for our search was in vigorous progress. The silence and secrecy I thoroughly detest- That was bad enough, a daily nightmare, ed. Tom had opened his inmost heart to but there was something worse as I soon me, and I had withheld the fact that Mr. began to realize. Dyer was the man who had injured his Agnes possessed in an unusual degree that brother. I could see no good to be gained faculty or instinct that lies at the root of a by the disclosure, even if I were not held to woman's wisdom, a keen and accurate intusecrecy, but it had a mean look and made ition. She knew immediately that I was

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I AM APPROPRIATED.