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always the first thing he did in the morn- breakfast. I trust they will keep out of ing; no one could imagine why, for not a danger to-day,” added Mrs. Rae to her hushalf a dozen times in his life had he discov- band. “There's no skating now, so I shall ered anything remarkable. There was al- not worry about Charley." ways the same meadow, the same creek, the Charley's face was so red about this time same rail track winding along beyond, and that his mother noticed it and thought he in the distance the little stone church. Hat- was feverish; and when he asked to be extie said she could see it all quite as well in cused she began to be anxious, and looked bed with her eyes shut, as to get up and at his tongue and his throat, and half stand shivering on one foot looking at it. doubted whether she had better go.

But on this particular morning Charley But there really seemed no cause for was able to make an announcement that put alarm, and again expressing her relief that an end to all napping on the part of the lit- the skating was over, Mrs. Rae put on her tle girls.

hat and cloak. As for the creek, it never “Goodness me, ain't the river raised, once entered her mind to consider that as though! Look on the banks, too! • Six an agent for danger or mischief any more months on an ice-floe!! What a chance for than she would one of the little black turtles a fellow !”

that had their home somewhere between its Hattie bundled out of bed and rushed to banks. the window, and little Sue followed strain- Now Norah,” said she to the good-natured ing her eyes in vain to discover, up stream girl, “try and keep an eye on Sue till Mr. or down, any signs of the wonderful party Rae comes back. She can play out-doors; I of voyagers she had so often heard her don't see anything that she can get into, and brother tell about.

shall be home to dinner.” Charley had been much interested in Cap- The little ones were kissed and the wagon tain Tyson's account of that journey on drove off. Norah sat down to her breakfast which the explorers' most dreaded enemy and in a chat with Mike thought no more had furnished them a safe conveyance, with- of the children, who, after a few minutes, out engine, mast or rudder, for so many ran into the meadow where they could see months and miles; and he had often longed Charley and Will Cummins, the boy next for a chance to know by experience the sen- door, pushing small ice-cakes off into the sation of floating on an ice-raft. Here, he river. thought, was the opportunity. But he would Charley seemed to be coaxing Will into be prudent and say nothing about it for the something to which he objected, but as his present, at least. Mamma was "dreadful sisters came up he stopped ; and all Hattie 'fraid; ” he complained to himself. She heard, though her ears were wide open as never was a boy, and somehow he couldn't usual, was, “ Keep dark !" convince her that boys could be trusted to “What is it?" asked she; “ what are you take care of themselves. “I'll go out and going to do ?” look around,” he thought. “ The river looks ,

“Nothing,” said Charley; "just you look pretty lively from here. If it doesn't run up there on St. Helena and see what a pile very swift, and I think she won't object, I'll she's caught.” ask her ; but if I think she will, why, I'll go St. Helena was a tiny island. Mrs. Rae it on the sly.”

was an object teacher and the children had Charley was dressed and out to reconnoi- taken a good many geography lessons on the ter in no time, and the little girls were not banks of the creek. The shores looked as if much behind him; but they were shortly they had been cut out by "a big jiggering recalled by their mamma, whom they found iron,” Hattie said; and nearly every irreguin street dress and with bonnet and cloak at larity was dignified as cape or bay, isthmus hand.

or harbor. “Hurry in, children ; I've decided to go It did not matter in the least that Baffin's into town, and we must make haste with Bay was in close neighborhood to Florida,

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or that West Point with its small brick fort, position just in the edge of the water on the which had fortunately escaped destruction, sloping bank, where it was thought the girls was just opposite Cape Horn. Even little had better get on. Sue could define all the “natural divisions “What do you want of those things?” of land,” as the geography says.

asked Charley, as Hattie came forward to Charley had hoped to get rid of the girls embark with a door-mat and an immense after a time; but, as is generally the case, old muff of her grandmother's. The old they wouldn't be got rid of. As the morning muff had seen considerable of the world passed by Sue became hungry and went in since the day when grandmother went to to Norah for a doughnut, but Hattie sus- the city with a purse full of Mexican dollars pected that some project was on foot, and to buy it, and rode home again, forty miles remained on the field. The sun shone very in a sleigh, half hidden behind it. But the warm, and Charley could see that the ice was muff and the money and the style of travelmelting; if he waited to tire Hattie out it ing had all gone out of fashion long since, might be too late. So as a stroke of policy and now it did duty as a foot-warmer when he took her into partnership, thereby cut the girls went sleighing, and served as a ting off the possibility of her running to tell. drum-major's hat when Charley's home guard “Let's have an ice-floe, Hattie.”

paraded. On this occasion it was the only “Real, do you mean, to get on?”

thing toward an Arctic outfit that Hattie in “Yes, of course."

her haste could find. The door-mat she “Oh, I'd be afraid.”

spread upon the ice for a cushion and she “ Pooh! didn't those folks go hundreds of and Sue seated themselves upon it. “Aren't miles on one ?"

you coming?" she asked as Charley made “Yes, but it was bigger than any of these.” no move to step on.

“So is the ocean bigger than the river; it “Who'd push you off? Will and I will wasn't any bigger for the ocean.”

float

you and then I'll get on at Cape Cod' “ How far would we go?"

there before you get out into the stream. “Oh, we could stop most anywhere; I'd Now hold on to Sue in case she gets scart take that pole there and I could push in to if it tips a little.” land any time.”

It did “tip a little;” not much indeed, but “It runs too fast, don't it?”

sufficiently to soak the cushion and the No, not for a long piece. We'll do it; children's dresses pretty thoroughly. Sue will you go, Will ?”

screamed and nearly threw Arethusa overNo. Will was too cautious; he would board, and Hattie in her effort to keep herrather stay on land.

self and her little sister on their seat, forgot “We'll have to take Sue,” said Hattie, her furs, and grandma's muff unnoticed and Charley saw the need of that immedi- slipped into the water and was not seen ately. Sue always had the last bit of news again till it was picked out of the brush beshe had heard or the last sight she had seen low, some days afterward. right on the end of her tongue, and no mat- But Charley tipped more decidedly than ter what the consequence was, it always the ice-floe; for as it suddenly gave way and would slip right off on the first occasion. slid into deeper water, he lost his footing That fact decided Hattie that she herself had and followed it as far as his length would better go to the house for Arethusa, Sue's go; and by the time he was on his feet baby, whom she insisted should be added to again it had rounded “Cape Cod” and the party

caught by the current was rapidly slipping It proved quite a difficult matter to find a down the creek. suitable cake of ice in a place where it could It was not Sue alone who was scared now. be launched. But at last the boys selected She, poor little body, sobbed and clung to one on the banks of the “ Bay of Biscay” as Hattie, who though white as a sheet at findthe best fitted to their purpose; and after ing her strange craft without a pilot, now much prying and pushing it was put in spinning round as some whirlpool caught it, and again rushing with speed on its way, trance like two arms, and the ice-floe glided still had presence of mind to hold on to Sue straight into its embrace, and the little girls and sit quietly.

were safe. There was no danger of their Charley did the screaming as he ran along floating out again, and they might have the bank. Whom to call he did not know; landed successfully, but in their haste they his father he had not seen since he drove forgot all caution, and both got a thorough away with his mother after breakfast. So ducking. he kept along shore as near the girls as pos- It was a sorry party that walked dripping sible, while Will hurried for help.

into Norah's clean kitchen through one door Just at that moment, in full confidence as Mrs. Rae was helped into it through anthat the children “wouldn't get into any

other. thing,” Mr. Rae was comfortably talking For a moment there was a tableau. Mrs. town news in the post-office, as he waited Rae was speechless through surprise and for the returning train. And just at that mo- joy; the children, with terror at their mothment the train whistled and came in sight, er's pallid face; while Norah, who was preand Mrs. Rae, looking toward the house for paring dinner, stood motionless with amazethe usual salute of handkerchiefs and hats, ment, holding suspended over a kettle what had her eye caught half way by something on looked like the bolster of a doll's bed stuffed the river, she did not know what. She did to its utmost. Charley never saw a “roly know that she had tied those little red poly" pudding afterwards that he did not and blue hoods on two little brown heads recall the scene, and how Norah plunged the that were very dear to her, and that they pudding back into the pot, and picked up were in great danger; further than that, Sue and undressed and comforted her. after one piercing scream, she knew nothing. The next day they were all as bright as

Mr. Rae, as he stood on the depot plat- ever except Arethusa. Her loss was not noform, was shocked to have his wife handed ticed for some time, but though she was found out to him as helpless as the brown paper and every effort made to bring her to herself, bundles that the sympathizing passengers it was of no use.

Sue said that she never burried after her; till some one of them, would have known her; so her mamma hung whose attention had been drawn to the ad- her up on the wall, and said that her usefulventurers on the creek, was able partly to ness was not yet past; every time they looked explain the cause to him.

at her she could preach them a sermon. Meantime the ice-floe rushed toward the Charley ventured to inquire as to the text, bridge. If only some one might be cross- and his father suggested “ Foolishness is ing! It was the one hope poor Hattie had, bound in the heart of a child, but the rod and she was sick with terror as they slid un- of correction shall drive it far from him.” derneath and no call of rescue reached them; Whereupon he was sorry that he had inonly Charley's hoarse cry, "Help! help!” quired, and trembled in his shoes for some

But no help came, and had it not been days; but his mother thought that the fright for the “Gulf of Mexico” I am afraid the had taught him a lesson, and the rod retrip would have been a tragedy. But the mained on its parent tree uncut. gulf, which was just at the sudden bend of And this is the story of Charley's Ice-Floe. the river, held out the two capes at its en

Emily Adams.

THE EPISCOPAL OUTLOOK.

FAIRLY to estimate the present position of essary to give a brief history of the difficulthe Protestant Episcopal Church and answer ties which it has met with since its start in the questions which are inevitably asked by America. thoughtful people as to its future, it is nec- The earliest Anglican services were held

in the New World during the winter of else to put the Protestant Episcopal Church 1607–8, at the mouth of the Kennebec, by in an anomalous position in this country. the Rev. Richard Seymour, the chaplain of It was Episcopal in name but not in fact the colony which Popham vainly attempted when it was putting forth its first roots in to found at that place. At a later period our soil and imparting its first impressions handfuls of Anglicans were gathered into of conscious life to our ancestors. It had an congregations in the chief towns along the acephalous beginning, and was in a position Atlantic sea-board-Philadelphia, New York, to be seriously misunderstood from the start, Newport, Boston, Marblehead and Ports- and to be withheld from proper and efficient mouth—and were supplied with clergymen organization for a century. It was Congrewho were, for the most part, maintained by gational in fact and Episcopal in name, and the “ Venerable Society for the Propagation the two things, however excellent in themof the Gospel in Foreign Parts." The par- selves, do not tend together to make an effiishes were under the spiritual oversight of cient and rightly organized Episcopal Church. the Bishop of London, and the people were This has been the hidden and remote cause mostly tories in politics and religion. There of very much which every one has regretted was no bishop, and when fit pastors were in this religious body; and when the Epis selected from the congregation they were copate came it was grafted into what has always sent to London for ordination. until lately been felt to be a system which

Practically, the ecclesiastical polity was had not quite full control of its proper hardly different from that of the Puritans, working elements. It was at the heels when who, at least in New England, constituted it should have been at the head of the body. “ the standing order.” The English Church It was November 14, 1784, that Dr. Samwas not aggressive in those days, and John uel Seabury was consecrated as the Bishop Wesley's was the principal voice for relig- of Connecticut, in the Episcopal Chapel in ion which was heard in England by the Aberdeen, by the non-juring bishops of Scotcommon people. The colonial Church was land who were not under the political conhardly felt in the New World, except as the trol of the English Crown. Dr. William organ of aristocratic religion. Its legacy White and Dr. Samuel Provoost were not was this very hauteur which the Puritans cor- consecrated by the Anglican bishops until dially hated, and the undue ambition of the February 4, 1787, and it was not until July, laity as directors in the management of spir- 1789, that the first convention of the Episco itual affairs.

pal Church met in Philadelphia with a In all these pre-revolutionary years, con- proper organization. The American constant efforts were made to secure the conse- gregations had been mostly broken up by cration of bishops for America. Dr. Beards- the Revolution, and even when it began, acley’s “ History of the Church in Connecti- cording to Bishop White's “Memoirs," cut,” and his “Life and Correspondence of “there were not more than about eighty pa Dr. Samuel Johnson," tell the story of those rochial clergymen of that [Anglican] Church eventful and tragic years. It was the time to the northward and eastward of Maryduring which the colonies were assuming a land;” and out of Boston, Newport, New determined attitude toward the mother York and Philadelphia, there were no concountry. It was whispered in the ears of gregations " held to be of ability to support the King and of the Prime Minister that, clergymen of themselves. In Maryland and if prelates were sent to America, it would in Virginia the Episcopal Church was more prejudice the Crown in the eyes of the Pu- numerous and had legal establishments for ritans and their compatriots, and whatever its support. * * * * In the more southern the English bishops might have desired to do colonies the Episcopalians were fewer in was made subordinate to the policy of the proportion than in the two last mentioned, state. It was one of those things which but more than in the northern." seemed possible but could not be done, and The Revolution sent most of the New this single fact has done more than anything England congregations, with their clergy, to New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, and at itself. Then it patterned, as was natural, the Philadelphia Convention in 1789, only closely after the English Church. What seven States were represented by seventeen interested the Anglican interested the Amerclergymen and sixteen laymen. The Church ican Churchman. The Methodists adapted was almost destroyed. The outlook was their system to the new conditions of the hopeless. In New England the political country in which they lived, but Churchmen feeling that it was anti-republican and aris- were so occupied with the struggles in the tocratic, was added to the traditional objec- Mother Church and so fearful lest their tions to prelacy. Elsewhere the Methodists peculiarities might offend the American had led the way as pioneers in work which people, that they largely forgot to present has commended itself to all Christian peo- in a manly way, to the general public, the ple; the Presbyterians had gained a sub- distinctive and really valuable points in their stantial foothold; and everywhere the Epis- system. They apologized for being what copal Church, as the representative of a they were, when they ought to have thanked government nich had attempted to crush God that he had committed to them certain out American liberty, met with a certain gifts which were of priceless value to Ameramount of prejudice and opposition. At ican Christianity. the time when other religious bodies were There are those yet living who witnessed striking down into the roots of the national this inglorious era of American Episcopacy. life, this was compelled to nurse its slender The Right Rev. Dr. Smith, the venerable interests as an isolated section of society and Presiding Bishop, now in his eighty-fifth to consider rather how it could exist than year, remembers distinctly when the Anglihow it could grow. To this fact can be can Episcopate in the United States, sitting traced much which we feel to be narrow and as the House of Bishops, used to have ample sectarian and formal in the Episcopal room around a common dining-table for Church, and much which has stood hereto- their deliberations. He was consecrated in fore in the way of its success. It always 1832, and now the House of Bishops is so defended its evangelical truth and apostolic large, comprising sixty-one bishops, that all order; it did not fail, point by point, to con- the usages of a public deliberative body tend for its principles when they were called have to be observed in their proceedings, and in question; but it was so overwhelmingly bishops themselves are so common that they in the minority that even its followers have to be men before they are fathers in of reputation, from George Washington the Church, if they are to command public onward, including many of the men who attention. It was not till 1835 that the have done the country most honor as states- Episcopal Church began to ignore the old men, could bring men no further than to lines of self-protection, and assume the disconcede its respectability. It was too weak tinct attitude of a missionary organization; and too much surrounded by popular preju- and even then, against the advice of the late dices, to be a popular church. It is hardly Bishop Doane, it forgot that the Church pleasant to recall these facts, but the knowl. itself is the great missionary society, and edge of them is essential to a fair statement erected an imperium in imperio like the of the Episcopal outlook. They show that, American Board, to take care of its missionapart from defective organization, the envi- ary interests. And this monstrosity was ronments were such as to prevent the proper tolerated until the General Convention of development of parochial or diocesan life. 1877, with general consent, put it aside for No Church could advance against obstacles simpler machinery which throws all nrissionwhich only time could remove. The Epis- ary interests directly into the hands of this copal Church dwelt like Ishmael in the des- chief legislative body of the Church. ert, apart and alone. It expected nothing When bodies are as closely identified as from others and gave nothing to them. Its the English and the American churches of converts were few and rare. It despised the Anglican communion, there is always " the sects,” and became intensely sectarian danger that the younger will be the solemn