Lord 1632, on the 10th of October, I saw here, under this tree, my only son Augustus, aged five years and three months, for the last time. God be with him wherever he be, and comfort, as he comforted Mary under the Cross, me, the heart-broken mother, Theodora Sommer."

"I was

The thought went through him like lightning. this lost child! Name, year, and day agree exactly! It was my mother who placed this picture here!"

As he was thus thinking to himself, his mother came by. She had been waiting in the wood for a neighbour, with whom she was to return to the village, and the tidings of the picture, which had just been found, filled her with astonishment.

"Ah, gracious sir," said she, "that picture is mine. I pray you give it me. See my name stands to it; the late pastor wrote it there. At my request also did he write the other words. Ah," said she, weeping, as she examined the fallen tree, "this, then, is the tree under which my child slept for the last time so sweetly and calmly, before he was taken from me! How often have I gone, since I returned here, past this tree without recognising it! Oh, my Augustus, thus, then, I see the place once more, where my eyes beheld thee for the last time! Ah! thee, thee I shall see no more in this life. It is to me as if I stood upon thy grave!" She could say no more for weeping.

Baron von Wahlheim was almost beside himself to see his

own mother in that poor woman. His heart burned within him, and he was ready to spring up and clasp her in his arms, with the exclamation, "My mother!" but he restrained himself, for it occured to him that the sudden joy might cause her death. He took her kindly by the hand, wiped away her tears

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with his white handkerchief, spoke comfortably to her, and, by little and little, told her that he knew her son yet lived, and that certainly she would see him again. After these and suchlike assurances, at length he said, "I am your lost son!" "Thou!" exclaimed his mother, and sank on his breast without being able to say one more word. Locked in each other's arms, they remained a long time silent. All those who stood around wept.

"Dearest mother," said Baron von Wahlheim, at length, "God has fulfilled your wishes. He was ever with me, and has richly blessed me. You also has he comforted as he comforted Mary; he has given to you again your son as it were from the dead, and has placed him living before your eyes. He separated us, the one from the other, under this tree, and has brought us again together, even on the same spot. He has safely preserved the picture in the tree, and has brought it again to light at the right moment for us to recognise each other. He has thus revealed himself to us as the Power who does all things for the best."

"Yes," said the mother, "he has done so; the dear, good God! He has taken thee from me because I, perhaps, from a too tender love, might not have brought thee up well. He has given thee to me again, to be my helper in need-nay, for the whole country around, to be a comforting and sustaining angel. All that He does is wisdom and love. Praised be His name!"

All those who stood around joined with her, and praised God aloud.

Baron von Wahlheim now bade the forest-master say to the brother of Theodora, that she would return home next