"Oh. Miss Dawkins, will you come? and may I get your hat? Gilbert says you will like it; and father is there! They are trying to get it into our big barn, and it curls its trunk round the tree at the door, and won't go in; and the lions are roaring so!' 'What do you mean, Dora ?' asked poor puzzled Miss Dawkins. There, sit down, you are so hot; and no hat or gloves! My dear child!'

6

It is all right,' said Gilbert, bursting into the room as excited as his sister, and it's great fun. A travelling menagerie bound for Shockley fair has broken down on the road, and we are housing the beasts. Father sent me to call you to come on, while I fetch nurse and baby.'

Such an excitement as this had seldom been known at Moor Thornton; the village lay half a mile aside from the high road, and was quite overlooked by general traffic.

To be visited, therefore, by an elephant, and real lions which roared, and could be peeped at through the cracks of the great truck in which they travelled, was something to arouse the whole population. Gilbert, from a mound in the garden, had first made the discovery that something unusual was wending its way between the high hedgerows of Moor, and had called Dora into consultation. They were soon after joined by their father, and all sallying forth, they met a very polite gentleman making inquiries for the village blacksmith. He presented Mr. Swayne, the Rector, with a large card, much ornamented with flourishes, which announced that he was Mr. Pottinger of the far-famed Wild-Beast Show, and he stated that an accident had happened to one of his waggons, which required immediate attention.

at the speaker, a thick-set man with an unpleasant countenance, and then at the poor. elephant, which was evidently footsore with long travel.

'Not good sort of people to have about a village,' thought the clergyman, meditating on the man; and then, to Gilbert's great joy, compassion for the beast took possession of his father, and he offered the Rectory-barn to the showman.

'It would shelter the elephant,' he said; 'and of course the lions and such wild beasts have their own travelling-cages. But what have you there? of what does your menagerie consist?'

Mr. Pottinger began a very flourishing description of his show, which, when translated into plain English, resolved itself into the elephant, two lions, three shabby monkeys, a very tame wolf which might have been taken for a sheep-dog, and which looked. ashamed either of himself or his company, and a sleepy snake wrapped in a blanket. It would not be very difficult to arrange for their shelter.

When Miss Dawkins and her pupils reached the barn, they were amused to find Mr. Swayne with his coat off, helping to push the lions' waggon into the paddock, which had been given up to Mr. Pottinger till Monday morning. The elephant was standing quietly at the half-door of the barn, and nothing was to be seen of any other members of the famous caravan.

have been scattered over the hill-side come bounding together and gather around him.

Our Blessed Lord used this as one of His parables, when He likened Himself to a Good Shepherd, who calleth his own sheep by name and leadeth them out; and when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice. And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers' (St. John, x. 3-5).

A traveller once told a Syrian shepherd that he was sure that the sheep knew the dress of their master, and not his voice. The shepherd asserted that it was the voice which they knew. To settle the point, shepherd and traveller changed dresses and went among the sheep. The traveller in the shepherd's dress called on the sheep and tried to lead them, but they knew not his voice,' and never moved; but whenever their own master called them, though he was disguised in appearance, they ran at once to him: thus proving that it was his voice which led them, and that the parable of our Blessed Lord is exactly true to the customs of Bible lands, even to this day.

it was the cold which at last awoke Ellie, and made her draw her thin summer cape more closely around her body. At first she thought mother must have forgotten to cover her; then sitting up, she began to understand that it was not her bed in which she had slept.

The moon shone clear and bright overhead, stars were sprinkled over the heavens, and the waves plashed on the beach with a dull and melancholy sound. Gradually Ellie remembered how she came to be there, and at the same time came the horrible fear that she might have been left behind. Starting up, she ran to the top of the highest hillock, and gazed as far as her eye could reach, but no living creature was within sight. Shivering in the night-breeze Ellie feared even to move, lest the noise of her own footsteps should break the terrible stillness. How long she may have stood motionless I cannot tell, but when a cloud passed over the moon and the strange shadow disappeared she ran on, anywhere to get away from the silence which oppressed her spirit. Again the moon burst forth, and Ellie's shadow appeared suddenly beside her. With a scream she flung herself with her face on the sand. We must remember that Ellie was a very little child, and did not know anything about shadows; and indeed I think few girls, or even boys, of her years would have been much braver under the same circumstances.

At length the distant bark of a dog from one of the neighbouring cottages caused Ellie to start up. The light of the moon was not so bright, so that the dreaded shadows had almost disappeared. Taking courage she walked along for some distance, and at last she found herself clear of the sand-hills, and coming nearer and nearer, as the plash of the waves warned her, to the rough sea

beach. But how different it looked since morning! then there was a wide tract of loose stones and sand; now, it was all a waste of water, as billow after billow came rushing in, carrying each their burden of white foam to her very feet. The moon again burst forth in splendour, casting its bright reflection on the sea; but Ellie did not fear the silvery light now, for the voice of the waves broke the stillness besides, a comforting thought had entered the little one's mind. She had learned at Sunday-school that God rules the raging of the sea, and can still the waves.

'I know He is everywhere,' said she to herself, and of course He must be here too; so I am not alone after all, there is some one near to take care of me. I will ask God to bring me safe home to father and mother.'

And so she did, and, more than that, she felt quite sure that He would do it. A little further on the shore became less shelving, and Ellie climbed to a high bank and gazed down into the water beneath. She was not afraid, for the thought I am not alone' remained firmly fixed in her mind.

After watching for a while she saw in the distance something which appeared which appeared like a dark speck moving along the sea; presently it drew nearer to the shore, and she could see that it was a boat containing three or four men.

The party of fishers, for such they were, saw perched on the high bank a tiny figure, whitened by the silvery moonlight.

'What can it be?' exclaimed one of them; 'it looks like nothing but a fairy.'

'Nonsense, man!' replied another; 'there are no such things now-a-days. I'll speak to it. What's that standing up there?' he called aloud.

'It's only me,' replied a child's voice. Oh, would you take me home?'

6

Whose child are you?'

"I'm mother's, sir.'
'What's your name?'
'Little Ellie.'

'How came you there?'

'I went to sleep and they all left me behind; but I wasn't alone, for God was here too. I asked Him to take me home, and He has sent you for me with a boat.'

The men listened with some surprise. Well, I suppose,' one of them said, 'if we were sent for you we must take you in.'

So they brought the boat close to land, and the man who had spoken took Ellie in his arms and placed her amongst them. We'd better go home and leave her with my wife,' he said; then we can try our chance for fish in the moonlight.'

All having agreed to this plan, Ellie was soon carried into the fisherman's cottage, and his wife having heard the story, placed the chilled, tired child, in a bed, where she soon fell into a quiet sleep.

Next morning she was able to tell both her name and where she lived. The kind woman of the house took her home, judging from her own motherly feelings what anxiety Ellie's parents must have suffered, and great was her disappointment to find both Mr. and Mrs. Dunne absent. Ellie was obliged to remain alone the rest of the day; but when her father and mother returned in the evening, heartbroken and wearied, what was their delight to see the child they had been seeking rush to the door to meet them safe and unhurt!

'Dear mother,' she whispered, throwing her arms around Mrs. Dunne's neck, 'God was so good, He sent me back to you; but I will never ask to go anywhere again, when once you say, "No." S. T. A. R.