VER the great joy at coming home there hung a cloud, which was deepening every day, and which no sunshine could drive away. It was the approaching death of Rhoda. The Sunday after thanks had been given for Tom, the prayers of that church were asked for Rhoda Grant.

Tom had heard nothing of the return of her illness, and had expected to find her up and about: not strong, indeed, but as well as she was when he left home. It was a grief to him to find her lying in bed again, looking thinner and more wasted than he had ever seen her before, and too weak at times even to speak to him. After she had got over the shock of seeing him the joy seemed to revive her for a day or two, but it was only a very brief improvement. It was beautiful to see her patient submission to God's will, and the bright smile of hope which lighted her face as she spoke of heavenly things. The more she saw of Tom, the more thankful she was to God for having sent him to be a real comfort to her poor mother when she was gone. It had been one of her cares that after her death there would be no one to say a good word, or remind her family of keeping God's day holy. But she felt now that by God's grace Tom would be able to do this, and perhaps be more to them than she had been.

Tom did not seek any work at first,

me.

by the doctor's advice, but lived on his savings for two or three weeks, till he was stronger. He was a great comfort to his dear sister in her last days. He read God's word to her, and sat up with her at night, dividing the nursing with his mother. Rhoda often dropped asleep holding his hand, and when she woke it seemed to soothe her to see him sitting beside her. Before she died she received the Holy Communion, and Tom, though not yet a partaker, was present at the sacred and touching service. When it was over, and Mr. Monsell gone, she called to Tom to take a seat near her, and putting her thin wasted hand into his she said, Tom dear! It has been such comfort and strength to I am sure you will find it so, toosuch a help in trying to lead a Christian life. I hope, dear brother, that you will be confirmed next time, and that afterwards you will go regularly to the Holy Communion: you will find it such a help and comfort. It is so true, that it is the strengthening and refreshing of our souls with the Body and Blood of Christ. And oh, Tom dear! when I'm gone, promise me to be very good to dear father and mother and all of them, and try to lead them in the right way, and speak a good word when you can. For my sake promise this,' and she looked into his face. His eyes were full of tears, and he could not speak; but he pressed her hand, and she knew that the promise was made, and that he intended to keep it. A day or two after this she passed quietly away in the early dawn, when her mother and Tom were watching beside her. A sweet smile was on her face just before her spirit took its flight, and they knew that she was safe beyond all the pain and suffering of this sorrowing world.

his dying sister, and became a real comfort and help. His strength soon returned in the fresh country air, and he was able to take farm-work and earn good wages; thus supporting himself and helping his family. But he helped them still more by his good example. Rhoda's life and illness and death. had had their effect, and Tom kept up her memory, and showed in his own conduct that, by God's grace, the example of her Christian life had not been thrown away on him. The children now went regularly to the Sunday-school with Tom, who in time. persuaded Richard to accompany him there too; and by degrees the whole family except Grant became church-goers. Grant was one of those men, so confirmed by the bad practices of a life-time in the neglect of God's day and God's house, that the difficulty of entering a place of worship seemed too great to be overcome. He, however, gave up his Sunday expeditions with idle. companions and dogs, and would even sit still and attend to a chapter out of the Bible read aloud; and Tom, who constantly

MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE EAST.

FLAT ROOFS OF HOUSES.

N England the roofs of houses are made

high and steep, in order that the rain which falls on them may easily run off; but in the Holy Land, where very little rain falls, and where it is often very hot, people make the roofs of their houses flat, and the people are fond of walking on them. It was through a flat roof, such as this, that the man sick of the palsy, and lying on his bed, was let down before our It was a roof of this sort upon which St. Peter knelt and prayed. There was often a low wall or railing round these flat roofs. This made the edge of the roof a good place for any one who wished to speak to the people standing on the ground below. So our Saviour told His disciples to preach on the house-tops the words which He had spoken in private to them in their ears.

Saviour.

THE LUPINES.

that he might become an altered man.

Next year, not only Tom was confirmed, but his mother and Richard, and they all knelt together at the Lord's table, and became constant communicants afterwards. And as they joined in the thanksgiving to God for all His servants departed in His faith and fear, their hearts turned with grateful joy to their dear Rhoda, now one of God's saints, whose suffering life on earth had been such a blessing to them all.

open letter in her hand, and a decided frown on her girlish face. The letter was from her mother, who was away from home nursing a sick sister; and the frown had been called up by a certain sentence in the letter: It is time the annuals were sown, so you must make out a list for old Joseph to get at Bourne on market-day, if your father has occasion to send him over. I have not time to write one myself; so I should like you to go to Mrs. Hilton and ask her advice as to the different kinds and quantities of seeds that will do: I am sure she will be willing to help you.'

Mrs. Hilton, indeed!' said Hannah to herself, with a little wilful toss of the head. As though I can't manage well enough

without her! Mother seems to forget I'm nearly fourteen. I know there's a list of plants and things among father's farming papers. I am sure I can do all right with that.' And she went off to the drawer in search of it.

A little study of the contents would have only made more plain to a mind less selfsatisfied than Hannah's that she was very ignorant indeed on the subject. She knew roses and lilies, and perhaps tulips and poppies; but most of the names in the long list of annuals' were mere words to her, and she did not know what flower they stood for. Mrs. Williams liked to have her garden gay and trim; she managed it chiefly herself, with only a little help now and then from old Joseph or one of the lads on the farm. Hannah did not share her mother's taste, or, at all events, she did not try to share her knowledge, thinking she had quite enough of hard names in her lessons without troubling herself with those she was not forced to learn. Still, though she made light of her ignorance to herself, she was anxious to conceal it from Mrs. Hilton.

'She would be sure to call me stupid if I asked her what Virginian Stocks and Lobelias are, and yet I've no idea; of course no one minds such things till they are old, like mother and Mrs. Hilton. Mignonnette! well, I know that, of course; only the beds would look horridly dull with nothing else in. Ah, here!-Lupines!-the very thing! Lots of colour-blue, purple, white! I wonder what they are like? But it doesn't much matter, they'll make a good show; so I'll have plenty of them, and only a pennyworth or so of the other things, and then I shan't spend more than mother says.'

So Hannah made out her list without consulting Mrs. Hilton or any one, and old Joseph brought back the seeds the next

market-day, and sowed them along the borders. And Mrs. Williams returned home and asked no questions, supposing that of course her little daughter had attended to her wishes, and that so all would be right. But when the seeds rose up into plants, what a shock it was to the lady's taste to see great spreading lupines crowding everywhere together, and hiding all the smaller and daintier flowers!

"How is it?' she asked of Hannah. "You must have made some mistake. Mrs. Hilton would never have advised all these lupines.

Just a cluster here and there would have been all very well; but now my garden is quite spoilt for the summer.'

Hannah was too honest not to own the truth, and she hung her head in shame as

she made her confession.

now.

Ah!' said her mother, if the garden seemed spoilt before, it is doubly spoilt Every one of these lupines speaks to me of my little girl's conceit. She has plenty of good qualities, I know, but if she does not mind they will soon all be choked up with her foolish pride; just as these large plants choke up all the little tender seedlings, that need proper light and air to grow in healthily.'

'Oh, mother, couldn't we pull up some of them?' suggested Hannah.

No; we will let them stay where they are,' answered Mrs. Williams. If they teach you a lesson, I am willing to bear with them for this year.'

And a lesson they certainly did teach. Hannah never looked at them without being reminded of her own folly; and sometimes, when tempted to some act of vanity or self-will, she would say to herself, Remember the Lupines."

EMMA RHODES.