"keeping"-room, where all the family were now
assembled, ready for the meal of flour cakes and
venison-steaks which Nattee, the Indian servant,
was bringing in from the kitchen. No one
seemed to nave been speaking to Captain Holdernesse
while Lois had been away. Manasseh sat
quiet and silent where he did, with the book
open upon his knee, his eyes thoughtfully fixed
on vacancy, as if he saw a vision, or dreamed
dreams. Faith stood by the table, lazily directing
Nattee in her preparations; and Prudence
lolled against the door-frame, between kitchen
and keeping-room, playing tricks on the old
Indian woman as she passed backwards and
forwards, till Nattee appeared to be in a strong
state of expressed irritation, which she tried in
vain to repress, as whenever she showed any
sign of it Prudence only seemed excited to
greater mischief. When all was ready, Manasseh
lifted his right hand, and " asked a blessing," as
it was termed; but the grace became a long
prayer for abstract spiritual blessings, for
strength to combat Satan, and to quench his
fiery darts, and at length assumed, so Lois
thought, a purely personal character, as if the
young man had forgotten the occasion, and even
the people present, but was searching into the
nature of the diseases that beset his own sick
soul, and spreading them out before the Lord.
He was brought back by a pluck at the coat
from Prudence; he opened his shut eyes, cast
an angry glance at the child, who made a face at
him for all reply, and then he sat down, and they
all fell to. Grace Hickson would have thought
her hospitality sadly at fault if she had allowed
Captain Holdernesse to go out in search of a
bed. Skins were spread for him on the floor
of the keeping-room; a Bible, and a square
bottle of spirits were placed on the table to
supply his wants during the night; and in
spite of all the cares and troubles, temptations,
or sins of the members of that household, they
were all asleep before the town-clock struck
ten.

In the morning, the captain's first care was
to go out in search of the boy Elias, and the
missing letter. He met the boy bringing it with
an easy conscience, for, thought Elias, a few
hours sooner or later will make no difference;
to-night or the morrow morning will be all the
same. But he was startled into a sense of
wrong-doing by a sound box on the ears from
the very man who had charged him to deliver it
speedily, and whom he believed to be at that very
moment in Boston city.

The letter delivered, all possible proof being
given that Lois had a right to claim a home
from her nearest relations, Captain Holdernesse
thought it best to take leave.

"Thou'lt take to them, lass, maybe, when there
is no one here to make thee think on the old
country. Nay, nay! parting is hard work at all
times, and best get hard work done out of hand.
Keep up thine heart, my wench, and I'll come
back and see thee next spring, if we are all
spared till then; and who knows what fine
young miller mayn't come with me? Don't go
and get wed to a praying Puritan, meanwhile.
There, there—I'm off! God bless thee!"
And Lois was left alone in New England.

AT HOME AND AT SCHOOL.

IT is a pleasant way of the world that little
can be done without enthusiasm. Though a
work-a-day world full of men always afoot, and
treading down the new thoughts of to-day into
the common-places of to-morrow; though a
prosy world, of which most inmates are content
simply to jog along roads made by the few and
accepted by the many, can never be a dull world.
There may be a great many dull people in the
numerous constituency by which representative
men are placed in their seats; but a
representative man, be he wise or stupid, can on no
account be dull, though he may be, to an
unlimited extent, ridiculous. When some new
thought has to be pushed into notice, it is
requisite that, by it and about it, the discoverer
should, more or less, be crazed. The balance of
his mind must be so far overturned as to ensure
his belief in the paramount importance of the one
particular idea. He must dream of it when sleeping,
and discourse on it waking, in the street or the
house, sitting or standing, riding or walking, full
or hungry, in presence of one torpid listener or
of an eager crowd, he must pound up his idea with
his talk, so that whatever word he shall speak
smells and tastes of it. Let the judge of a work
pray for a well-balanced mind; but let the doer
thereof put his whole weight on the top, and leave
for the time being all the rest of the earth's inhabitants
alone to manage all the rest of their affairs.

Thus it happens that there is a side from
which almost every original man who has a
special work of his own finding to do and means
to do it, may be met with ridicule. Enthusiasm
implies want of balance in the mind, yet the
world's work is only to be done by help of
enthusiasm. Every great teacher, every great
inventor, has been an enthusiast.

Herr Johannes Ronge and Madame, his wife,
are known as enthusiasts for the introduction
into this country of Froebel's system of infant
gardens. They uphold their system as if mothers
could not love their children without Froebel's
help, and as if there were no gate into
intellectual life, so truly the Gate Beautiful, as that
which is built by " stick-laying, plaiting, and pea
work." The young they teach, and, to the old,
they preach. They are not idle for an hour;
they look at nothing but the work before them.
Let each bride take from them as her dowry a
few large intersected dice, a box of matches,
wanting only phosphorus and sulphur to become
to the outward eye as to the wit they are
already, lucifers; add hereunto a quire of
coloured paper, a handful of clay, and a plate
of peas; let her receive these gifts with
understanding, and the burden of men's lives will
become light, all children will presently be
joyous, and all men and women wise.

The gifts, however, are to be received with
understanding; there must be a certain soul