All the efforts of the light-hearted Bertha were at such times required to dissipate the sad memories of the past and forebodings of the future, that came crowding on her view; and they were generally triumphant. By her mild demeanor and gentle sweetness, and by some coaxing and pleading too, Bertha obtained the old man's consent that Adah should return her visit, and spend a month at Riverside.

ONE week has passed since Adah came to Riverside. It was a charming rural place; the lawn of the deepest green; flowers the most fragrant, songsters the sweetest; its surrounding willows the most graceful, to which the bright oriole never failed to return each spring, to build her nest; springs the clearest and softest; meadows the most luxuriant; shadows at sun-down the most beautiful, and noon-day quiet the most dreamy.

To Adah, time flew on swift pinions. The days were passed delightfully in walks and drives and pic-nics. With many of Bertha's friends she sympathized and assimilated, as though one faith, one hope animated them. They no longer eyed her with reserve and mistrust, but gazed with looks of admiration and approval on her beautiful countenance, which, hitherto saddened and thoughtful, now beamed with content and happiness.

CHAPTER SECOND.

'ALL men honor the skilful leech; from land to land he goes,

Safe in his privilege; the sword of war

Spares him; kings welcome him with costly gifts;

And he who late had from the couch of pain

Lifted a languid look to him for aid,

Views him with brightened eyes, and blesses him

In his first thankful prayer.'-SOUTHEY'S THALABA.

ADAH had once before met Edward Linton; she now saw him every day. His life was devoted to the healing art,' and his attachment to his vocation was romantic; nay, even chivalric. An universal benevolence, a missionary spirit, seemed to have animated him in the choice of a profession. Never was being more endowed by nature to win confidence and affection, and to diffuse peace and repose by his presence, than he. His gentle voice, quiet demeanor and truthful words, made the sufferer to feel that if there was help in arm of flesh the cunning of his hand would be blessed. A conscientious mind, illumined understanding and sympathizing heart would insure the blessing. The mild spirit and tone of Bertha and her brother, as they conversed with Adah on the Religion of the Cross, awakened interest and inspired confidence, if it did not bring immediate conviction to her mind. Day by day her prejudices grew fainter, and by-and-by a consciousness, full of peace and joy and hope, pervaded her spirit, that the faith must be a holy one which wrought such blessed effects.

Adah could not choose but admire the character of the young physician, for she was of a kindred mind and heart, and could ap

preciate his noble virtues. Love is founded on admiration; it begins with it. Some hold that Pity is akin to Love;' I am sure that Appreciation is a near relative, at least with superior beings, where love is inseparable from respect and esteem; those names so despised by lovers.

A friend once said to me: I hate the word esteem !' 'Why?' I asked. Because,' said he, it is the word women use when they reject the addresses of a lover: 'I esteem, but cannot love you;' 'I shall ever esteem you.''

They may esteem without loving, but be assured,' said I, 'those whose love is worth the possessing cannot love without esteeming.' Pity may have preceded young Linton's love for Adah; for he did most deeply sympathize with her in the isolated position in which she lived, and her shrinking sensitiveness to the contumely heaped upon her people. Let us analyze no more, but simply say:

'He loved her for the wrongs that she had suffered,

And she loved him that he did pity her.'

The same great poet hath it :

'THE course of true love never yet ran smooth;'

and my story forms no exception to the general rule. Uncle Solomon was inexorable. In vain did even Bertha plead. Adah thought that nothing short of a miracle could move him, and the day of miracles was passed. Yet over the spirit, if not over matter, they are wrought every day; in stubborn wills subdued; inveterate habits overcome; tastes, desires and opinions changed. GOD in his providence is hourly bringing mighty things to pass, which man in his blindness attributeth to accident, chance, time-any thing but His power working in us, to will and to do of His good pleasure.' Adah meekly and patiently resigned herself to what she deemed inevitable. She rarely saw Bertha. In vain her brother persuaded to disobedience. Gratitude, affection and maiden reserve all forbade. Yet they sometimes met; and hope did not altogether give place to despair.

CHAPTER THIRD.

'WATCHMAN, tell us of the night!
What the signs of promise are;
Traveller, o'er yon mountain's height
See that glory-beaming star!
Watchman, doth its beauteous ray
Aught of peace or joy foretell?
'Traveller, yes; it brings the day,
The promised day of ISRAEL!'

ONE only child had Uncle Solomon-the child of his old age, the child of his love, the child of his hopes. The little David was in the house a well-spring of pleasure, a messenger of peace and love; a resting-place for innocence on earth; a link between angels and men ;' a link between his earthly parent and his angel-mother in Heaven.

DAVID SOLOMON !-a name how full of hallowed associations; how the old man's heart yearned toward the little being! If 'old Uncle Solomon' had his weak point it was his idolatrous love for the little David. For him he toiled and strove; for his sake he bore neglect, injustice and buffeting. He was the quickener, the rewarder, the crown of all the labor which he labored to do under the sun.'

Little David Solomon was a bright boy; his eyes sparkled, and his dark locks curled in rich redundance about his healthful cheek. He had numbered four summers, when one autumn evening his father missed the sound of his little pattering feet in the hall, as he was wont nightly to come in to greet him, on his return from the city. On entering the house he saw nothing of his little favorite ; but hastening to his sleeping room, he found him lying on his low pallet, and Adah seated by his side, with anxiety and fear imprinted on her face, for she loved the little one with somewhat of the love of a mother for her child. He tossed restlessly from side to side, parched with fever, and his mind wandering and unquiet.

The old man took him in his arms: the little boy knew him not. Wild and incoherent, he screamed with terror as he gazed. The strong man was bowed. He lifted up his voice and wept. Never had Adah seen him so moved before. He said at length, in a voice hoarse with emotion: Adah, it is a sickness unto death! Something in my heart tells me there is no hope!'

'Be not so soon disheartened, my dear uncle. Little David has doubtless caught the malignant fever we have so much dreaded; but it may, by the blessing of Heaven, be allayed.'

The physician who had long attended the family, and his father before him, was summoned. He came; endeavored to look wise, and shook his empty head. He prescribed remedies, but without avail. Though more peaceful and quiet, the little boy's mind still wandered and his pulse was quick and wiry. Yet it was touching to hear from his lips, in his deliriousness, words which sweetly showed forth his innocence and affection. Once he clapped his little hands together with a sad glee, and spake of bright birds,' and 'gay flowers,' and of his sweet cousin Adah.'

The medical man came again. He gave them little hope. Adah sat by the side of the sufferer during the long night-watches. The foot-steps of the sorrow-stricken parent, as he paced the floor of the ante-room, (for he could not stay beside his child, to whom he was as a stranger,) fell upon her ear. A thought flashed upon her mind : 'If we could but have young Linton's counsel!' She stole silently to the side of her uncle and named her wish. He gave instant consent; nay, caught at her proposal as a drowning man clutches the last plank.

Before the day dawned a messenger was on his way to the young physician, with a note from Adah, beseeching him to come instantly and save, if it might be, their little David.

Never was greater celerity exhibited than in obeying this sum

mons.

In a little while Dr. Linton stood before the sick child, by

the side of Adah and the disheartened father. Though he spoke no word of encouragement as he gazed upon the face of the little sufferer, yet a light beamed from his countenance, and a ray of hope irradiated the hearts of both father and daughter. And thus vibrating between hope and fear, passed two more weary days. Linton rested not day nor night. All that human skill and foresight could devise, was resorted to. The result neither he nor they, nor any man could foretell. They could only fall down on their knees in humble, adoring submission before HIM who 'giveth the increase;' who is the hearer of prayer. The fervent petition of faith was heard, and it was answered. The little David awoke from a deep sleep on the morning of the third day; quiet and refreshed, although weak. The fever-wildness was quite passed away, and the crimsoned cheek was now pale and cool!

Oh! the rush of joy and gratitude, the ineffable tenderness, which glowed in the father's heart, as he beheld the little child of his love restored to himself, and once more smiling peacefully and sweetly in his face!

He turned to his preserver. 'The blessing,' said he, ' of the GOD of Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob, be upon thy head! He has made thee His instrument in restoring to me my boy. How can I ever thank thee?-how ever repay thee?

You can more than repay me, a thousand times ten thousand fold!'

'Ask any boon thou wilt; it is thine.'

Electrified with delight, Linton thought only of one boon: Give me your daughter; the daughter of your adoption, the child of your love!'

'It is a high price,' said Solomon smiling, but as thou hast won her, I give her to thee, with my blessing on you both!'

'Were they really married, then?'

'Of course; and what is better still, by the blessed influence of young Linton's example, and the meek and gentle Bertha's, no long time elapsed before Adah cast in her lot with her new family in spiritual as well as temporal things; and his people became her people and his SAVIOUR her SAVIOUR.'