smiled into each other's eyes with the smile of kindred as we parted.

As I followed on, I heard the two children, who were walking behind,
saying to each other, "Wouldn't that have been too bad? Mamma liked them
so much, and we never could have got so many all at once again."

"Yes, we could, too, next summer," said the boy, sturdily.

They are sure of their "next summers," I think, all six of those
souls,--children, and mother, and father. They may never again gather so
many ox-eye daisies and buttercups "all at once." Perhaps some of the
little hands have already picked their last flowers. Nevertheless, their
summers are certain. To such souls as these, all trees, either here or in
God's larger country, are Trees of Life, with twelve manner of fruits and
leaves for healing; and it is but little change from the summers here,
whose suns burn and make weary, to the summers there, of which "the Lamb
is the light."

Heaven bless them all, wherever they are.




Children in Nova Scotia.



Nova Scotia is a country of gracious surprises. Instead of the stones
which are what strangers chiefly expect at her hands, she gives us a
wealth of fertile meadows; instead of stormy waves breaking on a frowning