Oh, it was like a ray of sunshine to that weeping mother's heart, to
hear her once wayward child speak thus! and though it was like taking
away the life-drops from her heart to give up her cherished little one,
yet she felt there was still a great blessing remaining for her.

Time passed on. Autumn came with its ripened fruits and golden foliage;
winter laid his glittering mantle upon the streams and hill-tops, and
spring brought blossoms for little Katie's grave.

Annie, the gentle Annie, where was she?

Firm to her purpose, she had gone onward. At times the struggle was hard
indeed. Then she would go to the spring, and kneel down, and talk with
her Good Father, until the evil feelings had left her heart, and the
cheerful smile came again to her countenance.

At length summer, bright, beautiful summer, beamed over the land once
more, and as it drew to a close it brought the day on which Annie was to
meet her friend at the spring.

It was the close of the Sabbath, and the last rays of the setting sun
streamed through the branches of the trees that surrounded the spring,
and tinged its waters with a rosy light. There sat the old lady, looking
anxiously up the road.

"I wonder why she don't come," said she. "Perhaps the young thing has
forgotten me. Sure 'twould be a sorrow to me if I thought she had."

"No indeed," said a pleasant voice. A light form sprang from a clump of
bushes close by, and she felt a warm kiss upon her cheek. "No, I have