The group of banished little ones was recalled, but while the messenger
was gone for them, the mother in the strength of her new-found peace,
had brought forth from that closed chamber the gifts which the fond
father had designed for each of his children, and had spread them out
in fair array on the parlor table. So it was New Year's Day to the
children after all.

The trust of that mother _in the widow's God_ was never put to shame.
Her children grew up around her, and hardly realized that they had not
father and mother both in the one parent who was all in all to them. She
was efficient and successful in all her undertakings. Her home, with its
overshadowing trees, its rural abundance and hearty hospitalities, lives
in the hearts of many as their brightest embodiment of an ideal, a
cheerful, Christian home. The memory of that mother, dispensing little
kindnesses to everybody within her reach, is a heritage to her children
worth thousands of gold and silver. Truly, "they that seek the Lord
_shall not want any good thing_."

* * * * *


FILIAL REVERENCE OF THE TURKS.


A beautiful feature in the character of the Turks is, their reverence
and respect for the author of their being. Their friends' advice and
reprimands are unheeded; their words are _leash_--nothing; but their
mother is an oracle. She is consulted, confided in, listened to with
respect and deference, honored to her latest hour, and remembered with
affection and regret beyond the grave.