THE THATCH OF AVARICE.

It does not matter. As the great river broadens in the Spring, so do his
feelings swell and overflow his nature now. Why does he tremble,--that
rough, weather-beaten man? Because there is but one place on the great
earth where "an eye will mark his coming and grow brighter." If that
beacon still burns for him, he can continue his voyage. If it has
gone out, if anything has happened to it, his way is dark; nothing
but the abiding hand of the Great Father can steady his helm and hold
him to his desolate course.

[Illustration: CHILDHOOD.

"Childhood is the bough where slumbered
Birds and blossoms many-numbered;
Age, that bough with snows encumbered."]

The man who wandered "mid pleasures and palaces," had no Home, and when
he died he died on the bleak shores of Northern Africa, and was buried
where he died, at the city of Tunis, where he held the office of United
States Consul. "To Adam," says Bishop Hare, "Paradise was Home. To the
good among his descendants,


HOME IS PARADISE."

"Are you not surprised," writes Dr. James Hamilton, "to find how
independent of money peace of conscience is, and how much happiness can
be condensed in the humblest home? A cottage will not hold the bulky