a kiss can be rendered tenfold more effective."

Unmoved by his brother's raillery, Webb took the young girl's hand, and
looked at her so earnestly with his dark, grave eyes, that hers drooped.
"Sister Amy," he said, gently, "I was prepared to welcome you on general
principles, but I now welcome you for your own sake. Rattle-brain Burt
will make a good playmate, but you will come to me when you are in
trouble;" and he kissed her brow.

The girl looked up with a swift, grateful glance; it seemed odd to her,
even at that moment of strong and confused impressions, and with the
salutes of her guardians still warm upon her cheek, that she felt a sense
of rest and security never known before. "He will be my brother in very
truth," was the interpretation which her heart gave to his quiet words.
They all smiled, for the course of the reticent and undemonstrative young
man was rather unexpected. Burtis indulged in a ringing laugh, as he
said:

"Father, mother, you must both feel wonderfully relieved. Webb is to look
after Amy in her hours of woe, which, of course, will be frequent in this
vale of tears. He will console you, Amy, by explaining how tears are
formed, and how, by a proper regard for the sequence of cause and effect,
there might be more or less of them, according to your desire."

"I think I understand Webb," was her smiling answer.

"Don't imagine it. He is a perfect sphinx. Never before has he opened his
mouth so widely, and only an occasion like this could have moved him. You
must have unconsciously revealed a hidden law, or else he would have been
as mum as an oyster."