to a whisper, "I wasn't very sorry when Edie went back to school. She is so stiff and grown up. I'm nearly fourteen, and

I'm not half as solemn and womanish, am I?"

"Oh, Dora!" laughed Lerrie, half choking with merriment, "what will your teacher say to such words as that?"

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"Oh, I'm only talking to you, you know," answered Miss Dora, composedly, combing out her long, tangled hair, making wry faces, and giving vent to sundry "ohs! and "ahs," and other indescribable articulations which always accompanied that process. "I shan't forget when I'm at school."

"Don't make too sure of that, young lady; it's a bad practice to use reprehensible grammar, even in fun, though it's a temptation, I know, by way of relief."

As Lerrie concluded this piece of elder-sisterly counsel, she did something that Dora thought was more to the point, took the brush from her hand, and began to vigorously smooth the long, thick, brown "mane.'

"I don't wonder Edith is scandalized at you," she said, in a tone of mock reproof; "you behave more like four than fourteen.' "I can't help it; I don't want to be grown up yet. There'll be time enough to be stiff and poky and womanly,"-Dora brought the word out with emphasis-" when I leave school and wear long dresses."

"So there will," assented Lerrie, who was by no means very womanly herself. "Helen does not seem so frigid and dignified

as Edith.”

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No; Helen is jolly; and isn't she pretty, Lerrie! Do you know, Edith actually likes being at school! She said she was tired of vacation. Just fancy!

Lerrie laughed. Dora's intellectual capacity could not admit such a phenomenon as a girl who actually preferred studies to holidays.

"Are you really sorry to go home, Lerrie ?" was the talkative young maiden's last question as they laid down to rest.

"I don't know," answered Lerrie, wide-awake. "Go to sleep. Good-night."

Was she sorry to go? She wondered; she hardly knew. "I am afraid I shall have to go without seeing Miss Greeve," she thought, but she did not say so to Dora. Somehow neither

of the three had ever spoken of that incident, save to each other. The next day Helen discovered that she had some shopping to do in the town, and invited her cousins to accompany her. Lerrie had a letter to write, so she decided to stay at home, but Dora was delighted to go. They did not return to dinner, but Mrs. Dennorth only smiled, saying she never expected Helen back for some hours when she walked into the town; she was sure to meet with some friend.

The afternoon was dull, though rather sultry, and Lerrie was restless, so she decided to go out for a walk, and take her letter to post.

"I shall most likely go on for a little walk, Aunt," she said, as she looked into the sitting-room, where Mrs. Dennorth was entertaining a neighbour. Very neighbourly the people were here, Lerrie thought, always giving and receiving calls.

"Very well, my dear; be sure you don't lose yourself."

"Oh, no; I will keep to the straight road; I won't get lost," returned Lerrie, laughing.

"I wouldn't advise you to go far, my dear," put in the other lady; "I think we shall have a thunderstorm before long."

"I don't think it will come yet," answered weather-wise Lerrie, glancing through the window. "I will turn back if I see any sign of it."

How horrid it was, walking along between these rows of tall, stiff houses, where ever and anon a face peered from a window, and watched one down the street, till one got too far away, and another one came up to be watched and criticised. It seemed to Lerrie that some of the people must spend more than half their time in sitting at the window discussing the passers-by. She was always glad to be free from the village, so she made her way quickly to the Post-office, and then turned to the more secluded road which led to the country. Even here it was not so quiet as in her own village; vehicles and foot-passengers passed her ever and anon, but Lerrie did not mind them so much as those prying eyes at the windows of the genteel houses.

On she went, slowly and thoughtfully,-past the house where Miss Greeve resided, as she had done many times since that Sunday; but no reproving voice broke the stillness that hung over that detached, secluded, and solemn-looking dwelling. Lerrie half paused beside the gate, and glanced up, as she always did, at the upper windows; the lower ones were hidden from view by high laurels, but there were no eyes visible behind those curtains-no signs of life or motion there.

(To be continued.)

NOT a day passes but you have abundant opportunities to do good, to make someone happy. The children of want are everywhere. Weeping eyes and aching hearts are all around us. There goes a

mother through the piercing winds, thinly clad, holding in her arms a shivering babe. There goes a little child, begging for bread. There goes a drunken father. There goes a staggering young man, perhaps thy neighbour's son. There lies thy fallen brother, or it may be thy fallen sister by the wayside. Go, rescue them. Take them by the hand, and raise them up. Speak words of comfort to their sorrowing hearts, and "tell them of JESUs, the mighty to save."

GOOD FRIDAY.

How thankful should we be that there was ever a Good Friday. Our hearts should be lifted up with thankfulness to Him who left His Father's throne in heaven, took our form upon Him, came down to earth and suffered upon the cross, and died for us, each one individually. On that day was great darkness; the earth mourned the death of the greatest king that ever reigned. He died that the sting of death might be taken away. On this anniversary of His death, our rejoicing should be quiet thankfulness rather than boisterous mirth, remembering that we are celebrating the death of Him who died to save us from eternal damnation.

When we review all that he has done for us, let us ask ourselves what we are doing for Him. We owe Him a debt we can never pay, but it is our duty to do all we can for Him, to show the gratitude we feel. Where should we be now if He had not died? What hope should we have for the next world? When we answer these questions, let us thank Him for His great goodness to each one of us, not only with our lips, but in our lives.

EASTER THOUGHTS.

OUR Lord is not in the tomb; He is risen! It is not a dead Christ we worship, but a living one ascended into heaven. He died that we might live; He rose again that we might rise. He lives now to intercede with His Father for us. If he had not risen, we might think there was no resurrection for us, but that our lives were to be lived out, and then return to dust; but He has said, "Because I live ye shall live also." We shall verily die as He died, and rise again as He has risen, when the last trump shall sound. Happy then shall we be, if we can say, "I have finished the work thou gavest me to do." Then there shall be no more death. All who have died shall rise again. Let us thank Him that He is a risen Lord, when we thank Him for His death.

MARION THORNLIE.

EASTER DAY.

"Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection."

REV. xx. 6.

WHAT a glorious and wonderful consummation of the scheme of man's redemption is the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, which the Church of Christ this day commemorates. We have followed the Saviour to the Garden of Gethsemane, and witnessed the

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agony there endured, the comforting angel sent in that mysterious hour to strengthen Him in the prospect of the exceeding weight of anguish and suffering. We have seen Him led to the Mount of Calvary, there hanging bleeding upon the Cross, until the cry was uttered, "It is finished!" Why did He suffer thus?

Dear Reader! You have often read the account of the sufferings of the Lord Jesus, but hare you ever felt that it was FOR You Jesus died? the sins of your heart, the sins of your life, nailed Him to the Cross.

In the Levitical law, chap. xiv. 5, 6, when the leper was cleansed two birds were taken, one was killed, and the living one dipped into the blood of the bird that was killed, and let fly away, a type of the substitution of the Redeemer for the sinner. Come, then, to Jesus! seek that the precious blood He shed may cleanse your soul from every stain. Flee away, washed and purified, to live to His glory who so loved you; and as the bird soars upward, so let your "affections be set upon things above, not on things on the earth."

If you are thus in Christ, how joyfully will you meditate upon the high and holy theme of His resurrection.

It is the third morning since the body of Jesus was laid in the tomb, Mary is weeping by the sepulchre because she sees not the loved remains, when a voice accosts her “ Mary!” and how joyful was her response," Rabboni," Master. The angels are sitting by in their shining garments, and ask the disciples, "Why seek ye the living among the dead?"

Yes! He who spake with commanding voice at the grave of Lazarus "Come forth!" and to the widow of Nain's son "Arise !” has Himself burst asunder the bands of the grave; "Christ is risen, and become the first-fruits of them that slept." Glorious, sublime truth, the grand consummation of Redeeming grace and love!

In the world of nature, how beautiful is the resuscitation of Spring! The trees are bursting with new life; their buds and leaves of verdant green and various blossoms are promising summer fruit; the flowers are springing up to cheer with their ever-varying loveliness; the seed which has been sown, and died, has quickened, and brought forth the blade, and will soon ripen for harvest. The butterfly has burst its chrysalis, and is rejoicing in life. "For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone." "The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land." "The fig-tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell.”

What pleasure does the resurrection of nature give to all, when we feel so cheered with its loveliness at this season; let it lead our minds to the blessed theme of the resurrection of the body.

Let us not dwell so much upon the dark and silent grave, as upon the hopes and anticipations beyond. Jesus our Redeemer will come again in power and great glory, the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised, the slumbering dust shall awake, and be changed, "corruption shall put on incorruption, this mortal immortality." "We shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is."