as father thinks you are strong enough to dictate, I will write the letters you spoke of to him."

There was much heartiness and gratitude in the captain's "hank you," and "good morning!" and Diantha had a pleasant consciousness, while looking at carpets and furniture, that the wreck of the Stella had already woven threads into her web of life of a deeper and more vivid coloring than time's every-day shuttle had hitherto wrought.

CHAPTER VII.

AT HOME AND ABROAD.

"Ill fares the child of heaven, who will not entertain
On earth the stranger's grief, the exile's sense of pain "

"Selfishness

Is never great, and moves to no great deeds."

TRENCH.

DR. HOWELL had no difficulty in finding workmen, who forwarded as expeditiously as he could wish the transformation of the chamber over his office into an apartment for Edna Shreve.

With Diantha's aid he selected a pretty ingrain carpet of subdued colors, a chamber set of chestnut, and delicate buff curtains; while his daughter adorned the walls with sketches in crayon and water-colors, the fruits of her own pencil and brush. In the southern window she placed a stand of her most fragrant flowering shrubs, and an English ivy almost concealed another window with its wealth of green leaves. And in less than forty-eight hours after the doctor had broached this "quixotic scheme to his wife, the unconscious little orphan was brought upon a mattress in a close carriage to take possession of her new quarters.

99

"You've spent as much money on that room, and made as much fuss in ornamenting it with your pictures and flowers, as if it were for one of Queen Victoria's children," remarked Mrs. Howell, when the family had gathered in the parlor after the toils and labors of the day.

"Perhaps so," rejoined the doctor, "for I have remembered that she is one of God's little ones, and that He has said, 'Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these, ye have done it unto Me."

"It is to be hoped the child will appreciate the value of the money and time spent upon her," added Miss Goodenow, with a look and tone which plainly intimated that such a charitable wish was without the pale of reason.

"It will certainly be pleasant, if the poor child lives, to know that she appreciates the services we have rendered, and will be a healthy stimulus to future deeds of selfdenial; but we are not taught by our divine Master to regulate our charity by the amount of appreciation which it receives," said the doctor.

"I reckon, if we did,” replied his lady, "the sum of our charities would not materially decrease our comforts Take that Jenks family, for instance; you give an old gown to one of the girls, and .the mother will be sure to ask for a cloak or shawl to go with it; and if you give them a pair of shoes, they'll remind you of their need of stockings. I decided long ago that my own comfort and happiness were of as much importance as the wants of shiftless beggars, who would sooner live upon the bounty of the rich than work. Mr. Goodenow used to say that pov erty was as frequently due to a lack of tact and thrift as to adverse circumstances, and should never be encouraged by indiscriminate charity."

Dr. Howell had many years before acquired the habit of receiving in silence his wife's version of her former husband's tastes and opinions, and if his own private judg ment did not entirely harmonize with the late Mr. Goodenow's, he rarely proclaimed the fact; and Mrs. Howell's assertion that her own comfort and happiness were of paramount importance, was a truth so evident to the fam

ily circle, that it was unnecessary to add to or subtract from it; therefore no reply was made, and Mrs. Howell crocheted with a haughty dignity habitual to her, and with an expression meant to convey the pith of Solomon's assertion, that "the wisdom of the prudent is to understand his way."

Diantha, loving both her parents with the wealth of a generous nature, was always keenly sensitive to any discordant note in the domestic harmony, and in some way endeavored to exorcise the jarring spirit. On this particular Saturday evening, her desire to promote a feeling of good-will and charity, by introducing a theme of common interest to all, suggested the propriety of drawing out her half-sister's accomplishments, which were rarely displayed for the entertainment of her relatives.

"Louise," she said, walking to the side of that young lady, and laying upon her shoulder a hand which conveyed as much persuasion in its touch as that member is often gifted with,-"Louise, won't you please play for papa and Stephen that selection from Mendelssohn which so delighted the company at Mrs. Metcalf's last evening? I heard Mr. Horace Metcalf say he never heard an amateur performance that pleased him so well."

Perhaps the compliment, coming as it did from an authority which Miss Goodenow recognized as worthy, and perhaps the anticipated pleasures of her New York visit, softened her haughty spirit; and it may be that kindly impulses in her nature, deeply hidden beneath its thick crust of selfishness, had been stirred by the glimpse she caught of Edna's helpless condition when she was borne. through the hall: so that, contrary to her usual disobliging habit, she walked to the piano, only murmuring something to the effect "that papa and Stephen couldn't appreciate her style of music; they enjoyed less classical compositions than she played."

"You must assist in educating our tastes, Louise," said Stephen, laying aside his novel; and his sister, probably inspired by the novelty of an amiable desire to confer pleasure, played with such spirit, interest, and expression as to elicit the heartiest praise from the doctor; and Mr. Metcalf happening to call in season to share the latter part of the entertainment, the fair pianist doubtless felt that even in this life there are compensations for acts of self-denial.

Mrs. Howell and Miss Goodenow were satisfied with the momentary glimpse they had of Edna's pale face when she was borne through the hall; and neither curiosity nor charity tempted them to the chamber where she lay before they started for New York. However, there was much. packing and consultation to occupy their thoughts, and, the Sabbath intervening, the services at Dr. Blossom's church must be attended, especially as the house was most elaborately decorated with evergreens and flowers. And Miss Goodenow declared "she would not miss seeing the Christmas decorations and hearing the music for any money."

Mrs. Howell, having performed her maternal duty, and exhibited her new velvet cloak, by accompanying her daughter to the fashionable church in the morning, and, having feasted her eyes on its beautiful decorations, and her ears with the appropriate artistic music she had enjoyed, and the subduing effects of the handsome doctor's smoothly-flowing sermon, thought, as she remarked to her husband, that "she had received a sufficient quantity of mental and spiritual food for one day, and though in the morning she had anticipated hearing Rev. Mr. Dinsmore's evening discourse (she was a member of the church where the latter divine officiated, and where the doctor