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 "O, Dolly! it's our side of Factories."
 
 BOSTON: 
 IRA. BRADLKY Ac CO. 
 
 8UCCB80M TO KKCXT HOTT.
 
 Copyrighted, 
 
 By IRA BRADLEY & CO. 
 1K80.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 DOLLY'S NARRATIVE, ...... 7 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 Tin MIM, ON FIRE, - - 14 
 
 CHAPTER m. 
 SOMEBODY HURT, .......96 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 WHAT MOTHER SATO, - 88 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 ALMOST HKAKT-BROKEB, - .... 45 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 THE POWER or PRINCIPLE, W 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 GABRIKLLB GARCELOM, - ... 65 
 
 CHAPTKH VIM. 
 SENDING FOR HELEN, 71 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 WITHOUT FAITH, -79 
 
 3
 
 iv CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 LETTERS FROM HOME, - . . - 92 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 DOLLY'S NARRATIVE, - .... 100 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 SAVED, ... ... 117 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 HELEN AT CASTLE BROOK, .... 180 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 THROUGH TUB WOODS TO CHURCH, ... 145 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 HELEN'S DECISION, - - 157 
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 JACK'S PLEA, - .165 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 DOLLY'S NARRATIVE, - - 179 
 
 CHAPTER XVIIL 
 GABRIELLE'S PARTY, ... 18'j 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 GABRIELLE'S VISIT, - ls>7 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 A HAPPY !: v KM.\<;, . . 205 
 
 CHAPTER XXL 
 A LETTER FROM CATHY, - .... 214 
 
 CHAPTER XXIL 
 
 JACK'S FOREBODINGS, ... . 223
 
 CONTEXTS. y 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 NURSK BRIDE'S WAKXIM;, 1 . - 234 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 BARON'S UNHEUEK, - .... 246 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 ALMOST A MIRACLK, - .... 52 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 CLAIMING TUB PROMISE, - . 259 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 DOLLY'S NAKKATIVK EM>JLD, - .... 267
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE, 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 DOLLY'S NARRATIVE. 
 
 " Light and bright the insion plays." 
 
 ES, dear," said my mother, as we sat down 
 to rest for a few moments before getting 
 supper, " I think there is such a thing as 
 living beyond our present experiences, of resting 
 at all times in a higher and purer atmosphere." 
 
 "But these little, daily cares are so depress- 
 ing," I said. 
 
 "They should not be," she answered, with 
 her sweet smile. "Bread making, cake baking, 
 sweeping and dusting are not so unpleasant in 
 themselves; there are even poetry and beauty in 
 cadi, if we will it to be. And then, you know, 
 our thoughts are not in our fingers." 
 
 7
 
 8 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 
 
 "Yours are not, at any rate," I replied, as I 
 tied on my working apron, " for sometimes when 
 it seems to me yo"u ought to be worried to death, 
 you can smile and sing, too. Even when Harry 
 was brought in for dead, you acted as if you had 
 been prepared for it in some strange manner." 
 
 " I had been prepared," said mother, " but not 
 in any strange manner/' 
 
 " Pray how ? " I asked, with wide, opened eyes. 
 
 " By faith," was the simple answer. 
 
 I had no time to ponder on the ready reply, or 
 the quiet, beautiful smile with which she said it, 
 for Dick, my youngest brother, a sturdy, whole- 
 some boy, came rushing in from an errand he had 
 been sent on to the Post Office. 
 
 " I tell you what, Doll)', it's a long walk from 
 there," he said. " I wish I had a velocipede like 
 the rest of the fellows. I can get a splendid one, 
 second-hand, at Benson's, all in good condition, 
 for five dollars just think of that I Never shall 
 have such a chance again but what's the use ? 
 I've not got five dollars, nor one nor yet fifty 
 cents." 
 
 "Oh, well!" said I, my thoughts running on 
 another subject, " you must have faith."
 
 NO MOTIIKK I-IKK MINE. 9 
 
 " Faith ! " he answered, lightly, " I'd rather 
 have money. Faith don't buy velocipedes, 1 
 guess. It's proper place is in ilie pulpit, not in 
 the house." 
 
 " Never mind ! try it a little," I said, laughing, 
 "if it don't come to anything, why nobody is 
 hurt." 
 
 "All right! then I'm going to have a veloci- 
 pede, slap up ! and some supper, too, I hope. 
 You haven't even set the table." 
 
 "No! I'm going to get a clean cloth," and out 
 I ran into the hall, feeling unusually light- 
 hearted. Up the white stairs I went, singing, 
 for all our home surroundings were peculiarly 
 pleasant. The view from the window at the top 
 of the staii>> detained me a moment, but presently 
 I went into the bright, pretty bed-room, where in 
 a very high and delightfully roomy old press, 
 that had come down to the seventh generation, 
 was packed our store of house linen. 
 
 After I had selected the cloth, I thought I 
 would freshen my toilet a little with a clean 
 collar, and so I stood at the glass long enough to 
 smarten myself up. I had brushed my hair, and 
 was just closing the drawer, when accidentally I
 
 10 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 knocked the cover from a little box in which I 
 kept ribbons. In the corner of that box placidly 
 staring up at me, was a five dollar bill, my own. 
 I had been saving it for a long time, and intended 
 to buy some pretty laces and little matters for 
 toilet purposes. But the sight of the money set 
 me to thinking again. It would be so nice for 
 Dick to have a velocipede, and he was such a 
 good boy, seldom grumbling when set to tasks, 
 and always willing to help us all. 
 
 But then I really needed the new ribbons, and 
 five dollars did seem such a deal of money. The 
 velocipede would be of no benefit to me it 
 would simply please Dick please him ! why the 
 boy would be wild with delight. Somehow the 
 idea of his confidently expressed faith, had taken 
 hold of me. He might forget it, but the lesson 
 would be all the same. 
 
 "Where one can be a sort of providence," I 
 thought to myself, " and gvaiit a wish so reason- 
 able," and then I thought of Dick's honest, blue 
 eyes, with the wonder-joy in them, and of the 
 possible lesson I might teach, though I needed 
 lessons myself heaven knows! Without having 
 quite made up my mind, I snatched up the bill,
 
 NO MOTHEIl LIKE MINK. 11 
 
 thrust it in my pocket, and went down stairs. 
 Dick had apparently forgotten about the veloci- 
 pede, and was putting some pine sticks on the 
 fire to make the kettle boil, and father sat in his 
 easy chair, busy with the paper. 
 
 It was Hot long before the table was ready, and 
 mother was in her place pouring out the tea. It 
 seemed as if every little thing set me to thinking. 
 Father's care-worn face, and the manner mother 
 seemed to study him. Even the way she handed 
 him his tea, was something different from the 
 ways of other people, and from my own. It was 
 a sort of caressing movement, and her sweet 
 eyes, though anxious, had a smile in them. My 
 father must have noticed it, for he did not often 
 say " thank you, dear," as he did to-night. 
 
 " What a good mother she is ! " I thought, 
 "after thft trying day. From morning till night 
 she has been on her feet." Harry that was my 
 eldest brother, bedridden had been restless and 
 full of pain, and it had taxed all her energies to 
 amuse him. Our only servant was very young 
 and a little silly, and consequently some part of 
 the work that should have been hers, fell on 
 mother's shoulders, or mine, and yet, my mother
 
 12 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE 
 
 was just as quiet, gentle, low-voiced and smiling, 
 as when early in the morning, we made the bread 
 together. 
 
 "By faith!" 
 
 I seemed to see the words written on her fore- 
 head, the calm, wide, beautiful forehead, and the 
 tears came to my eyes for a moment. How much 
 had she sacrificed, daily, for us! Could I not 
 also sacrifice for others my own ? 
 
 My resolution was taken, and I determined to 
 act upon it, at once. I was going down to the 
 store for some groceries, for it devolved upon me 
 to regulate the home supply. I remembered 
 having seen the last time I was there, that pretty, 
 blue velocipede, and I was now all impatience to 
 make the purchase. 
 
 As I left our door, neighbor Brock and his wife, 
 and Cathy, their pretty, bright-faced daughter, 
 were just coming in, as they did generally once a 
 week. 
 
 Cathy had her violin case in her hand, and her 
 father carried his flute, a dainty thing, all silver 
 and pearl. 
 
 "I'm so glad to see you!" I said, kissing 
 Cathy. Go right in, I shall be back in a little
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 13 
 
 while. Father and mother will be so delighted ; 
 and as for Harry, you know music is heaven to 
 him." 
 
 Then I ran all the way to the store, and found 
 the velocipede yet for sale. Benson, the shop- 
 keeper, took it down to show me. 
 
 " It's for a poor widow, whose son is gone to a 
 place," he said, "and she needs the money very 
 much, I reckon. I don't charge for selling it." 
 
 "I'll take it, Mr. Benson," said I. "Send it 
 down early in the morning." 
 
 Then it seemed, going home, as if I had two 
 hearts in my bosom, Dick's and my own, and 
 both of them beating joyfully and gratefully.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE MILLS ON FIRE. 
 " Serene and calm the world of song" 
 
 ! house-room looked more charming than 
 
 j ever as I entered it, after returning from 
 my errand. Mrs. Brock sat at the piano, 
 her fair hair hanging in clustering curls from the 
 comb that partly confined it, striking now and 
 then a soft musical chord. Cathy was tuning the 
 sweet, little violin, which she handles almost 
 with the grace and finish of a master, and her 
 father had his silver flute, poised, ready to begin. 
 The Brocks were our right hand neighbors, 
 and sincere friends as well as lovers of art. 
 They had came among us in great trouble, some 
 three years before, and having a sick child, my 
 mother was moved to go in and offer her services. 
 She found them almost destitute and despairing 
 
 0, 
 
 The father, a slender, good looking man, had been 
 
 14
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 15 
 
 in the service of a city firm, as book-keeper, for 
 years, but the failure of his employers threw him 
 on the world, penniless. A friend had loaned 
 him a small sum of money, and with this he had 
 moved to our town, hoping to get a place in one 
 of the factories that lined our river banks. The 
 little child died, and they still had no friend or 
 comforter beside my mother, who enlisted the 
 sympathies of the town's folk, and the child was 
 decently buried. 
 
 "Ach!" the mother would sometimes say to 
 me, with a strong German accent, " thy mutter is 
 an angel ! I love the very sight of her. Before 
 we tame here, we sold my poor, little piano, that 
 mine father gave me, twenty years ago, on my 
 marriage day ; Wilhelm had pawned his flute, 
 which was also a wedding present, and poor 
 Cathy's little violin, which came down from the 
 great, great grandfather, and which she loves so 
 dearly as her life. Now, because of thy mutter, 
 we are comfortable, and though I have not my 
 piano, the father has his flute again, with which 
 he keeps off the heart-sickness, and Cathy has her 
 violin. We have found such friends, that I am 
 thankful to the good God, and it is thy mutter
 
 16 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 has taught me this. My Wilhelm, poor man, has 
 not faith, but some time, please heaven, he shall 
 believe, and be happy while he lives and when he 
 dies." 
 
 The Brocks had brought in a roll of old 
 German music. Blessed be Germany for her 
 almost divine masters of song, whose harmonies 
 float in the atmosphere of far distant lands, and 
 whose numbers wedded to undying music, are 
 sung throughout the civilized world ! 
 
 Harry's door was open, and the light of our 
 house-room streamed over the threshold, to meet 
 the faint rays of the tiny taper, placed on the 
 stand near his bed. I knew he was happy, for 
 music always soothed his restlessness. 
 
 Can I not make this picture perfect for you 
 this picture of the Brock family, whose destiny 
 heaven has seemingly decreed shall be woven 
 with our lives ? There stands Wilhelm, slender, 
 -swaying, his long, white, nervous fingers flying 
 over the silver keys, his eyes, under over-arching, 
 black brows, of a blue so dark, as to seem black 
 in the night. His hair is luxuriant, and inclined 
 to curl back from the low, broad, thought-lined 
 brow. His features are strongly defined, and
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 17 
 
 
 
 rather handsomely formed, his expression bright 
 and hopeful, though varying. He looks a reso- 
 lute, gentle tempered man he is a good German 
 scholar, something of a poet, but above all, a 
 musician. Under book-keeper in the factory of 
 which father^is foreman, he is an able and earnest 
 worker, and hopes in time to lay up some money, 
 which, with the savings of his son Ernest, who 
 is in business for himself in some small way, will 
 enable him to buy the house which they now 
 rent. 
 
 His wife is a small woman, quick in her move- 
 ments, decided in her opinions, and who seems to 
 be without fault, unless it be the almost wor- 
 shipful love she bears her husband and children, 
 and which makes her too tolerant even towards 
 their failings. She is not pretty, but her face is 
 full of character, and her hair like rippling gold. 
 Full forty years of age, she is yet more like 
 Cathy's sister, both in manner and appearance, 
 than her mother. Like her husband, she is 
 passionately fond of music, and I have the hap- 
 piness of being one of her pupils, though she 
 often tells me that I need the aid of more 
 advanced masters. But we often find a little
 
 18 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 time for music, during the day. Those are the 
 hours during which mother and I can with 
 impunity absent ourselves from Harry's bedside. 
 Harry is a pale, handsome lad of nineteen, whose 
 life since his tenth year, has been a long succes- 
 sion of agonies, though now he seems better in 
 -body and mind. Ever since he was brought in 
 for dead on that terrible day, he has been a 
 constant though a precious care. 
 
 Cathy Brock, is like her father, bright, merry 
 and winning. Her face is rather broad, so are 
 her shoulders, her whole cast of countenance 
 tells of her German origin, and she is a very 
 pretty girl. Frank, amiable and earnest, she 
 intends to find her place in life, and hold it. At 
 present, she is a hard student, and her greatest 
 sorrow is that her brother Ernst, whom I have 
 never seen, has not been able to go back to 
 Germany, and finish his college course. Of this 
 she will talk to me by the hour, and I confess 
 she has quite imbued me with her opinions. 
 
 Mother sat near the fire with her stocking 
 basket, darning needle in hand. The fire flaino 
 played on her face, lighting up its serene beauty 
 it must have been exquisite in youth and I,
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 19 
 
 as I turned over the leaves of the old German 
 music, fancied that its sweetness of sound, was 
 akin to her purity of expression, and someway 
 the two seemed blended. 
 
 "I'll take my breath, now," said Mr. Brock, 
 and placing his flute on the piano, he drew a 
 chair near my father, and began talking business. 
 Mi's. Brock naturally seated herself by mother, 
 and Cathy and I paired off, after the beloved 
 violin had been carefully secured. 
 
 "I had a letter from Ernst, to-day," said 
 Cathy she always used the shorter, German 
 pronunciation. 
 
 " Indeed ! he is getting on, I hope," said I. 
 
 "Yes. I think Ernst is sure to get on, he is 
 M> >teady and persevering. He always said ho 
 would be rich. It is the height of his ambit ion, 
 and I believe he will." 
 
 "It must be so delightful to be rich," I said, 
 with something like a sigh. 
 
 '*Yes, if only you can make your own for- 
 tune," responded Cathy, with brightening eyes. 
 "To feel that you are something more than a 
 lumulrum working machine, to know that YOU 
 can command the attention and applause of the 
 world."
 
 20 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 "That sounds very much as if you contem- 
 plated making music a profession," I said. 
 
 "I should like to," and her eyes kindled. 
 "But then I am not a genius. " I shall have to 
 work hard, I can't say how long, before I shall 
 dare to play in public." 
 
 "And I years before I am fit to play any- 
 where," J said, laughing. 
 
 "I thought you only cared for home and 
 housekeeping," said Cathy, who was folding a 
 bit of white paper round and round her finger. 
 
 "I do care for home, and housekeeping, par- 
 ticularly under mother's supervision, for she 
 seems to make everything and everybody fall 
 into the right place," I said in my quick way, 
 " but the fact is I am thirsting and hungering for 
 an education. Ever since I came from school, I 
 have been unhappy, though I don't let mother 
 know how I feel. But she guesses it, and tries 
 to cheer me in her own sweet way. I suppose I 
 ought to be content, for you see there is no hope, 
 the way I look at it. Father's salary is not 
 large, and a great part of it goes in doctor's 
 bills and medicines for poor Harry, so it would 
 be cruel for me to complain."
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 21 
 
 " You have such a neat, beautiful home ! " 
 said Cathy, "we can be neat at our house, but 
 we can't be beautiful. There must be fairies 
 concealed in your fingers, over here, for all your 
 pretty things are home made. How do you 
 manage? Those brush bags, for instance, they 
 are prettier than you can buy, and yet you make 
 them." 
 
 " Yes, out of pieces of Turkey red, and black 
 cotton velvet. That sofa-cover, with the black 
 vines and leaves, is composed of the same mate- 
 rial ; it costs little but the time, and I cut out all 
 sorts of fanciful figures when I am sitting by 
 Harry. It amuses him. and he lias made some 
 very pretty designs for me. The only drawback 
 is that he is all the time calling me to admire 
 them, as fast as he gets new ones. We 
 answer his bell, you know, and sometimes I 
 to go with my hands in the dough. Still I 
 am thankful for anything that keeps him from 
 fretting, poor boy, or that makes him forget 
 his pain." 
 
 " How pretty your mother looks, Dolly ! " 
 
 Dolly is my home name, and is, as it ought to 
 be, homely.
 
 22 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 " It always seems to me as if she were thinking 
 the most beautiful thoughts." 
 
 " I dare say she is, Cathy ; her life is by no 
 means as common-place as it seems. You should 
 hear her talk when we sit down to rest some- 
 times. I am getting to feel quite ashamed to 
 complain, for she makes everything seem just* as 
 it should, and her faith is something wonderful. 
 I don't believe any misfortune could take her by 
 surprise she would only say, * I know in whom 
 I trust.'" 
 
 " It seems to me," said my father, " there's a 
 great noise outside." He had turned, listening, 
 to the window. Mr. Brock rose and sauntered 
 across the room. Suddenly we were all startled 
 by a thundering knock. 
 
 " Mr. Gregory ! the mill be on fire I " shouted a 
 voice we knew well. 
 
 My father sprang to his feet, growing pale. It 
 was but the work of a minute to don his great 
 coat, his thick cap, and he was off. Mr. Brock 
 worked more quietly. He first put his flute in 
 its case. Then he kissed his wife and daughter, 
 to their seeming surprise, bade his wife stay 
 where she was, and went into his own house for
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 23 
 
 his overcoat, leaving us all at the window, look- 
 ing out upon the fast reddening atmosphere. I 
 was trembling with excitement. 
 
 " Oh, mother ! if it should be father's mill ! " 
 I said. 
 
 "Well, if it is father's mill, as you call it, 
 worrying won't save it, dear," said my mother, 
 quietly. 
 
 Dick called down if he might get up. "It's 
 just as light as day," he added, " and I'm wide 
 awake." He must also have been dressed, for 
 when mother said yes, down he came prepared to 
 make a night of it, and looking eagerly to where 
 his rough coat hung inside the closet door on a 
 peg. Mother sent him for water, and began to 
 make coffee. 
 
 "They'll be cold and tired when they get 
 home," she said, " and nothing so heartens one as 
 good coffee." 
 
 "I wonder," said Mrs. Brock, turning to my 
 mother, "that you can be so calm. See, I 
 tremble from head to foot. The prospect of 
 Wilhelm's losing his place, and certainly the fire 
 is on this side, fills me with terror. We have 
 seen so many troubles."
 
 24 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 
 
 "And have you not been carried through 
 them all?" asked mother, quietly. 
 
 The little woman paused for a moment, as if 
 grasping a new idea. 
 
 "Why yes;" she said, slowly. 
 
 "Then never doubt but you will be carried 
 through this, if indeed there is a trial in reserve 
 for you. Don't lose your faith in God." 
 
 " But if Wilhelm loses his place ! " 
 
 "Wait," said mother; "trouble conies fast 
 enough. Don't anticipate." 
 
 "Mother! Cathy and I are going up Gates' 
 hill," said I. 
 
 "I don't know, dear," said mother, pausing, 
 coffee-pot in hand, "the roughest part of the 
 town will be out to-night." 
 
 "But they won't go to the hill, only the 
 women and children. They'll go to the fire." 
 
 " I'll take care of 'em," said Dick, starting up. 
 It was just the thing he wanted. "I'm up to 
 Cathy's shoulder," he added, casting an admiring 
 glance in her pretty face, "and I can protect 
 them." 
 
 "Well, go along," said mother, smiling, - 
 " coming Harry I " she added, as a plaintive voice
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 25 
 
 sounded from the depths of the room be v vond, 
 and as we stepped over the threshold, she van- 
 ished into the other room, and Mrs. Brock took 
 her place by the fire with a sad countenance.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 SOMEBODY HURT. 
 *' Of man the tenant of a world of woe." 
 
 \4T made me feel odd when father kissed me; 
 IT queer isn't it?" queried Cathy. 
 
 "What! the odd feeling, or the kiss?" I 
 asked. 
 
 "The kiss, of course. Papa never kisses me 
 unless he is going away, and I never saw him kiss 
 my mother in my life, though any one can see 
 how fond of her he is, and of me too." 
 
 "Yes, any one can see that," I said witli a 
 nervous creeping through my veins, for I am 
 rather susceptible to what is called superstitious 
 fear. I have been trying all my life, with mother's 
 help, to break myself of all such follies, and as 
 
 26
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 27 
 
 she never laughs at, but rather pities me, I think 
 in time I shall succeed. 
 
 We reached the top of the hill which was not 
 very high, and there the murky reds and yellows 
 with which the atmosphere had been filled, cul- 
 minated in stately flames, whose tongues of fire 
 seemed to touch the sky. All the horizon blazed 
 in lurid gold, so intense was the light of the 
 burning factories. The hoarse shouts of the fire- 
 men and the sharper cry of boys, wild at the sight, 
 and heedless of destruction, came up in the night 
 air to where we two girls stood, with a Babel like 
 indistinctness. 
 
 At the first look a dizzy, sick feeling, came 
 over me. 
 
 " O Dolly, it's our side of factories ! " said 
 Cathy, with a wail in her voice, "and they'll 
 all go." 
 
 Even at that moment, my terror and anguish 
 were merged in the supreme wonder of what 
 mother would say to that? Here was something 
 very near ruin falling with every shower of red 
 hot sparks on the heads of more than half of a 
 community. The people down there lived by the 
 mills. There were swarms of mill-hands now
 
 28 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 quite visible as they poured out of their small 
 red cottages, over the green, by the banks of the 
 river. Men were hurrying up from the towing 
 path on the other side, where the canal ran 
 sluggishly. The two bells from their respective 
 church and court-house towers, were swinging 
 more rapidly than they had swung for years. 
 
 "I say, Dolly, that's bad for us," said Dick, 
 who had run a little ahead, but was now back, 
 quite honest in his intention to guard the charge 
 entrusted to his care. 
 
 " I'm afraid it is ; " I said. 
 
 "I guess velocipede faith will go for nothing 
 this year ; " he added, quietly, thrusting his hands 
 deep in his pockets. " If the mills all burn down, 
 you know " and he rushed forward as a fiercer 
 glare proved that the fire was by no means under 
 control. 
 
 " Velocipede faith ! " it was an odd combination 
 of words, but it showed that the boy had remem- 
 bered and was in earnest. 
 
 And now the great walls seemed to totter, and 
 the fire ran from roof to roof, and then there was 
 one awful crash, and we all sprang forward. My 
 father's name was on my lips, and Cathy caught
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. I>1 
 
 me round the waist and hid her face on my 
 shoulder. 
 
 "If somebody should have been buried under 
 those awful walls ! " she sobbed. 
 
 " Let us hope that they were warned in time," 
 I said. "I'm sure they must have seen." 
 
 "I tell you that's a big sight!" said Dick, 
 coming into line again. "I'd like to be over 
 there. S'poze I make a dasli nobod}' '11 hurt 
 you, and there are lots of people coming." 
 
 Yes, there were lots of people coming. The 
 housekeeper from Garcelon house Mr. Garcelon 
 was the owner of the mills, but he was very seldom 
 at home and a lame cousin who lived there, on 
 sufferance, I suppose. Then came the red feathers 
 of Sally Berg, fluttering over her wide brimmed 
 hat. She was doctor Berg's maiden sister. Fol- 
 lowing her was the hook-nosed doctor himself, in 
 his venerable white castor, his green goggles 
 shining like globes of purple fire, in the crimson 
 light. Slowly they came on, all the Glintwood 
 people, even to the tinner's wife, who was hump- 
 li;tt ked and rheumatic, besides, and an odd looking 
 group soon stood on the gentle slope of (Jlint- 
 wood's only hill, making their several comments
 
 30 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 upon the fiery spectacle that had brought them 
 from their different homes. 
 
 Dick was looking in my face expectant. I 
 could not bear to disappoint the boy, for though 
 J knew that disaster must come to us as well as 
 poorer folk, yet the exciting scenes before us 
 thrilled me with a wild, admiring ecstacy. 
 
 " Just go down as far as the line, but don't go 
 any further, Dick," I said to him. 
 
 " Not a step," he answered. 
 
 " I'm going there, my boy," said doctor Berg, 
 whose red green goggles in that particular angle, 
 looked distressingly frightful. " I thought I per- 
 ceived that is, I thought I heard that is 
 And trudging on, Dick followed him. 
 
 Now doctor Berg was never in the whole course 
 of his life, known to finish a sentence, save with 
 the cabalistic words, " that is." 
 
 " He is more feverish this morning, his pulse is 
 high, that is " And here the little doctor would 
 stop with a mysterious air, and leave the unspoken 
 words to be imagined. 
 
 "What did he mean?" queried Cathy, still 
 clinging to me, while surging through and above 
 the flames, the dense black smoke rose up in
 
 NO MOTHEll LIKE MINE. 31 
 
 mighty columns, and the shouts and cheers were 
 renewed as the fact became apparent that the fire 
 was under control. 
 
 Not long after that Dick came dashing back 
 again. 
 
 44 I tell you it's ever so much jollier down there, 
 than here," he said. " But somebody's hurt." 
 
 Cathy held my hand more tightly ; her fingers 
 were like ice. 
 
 44 Who? Did they say who?" she asked, with 
 wild eyes. 
 
 44 No. But there was somebody in the mill, 
 one of the watchmen I believe, who went up 
 stairs for something, and before he could get out 
 the walls fell." 
 
 44 O!" The girl drew a deep breath. "Did 
 you see father there, anywhere ? " 
 
 44 1 thought I did, once; I saw my father as 
 busy as a bee. He was helping the firemen." 
 
 44 And where is doctor Berg ? " 
 
 44 They called him over to the other side to see 
 to the man who was hurt. They've got the fire 
 all under hurrah! but I tell you what, it's a 
 big loss." 
 
 The people now began to lose their interest, for
 
 32 NO MOTHEfi, LIKE MINE. 
 
 there was no moon, the wind blew chill from the 
 east, and the flat, low grounds beyond faded into 
 darkness, that was only enlivened now and then 
 by a dull burst of light, that showed men and 
 boys dispersing in all directions. Miss Berg came 
 up to us. 
 
 " I hope there has been no accident," she said 
 unquietly. " I thought when the doctor went 
 and here she stopped with a questioning glance, 
 for I suppose she shared her brother's failing. 
 
 " There was a mail hurt," said Dick. 
 
 "O, then I'll stay till he comes though I 
 didn't know. Are you going directly ? everybody 
 seems to be going. If you are " 
 
 " We are going now ; " I said, " and Dick will 
 see you home." 
 
 Dick gave me a dissenting nudge which I did 
 not heed. 
 
 " O, thank you ; I'm not very timid, but then " 
 and her voice died into silence. 
 
 Back again in the pleasant living room, to which 
 the delicious aroma of the coffee gave us a fra- 
 grant welcome ; mother stopped in her rounds to 
 listen to the news. 
 
 " It's our factory that is it's our side of
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 33 
 
 factories. They are all gone and where is 
 mother ? " asked Cathy. 
 
 " She would go home for some reason. I think 
 you had better stay and eat something," mother 
 said. "-Probably your father will come home 
 with my William ; then we can send for the 
 mother." 
 
 " Thank you," said Cathy, pulling off her hat 
 then instantly putting it on again, " I think I'll 
 go home a minute, and if mother will come 
 we'll be in together." 
 
 Mother still went on with her preparations, 
 though very quietly. She placed the great coffee 
 pot on a hot slab, and cut some bread into thin, 
 toothsome slices, some of which she toasted. I 
 busied myself with putting away my things, shut- 
 ting the piano, and placing chairs at the table, my 
 mind in a sort of chaotic state, as I wondered 
 vaguely what mother would think about it. 
 
 " Isn't it dreadful ? " I ventured to say, stand- 
 ing near the fire, my arm on the back of father's 
 chair. 
 
 " Yes, when one thinks of the many poor people 
 thrown out of work. It seems such a pity for so 
 much property to be lost but then there is no
 
 34 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 help for it. One can only trust the Lord, at such 
 a time." 
 
 "What will father do?" 
 
 " Let us wait and see. Willing hands are not 
 generally empty." 
 
 " Then you don't feel a bit bad ? " I said, won- 
 deringly. 
 
 " I feel badly for the owner, and the working- 
 men, but then I am not going to worry over it. 
 I should only be doing myself an injury, and 
 doubting my Maker, and most certainly all my 
 grief and dismay would not rebuild the factories." 
 
 Just at that moment a shrill scream rang out 
 on the night air. 
 
 " What was that ?" asked mother, looking up, 
 her cheeks bloodless. 
 
 Dick burst in as white as a ghost. 
 
 "It was Mr. Brock was crushed almost to 
 death. I just saw him, and doctor says he'll die." 
 
 This he said, taking pause now and then to 
 breathe, for he had been running hard. 
 
 "Where is your father?" mother asked breath- 
 lessly. 
 
 "He's in there, with 'em ; he's all right and 
 that's poor Mi's. Brock, screaming so. I don't 
 wonder."
 
 NO MOTHER LIKK .MINE. 35 
 
 " O mother, don't go ; " I cried, clinging to her, 
 for she had thrown off her wide apron. 
 
 " I must, child ! The poor soul ! all alone with 
 her trouble! Keep the fire up, and everything 
 warm. I may send in for something presently." 
 
 In all sudden calamities, little can be done save 
 to suffer. To those who have the blessed power 
 to forget themselves, the privilege of consolation 
 is given, but many, and I am among them, shrink 
 from all sights and sounds of distress. I could 
 only think of that woful time, which perhaps 
 helped to make me what I am, when poor Harry 
 was brought in for dead, and I ran screaming out 
 of the house. They found me two miles away in 
 the woods, still sobbing in uncontrollable agony. 
 
 ** Dolly ! Dolly ! " called Harry, " where is 
 mother gone?" 
 
 He had waked from an uneasy slumber, he 
 said, and with that subtle sense which seems to be 
 the natural heritage of the long suffering, missed 
 the presence that was so indispensable to his hap- 
 piness. 
 
 "Into the Brock's for a few moments; there 
 has been a fire, and Mr. Brock got hurt. Can't 
 you spare her a little while ? "
 
 36 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 " I suppose I must," he said. " Did you go to 
 the fire?" 
 
 I described what I had seen, and he lay looking 
 at me with his great bright eyes. 
 
 " Then father will be out of work, again. Why 
 did God let me become so helpless ? " 
 
 " Harry ! " I exclaimed in dismay. I had never 
 heard him speak like this before. 
 
 " How can you know what it is, to be the eldest 
 of the family, just at an age when I ought to take 
 hold and help lift the burden, and yet so helpless ! 
 so helpless ! " 
 
 " O Harry ! " I cried nervously, " I wish mother 
 was here ; " and overcome by excitement and pity, 
 I burst into tears, laying my head on his pillow to 
 sob. Then I felt his poor hot hand on my fore- 
 head. 
 
 "Never mind, never mind," he said, soothingly, 
 "I can tell you what mother would say only 
 just, 'it's God's will,' and so it is, and I can 
 realize it when I am trying to be patient. Mother 
 believes all she tells us; she almost sees God, 
 don't j'ou think ? Even when I am in the most 
 pain, she has a way of soothing me, just by what 
 she says, and the way she says it. I don't dare
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 37 
 
 to think what I should do without her, for she 
 often brings heaven to me, so that the door seems 
 just within reach. It's not for myself, don't you 
 see. I could, at least it seems as if I could, bear 
 my own helplessness, if only I were not a burden 
 to others, and sometimes such a miserable burden." 
 It seemed to ease the aching at my heart, to 
 hear him talk in that way, and I lifted my head, 
 wiping my eyes. At that moment, the bell rang.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 WHAT MOTHER SAID. 
 " Hope in glad fruition ends." 
 
 TALL hulking lad stood in the door way. 
 
 " It's Shucks ! " said Phil, who answered 
 the beU ; " shall I let him in ? " 
 " What does he want ? " I asked, naturally. 
 " Please I saw the light in here and it looked 
 good ; " said the boy. " I be out of a home." 
 
 " O well, you must go somewhere else," said 
 
 Phil. " We can't take you in, can we, Dolly ? " 
 
 "Shucks, is that you? go in out of the dark ; " 
 
 said mother's sweet voice ; and the lad came 
 
 shivering in, mother behind him. 
 
 Always uncouth, there was something of the 
 horrible mingled with his grotesqueness, as he 
 entered. He was apparently wet to the skin, and 
 
 38
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MIKE. 39 
 
 his face was so covered with dirt and soot that it 
 was hard to imagine it had ever been white. 
 Shucks had a high nose, a wide mouth, small, 
 sparkling black eyes, and hair that looked as if it 
 had never been touched by the comb. This, added 
 to a downcast manner and a restless movement 
 of the right shoulder, which was habitual with 
 him, gave him a still more uncanny demeanor, and 
 it made me shudder to see mother touch his shift- 
 ing right shoulder, as she said, " Why Bony " 
 for his whole name was Bonaparte Shucks 
 "you look as if a little cleaning would do you 
 more good than anything else, just now. Come 
 out here ; " and she led him to the kitchen, and 
 left him there busy with soap and water. 
 
 "When is father coming in?" I ventured to 
 ask. 
 
 " Directly ; " she answered, moving round 
 quietly. 
 
 " And will he die ? " 
 
 " We cannot tell ; he is in God's hands. The 
 doctor gave him strong opiates, which have kept 
 him sleeping. He thinks he cannot live, but says 
 there may be hope, if he lives till morning." 
 
 " And poor Mrs. Brock ! "
 
 40 NO MOTHER LIKE A11XK. 
 
 " Is calmer, now." 
 
 "And Cathy!" 
 
 " Cathy is quieter, too, poor girl. She kept up 
 long enough to telegraph to her brother, and then 
 broke down, and fainted away. I saw her com- 
 fortably in bed before I came in. It is a great 
 shock to them all. This poor boy looks as if a 
 little hot coffee wouldn't hurt him ; " she contin- 
 ued, as Bony Shucks sidled in, one eye on us and 
 one on the fire. 
 
 "You've been working hard, Bony," said 
 mother. 
 
 "Guess I have but couldn't save anything. 
 Nothing for Genie and I, no more ; we'll starve." 
 
 "Not so bad as that, my boy," said mother, 
 cheerily, as she gave him a bowl of coffee and 
 bread and butter, which he ate as if he had not 
 eaten before for a month. 
 
 Father came in, hung up his overcoat without 
 speaking, and sat down to the table, after washing 
 his hands. In another minute the doctor followed, 
 and very glad he seemed of a cup of coffee. 
 
 "Well, this is a bad night's work," he said, 
 "that is " and breaking some bread in his bowl, 
 he sat staring upon vacancy.
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 41 
 
 "How did you leave our neighbor?" asked 
 mother. 
 
 The little doctor shook his head, and his very 
 spectacles looked sad. 
 
 "It's a bad case. I don't like to say much 
 about it; but if " 
 
 We all waited patiently for the continuation of 
 his sentence. 
 
 "You see the back is injured spine," he said, 
 sharply. " The man will never in all probability, 
 stand upon his feet again. If he lives, he will be 
 as helpless as a new born baby that is " and 
 the doctor stared before him. 
 
 "A bad night's work," muttered father. "For 
 all of us," he added, sotto voce* but mother heard 
 him. 
 
 " We ought to be so thankful ! " she said, cheer- 
 fully, but her eyes were shining with tears as >hr 
 looked at us all. I knew what she meant. We 
 were all together, and but for heaven's protecting 
 care the wall might have crushed my father, who 
 was in the thick of danger. 
 
 "Shucks, what are you doing here?" asked 
 father, when he left the table. 
 
 "Ain't got nowheres to go," the boy made 
 answer.
 
 42 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 " Where is your sister ? " 
 
 " Somebody took Genie, but said there wasn't 
 no room for me," replied the boy. 
 
 " Well, there's no room here, is there, mother ? " 
 
 " Just for to-night he might sleep on the bed in 
 the garret. To-morrow, perhaps, he can find some 
 other place," said mother, and lighted him up the 
 stairs. When she came back Mr. Trever was 
 seated at the table, taking his turn at the coffee. 
 Mr. Trever was our minister* He had heard of 
 the accident, and father's name was mixed up 
 with it. Some one met him near the door, how- 
 ever, and told him who it was. 
 
 " Mrs. Brock seemed very glad to see me," he 
 said, between the sips, " but Mr. Brock declined. 
 I half expected he would, for I never could get a 
 word with him ; and I notice of late that he never 
 comes to church. He used to attend quite regu- 
 larly, but his wife tells me that he is very sensitive 
 about talking upon religious matters, and I run 
 my eye over the titles of two or three books in 
 his library, which gave me a clue to the reason. 
 I hope God in his mercy will spare him that lie 
 may live to see his error." 
 My mother was smiling to herself. I always
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 43 
 
 turned to her face when anything was said in her 
 presence that perplexed or annoyed me. 
 
 " Mr. Brock is a very honest man in all his 
 opinions,'' she said, " and he certainly tries to do 
 right as nearly as he can by walking in his own 
 strength. He needs practice perhaps, more than 
 precept, and that he sees in the example set him 
 by his wife and daughter. They used to be con- 
 tinually talking to, and irritating him, but finally 
 Mrs. Brock thought there might be a better way, 
 as indeed there was. They simply left him in the 
 hands of God, and continued to pray, not to 
 argue. God has his own way of teaching His 
 own truths, you jinow." 
 
 "Yes, you arc? right," said Mr. Trever, "you 
 are right, quij right ; this terrible accident may 
 be one of Hi& methods." 
 
 " Not a particularly agreeable one," said father, 
 who had looked perplexed ever since his return. 
 
 " He has refused better terms," said my mother. 
 " To be morally enlightened requires only an 
 ordinary process of mental energ}-, but to be 
 spiritually enlightened, requires not only to un- 
 derstand and grasp with the mind but to grasp 
 with the heart. His mind is always clear, but his
 
 44 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 heart is in darkness. It has not yet been touched. 
 We must wait God's time, now, and His dis- 
 cipline." 
 
 "Yes, yes," said the minister, fervently, "you 
 are always right, Mrs. Gregory. It is not for us 
 to judge the Master. He has His own ways, His 
 own methods. It is very late," he added, as the 
 little mantel clock struck twelve. "Shall we 
 give thanks and ask His blessing?" 
 
 We all knelt down round the fire, and though 
 we had a keen sorrow on which to lay our tired 
 heads that night, as on a pillow of stone, still we 
 felt that His blessing laid down with us. 
 
 \ 
 
 -
 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 ALMOST HEAR T-B R O K E N . 
 " In the circle pleasure smiles." 
 
 WAS crossing the hall in the morning, when 
 Dick opened the door, and his eyes fell upon 
 the velocipede, which I had caused to be put 
 outside of his room. 
 
 I found myself laughing heartily at the wonder 
 in his face, before he had spoken a word. 
 
 " Jemima ! " was his first startled exclamation, 
 "where did that come from?" 
 " Why faith brought it," I said. 
 " Faith ! I'd forgotten all about faith and every- 
 thing else," he responded, getting down on one 
 knee and inspecting the velocipede. " Why, it's 
 a beauty! just as good and strong! no cheat 
 about that.. I guess you are the providence this 
 
 45
 
 46 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 time, Miss Dolly, and the faith, too. What can I 
 do to show you how glad I am ? " 
 
 " Be a good boy," I said, laughing, as I moved on. 
 
 "But see here, Dolly,, our circumstances are 
 altered since you bought this pretty thing. I 
 don't think we can afford to keep it, do you ? " 
 
 " It may become a source of income," I replied. 
 " Quite a thriving little trade might be carried on 
 by the help of a velocipede." 
 
 " That's so ! * he laughed back. " How handy 
 it will be to carry letters to the office, eh ? And 
 to go over to Abbotville, if mamma wanted any- 
 thing. Well, I never was so pleased in my life. 
 What a beauty she is ! I shall call her the Dolly, 
 may I?" 
 
 How his eyes sparkled and his cheeks glowed ! 
 My five dollars had brought a large harvest of 
 happiness, besides gladdening the heart of a poor 
 widow. Dick's gratitude was a pleasant thing to 
 see. In a five minutes reverie he had grown up 
 to stalwart manhood, always remembering that 
 little act of self-denial, and being the better for it. 
 
 " Poor Cathy Brock ! " said Dick, looking out 
 of the window. 
 
 When I went down stairs, Cathy was there,
 
 NO MOTHEll LIKE MINE. 47 
 
 waiting for something my mother was preparing. 
 Poor Cathy, indeed. Her honest blue eyes were 
 red with weeping; my heart ached to see how 
 pale and worn she looked. 
 
 " How is he ? " I asked, holding her in my arms 
 for a moment as I kissed her white lips. 
 
 " Alive," she said, with quivering voice. " The 
 doctor hasn't been yet; he has no pain, and I 
 believe that is worse for him/' She added, " Coine 
 in if you can." 
 
 I promised to go in after breakfast, and as soon 
 as Harry was comfortably dressed, I put on my 
 hat and went over to the Brocks. It was only a 
 few yards away ; but I could not bear to open the 
 door. Cathy saw me through the window and 
 came out, took my hand and led me into the little 
 parlor. I was trembling all over. They had not 
 moved him, yet. He lay upon a bed lounge, quite 
 motionless, only the handsome face seemed all 
 alive, though the dark eyes were very languid. 
 Mrs. Brock was pouring out some medicine, but 
 she came forward eagerly. 
 
 "He will be so glad to see you," she said. 
 " The doctor has been here, and given us a little 
 comfort. He may not move for a long, long while,
 
 48 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 but some time " she could get no further. The 
 drops from her e} r es fell faster and larger than the 
 liquid she was preparing. I went to the side of 
 the couch. 
 
 " O here you are, my very good friend ! " he 
 said, faintly, with a smile. " You see I cannot 
 hand you a chair, or attend in the least to your 
 comfort." 
 
 " As to the chair, no matter," I said, " I can 
 very easily help myself. "I am so glad to rind 
 you able to speak ! " 
 
 " O yes, my tongue runs easily, and the numb 
 feeling has gone out of my hands; but for the 
 rest of me, I might as well be dead." 
 
 "Don't say that, my love," exclaimed his wife, 
 who came forward to give him his medicine. " I 
 am thankful with every breath I draw to the 
 good Being for sparing you to us." 
 
 " No, no. I say I had better be dead," he re- 
 sponded, bitterly. "I thank nobody," he mut- 
 tered in an undertone, his face growing dark. 
 "However, we won't talk about it, now. Has 
 anybody heard from Garcelon ? Not that it mat- 
 ters to him, the loss of the mills, for I dare say 
 they were well insured. Garcelou has plenty of 
 irons in the fire."
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 49 
 
 J said that we had heard nothing. 
 
 " All ! I dare say he'll be down to-day, though 
 I heard he had gone after his daughter, Miss 
 Gabrielle. Her education is about finished, and 
 she'll be coming here to Garcelon house, I suppose. 
 They are getting ready for her. Six years she 
 has been gone. Do you remember her, Miss 
 Dolly?" . 
 
 I was smiling at the pleasant recollections his 
 words -had evoked. Did I remember her! why 
 she was the dearest companion I had in the world, 
 in those days. So beautiful, her great dreamy 
 gray eyes shaded with the longest lashes, her per- 
 fect features and the expression of soul trans- 
 figuring them, as a- soft light within a chrystal 
 vase. She was only twelve, then, I was ten, her 
 father was a rich man, mine, by a combination of 
 untoward circumstances, comparatively poof, and 
 yet we were the firmest of friends. I being the 
 youngest, felt a sort of worshipful love towards 
 her, and would have performed the most menial 
 service through my fervent though childish rever- 
 ence. Since then, though Cathy had in* a great 
 measure, taken her place, I had kept a shrine in 
 my memory for her, though I had heard but seldom
 
 50 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 frorn the institution where she had been placed, 
 to finish her education. 
 
 Cathy stopped now and then to listen and to 
 look. The room was so bright with sunlight ! 
 It seemed almost a mockery that it should shine 
 on him, lying there almost as helpless as a dead 
 man. The little piano with its piles of mu^ie, 
 the flute case, the violin, the two ebony music 
 stands, the old fashioned but pretty furniture, the 
 table still standing with its snowy linen cloth 
 falling to the floor on either side, everything was 
 so suggestive of happiness and home comfort, 
 and here in one ruthless hour a shadow had fallen 
 over it all. I don't think I should have felt so 
 sad if I had been standing beside his coffin. 
 
 " I don't know how to bear it, indeed I don't," 
 said the heart-broken wife, as she followed me to 
 the door. " He is never going to stand upon his 
 feet again, never, never, if he should live for 
 years, and he so active, so happy in activity ! 
 How shall I tell him ? for he will want to know 
 before long. I am not like thy mother, who traces 
 the haiVl of God in everything, even in poor 
 Fanny Pezzito's hard case." 
 
 Fanny Pezzito was a delicate little woman, not
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 51 
 
 yet twenty ; an orphan, who had wed at seventeen, 
 lost her baby at nineteen, and was now dying of 
 consumption. She had married an Italian musi- 
 cian, a man of contemptible traits, who treated 
 her brutally, and who was waiting impatiently for 
 her to die. The poor little soul was almost friend- 
 less, and but for my mother, who found time 
 amidst all her duties, to spend sometimes two or 
 three hours a day with her, would have suffered 
 from neglect. 
 
 * Now, Dolly, take care of things while I am 
 over to Fanny's," had come to be the familiar, 
 daily salutation to me. 
 
 " But, mother, you will get sick," I pleaded 
 sometimes. 
 
 "When I do get sick, Dolly, then I'll stop," 
 mother would laugh back, looking so healthy and 
 happy. 
 
 " Mrs. Gregory," said Fanny one day, " I have 
 been asking God to pour down all manner of 
 blessings on you. You have been an angel to me ; 
 you have protected me from my husband's wicked 
 temper, for if I say I will tell you, he stops like 
 one scared ; you have given me food and rest, and 
 above all, your happy face lias been like a gospel
 
 52 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 to me. You have taught me to know God and to 
 love Him, me that was more like a heathen than 
 a Christian woman. You have left your own 
 home to minister in this poor, mean house ; you 
 have washed my hands and my feet, and better 
 than that," and the tears were raining down her 
 cheeks now, " you have kissed me, and petted 
 me, and called me 'dear' and 'daughter,' and," 
 with a half, convulsive sob, "it seemed as if I 
 wanted that more than anything else. I was so 
 hungry for a kind word after my baby died. O, 
 when I die, if I do go to that blessed place, I will 
 tell everybody what a poor miserable burden I 
 was, and what a glorious, beautiful ministering 
 spirit you have been to me. Dear lady, the very 
 feel of your hand is like medicine to a broken 
 heart." 
 
 But I left Mrs. Brock, perhaps too abruptly, to 
 relate this little episode. She still stood at the 
 door, looking wanly out. 
 
 "You expect your son, do you not?" I asked, 
 for the sight of her sorrow was terrible to me. 
 
 "Yes, by the next train. Poor Ernst! how 
 will he bear up under it, and what shall we all 
 do?"
 
 NO MOTHER" LIKE MINE. 53 
 
 I could say nothing, perhaps that was best; 
 comfort would come in time, in God's time ; so 
 only pressing her trembling fingers hard, to express 
 the sympathy I felt, I left her and went home. 
 All the outside world was so bright and beautiful, 
 and yet how many aching hearts there were, how 
 many suffering bodies ! I looked up to the smiling 
 heavens God must see it all, and yet He did 
 not lessen the sunshine, or throw a pall over the 
 earth because of this universal wretchedness. 
 How strange it seemed, how mysterious ! But 
 then I had seen my own mother smile over many 
 a heartache. I had heard her say in the midst of 
 keen sorrow, " we shall forget all this, when we 
 catch the first glimpse of heaven," and so had 
 associated the bright anticipations of the future, 
 with the suffering of this lower life.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE POWER OF PRINCIPLE. 
 " Mine is the spell of power" 
 
 TOLD mother all the news, how that poor 
 Mr. Brock's fate was sealed as to this world ; 
 of Miss Garcelon's expected visit home 
 and that Ernst Brock was hourly looked for. 
 
 "I wonder," I said, a little while afterward, 
 "if Gabrielle will call upon me? and oh, how 
 beautiful she must be by this time ! " 
 
 Mother was unpinning a roll of cotton cut into 
 garments for some of our poor people, and pres- 
 ently I was busy with my needle. 
 
 "What do you think, mother," I asked, "do 
 you suppose Gabrielle will call ? " 
 
 " Isn't it your place to call there ? " responded 
 mother. 
 
 64
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 65 
 
 " Oh, I never could do that ! " I said. " Even 
 if my clothes were not shabby even if " 
 
 "Whose is the pride, now?" asked mother, 
 quietly. 
 
 "Of course, I am proud. Look at her cir- 
 cumstances and mine her education, and mine 
 her manner of living, and ours ! And then 
 she has made new friends, she may have forgotten 
 me, utterly. Would you call on her, mother?" 
 
 " If the old love lias not grown too cold," said 
 my mother, smiling. 
 
 44 I'll tliink about it," I said, after a moment. 
 Then mother went to Harry, who had called her, 
 and my father came in. There was news in his 
 face. 
 
 "Garcelon is down here," he said. "He left 
 Jiis daughter at Bartonville, and came as soon as 
 he heard of the fire. He means to do well by the 
 Brocks. It wont cost them much for medicine, 
 at all events." 
 
 He sat down in his arm-chair, looking medita- 
 tively into the fire. 
 
 " There's another thing he's done," he said, 
 smiling, " I wonder what your mother would say 
 to it."
 
 56 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 "Say to what?" asked mother, coming in at 
 that moment. 
 
 "Garcelon lias offered me a situation, a first 
 class one." 
 
 " So soon ! " exclaimed mother, her eyes bright- 
 ening. 
 
 " With nearly double the wages." 
 
 " And have you accepted ? " 
 
 "No! I've come home to talk it over, first/' 
 
 "What is it?" 
 
 He looked up and looked down again, and 
 grew very grave. 
 
 "A sort of inspectorship, I imagine, more like 
 my own business but " 
 
 He had been speaking slower and slower. 
 
 "That will^be pleasanter for you and almost 
 double the salary ! \Yhy, it seems like a provif 
 dence ! " 
 
 " Wait a minute, wife ; you may have heard 
 that Garcelon carries on a large distillery." 
 
 "Yes!" her face grew suddenly grave "is 
 it that?" 
 
 " It is that ! " 
 
 " Then, John, say no ! " said mother, resolutely. 
 
 " I thought that's the way you'd counsel me,"
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 57 
 
 said father, with just a shade of impatience in his 
 face. 
 
 "Then what did you come to me for, dear?" 
 
 "As if I could make any sort of u bargain 
 without consulting you ! I always^ have, and I 
 always shall, I suppose. But I want you to 
 think this matter over. It is, in one sense, a 
 god-send. There will be three months of idleness 
 in this place, for it will take all of that time to 
 rebuild the mills and set them going. We can't 
 afford to be idle for three months, can we?" 
 
 " We can't afford to take the wages of sin, for 
 any time,*' said niy mother, calmly. 
 
 " Well ! it's the way you look at it. I am to 
 oversee a certain part of the business, nothing 
 immediately connected with its more objectionable 
 features. Mr. Garcelon pays me a high com- 
 pliment at least he thinks he does. There arc 
 hundreds waityig for this one chance, and he 
 gives it to me. Think it over; enough salary to 
 help Dolly on with her education." 
 
 My heart beat high for a moment, with the 
 wild hope that my mother would see the matter 
 in a favorable light. 
 
 "Something else will come, if we wait, dear
 
 58 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 John," she said, pleadingly. " God will plan for 
 us, if we do what we know to be right, and 
 surely evil is not good. If you think for one 
 moment of the ruined souls and bodies that 
 business stands for, you certainly cannot accept." 
 
 "You always reason me out of my own con- 
 victions," he said, just a little impatiently, and 
 rose, setting his chair aside, hastily. Then he 
 left the room, and mother sat down with tears on 
 lashes. It was in that moment that my eyes were 
 fully opened to the undying beauty of principle. 
 
 " Here is a chance she has sighed for, prayed 
 for," I thought, " the promise of money enough 
 to live without constant self denial, and yet she 
 refuses it. But her faith is it shocked? is it 
 shaken ? For certainly my father will not get a 
 second offer of like importance ; of that fact she 
 must be perfectly aware. And yet she says no." 
 
 " And suppose we become pooler and poorer ! " 
 The thought slipped into language I did not 
 mean it should. 
 
 "But I don't believe we shall get poorer, my 
 daughter. Oh, no, on the contrary, we shall gain 
 by the refusal to commit sin." 
 
 " It's very dark, now," I said.
 
 No MOTHER LIKE MINE. 59 
 
 "It will be lighter hy-and-bv. I never yet 
 asked God for anything that He did not give me, 
 if I waited patiently. If only your father will 
 wait, the way will be opened. Hut should our 
 difficulties increase, we shall bear the burden 
 innocently. In the other case, to do that would 
 be simply impossible. I should carry a hundred 
 thousand ruined souls on my heart. How long 
 could one keep up under such a load as that? 
 Why, it would send me to my grave." 
 
 We did not see my father again till supper 
 time. Then I knew by his manner, that he had 
 refused the place. Two days after a fairly remu- 
 nerative situation was offered him, which he at 
 once accepted. When he told us there was a 
 look in his eyes of mingled gratitude and wonder. 
 It seemed to me that he was thanking God for 
 giving him such a treasure as my mother. 
 
 I saw Mr. Garcelon go into neighbor Brock's, 
 in company with Mr. Ernst Brock. The young 
 man is taller than his father, and has his hand- 
 some, thoughtful face. I sat at the window, 
 trying to imagine the scene of their meeting. 
 It will be a bitter draught for Mr. Brock to be 
 under obligations, even to his own children.
 
 60 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 For I was very sure that Cathy would strain 
 every nerve to accomplish something toward the 
 support of the family. Her one beautiful talent 
 was not given her to hide under a bushel. 
 
 A little later, mother was called to the Brorks 
 again. Mrs. Brock was asleep, and the doctor 
 wanted to leave his directions with some one who 
 was quite as competent. When she came back, 
 she brought a message from Cathy. 
 
 "You had better go in there, a little while," 
 mother said, "the men are talking business in the 
 parlor, and Cathy is very nervous. You will find 
 her in the back sitting room." 
 
 It was well I went; the poor girl was almost 
 overcome with fatigue, and grief. 
 
 " It's so dreadful to see him lying there, and to 
 feel that he will never get up again," she sobbed. 
 " Oh, Dolly, you can't think how the whole world 
 is changed to me. I don't believe I shall ever be 
 happy again ! Dear, patient father ! " 
 
 " But are you not glad that his life is spared?" 
 I asked, trying to comfort her. "Suppose he had 
 been brought home dead." 
 
 "I know I try to look at it that way, and I 
 thank God for his life but he does not. Over
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINI . (\\ 
 
 and over again lie lias said, if only IK> had been 
 killed outright. How will he bear it this 
 forced inaction?" 
 
 "He will grow accustomed to it, and so will 
 you. What does your brother say ? " 
 
 "Oh, Ernst! I did not see him at the first. 
 He feels it dreadfully, of course but not as we 
 do who have been with him so much more. He 
 wants, in time, to take us to the city, but papa 
 will not listen to it. He thinks it better economy 
 to stay here, and so it will be. Mr. Garcelon has 
 been very kind, and insists on continuing the 
 salary for three months. That will be a very 
 great help. Everybody is so good." 
 
 I urged the excited girl to lie down upon the 
 lounge, and presently I was sitting by her, trying 
 to soothe her by passing my hand over her hot 
 forehead. 
 
 The door opened, and Ernst came in. Cathy 
 sprang up, and her eyes brightened. 
 
 " The paper has given out, Cathy, where shall 
 I get some more ? " he asked. 
 
 I'll get it it's up stairs," she said, with ner- 
 vous gestures, "and Ernst this is our good, 
 kind neighbor, the daughter of Mrs. Gregory.
 
 62 NO MOTHER LIKE MFNB. 
 
 Dolly, this is my brother," so saying, as he came 
 forward to shake hands with me, she ran out 
 of the room. 
 
 I had never met Ernst Brock, but I had 
 formed a pretty fair opinion of him from Cathy's 
 description. It seemed strange that this tall, 
 powerful looking young man, should be the son 
 of the slender, impetuous musician. His face was 
 a German face, there was no mistaking that, but 
 blended with his somewhat sterner features, were 
 the delicate lines that made his father's counte- 
 nance so harmonious. 
 
 He seemed for a moment not to know what to 
 say, after his sister had disappeared. 
 
 "This must be a sad coming home to you, Mr. 
 Brock," I said. 
 
 "It is. I was totally unprepared for it. My 
 father was in the city last week, and I particularly 
 noticed how well he was looking. It's a sad 
 accident. Were there others injured? I forgot 
 to ask." 
 
 "No others," I said. 
 
 Then he walked to the window, which looked 
 out upon the bright, pretty yard. Bony was 
 sweeping down the paved walk to the gate. Ho
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 63 
 
 would sweep a while, then pull off his hat, look up 
 to the sky and round in an absent way, rub his 
 head and put on his hat again. He made an odd 
 figure, certainly, and the hitching movement of 
 his right shoulder heightened the grotesqueness 
 of his appearance. 
 
 "Has my mother a new servant?" asked 
 Ernest. 
 
 I explained that it was a lad out of employ- 
 ment, just now, a hand in the mills ; that he was 
 probably working at odd jobs. 
 
 " He has a good head/* the young man said, 
 contemplatively. 
 
 I wanted to laugh ; poor Bony ! who was looked 
 upon as little better than an idiot whom nobody 
 cared for unless it was my mother, nobody 
 felt bound to respect. It certainly showed a 
 want of perception so I thought in this tall, 
 handsome business man if he could find any 
 good points in the poor lad at first sight. I had 
 yet to learn that he was always looking for good 
 points, and . consequently they always presented 
 themselves to him. 
 
 Cathy came in presently, with the paper, and 
 with a courteous bow to me, Ernst went into the 
 other room.
 
 64 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 "Dear Ernst!" said Cathy, as she sat down by 
 my side, and put her arms about me, " Isn't he 
 a noble boy ? Oh, Cathy, I hope you like him." 
 
 "He is very handsome," I said, "and I certainly 
 do not dislike him." 
 
 "He is so thoughtful," continued Cathy, in a 
 low voice. "I could not have guessed how 
 shocked he was, by liis manner, when he first 
 came. I didn't dream of it, till he turned from 
 poor father to the window and his very coun- 
 tenance seemed changed. But still he talked 
 cheerfully, and every now and then, a heavy 
 tear would fall over his cheeks. He is a great 
 comfort to us, dear Ernst ! " 
 
 Once again I coaxed Cathy to lie down, and 
 presently her eyes closed, and I left her sleeping 
 quietly. 
 
 Just here I shall let another hand go on 
 with the story for a while, and resume my pen 
 bye-and-bye.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 GABftlELLE GARCELON. 
 " Each to the heart appealing." 
 
 OOD-B YE, Nelly! good-bye, Bert ha! Girls 
 come and see me. I invite you all, for you 
 know I am to be sole mistress of Garcelon 
 House. Helen," she added in an undertone, 
 "you'll walk down to the gate with me? O, 
 Helen ! " 
 
 The superbly curved lips quivered as Gabrielle 
 Garcelon drew within her arm the hand of Helen, 
 Trevort, two years her senior. Slowly they left 
 the doors of the quaint old Academy, whose walls 
 in the waning sunlight shone like jasper and eme- 
 rald. Everywhere rioted ivy leaves and mosses 
 green and golden. The trers \\vre alive with 
 I >in Is, and how they did chatter as they sought 
 
 65
 
 66 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 their quarters for the night ! The trim old garden 
 looked as if lying under a veil of gossamer and 
 diamonds, for the dew fell early on that upland 
 country. Everywhere in the distance could be 
 seen that same translucent shimmer of gray light, 
 whitened a little by the departing glory of the day. 
 
 The two girls walked quietly down the smoothly 
 worn path, towards the old gothic gates. Helen 
 the elder and graver, had twisted a brown veil 
 about her head, and a shapely head it was. Ga- 
 brielle's face was beautiful, passing beautiful. 
 Roses and lilies of clearness and bloom, and great 
 shining eyes that mirrored every thought and 
 emotion. Were the "eyes blue? You were not 
 sure. Purple they seemed sometimes, and at 
 others, under strong excitement, black as night. 
 Now they were as blue as the sky, because they 
 were sorrowful, and almost brimmed with tears. 
 
 Helen was not as beautiful, but there was char- 
 acter in her face, her form, her walk. Especially 
 in the lovely contour of her head, was her chief 
 charm. Her face was grave, the features, well 
 chiselled, gave evidence in their repose of a firm 
 will, and the power to bear suffering with fortitude. 
 
 One of the teachers, standing in the door-way,
 
 NO MOTHER MffR MINE. 07 
 
 clasped her white hands, as under the brown 
 shadows of the portals, she watched the receding 
 figures. 
 
 44 What waits for her out in the world ? " she 
 murmured. "Here she was safe for a time. She 
 was very dear to us, very dear.'* And then only 
 her lips moved. Her tender soul was sending up 
 a prayer for the future of Gabrielle. Meantime 
 the gate was reached. 
 
 44 You know, dear Helen I can't say good-bye," 
 MI id Gabrielle, chokingly. 
 
 "And for me, deaivst, think how much harder 
 it must be," said Helen, her voice trembling. 
 
 44 You have been everythiag to me, sister, coun- 
 sellor and friend, and I don't know how to live 
 without you. Every morning for six long years 
 my eyes have first rested upon your face. O, how 
 I love you, now that we are parting, it may be 
 forever." 
 
 "Hush, darling, that is impossible. 'Let me 
 give you* old Becky's message. (Becky was the 
 housekeeper.) 4 Tell her to be a true, good 
 woman,' she called out, as I passed her door; and 
 now the man there seems impatient kiss IMC, 
 don't say good-bye; my lirst letter will follow
 
 68 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 you, to-morrow ; good night, and a happy return 
 home." 
 
 Gabrielle drew down her veil with a sob, the 
 iron gate opened, the door of the handsome car- 
 riage was flung wide, and the girl buried herself 
 in the silken cushions, weeping as if her heart 
 would break. Then the liveried coachman turned 
 the shining handle, whistled under his breath, 
 climbed into his seat, and the carriage was soon 
 lost to the sight of the solitary watcher at the 
 iron gate. 
 
 Helen turned sadly away and walked back to 
 the school with a heavy heart. There Ifcas no 
 happy home or loving father awaiting her return. 
 Toil was her heritage, for she was poor and an 
 orphan. Instead of going among friends for the 
 holidays, she was to remain at the school, and with 
 the new term, commence her career as under- 
 teacher, for which she was to receive a small 
 salary. 
 
 "She is going to be so happy!" murmured 
 Helen, as she moved slowly on, and the bell for 
 prayers sounded on the still air. "Rich and 
 beautiful, with a father who worships her, and 
 plenty of friends, she will soon get over the sorrow
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. G9 
 
 of parting with us, and though she will never 
 forget me, she will find solace in her new associa- 
 tions, no doubt." 
 
 "Helen Trevort, you keep us waiting," said 
 one of the teachers, in a severe tone ; and the girl 
 passed silently into the refectory, and glided to 
 her seat. 
 
 " Dear, dear Helen ! " exclaimed Gabrielle, as 
 the carriage rolled on, "she'll just die in that 
 place, pretty as it is, and all owing to her foolish 
 ideas of independence. She shall come with me ; 
 I'll move heaven and earth but she shall. Papa 
 \v<>uM U quite willing. I shall need a companion 
 of my own age, and to think of her, moping her 
 life away in that dull old place, not but what I 
 shall miss them all, the pretty rooms, and the 
 garden, and the teachers, when she might live 
 care-free ! Well, I will tell papa about it, and we 
 will see what can be done." 
 
 It was ten miles to Bartonville, where her father 
 was waiting for her, at the house of an old friend, 
 (irm-ral Leon. Gabrielle had spent nearly all 
 her vacations there, and as her grief abated she 
 began to look forward with interest to the pleasures 
 awaiting her. General Leon was rich, a gentle- 
 ma n of the old school, and devoted to his friends.
 
 70 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 Jaqueline, his only daughter, a romping girl of 
 fifteen, whom the General declared he hud given 
 up all hope of taming, was devoted to Gabrielle, 
 and Baron, a young man over thirty, treated the 
 beautiful girl with great deference, and always 
 made her welcome assured. 
 
 Gabrielle leaned back in flic carriage, the tears 
 dried on her cheeks, and allowed her school-girl 
 fancies to take possession of her. For the last 
 two years, Helen had accompanied her to Castle 
 Brook, so wild Jaqueline had christened the 
 family mansion, and it had seemed to the young 
 dreamer as if her friend's advent lent a new light 
 to Baron's eyes, and a new brightness to his 
 countenance. 
 
 "If it only could be so!" she reiterated, hug- 
 ging her pet idea. u If only Baron would marry 
 Helen ! She could make Jack presentable if any- 
 body could; and O, what a glorious wife she 
 would be ! No need to go governessing, or teach 
 those little idiots in the low classes. But just as 
 likely as not she would refuse him, because she is 
 poor. Poor ! I wish I was as rich in all the graces 
 as she is, about as near perfection as anybody 
 can be;" and musing and dreaming, she fell 
 asleep.
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 SENDING FOR HELEN. 
 " When the viovet blows" 
 
 /JA II, Gabrielle!" 
 
 T|jT "Take care, you will frighten her!" 
 
 1 and Baron lowered his torch, as the girl 
 with a little cry and a wild glance, looked about 
 her. 
 
 It was an odd sight, this impromptu torchlight 
 procession, but then, the Leons were a law unto 
 themselves, and were famous in that part of the 
 country, for their original way of doing things. 
 
 " Oh, papa ! Jack ! Baron ! dear General ! So 
 I am really at Castle Brook ! I'm so glad ! How 
 sound asleep I must have been ! If you only 
 knew what a unique tableau you make against 
 the trees and the dark, your face* all lighted by 
 
 71
 
 72 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 that red glare ! What a nice idea a torchlight 
 procession, out in the country! It's splendid! 
 I'm so glad to see you, only I only wish Helen 
 had come.*' 
 
 " Why didn't she ? we all like her," cried Jack, 
 who looked a thorough Italian, her coal black 
 hair curling against the wide brim of the straw 
 hat, half off her head, and her fine black eyes 
 sparkling with pleasure. 
 
 General Leon helped Gabrielle out of the 
 carriage, and sent the coachman off. Then in 
 a sort of procession, the torches bringing out now 
 and then the fair beauty of the trees, and out- 
 lining the stately mansion beyond, they walked 
 up the wide flight of steps, and entered the 
 vestibule, which was all warmth, light and beauty. 
 
 " I'm to have her till she's rested," said Jack, 
 taking Gabrielle by the hand, and running back- 
 wards as she kept np a fire of small talk and 
 compliments, and presently the two girls were 
 ensconsed in opposite chairs, before a bright, 
 wood fire, (for the evening was damp,) that 
 brought out the rich colors of the great rug, on 
 the hearth, and gave a cheerful glitter to the 
 old fashioned Jout handsome furniture.
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 73 
 
 "Here conies Anne!" said Jack, starting up, 
 and almost taking the fender with her. 
 
 "I catch everything," she added, laughingly, as 
 she opened the door, and disclosed a staid maid 
 servant, tray in hand, upon which smoked some 
 goodly viands, "except the prevailing influenza," 
 she added. " I don't keep still long enough to 
 let that take a good hold of me* I expect. 
 There, Anne, now it's ready," she continued, 
 wheeling up the table, and the woman placed 
 the things upon the napkin she had brought, 
 and with a few pleasant words of welcome to 
 Gabrielle, left the room. 
 
 "Anne thinks you and Helen are both angels," 
 said Jack, when the woman had gone, " in fact, I 
 believe all the servants half worship you. They 
 know there's going to be a lull in the domestic 
 breeze, when you come, because of course, then 
 I'm on my good behavior. I wish you had 
 brought Helen. Your father told us he had 
 telegraphed you from Glintwood, so of course it 
 was too late, or we should have written and asked 
 her to come with you. Does she stay at the 
 academy ? " 
 
 "Yes, dear Helen," said Gabriell^ realizing her
 
 74 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 loss, "and a lonesome time she will have of it. I 
 declare I feel as if only half of me was here." 
 
 "Take care, or I shall be jealous," laughed 
 Jack; "but, poor girl, one ought to be generous in 
 her case ; she is so alone in the world. Do you 
 think she would come ? " 
 
 "Of course she would. Why, it must seem 
 like a little-heaven to her, here. I don't think she 
 was ever so happy in her life as when she was at 
 Castle Brook." 
 
 "Perhaps somebody else is happy, too," said 
 Jack, with a little laugh, looking down. 
 
 " Oh ! " Gabrielle hesitated, the glow on her 
 cheek deepening. "I wish I could think so. Is 
 it Baron?" 
 
 "Well I've had my thoughts," said Jack, 
 gaily, "my guesses and suspicions, and I'ye all 
 but charged him with it. I didn't quite dare to 
 do that. But I'm sure she's just the girl would 
 suit him." 
 
 " She is poor, you know." 
 
 "That's no objection. Baron is rich enough. 
 She's so much nicer than any of the girls about 
 here, who are setting their caps for him. Bell 
 Hoxy, the ugliest girl you ever saw, worth
 
 NO MOTIIKU LIKK MINE. 75 
 
 millions, almost, and so stupid, though she sings 
 well enough, and Tiny Hoyt, a veritable flesh and 
 blood wax doll. Oh, how I do dislike them ! 
 You ought to see them make for him the moment 
 lie is in sight. They don't like me, because I 
 take them off, and tease them, and keep Baron 
 away from them, and understand all their nice 
 little dodges. It makes me sick to hear them 
 dear him * dear Mr. Baron, wont you, or will 
 you ! ' they haven't any sense." 
 
 Gabrielle, refreshed, warmed, exhilarated, per- 
 haps, with the delicate yet deliciously strong 
 tea, lay back in the great chair and laughed. 
 Her voice rang out like the chimes of a silver 
 bell, for it was soft, rich and singularly musical. 
 
 " You bring Helen out in strong contrast," she 
 said, "just fancy her 'clearing' anybody. Oh, 
 she's so gentle, and yet so proud ! There's such a 
 spirit to her beauty, and she don't think herself 
 handsome. Why, if I had that Grecian head of 
 hers, I should be vain. I know I should." 
 
 "Her head is fine, isn't it? Oh, now I've 
 caught him, nicely," and she laughed, clapping 
 her hands, " now I've got him ! It's your men- 
 tion of the head, made me think of it. I found
 
 76 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 some verses, yesterday; they were Baron's, for 
 nobody else in this house possesses the poet's 
 frenzy, and he was describing some ideal. I 
 thought now I know it was Helen Trevort. 
 He is clean gone, you may be sure of it that is 
 the latest and strongest proof. I'm going to 
 write a letter this night, and tell Helen that we 
 expect her, we want her and we shall die without 
 her. I shouldn't be happy thinking of her alone 
 in that great, dull school." 
 
 Off she ran, and in a moment more her pen was 
 flying over the paper. 
 
 " There ! I'll post it the first thing in the 
 morning, and do you believe she will come?" 
 
 "I hope she will," said Gabrielle, slowly. 
 "Let me write a postcript." 
 
 She dashed off a few words, smiling as she 
 did so. 
 
 " There ! I've told her if she values my 
 friendship, she will come, and that you will 
 send for her." 
 
 "Yes, of course earlier than we did for you. 
 Papa had to use the horses this morning, and 
 give them a good rest. Now, will you go to bed." 
 
 " Where am I to sleep ? " asked Gabrielle.
 
 NO MOTHEB LIKE MINE. 77 
 
 "Why, just here, with me. Do you see that 
 little, French bedstead peeping out by the side of 
 'old clumsy,' as I call mine? Well, that's for 
 you. Our grandest, guest chamber, where you 
 and Helen slept, is under repair, the roof leaked 
 dreadfully, and spoiled the ceiling, before we 
 knew, and a week ago, down came the plastering. 
 So you must put up with more limited aceomo- 
 dations." 
 
 "I like it I'm glad of it," said Gabrielle, 
 fervently. "I never felt quite at my ease in that 
 great, grand room. This is so much cosier, and 
 then it is so pleasant to have company." 
 
 " Let me do your hair, to-night. Oh, how long 
 and beautiful ! Poor me ! I have to keep mine 
 short, I have such terrible headaches when it 
 thickens," said Jack, vivaciously. " I shall never 
 be a young lady ivhile my head looks like a boy's, 
 and I'm glad of it. I want none of the beaus 
 dangling after me, even when I grow out of 
 childhood, which I haven't done yet. Heigho, 
 my greatest ambition is to be an aunt. I think I 
 never shall have a husband of my own, they must 
 In- so troublesome. So I'll always live with 
 Baron and Helen, if only they will marry, and
 
 78 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 drive off every man-jack that comes along. I 
 mean it ! " she added, nodding brightly. 
 
 It was a pretty sight to see the two girls in the 
 fire light, Gabrielle with her long chestnut hair, 
 with glints of gold, hanging about her like a gar- 
 ment, her lovely face serious yet smiling, and 
 Jack shifting from side to side, as she held the 
 locks up in great bows, or plaits, or shining coils. 
 Gabrielle was devoutly glad, when she pronoun- 
 ced her work done.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 WITHOUT FAITH. 
 " When the rose is fair and brig/it." 
 
 N the morning, spite of the clew and light 
 fog, through which the distant hills shone in 
 
 k 
 
 pink and purple, amber and green, the two 
 girls were out on the lawn looking among the 
 shrubbery for flowers. 
 
 " It's so pretty to have a little bouquet at your 
 plate," said Jack. " Baron appreciates it, though 
 he seldom gets it. My hours are not so early as 
 yours, so you see what a compliment I paid you 
 by rising at six." 
 
 "We breakfasted at six, at school," said 
 Gabrielle. 
 
 " You poor martyrs I By-the-way, Helen will 
 get our note to-day. She comes, she comes not ; " 
 
 79
 
 80 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 and Jack began pulling the crimson petals of a 
 rose. 
 
 " She comes ! " she cried, throwing the last leaf 
 to the ground, "and there goes the pride of 
 Baron's bouquet." 
 
 "Never mind, I'll give him this," said Gabrielle, 
 who had been treasuring a small rose for her 
 collar knot. 
 
 "There's the bell for prayers!" said Jack. 
 "How I shall astonish them all by being on 
 time ! Come." 
 
 The girls entered the house by a side door, and 
 went into the loftily-ceiled library, whose crimson 
 walls took a yet deeper shade from the ruddy 
 fire blazing on the hearth. This room spoke 
 more vividly than any other of the inclinations 
 and taste of its occupants. There were eight or 
 ten niches filled with books from floor to ceiling. 
 Great globes hung in bronze stands, costly maps 
 were framed as screens, curious gleanings from 
 many a foreign shore, filled glass cases, while at 
 the southern front, a small hot-house held rare 
 plants from all countries. 
 
 The breakfast room was large, bright and 
 cheerful, looking out on one side on the lawn, 
 on the other on the garden.
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 81 
 
 Baron did appreciate his bouquet. His fine 
 eyes lighted up at sight of it, and he bowed 
 toward the two girls across the long table. 
 
 "You see, he likes it, and papa is smelling 
 his," said Jack, sotto voce. "Do you know I 
 think in all the world it would be hard to find 
 two handsomer men than papa and Baron, not 
 but what your papa is fine looking," she added, in 
 an apologetic manner, laughing. 
 
 " But not a bit handsome," rejoined Gabrielle. 
 
 "Where did you get your beauty from?" 
 queried Jack. 
 
 "I! my beauty I" exclaimed Gabrielle, blushing. 
 
 " Yes, there's no use in your denying that you 
 are aware of the fact that you are a beauty. Do 
 you know I fell in love with you at first sight? 
 Pity for me, if I were a man," and she sighed in 
 mock, lugubrious fashion. " What Baron's heart 
 must have been that he kept it whole till he saw 
 Helen, passes my comprehension. Papa ! " she 
 cried, in her i ulsive fashion, "I've sent for 
 Helen." 
 
 " Helen ! Helen 1 " said the General, looking 
 meditatively into his coffee cup. 
 
 " There ! ho has forgotten her. You remember
 
 82 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 her, Baron," and she sent a clear, searching, 
 innocently unconscious glance, across the table. 
 
 "Miss Trevort, father," said Baron, a flush 
 rising in his dark cheeks. "She was here last 
 summer with Miss Garcelon." 
 
 " Oh, yes, yes, a fine girl ! I remember. She 
 will be very welcome." 
 
 "Thank you, papa, said Jack, gratefully, 
 " they're so glad of any event that will keep me 
 quiet for a week," she added in an undertone. 
 "But didn't you see Baron color, and even his 
 lips grew redder, at mention of Helen? You 
 might speak of every other girl we know, and his 
 countenance would remain as unchanged as the 
 hills over yonder. Dear, dear, I hope I never 
 shall be in love. It's well enough for men, but 
 it must be an awful bore to a woman." 
 
 Baron followed the two girls out of the break- 
 fast room, to what by courtesy was called a 
 sitting room, but in one corner of which, divided 
 by a large Japanese screen, was Baron's studio. 
 It was a wide, bay window, quite a room by 
 itself, with a glass roof, and gave him just the 
 light he wanted. 
 
 The young man fancied that he could paint
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 83 
 
 and for an amateur he showed unusual genius 
 and spent a great deal of time at his easel, while 
 the rest of the family sewed, talked, or lounged 
 as they liked. Many times during the day they 
 were all together, as the General, when he found 
 anything of more than ordinary interest in a book 
 or magazine, would leave his study and read it 
 aloud to the assembled family in this place. 
 
 Mrs. Leon went directly for her basket of 
 wools. Her chief employment was knitting. 
 She was a i>ortly, handsome, silent woman, very 
 fond of her husband and children, and caring for 
 little else. Baron walked to the window, Jack 
 drew up two great chairs near the fire, and went 
 out ,to get a book of drawings. Then Baron 
 appropriated the chair next to Gabrielle, and they 
 chatted on common place topics. Suddenly he 
 startled her by a question : 
 
 " Do you think she will come ? " 
 
 " Helen ? " Gabrielle's heart beat faster. " I 
 am almost sure she will. She has been so hard 
 at work for the past three months! Of course 
 she will rest at the academy for a few weeks 
 but that is not exactly the rest she needs." 
 
 " By no means,'' said Baron, and listened with
 
 84 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 brightening face, while Gabrielle, to whom the 
 theme was a delightful one, talked on of Helen, 
 her sweetness of disposition, her vigor of mind, 
 and beauty of character. 
 
 " I want her to come home and stay with me, 
 but she will not listen to it a moment she is so 
 proud, dear Helen, that she cannot brook depen- 
 dence and she has nobody to care for her, 
 you see." 
 
 Baron smiled to himself, and for the second 
 time his face flushed. 
 
 "What are her ideas about that is, does she 
 ever talk upon religious matters?" asked Baron. 
 
 "No not often, but for all that she is the 
 most religious girl I ever knew not in exactly 
 the way they are at the school, you know. She 
 never makes a parade of it, but one can see it in 
 her daily life." Gabrielle spoke with enthusiasm, 
 for she remembered hearing Helen say that Baron 
 Leon was one of the finest specimens of manhood 
 she had ever seen, " but what a pity," she added, 
 "that his tendencies are towards infidelity." 
 Gabrielle did not believe this, and still it occurred 
 to her that there was something strange in his 
 asking her the question he did ; something strange
 
 NO MOTHEIl LIKE MINE. S~> 
 
 in his moody silence after she had answered it. 
 She herself had been influenced more by Helen's 
 character, sentiments and example, than by any 
 of the evidences of revealed religion. She had 
 more than a sentimental admiration for goodness, 
 and a great honor of people, who openly approved 
 Christianity. She could see, even with her shallow 
 experience, that reverence for its forms was 
 merely a matter of habit at Castle Brook. She 
 had visited here before, and knew ' that Sunday 
 was passed much as any other day, in driving and 
 walking, and now and then but very seldom 
 attending service, there was really no heart-felt 
 observance. Of this Helen had spoken now and 
 then, with a great deal of feeling, and it occurred 
 to Gabriel le, that it might be a drawback to her 
 pleasure, even if she consented to come. 
 
 At that minute the General entered the room 
 with several papers in his hand. 
 
 "Your father has bad news, my dear, and 
 wished me to tell you that he was obliged to 
 start for the 9.20 train. He could not even 
 stop to say good-bye," the General added, taking 
 out his watch. 
 
 "What news?" asked Gabrielle, half rising, 
 cheeks a shade paler.
 
 80 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 "Some of his factories burned down last 
 night in Gliiitwood. I hope they were insured." 
 
 "And the poor people will be thrown out of 
 employment," said Gabrielle, pityingly. 
 
 "Do you know I should like to work in a mill, 
 for once in a way," said Jack, who had followed 
 her father. 
 
 " Hush, child ! " said her mother with a frown. 
 
 "Why, don't you suppose girls just a.s good as 
 I am, have to work for their living?" persisted 
 Jack. 
 
 "No, I do not," said her mother, with decision. 
 "Girls brought up as you have been, respect 
 themselves sufficiently to find more suitable 
 work." 
 
 "There are some very nice girls in father's 
 mills," said Gabrielle, timidly. 
 
 " Comparatively so, or such they seemed'to be 
 to your inexperience ; but I am afraid, if you were 
 unfortunate enough to be thrown among them, 
 socially, you would soon alter your mind." 
 
 " Oh, mamma, it is because we know so little 
 about them that we rate them so low. It seems 
 to me absurd to believe that they are all common 
 or unclean."
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 87 
 
 Baron had gone behind his screen, and there- 
 fore took no part in the conversation. The 
 General left them after his announcement, and 
 presently the room was very still, nothing but the 
 scratching of a pen being heard, and now and 
 then question or answer in a low voice. But 
 Jack could not be restrained long at a time. 
 Baron left his studio. 
 
 " Come and see some pictures," said Jack, and 
 they went behind the screen. 
 
 The space, all that could be used, was filled 
 with pictures. Books, easy to reach, were placed 
 on low-hung brackets. Engravings littered the 
 deep, bay window, and casts and half finished 
 paintings, stood or laid everywhere. On the 
 easel, was the picture upon which Baron was 
 busy, representing "fairies by moonlight." It 
 was, Its the subject demanded, highly idealized, 
 and in the foremost figure, with the silver radi- 
 ance of a white moon outlining the graceful 
 contour, might be traced a likeness to Helen 
 Trevort. 
 
 " I thought you would see it," said Jack. " I 
 
 told him it was her, but he denied the intention, 
 
 o I suppose he made the likeness unconsciously." 
 
 Gabrielle did not answer.
 
 88 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 She had picked up a book and was reading 
 intently, though at random. It was a much used, 
 much read volume, as its worn appearance indi- 
 cated. Presently her face shadowed, and she let 
 the volume fall with a gesture of disgust. 
 
 "Dear me! what's that?" queried Jack, startled 
 at Gabrielle's face. " Oh, one of Baron's books 
 awfully wicked but then, I'm afraid it's 
 papa's fault. He always declared that we chil- 
 dren should not be brought up in any set way 
 or faith that we should read and think as we 
 pleased, and Baron has taken advantage of his 
 liberality. Now, I don't care to read dull books, 
 and they're awfully dull to me, but now and 
 than Baron reads out loud, and somehow, what 
 Baron likes, I want to like, for I just love him to 
 distraction, the dear fellow. He's born for a 
 leader, you see; at least I think so. He 'lias 
 originated a club of young men, for what they 
 call free discussion, and they get all sorts of rare 
 books and papers, about all sorts of things. I 
 don't know what good it can do him, I am sure ; 
 he talks very little about it." 
 
 " But such horrible blasphemy ! " said Gabrielle, 
 shuddering.
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 89 
 
 " Yes, I suppose it does seem so to you, because 
 you are new to such things," said Jack, with the 
 volubility of unreflecting youth. "Baron has 
 such queer notions! But then, he is a genius, you 
 know, and something must be allowed for that." 
 
 " But don't he believe in the Bible ? " asked 
 Gabrielle, her face wearing still a pained ex- 
 pression. 
 
 u Well, I don't know," said Jack, reflectively, 
 " as he ever reads it. There isn't a Bible in the 
 house, beside the one papa reads from, in the 
 study. It's odd we have family prayers, but it's 
 habit, you see. Why, you don't think the Bible 
 is intended to be read by everybody, do you? It 
 is only for ministers, and people who belong to 
 the church. Now, papa and mamma belong to 
 the church, though they very seldom go, of late 
 years, but Baron and I never go." 
 
 "And why not?" 
 
 "I don't know without it's stupid. The 
 singing is so drony, and I always used to fall 
 asleep when mother took me. Papa says we can 
 Irani more of God out in the woods. I am 
 always there, on Sundays." 
 
 " But do you ? " asked Gabrielle.
 
 90 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 Jack stood still for a moment, looking thought- 
 fully from under her finely arched brows, her 
 head bowed a little. 
 
 "I don't know," she made candid answer, "I 
 never think much about it I only care to enjoy 
 myself, and to smell the sweet pine, and to tell 
 you the truth," she added, laughing, " I think 
 more of myself, and my own comfort, than any- 
 body, or anything else." 
 
 "And then, you are so young ! " said Gabrielle, 
 half pityingly. 
 
 "Why, yes, only fifteen, three whole years 
 younger than my very sage friend." 
 
 " I am not quite eighteen, yet," said Gabrielle ; 
 "and besides, youth, cannot be Baron's excuse. 
 Baron is old enough." 
 
 "Excuse for what?" asked Jack, almost sharply. 
 
 "For reading those dreadful books, and for 
 in short for being a sceptic perhaps an infidel." 
 
 " That's not such a terrible thing," said Jack, 
 " some of the greatest minds of the world, have 
 been sceptical." 
 
 Gabrielle shook her head, and drew a long sigh. 
 
 "To me it is. Yo^i know I'm not particularly 
 religious and yet, to deny Christ, who died to
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 91 
 
 save us! What would tempt you to deny the 
 mother who gave you life? 4 He that denieth 
 me ' Oh, Jack it's just horrible. As for 
 Helen " 
 
 " Well, why don't you go on ? " asked Jack. 
 
 Gabrielle's face was flushed, and Jack looking 
 round, saw that Baron stood just outside. 
 
 " What are you two girls talking so earnestly 
 about? " he asked. 
 
 "Baron, are you an infidel?" bluntly asked 
 Jack, on the impulse of the moment. She did 
 not pause to consider what he might infer from 
 the question, and Gabrielle felt her cheeks grow 
 hotter. 
 
 "Am I an infidel? Well, I don't know that I 
 am anything in particular. J am spending a good 
 deal of time trying to find out. But I noticed 
 that there were letters for you and Miss Gabrielle 
 on the table in the hall." 
 
 "Letters! " cried Jack, and rushed out, Gabrielle 
 following.
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 LETTERS FROM HOME. 
 
 " Visions veiled in roseate, light." 
 
 \ 
 Cli NOTE came from Helen on the following 
 
 H? day. As Gabrielle opened it, she declared 
 ~ 1 v that it was full of the mouldy smell of the 
 Seminary garden. 
 
 "She comes! "said Jack, striking an attitude, 
 and listening. 
 
 "Yes, she says she will come for a week 05 
 two," said Gabrielle. 
 
 "She shall stay a month," responded Jack. 
 " We'll keep her a prisoner, and oh, what a jolly 
 time she shall have ! Gabrielle, we must get up 
 something nice for entertainments. What shall it 
 be ? Tableaus music, charades ! Do you sup- 
 pose we can ? I want her to have such a good 
 
 92
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 93 
 
 time that she will utterly forget the old school, 
 and everything pertaining to it." 
 
 "It will be enough that she is here," said 
 Gabrielle, who had just finished reading a letter 
 from home for the second time. 
 
 "Is that Helen's letter?" 
 
 "No, Helen's letter is only a note, written 
 under the spell of a dreadful headache, she says. 
 There it is this other, which I was reading 
 when that came, is from my cousin, the lame girl 
 you have heard me speak of she always writes 
 such bright letters." 
 
 "Would it be a sin and a shame for me to 
 see it?" 
 
 " Certainly not ; I will read you a part of it 
 that part relating to the fire. They must have 
 had an exciting time of it." And Gabrielle read 
 aloud : 
 
 " * You should have seen the factories, all 
 ablaze since there was no help for it, such 
 a picture as they madej All the town was on 
 the hill, looking on doctor Berg and his sister, 
 all the Worths and Lindsays. You .remember 
 that rather pretty Oregon- girl, Dolly, they call 
 her, who has the bedridden brother; the was
 
 94 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 there with the Brocks, a very nice family that 
 moved here just after you went to school, (to 
 think you have never been back here since.) 
 The Brocks were in the factory the father, that 
 is, who was book-keeper, and he, poor man, was 
 frightfully injured, so that they say he will not 
 live. Well, the ruins are not so pleasant to look 
 at as the fire was. Four of the best buildings 
 were burned, and nearly three hundred people, in 
 all, turned out of work. They have sent for 
 your father, so the housekeeper is dusting and 
 airing, and putting tilings to rights, generally, 
 and a queer looking boy they call Bony, is carry- 
 ing ashes through the cellar into the lots back of 
 the yard. I don't know whether the boy is quite 
 bright, but he acts strangely. He goes round 
 looking at things, and if you notice him, he says 
 in his odd, sing-song voice, 
 
 ' Seems to me, I've seen all this before - 
 sometime very far back.' The housekeeper says 
 he is quite a study. I .have just got through 
 with hemming a new set of towels and sheets, 
 and pillow cases and table cloths. I hope you 
 will come home in time to celebrate your birth- 
 day here. Your father thought you would ; did
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 95 
 
 he speak to you about it ? The Mays drove out 
 from the city, last week hearing that you were 
 in town. I just hinted something relative to a 
 birthday party, and nearly set them wild. They 
 planned it all out even to the garden. Those 
 low-limbed horse-chestnut trees would look so 
 well, hung with lanterns in different colors.' 
 
 4 Do tell her not to omit giving the party on 
 any account, said Miss Sally, pulling up and 
 buttoning her kid gloves, (how is it gloves go on 
 her hand so easily ! five buttons, too, and not the 
 least trouble in fastening.') 
 
 4 You ask about Mrs. Bride. She is much the 
 same as ever. When she is well she takes her 
 place in the kitchen, and badgers all the servants. 
 She still has those fits, as Dooley, her husband, 
 calls them I think another name would suit 
 them better. When she saw poor Bony Shucks 
 working about, she almost flew at him. I didn't 
 know for a minute, but what she would knock 
 him down. The boy was afraid of her, and kept 
 out of her way, I can tell you. I often wonder 
 why uncle keeps so inefficient a servant, and so 
 rude a woman in the house. She is at times 
 impertinent to everybody, and Dooley has no 
 peace of his life.'
 
 96 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 * I believe I have told you all the news. Every- 
 body is looking forward to your coming, and if 
 you do give a party, it will be an ovation. Come 
 home as soon as you can.' " 
 
 " What a nice, chatty letter ! " said Jack. " Is 
 your cousin handsome ? does she look like you ? " 
 
 " Not at all," Gabrielle replied, " she met with 
 an accident when very young, and consequently 
 is lame and disfigured. Both her parents are 
 dead she has had a lonely lot and life, and yet 
 her letters are always cheerful. Papa gave her a 
 home, years ago, and she has staid with us ever 
 since." 
 
 "But who is this Mrs. Bride?" asked Jack. 
 
 " An old servant, who has been in the family 
 nearly twenty years. I think father keeps her 
 mainly because she is so fond of me, for that 
 seems her only redeeming feature. She is lazy 
 and passionate, and has fits, so her husband says. 
 I never remember the house without Biddy Bride. 
 You know my mother died when I was an infant, 
 and Biddy was almost a second mother to me. 
 At any rate, she was my nurse, and carried me 
 through two serious illnesses, and that is what 
 made my father so grateful ; she saved my life."
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 97 
 
 "How does she look?" asked Jack, who, toying 
 with some wools, and a long, shining needle, 
 seemed to be unwontedly interested in Gabrielle's 
 home and history. 
 
 "A portly, handsome woman, though her 
 beauty is rather coarse. I remember her large, 
 blue eyes, and the wonderfully long lashes. 
 Dooley, her husband, is physically her inferior, 
 but he is very fond of her. Indeed, I am 
 inclined to think he is somewhat afraid of her, 
 for she has a furious temper. I remember once, 
 when we were 011 the road I was a little 
 thing a dog came snapping at me, and sprang 
 at my carriage, when she caught it by the neck, 
 and threw it with such violence, that she broke 
 its back, and the dog had to be killed." 
 
 " Oh, horrible ! " cried Jack, shuddering, ** and 
 still it was very grand to save you, of course. 
 And so she is handsome and brave, and has a 
 temper ? " 
 
 "She shows temper towards everybody but me. 
 She would do anything in the world for me. 
 And I like her very much, of course, as a nurse 
 almost like a mother." 
 
 " How delighted she will be to see you," said 
 Jack.
 
 98 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 " Yes. I often wonder what she will say, now 
 I have grown up a young lady. You see I was 
 only twelve years old, when I was sent to school, 
 and a very small child of my age, and she hardly 
 expects to see me so tall, almost out of her reach." 
 
 " And that boy she speaks of ; who is he ? " 
 
 "That I don't know. I never heard of him 
 before, to my recollection. I must write, and ask 
 her about him." 
 
 "Do he may be a prince in disguise," and 
 the girls went down stairs to lunch, laughing 
 merrily over the conceit. 
 
 "Oh, but that rather pretty Gregory girl, who 
 is she?" asked Jack, abruptly, as after lunch, the 
 girls sat on the back piazza, sewing. " I mean't 
 to ask you at the time, but I forgot." 
 
 "Little Dolly! "said Gabrielle, smiling, "how 
 much I did love her, years ago and indeed I 
 have not forgotten her. She is the daughter of 
 one of the overseers of the mills, a man of whom 
 my father has a great opinion. They are people 
 who have been better off, I think at any rate, 
 Dolly and I were close friends, and I cried very 
 bitterly when we were parted. I remember the 
 mother, whose face always impressed UK;; it was
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 99 
 
 so spiritually beautiful. Just before I left home 
 for school, her oldest brother was injured by smut- 
 carriage accident, and I suppose he has never 
 recovered from the shock. Of course, she will be 
 grown and changed, just as I am, but I hope she 
 hasn't forgotten me." 
 
 rt She will not be your equal, socially, now, 
 will she ? " asked Jack, with a grave face. 
 
 " You mean that her father is poor, while mine 
 is rich ! Jack, I'm not going to let those things 
 influence me, unduly, in the choice of friends. 
 Dolly was a little lady at nine. With such a 
 mother as she lias, it is impossible that she should 
 have grown up under any but the purest influ- 
 ences, and her friendship will be an honor to any 
 one." 
 
 "Glorious ! " cried Jack, with a shining face. 
 "My dear Gabrielle, how glad I am that you 
 consider me worthy to be your friend. There's 
 no sham about you you are just nobleness 
 itself," and she gave her a hug and a kiss, and 
 then laughed with the tears in her eyes.
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 DOLLY'S NARRATIVE. 
 
 "Bear me away by sun and star, 
 To worlds of softest light afar." 
 
 NAP went a string ! and snap ! crack ! 
 another. I started up in dismay. 
 
 44 What is the matter ? " asked mother, 
 her fair face clouded, " You look as if you had 
 lost all your friends." 
 
 " My piano ! two strings broken, and after all it 
 is nothing but an old rattletrap. Shall I ever be 
 able to get a new one?" I asked, despairingly. 
 
 "Well, I don't know," replied mother, musingly, 
 44 it's worth thinking about." 
 
 44 Particularly as I am going to teach, or try to." 
 44 Father can ? t give it to you, you know," said 
 mother. 
 
 100
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 101 
 
 Oh, no. I didn't expect that. Father had as 
 much as he could do to give me bread and butter, 
 and clothes; although the clothes came mainly out 
 of an old chest that had belonged to an aunt of 
 mine, and contained several dresses of good mate- 
 rial, albeit cut in a quaint fashion. 
 
 "How much will new strings cost?" asked 
 mother. 
 
 " I don't believe it will be of much use to put 
 in new strings," I said, "something seems to 
 happen to it every day. It's twenty years old." 
 
 44 Poor old thing ! " said my mother, with such a 
 melancholy cadence in her voice, that I burst out 
 laughing. 
 
 " It's worth trying for isn't it worth praying 
 for ? " asked mother, softly. 
 
 " Praying for a piano ! " I exclaimed. 
 
 "Why not?" asked mother, gently. 
 
 "I don't know only it seems odd and 
 somehow not right exactly." 
 
 "You have such a very rich Father in Heaven ; " 
 and mother's voice sounded sweetly soft and 
 low, just like the whisper of an angel. "He 
 loves you, He is quite willing to help you only 
 waits, perhaps, to be asked."
 
 102 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 " But, mother," I said, " I am not like you 
 you have loved and served Him for many years 
 while I " tears stopped my voice. 
 
 " Well you do not love Him, then." 
 
 "Oh I can't exactly say that it seems 
 sometimes as if I did, or could, so easily, but 
 something holds me back." 
 
 " And what is the something, dear ? " 
 
 "Why, I suppose it is myself," I made 
 answer, a little startled at mother's solemn voice. 
 
 "That means you love yourself better than^you 
 do Him. Why, look at it, my daughter. He 
 only wants your love and your service for your 
 good, not his. It is very simple just this. In 
 exchange for yourself, which you give Him, He 
 offers you boundless happiness in this world, in 
 spite of its crosses and trials, and an eternity of 
 such glory, as we cannot even conceive of. For 
 our dear Lord says 'eye hath not seen, ear hath 
 not heard,' of anything like the joy, the glory, 
 the delights of heaven." 
 
 I sat full of troubled thoughts, and a little 
 astonished at my mother's direct utterance. I 
 had considered myself quite a Christian, and was 
 not altogether prepared to change my opinions.
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 103 
 
 " And if you offer Him yourself," mother went 
 on, " He will accept you and that will be His 
 guarantee that He will be around your path and 
 within your life, keeping you constantly from 
 evil while you confide and delight in Him. 
 There is no other safeguard, dear Dolly, for life 
 and its trials now do you think there is? " 
 
 And that was my mother's way she convinced 
 you against your own convictions and then she 
 left it with you, entirely to think it out. 
 
 All this came of two broken strings! There 
 stood the old piano, spider-legged and dim of 
 varnish, as sober and demure and innocent as its 
 yellow keys and thin ricketty frame could look. 
 
 The influence of that conversation followed me 
 for days haunted me. I could not touch the 
 old familiar notes, but the question was thrust at 
 me " do you love yourself better than God ? " 
 and I went around the house, troubled and silent, 
 or else quarrelling, mentally, with my miserable 
 self. 
 
 If mother would only allude to it again, I 
 thought, but though she must have noticed my 
 disquietude, she left me to myself, and to that 
 unseen, unknown power, which seemed holding
 
 104 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 me from God. No matter on which side I looked, 
 myself blocked the way of promise. Continually 
 I repeated, "I have done this and that kept 
 the commandments, obeyed my parents, attended 
 church, promised amendments and adhered to my 
 promises been kind to others, charitable, for- 
 giving why then had I any cause for uneasi- 
 "ness? Why could I not go to my Father and 
 ask Him?" 
 
 Simply because I knew I had kept back some- 
 thing, and that was my own will. 
 
 "Why don't you give it up?" asked con- 
 science. 
 
 "I don't know, I am afraid," was the puzzled 
 answer. 
 
 "Of what?" 
 
 " I don't know only I hate to give up." 
 
 That was just it. I hated to give up felt 
 that I should not belong to myself that I must 
 not consult myself, trust myself, believe in my- 
 self. This conflict could not go on forever. 
 
 One day I went to Mr. Trevor, and he solved 
 my doubts. 
 
 " Let me put a case before you,*' he said, after 
 a brief conversation. "When a child first goes
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 105 
 
 to school, it must obey, whether it can perceive 
 the principles on which obedience is exacted, or 
 not. The strict, naked law demands obedience 
 as a part of the first principles of education. But 
 when the child becomes a rational, thinking and 
 responsible agent, and enters a school of art, it 
 must understand the principle of obedience to 
 certain specific, scientific laws, to perfect its 
 knowledge. The obedience is no longer irksome, 
 but it becomes a pleasure, the more thoroughly 
 the first principles are understood. The toil of 
 learning enters into the future happiness of mas- 
 terly genius and perfect skill." 
 
 " Now, in your school of home, you have been 
 taught to be obedient to the law. An excellent 
 mother and a conscientious father, have both 
 grounded you in these things, and you have 
 learned to discipline yourself, to think virtuously, 
 to do bravely, and to acquit yourself in all the 
 forms of life after a Christian method. But there 
 is a higher grade of school than home. You 
 have been serving as a child you have obeyed 
 the look and commandment of your teachers, and 
 are now ready, if you will it so, to graduate in 
 the school of Christ. You think you have liberty
 
 106 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 now, but it is not so. As long as you are the 
 slave of your own will, you will find yourself 
 serving a hard taskmaster. There is no real 
 liberty save in the love and service of the great 
 Master. Choose this day whom ye will serve 
 the will that is born and imbued with your own 
 infirmities, or that higher will which is the ex- 
 press image of God, and will guide you to happi- 
 ness here, and to glory hereafter." 
 
 I had chosen, even as he spoke. 
 
 "^Vhy, how easy it is?" I cried out with 
 rapture. "It seems as if God had just taken me 
 by the hand." 
 
 "Ah! you have chosen Him for your guide and 
 king, then ! " exclaimed the minister, his face all 
 alight. "May grace, peace and mercy go with 
 you, my child. From this hour you are free with 
 the freedom which only God can bestow, that 
 freedom which makes one free indeed. 
 
 I went home with a light spirit, singing in my 
 heart all the way. The world seemed actually 
 transformed to me, whereas, the world was no 
 more beautiful than before but my new expe- 
 rience and new trust infused new beauty in the 
 flowers, new melody in the songs of the little
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 107 
 
 birds, new grace and majesty in the trees by the 
 roadside, new lustre in the sunshine. I wondered 
 at myself, as well as the inanimate things about 
 me. Why had I hesitated ? why delayed ? How 
 strange that I had not gone at once to the arms 
 of a loving Father, gone to Him with every joy, 
 every care, every trouble ! And how free I felt! 
 I could htive thrown my arms up, and shouted 
 like a child for joy. It would be such sweet ser- 
 vice now, to work for Him, to love and obey Him. 
 And strange as it may seem, I did not care so 
 much for the piano, now. I was willing to leave 
 it all with Him, with every other need and care 
 and wish. 
 
 I said nothing to my mother when I went 
 home ; she said nothing to me. I only kissed her, 
 and we looked into each other's eyes, and I felt 
 that she understood me. She saw in place of the 
 sad, worn, unsatisfied expression, which was be- 
 coming habitual to me, a gladness which I could 
 not conceal and I think just then ; she asked 
 nothing more of heaven. 
 
 I went into Harry's room. The dear ooy was 
 supported by pillows, and caught my hand a- I 
 came in.
 
 108 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE, 
 
 "It's the first time I've been able to lift 
 myself for years, just this little," he cried, joy- 
 fully, "and I believe mother's faith is doing it. 
 No matter how much it made me suffer, she has 
 always been at me to try just a little, and 1 have 
 tried and tried, and now I'm actually up. I can 
 hardly recognizo the fact." 
 
 " Oh, Harry, I'm so glad ! " I said, and I was so 
 glad that the tears rushed to my eyes, and I ran 
 away to my room, and cried for very happiness. 
 Then I took my new Testament, and read about 
 Christ, and I seemed to see liis beau 4 ' ' 1, princely 
 face, while to feel that He loved me, that I was 
 an object of interest to HIM, so filled and satisfied 
 my heart, that I almost forgot for the time that I 
 was of and on the earth. 
 
 Oh, that first happy experience ! Could the 
 wealth of kingdoms buy it from me to-day ? 
 
 I went down stairs after fulfilling some little 
 home duties, and there found a message from 
 Cathy. It was now nearly a month since the 
 great fire, and workmen were already busy with 
 the new foundations, near which heavy freights 
 of gray stone had been deposited from Black 
 Quarry, a place nearly a mile from Glintwood.
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 109 
 
 Men had come swarming into the town, carpen- 
 ters, bricklayers, masons, men of all ages, rough, 
 well-favored, gracious, grumbling; some with 
 heads like Titans, that made one wonder why 
 they were not in some professional way, moulding 
 the destines of the world, while others scowled 
 at you from under beetling brows, and thrust 
 themselves into your thought by the sheer mag- 
 netism of their ugliness. One of these, a mason, 
 my father called in to do some brick-laying about 
 the kitchen hearth, and he talked as learnedly 
 about the leading events of the day, as if he had 
 graduated in all the schools of philosophy and 
 politics, and as he chipped off bits of brick here 
 and there, chipped out from his bright, original 
 mind, some of the clearest and finest theories 
 that ever emanated from the wisest philanthropists 
 of their race. 
 
 During this month, the situation of our friends 
 and neighbors had changed but little. There had 
 gradually crept into their lives the quiet of 
 resignation. The discordant forces that had kept 
 them full of unrest, stung with tormenting doubts, 
 battling with the destiny that had stalked so 
 ruthlessly into their pleasant home, had fallen
 
 110 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 into the nackground, and a gentler spirit had 
 taken their place. Wilhelin Brock lay still help- 
 less, his face thin and drawn, his features sharp- 
 ened hy illness, and his great, dreamy, dark eyes, 
 inexpressibly pathetic from their sad, imploring, 
 wistful expression ; but it was found that he 
 would not be utterly helpless. The doctor gave 
 hopes that before long he would be able to be 
 removed from the bed to a chair, and that though 
 most of his body was paralyzed, he might entirely 
 regain the use of his hands and arms. 
 
 " It is so sweet that thou canst see and hear, 
 and talk, my Wilhelin ;" his wife would often say, 
 as she sat beside him with her work, "and when 
 thou canst play the flute, once more we shall 
 all be so happy again." 
 
 He did not now reply, as he had at first, with 
 nervous impatience, wishing himself dead, and 
 almost cursing his enforced helplessness. He 
 sometimes smiled into the faithful face beside 
 him, and allowed himself to join in her anticipa- 
 tions. That, though, was but seldom, and his 
 smile was more mournful than tears. His greatest 
 enjoyment was to listen to his wife os'she played 
 the dearly loved sonatas on the old, spidc>K-Lm. !
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. Ill 
 
 piano, and which Cathy accompanied with her 
 violin. 
 
 It was May now, and so far the weather had 
 been bright and beautiful. Roses were budding 
 in the gardens, and the woods were quite alive 
 with pale blue and white star-like blossoms, and 
 sweet beyond description with the newly spring- 
 ing life, rising from the death of winter, on every 
 side. 
 
 Dick had brought me a bunch of wild flowers 
 that morning, and as I thought of it, I took it out 
 of its little bouquet holder, to give it to the sick 
 man. 
 
 How his beautiful eyes glistened at sight of the 
 fragrant things, as he held them in his white, half 
 nerveless hands. 
 
 " I was just wishing I could find a few," said 
 his wife, and Cathy was arranging to go out and 
 hunt for some, as soon as she got through her 
 practice. 
 
 Just then Cathy came in. She looked flushed 
 ami a little wearied. 
 
 Von have heard," she said, leading me into 
 tin- next roont, "what I am going to do?" 
 
 I >lnx>k my la-ad.
 
 112 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 " Well, in a short time, there will be a splendid 
 party at Garcelon house. Miss Gabrielle Garce- 
 lon will be here to-morrow ; so Mr. Garcelon 
 informs us. There will be a great many city 
 people invited, and Mr. Garcelon wishes me to 
 play only think before so many! Do you 
 believe me capable ? Can I do it ? " 
 
 " Of course I believe you capable," I said, " to 
 be sure you can do it." 
 
 " If only papa or my mother could be with me, 
 I don't think I should care so much, but nothing 
 could induce mamma to go and leave Aim. So 
 you see I shall have to play with a stranger and 
 so get nervous, perhaps, and fail, miserably. It 
 would be terrible to fail, when so much depends 
 upon it." 
 
 " You won't fail," I said. 
 
 " I have been thinking " she hesitated, " if, 
 only you could learn to accompany me." 
 
 " I ! " and I started back with a sensation akin 
 to terror. "I should only ruin you I never 
 play for any one, save you and the home people." 
 
 "Then I fear I must fail," said Cathy, quite 
 calmly, "for I cannot play with a stranger. 
 The best way will be to give it up altogether.
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 113 
 
 I do care so much for the twenty dollars! 
 but " 
 
 "Has" he offered you that?" I asked, quite 
 startled, " then you are really going to play for 
 money." 
 
 " Whenever I can get it, honorably," was the 
 girl's brief answer. " Ernst must not take the 
 whole burden upon his shoulders. Mr. Garcelon 
 wants to help me and he is very kind. There 
 will be many city people present, and if I please 
 them, they may speak a good word for me but 
 perhaps it is best not I must try some other 
 way." 
 
 I reflected for a moment. It would never do 
 for her to lose this chance, if she was seriously 
 thinking of making music her profession. The 
 people would probably never notice me perhaps 
 Gabrielle had forgotten me, I rather hoped she 
 had. Besides in my new found happiness, I was 
 conscious of a desire to do good to others, to 
 work for the Master. 
 
 " If it will be a help to you," I said, " I will 
 try. Give me the music, and let me practice it 
 for a few days. When does the party come off? " 
 
 "A week from Wednesday," she said, her
 
 114 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 countenance lighting up. " Oh ! Dolly ! listen I " 
 She had clasped my hands in both hers, and the 
 light fairly streamed from her eyes. 
 
 It was a soft, unsteady sound, issuing from the 
 next room, a trifle of trembling melody just 
 heard then it ceased. 
 
 " It is papa ! he has found strength to hold 
 his flute! Oh, I hope everything from this. 
 And Ernst I must write to him to-night. The 
 dear fellow will be so pleased. He said if papa 
 could only touch the flute once more, it would be 
 almost equivalent to gaining his health though 
 of course, we never can expect that." 
 
 Just then Mrs. Brock came out into the little 
 room. She looked at us, and we could see that 
 she was too much affected to speak. The tears 
 were in her eyes, but yet she was smiling, and 
 holding her hands that were clasped together, as 
 people hold them when they pray. 
 
 "Oh, mamma!" whispered Cathy, trembling 
 from head to foot. 
 
 " Isn't it beautiful ! I wish you could have 
 seen him. It seems as if half the burden had 
 rolled off now. Oh, my darling he will be 
 happy again poor suffering soul! I took the
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 115 
 
 flute case down, took out the flute, and began to 
 rub it it had been so neglected, poor thing, it 
 seemed to me that it must know of the trouble 
 that has come to us. He looked at it, and turned 
 his face away : then his fingers began to .work, 
 and still I never dared hope never spoke a 
 word. When it was all dusted, I went to put it 
 back in its case. 
 
 " Let me see it," he said, and I placed it in his 
 hands. With a little effort he raised it to his lips 
 
 nearer nearer then I lifted his head, and 
 he played that little air he loves so well you 
 heard it. Oh, blessed, blessed music ! " 
 
 " In time, in time," he said, as he gave it back 
 
 and from that moment, it seemed as if his very 
 countenance changed. Now that he has that 
 hope to dwell upon, 1 hope everything. We will 
 make his life very happy, dear," and the tears 
 were running down her cheeks. 
 
 "There! 1 am better, now," she said in a 
 moment. "Dolly, can't you take this child 
 out for a walk. She has been working so hard 
 to-day." 
 
 I sent Cathy for her bonnet, and while she 
 was gone, the loving wife and mother could
 
 116 
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE- MINK. 
 
 talk of nothing but the suffering of her hus- 
 band, and the devotion of her children. Pres- 
 ently Cathy came in, ready to walk.
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 SAVED. 
 
 ** Quiet ttept hurry to my fide." 
 
 t 
 
 OR some reason or other, although we 
 
 started for the old mills, we turned into 
 another road, and soon found ourselves 
 marching along the highway and presently 
 Garcelon House stood right before us. A beau- 
 tiful place it was, situated back from the road on 
 a magnificent knoll, and was environed by the 
 most perfectly kept garden spots, terraces and 
 lawns. It all looked like a picture this beautiful 
 spring morning, with the lovely, blue sky above, 
 and the white and pink budding and blossoming 
 trees and shrubs on every hand. Doctor Berg 
 was just coming out of the gate as we passed. 
 *' Good morning, good morning ! " he said, 
 
 117
 
 118 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 pleasantly. "How is your father this morning, 
 Miss Cathy? I hope ' and he made his cus- 
 tomary pause. 
 
 Cathy told him, delightedly, the little episode 
 of which I have written. 
 
 " Played, did he ! flute, eh ! Well, that is very 
 good. I did not expect it so soon. But then " 
 and looking down thoughtfully he was silent, till 
 Cathy asked if any one was sick at Garcelon 
 House. 
 
 " Only Mrs. Bride usual complaint. Got an 
 infernal temper, excuse me, ladies, but that, with 
 some remoter cause, sends her into her tantrums, 
 or fits, as they call them. She'll die in one, some 
 day. I don't understand why Garcelon keeps 
 such a servant she's quite useless but then 
 of course, that good morning, ladies," he added, 
 pulling himself together as if he had thought of 
 an important summons, and off he went. 
 
 "Mrs. Bride was Gabrielle's nurse, I suppose 
 that's why he keeps her, ' I said. " She used to 
 be most kind to us, for I was Gabrielle's play- 
 mate, and as her husband is the gardener, of 
 course Mr. Garcelon hates to dismiss her. I 
 haven't seen her for a long time ; I wonder if she
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 119 
 
 is altered? Everybody in the house seemed 
 cifraid of her, except Gabrielle." 
 
 "Hark!" said Cathy, "don't you hear some- 
 body sobbing?" 
 
 Yes, the voice sounded quite near, now, and 
 when we rounded a curve in the great wall, there 
 sat Bony on a rock by the roadside, his dull face 
 duller than ever, while beside him crouched a 
 girl, her face completely hidden, for she had 
 buried it in her hands, what part of it was not 
 already covered by a huge, faded sun-bonnet, 
 which bobbed with her convulsive sobs, and gave 
 a ridiculous finish to the woe-begone picture. 
 
 " Why, Bony, what is the matter with Genie?" 
 I asked, stopping short. It was some time since 
 I had seen the brother and sister together. 
 
 "They was mean to her up to Garcelon House," 
 said Bony, sullenly. 
 
 44 Why, what did they do ? How came you up 
 to Garcelon House ? " asked Cathy. 
 
 44 Housekeeper said she might come and work 
 there, so she was scrubbing, when that Irisher, 
 Mistis Bride come along, and kicked over the 
 suds and took her long of the arm, an' jest put 
 her out, with big swear words, too ; " and Bony 
 shook his forlorn head, fiercely.
 
 120 NO MOTHEB LIKE MINE. 
 
 "And she hurted me," moaned the girl, rubbing 
 her elbow, stealthily. 
 
 " What right hud she to put any one out, when 
 the housekeeper gave her work to do?" asked 
 Cathy, indignantly. 
 
 " She hadn't no right," muttered Bony. " I'll 
 bet she don't do it again I'll never go into that 
 house ; I don't like it, nohow.'* 
 
 " By this time Genie had raised her head, show- 
 ing a face as pretty as a little daisy, albeit rather 
 smeared about the eyes and forehead, but the 
 eyes were very bright and black. 
 
 " She needn't a hit me so," murmured the girl, 
 "only I hain't had no work to do ever sense 
 the mills' burnt down, and I was going to be give 
 a shilling for scourring," and she began to sob 
 again. 
 
 " Where do you stop, now, Genie ? " I asked, 
 for indeed I had not seen her since the fire. 
 
 " I'm stopping all round, Miss. Them as can 
 give me a meals vittles, doe, and I scour au' 
 scrub, and tend children, but I don't git no 
 money, nor I won't, till the mills is built agen. 
 Sometimes they tells me I'll have to 'go to the 
 poor house, but I never will, I'll die fust; I'll 
 never go there."
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 121 
 
 "No, Miss, we won't neither of us, never go 
 there no more!" supplemented Bony, with a 
 twist of the lips, and a movement of the hand 
 that was meant for a menace. 
 
 From a little change in my pocket-book, I took 
 a bit of money, and gave to the girl, who looked 
 at it and at me with a surprise amounting to 
 wonder, and a half smile stole over the pretty 
 face. 
 
 44 Poor things ! how thankful they are for such 
 a mite, and how hard they work for it ! I never 
 saw the girl before, though the boy is so well 
 known." 
 
 44 How can they be brother and sister ? " asked 
 Cathy. 
 
 I told her all I knew about Bony, which indeed 
 was not much. He had been in the town ever 
 since I could remember, and his history was as 
 follows : 
 
 44 One terribly stormy night, which was marked 
 as an epoch, for the reason that several houses 
 were blown down, and twenty persons killed, a 
 woman was found under the church porch, insen- 
 sible, a babe covered up in her shawl, and a boy, 
 a bright, pretty, little fellow, crouching by her
 
 122 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 side. As it was at first thought that they were 
 sufferers by the storm, they were taken imme- 
 diately in by a family near by, where it was soon 
 found that the woman was a vagrant and a 
 stranger, and in a sickly and starving condition. 
 On the following morning, she was carried with 
 her two children to the poor house, and in less 
 than twenty-four hours, she died of exhaustion. 
 The little girl, not yet a year old, and the boy 
 something more than two years older, were kept by 
 the overseers, and grew up, wards of the town. 
 A frightful accident that happened when he was 
 five years old, resulted in the deformity of the 
 little fellow's face and figure, but the girl grew 
 up tolerably pretty. No clue could be found to 
 their parentage, they did not even know their 
 own names, and in time the boy contracted the 
 surname of Bonaparte, and the girl that of 
 Genie, while an expression used towards them by 
 an old medicant, who called them two young 
 shucks, clung to them, and at last became the 
 name by which they were called. And so the 
 two forlorn children grew up, friendless and alone, 
 until they were old enough to be apprenticed, 
 when they found homes, such as they were, and
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 123 
 
 subsequently, when the mills were built, nt- 
 tempted, and with success, to work for them- 
 selves." 
 
 " Poor things ! " said Cathy, with an accent of 
 pity, " what a fate ! To be cast on the world 
 utterly friendless, and worse, even, nameless. I 
 thought there could be no sadder trial than ours, 
 but for these poor, neglected children, I feel such 
 pity as I never felt before. I won't mind that 
 boy's repulsive face again. I'm afraid he don't 
 make many friends, poor fellow ! " 
 
 " Very few. He seems almost to worship my 
 mother, who has done him many little kindnesses, 
 but for the majority of mankind, that part at 
 least which he knows, I fear he has very little 
 love." 
 
 We walked down by the ruins of the mills, 
 eventually. All was stir and hubbub there, 
 hammering, sawing, lifting and pushing, and 
 scores of the old mill-hands stood round, specu- 
 lating upon the work, questioning the busy toilers, 
 laughing and joking. Mr. Garcelon was there, 
 and seeing us, came on the outskirts of the crowd 
 to speak to us. 
 
 I ventured to ask him how soon the mills would 
 be finished.
 
 124 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 " In a week or two we shall have the walls up, 
 and in two months the place will be ready for 
 occupation, I hope," he said. ik Who is that queer 
 looking chap ? I think I used to see him at work 
 in the mills." 
 
 Turning to where his nod indicated, there stood 
 Bony with his sister, watching the progress of 
 the work with absorbing interest. They had 
 followed us, it seemed, and the boy and girl made 
 a picture calculated to arouse the curiosity of 
 an onlooker. 
 
 I described their position in a few words. Mr. 
 Garcelon gazed at them, thoughtfully, particu- 
 larly at the girl. 
 
 "We'll give them something to do, pretty 
 soon," he said, and touching his hat, moved 
 away. 
 
 "Come to look at him, he has got a good 
 head," said Cathy, "and beautiful hair." 
 
 "Who?" I asked. 
 
 " That poor boy, Bony ; you remember what my 
 brother said about him. Ernst is remarkably 
 keen, in his perception of character. It seems 
 hard those two poor children should have no one 
 to look after them."
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 125 
 
 "It is hard ; it ought not be so," I assented. 
 "I have often thought if they were willing to 
 learn, perhaps it is my duty to help them. I 
 spoke to mother, but she said very little to 
 encourage me. I know what she wants she 
 would like me to follow the dictates of my own 
 judgment. The boy is sensible enough, only so 
 uncouth and homely." 
 
 "But the girl is prepossessing; I think it would 
 be a pleasure to teach her," said Cathy. "I 
 could do something, Sunday afternoons." 
 
 " And so could I ; it only needs the will, and 
 the way is always easy. Besides "I hesitated 
 a moment, as Cathy's clear eyes looked into mine, 
 "I think I should feel a peculiar pleasure in 
 trying, now I have taken a new step since I 
 saw you last, Cathy I'll tell you all about it 
 when we are alone, sometime." 
 
 The words were scarcely out of my mouth, 
 when I felt myself grasped as in a vise, a hot 
 breath upon my face, while I was dragged bodily 
 away before I could speak or cry out. Then a 
 cloud of dust shut out everything there was a 
 fall, a heavy crash, a babel of sound, a* rushing 
 of feet, and I stood there gasping and half 
 stunned.
 
 126 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 The first thing that brought me to myself, was 
 feeling the arms of Cathy about me. She was 
 sobbing. 
 
 " Well, I allow thet's a meracle," said a harsh 
 voice, at my right. " The thing went squar on 
 the spot whar she stood." 
 
 "Don't be frightened, Dolly its all over. 
 One of the beams just lifted, fell where you 
 stood. Something in the tackling gave way. I 
 saw it coming, but before I could speak or move, 
 Bony had hold of you and dragged you out of 
 the way. Why, it would have killed you. Oh, 
 it made me so faint and sick ! " 
 
 I couldn't understand for some minutes. When 
 I did, I turned to speak to the boy, but he had 
 gone, and there a little way off was his sister, fol- 
 lowing him, but turning now and then, to look 
 at me out of her queer cape bonnet. I was 
 trembling from head to foot. The excitement 
 was subsiding, however. One or two of the 
 workmen came up to speak to me, but Cathy led 
 me away, and we walked slowly home, together. 
 
 Bony, the uncouth lad and half idiot, some 
 people called him, had saved my life. I had 
 taken an interest in the lad before, pitying him
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 127 
 
 for his isolation in a community of Christians, and 
 deploring his ignorance. Now his needs took on 
 a more serious aspect, and he seemed to have 
 entered into closer relations, to have become an 
 object of almost holy pity, as well as the saver, 
 under God, of my life. Every call of duty 
 seemed to give way before the necessity now 
 laid upon me, to heir this boy and his sister to a 
 newer and higher plane of existence. With this 
 absorbing question my mind was so occupied, 
 that it was some time before I told my mother of 
 the accident that came so near being fatal. 
 
 u My dear, dear chiid I " she said, kissing me 
 and holding me to her heart, " I see it all now." 
 
 "What do you mean, mother?" I asked, for her 
 face had taken on the tenderly, solemn look, 
 which I had learned to know betokened great 
 intensity of feeling, 
 
 " I will tell you," she said, with another kiss. 
 It was perhaps an hour ago, that a shadow came 
 over me so dark and dense, that I could not work. 
 The very sun seemed dull and gray, I looked in 
 on Harry, but he was busy and happy with his 
 painting I thought of Dick at school I thought 
 of you and your father, and my heart grew
 
 128 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 heavier and heavier. Then I prayed God to take 
 this darkness from me; what it meant I knew not, 
 only that there was trouble somewhere, threaten- 
 ing our peace and happiness. All at once as I 
 prayed, the cloud lifted, and I have been singing 
 and sewing ever since, quite sure that our Father 
 would avert any threatened danger. How can 
 we ever thank him sufficiently for this signal act 
 of mercy?" 
 
 So we conferred together that night about poor 
 Bony, and how it was best to proceed in the task 
 of enlightening him. 
 
 " It will be no small effort," said mother, as we 
 discussed this plan and that. " This poor lad has 
 had no training he can hardly know the mean- 
 ing of the words love or gratitude, for he has 
 been held to be a castaway, from bis first coming 
 amongst us. Strangers have taxed and harrowed 
 him his inherent rights have been disregarded 
 he has had no relations with men save those 
 of submission and force. Consequently his in- 
 telligence must be more or less brutish. Still, 
 with God all things are possible, and we must 
 look to Him for the patience and skill which is 
 needed for the mending of only one broken life.
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 129 
 
 You may be sure that your father and I -will help 
 you all we can, and iii time we shall see a great 
 change for ever so little light in a human, 
 benighted soul, constitutes a great change in 
 poor Bony and his sister." 
 
 I went up to my room with a swelling heart 
 and full of high resolves. To act the part of the 
 good Samaritan, to bring a soul, bruised and 
 bleeding and in midnight darkness, to the know- 
 ledge of my Prince and Saviour ! would it indeed 
 be given me to do this wonderful thing? I could 
 at least begin, for education is a life work, and 
 every day needs and brings a master. 
 
 Afterwards I found that all the town was talk- 
 ing about Bony, and then it got into the papers, 
 though we only knew that through a letter which 
 Cathy received from Ernst : 
 
 " I hear your fair, little friend, and next door 
 neighbor, was saved from a terrible death, by 
 the boy who was working for you when I was 
 down home. It requires something more than 
 mere courage to do a deed like that, if you re-, 
 member, I liked the boy ; I always did form sud- 
 den attachments, and my insight never played me 
 false yet." 
 
 This part of the letter, Cathy read to me.
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 HELEN AT CASTLE BROOK. 
 " Say is this life ? How trifling, oh, how vain ! " 
 
 ~\ 1 ELEN had now been at Castle Brook nearly 
 Tj two weeks, and already her palo cheeks 
 ^ ^ had gathered a delicate, pink hue, like the 
 fine tinting of coral. The summons that found 
 her lonely and sad in her little tower room in the 
 old seminary, had sent a thrill of delight through 
 all her frame. To feel that some one remembered 
 her in her forced seclusion, was a delight rarely 
 experienced, for she was almost alone in the 
 world. Away she went, humming in an under- 
 tone, down the tiresome stairs and into the 
 principal's room, where madam sat in a high- 
 backed, arm chair, very much carved and very 
 yellow from time. 
 r.n
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 131 
 
 " You wish to go, then," says madam, straight- 
 ening herself, and piercing Helen with her small 
 black eyes. 
 
 "Very much, madam ; they are all my friends, 
 there," says Helen, with a far away expression in 
 her eyes. 
 
 "Ah! you have friends^ then," says madam, 
 with a sharp emphasis on the word. 
 
 " I have been there before," said Helen,-a vivid 
 red suffusing her pale cheeks. 
 
 " Oh, of course ; I see you have made up your 
 mind to go, and I shall say nothing against it. 
 But I should not be doing my duty, if I did not 
 warn you. I have no personal knowledge of the 
 people at Castle Brook, but I have heard of them, 
 often. They are a precious set of care-for- 
 naughts, holding our blessed religion in contempt, 
 and indeed all things that are called religious. 
 The pleasures of the body, and not the good of 
 the soul, are all they live for. I don't know that 
 they worship fire or practice incantations and 
 sorcery they arc, I am afraid, worse than that 
 they worship themselves, if indeed they have an} r 
 faculty of the kind, and live utterly regardless of 
 another and better life;" and the good woman.
 
 132 NO MOTHEE LIKE MINE. 
 
 having done her duty, signified that Helen might 
 depart. 
 
 The young girl took the lesson somewhat to 
 heart, but it did not influence her decision. She 
 remembered that when she was there before, they 
 had family prayers at Castle Brook, and as the 
 Sundays were fearfully stormy, she had no oppor- 
 tunity of knowing the character of their holy-day 
 observances. She remembered also, that it had 
 never before fallen to her lot to live in such an 
 atmosphere of gentleness and refinement. The 
 kind old General, the lady-like mistress of the 
 house, Baron, (and at the thought of his con- 
 siderateness and delicate attentions, her face 
 flushed again,) impulsive Jack, bright and sweet 
 as a fresh morning-glory, all passed in review 
 before her, and her heart saw no fault in any of 
 them. She took a glance at her small stock of 
 laces and ribbons, mended some and brightened 
 others, declaring to herself that she would not be 
 cheated out of the sweetest of idyllic pleasures, 
 simply because she could neither vie with nor 
 outshine her kind entertainers. So with her head 
 full of beautiful country pictures, lawns, copses, 
 winding roads, singing waterfalls, rustic arbors,
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 133 
 
 rivers, pavilions, vines, trees and flowers, she went 
 to sleep that night, dreams doubling her pleasure, 
 for in them she met with a glorious welcome at 
 Castle Brook, a delightful prelude to the reality 
 of which a few brief hours brought her. 
 
 They all came to meet her at the turn of the 
 road, Gabrielle and Jack, locked arm in arm, 
 Baron, gravely kind, and the General, who was 
 going further on to inspect a field of barley. 
 And it seemed so natural to take Baron's arm, 
 and look up to him, for he was a tall, well-knit, 
 young man, that Helen forgot all the dreary 
 past, and felt herself one of this little world that 
 was so beautiful to her. 
 
 And then the three girls were alone together in 
 Jack's room; and Jack showed Helen a little 
 closet that had been fitted like an alcove for 
 a bed. 
 
 " Gabrielle said you would be so much more at 
 home here, than in our guest chamber, that I had 
 this arranged for you," said Jack. 
 
 " It's just delightful," was Helen's comment, 
 turning partly round, for she was kneeling over 
 her poor, little, black trunk, and shaking out her 
 one silk dress that was to play its part on grand 
 occasions.
 
 134 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 " Better than that bare room at the Seminary," 
 said Gabrielle. 
 
 "Yes, but that is not so bad," said Helen, 
 "though the outlook is rather dispiriting. To 
 one who has no real home, any shelter is a 
 godsend, you know." 
 
 " How strange ! " said Jack, " I can't even 
 imagine how it would seem not to have mother 
 or father to go to and dear old Brook to come 
 home to wouldn't it be lovely, now, to have a 
 home of your own ? " 
 
 Helen was brushing her beautiful, long hair, 
 and she only laughed in reply, but such a sob 
 came surging up in her throat, albeit she felt her 
 face grow fever hot. The question brought up so 
 much that was pitiful in her past life, for she had 
 always been meanly housed, and had seen both 
 father and mother slowly fade out of life for want 
 of but a tithe of the comforts that ordinary 
 households obtain, that for a minute she was 
 overcome by the remembrance. 
 
 No one noticed, Jack least of all, how the 
 thoughtless question sent the tears rushing into 
 her eyes. Gabrielle began talking about a letter 
 from home, and then the time was given up
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 135 
 
 to recreation. The spirit of fun and jollity 
 abounded, and the house was kept like a rose 
 garden, fair, sweet and bright, with the daily 
 presence of the three girls. Baron entered into 
 all their sports, and constituted himself general 
 in chief of the executive force, now marshalled 
 at Castle Brook. He planned moonlight ex- 
 cursions on the river, delightful picnics to the 
 surrounding woods, and glorious, somber woods 
 they were, with only here and there a shadeless 
 open, brightened with mosses and wild flowers, 
 with the sunlight braided in. Now and then a 
 few invitations were sent out among the neigh- 
 boring families, and they had outdoor games for 
 the afternoon, tea after that, and impromptu 
 amusements for the evening. 
 
 " Helen's ideas are so far ahead of ours," said 
 Jack, laughing, as one of these unique entertain- 
 ments was under discussion; "what do you think 
 she wants for a tableau ? " 
 
 "What is it?" asked Gabrielle, looking up 
 from a tablet on which she was writing. 
 
 "Why, St. Paul on Mars Hill; a reproduction 
 of the picture you so much admired yesterday." 
 
 "Isn't it a noble subject?" asked Helen,
 
 136 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 "and then the draperies can be so skillfully 
 managed." 
 
 " You see she is so good ! " said Jack, lightly. 
 " Her mind is constantly exercised upon scripture 
 and scriptural themes. Tap it any time, and out 
 runs a text. By-and-by, she will be wanting to 
 represent 
 
 " Who ? " asked Helen, looking up again from 
 her book, a wonder in her face. 
 
 " Christ on the Mount," said Jack, with a low., 
 gurgling laugh. " You see I am up to scripture, 
 too." 
 
 " Oh, Jack ! " cried Helen, with a pained ex- 
 pression. 
 
 " Why, what "have I done ? " asked Jack, in the 
 same light, off-hand manner. 
 
 " You have insulted the name of my Saviour," 
 said Helen, "you forget who it is you speak of in 
 such a flippant way. If a friend of yours had 
 died in his attempt to do you a service, I think 
 the name of that friend would be sacred from all 
 profane suggestion, forever after." 
 
 "Profane! dear me!'* and Jack looked her 
 wonder. "I didn't dream of being profane. Did 
 I swear, or anything like it, Gabrielle ? I'm sure
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 137 
 
 I didn't mean to offend you, Helen. I merely 
 spoke of the matter as I have heard it spoken of. 
 Baron, you know, don't believe as most people 
 do, and I suppose his example influences me 
 more or less." 
 
 " What is it that Baron don't believe ? " asked 
 Helen, turning a little aside, as if to get more 
 light on the page she was reading. 
 
 Gablielle looked warningly over to Jack, but 
 the girl was perverse, and would not heed her. 
 
 " He don't believe either in Christ or the 
 Bible," said Jack, in her downright way; "and 
 find me a better or nobler man, than my brother 
 Baron, if you can. Why, Helen ! how can you 
 'possibly care? you're as pale as a ghost," cried 
 Jack, the next moment. 
 
 Helen rose, sat down again, rose, and then, 
 almost gasping for breath, left the room.^ 
 
 " Why, Jack ! what have you done ? " asked 
 Gabrielle, in consternation. 
 
 "Opened her eyes," said Jack, bluntly. "She's 
 got to know. I had no idea she was such a 
 tremendous Christian. She believes every word 
 in the Bible from a to izzard, just like the blind 
 bigots that Baron talks of, who blighted every-
 
 138 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 thing bright and beautiful, and taught people to 
 be formal and wretched and unhappy, and expect 
 to go to hell if they were not eternally praying 
 and moping." 
 
 " Why, Jack ! " said Gabrielle, lookin'g the dis- 
 appointment and surprise she felt, " I never knew 
 you to talk in this strain before. If Helen is a 
 Christian, surely she is a happy one. She never 
 refuses to take partjn our little entertainments; 
 indeed was ever any one brighter and more merry 
 than she ? I don't understand you dear ; there 
 seemed to be a spite in what you said, and surely 
 you made poor Baron out blacker than he is." 
 
 "I know it and yet I don't know," said Jack, 
 with her characteristic impulsiveness. "I don't 
 see any fault in him. I won't and yet if she is 
 right, and people generally are considered right, 
 who worship Christ and stand up for the Bible, 
 where is Baron ? where am I ? I've been reading 
 some of those books," and she bent her head 
 toward the next room, where Baron had his studio, 
 "they are under lock and key, you know, while 
 Helen is here, but I have found them at odd 
 times, and you can't tell how interesting and 
 trutliful they seem, and what fine reasoning they
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 139 
 
 hold. They teach that man is a slave to creeds 
 and beliefs, and indeed they seem to prove that 
 the Bible is no more sacred than " 
 
 " Jack, I won't listen ! " said Gabrielle, indig- 
 nantly. "I won't, indeed why do yqu read 
 those books ? you never did before Helen came." 
 
 " Because Helen has set me to thinking," said 
 Jack, evidently delighted at the sensation she 
 had so thoughtlessly created, "she is such a 
 bigot!" 
 
 " Helen never talks about religion," said 
 Gabrielle. " There is nothing of the bigot 
 about her." 
 
 " Oh, yes, she talks, if you ask her questions, 
 and talks mighty plain, too ; she is entirely given 
 up to an idea. How does she know the things 
 she believes? She is merely taking the opinions 
 of others on trust. The absurd idea that if you 
 only have faith in something or some one you 
 never saw, you are saved the feeling that you 
 must never consult your own interests or wishes 
 why that is being hampered all one's life 
 that is slavery, and as Baron's books say, there is 
 not a more senseless bondage, a more complete 
 serfdom to a myth."
 
 140 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 "Well, Jack! " exclaimed Gabrielle, drawing a 
 long breath, "you have employed your time to 
 some purpose if you have only lately begun to 
 read infidel books. I wouldn't look at them- 
 unless I had had some experience the other way, 
 or until my judgment was more matured. Helen 
 has a splendid intellect, and I remember once 
 when she had some terrible doubts, how thor- 
 oughly miserable she was, until at last, she said, 
 there was no other way for her but to believe like 
 a little child, and that it was better for her to 
 have a blind faith, than to raise her puny hand 
 against the Almighty. Since that time and 
 she never spoke of it afterwards she has been 
 just as happy as a child, and her devotion has 
 been a beautiful one to me. I think it would be 
 better for you to study her than those wicked 
 books that give neither help nor happiness." 
 
 "Do you consider Baron a wicked man?" 
 asked Jack, hotly. 
 
 "I never saw anything in him but the ut- 
 most gentleness and sweetness of temper," said 
 Gabrielle. " I know you worship him, and natu- 
 rally follow in his footsteps, but 
 
 "Well, but what?" asked Jack, as Gabrielle 
 hesitated, " there's always a but."
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 141 
 
 "I was going to say that those were natural 
 gifts. Baron has been highly favored; he has 
 never had any trials or disappointments ; he don't 
 know what trouble is therefore he has never 
 been sufficently tested in order that it might be 
 seen what influence his peculiar belief might have 
 u}>on him." 
 
 ," Why, you talk like a person of experience," 
 said Jack. "I guess you have been taking 
 lessons of Helen." 
 
 "And you talk like one with a personal griev- 
 ance. I wish I had not thought of asking Helen 
 "here." 
 
 "So do I," said Jack, curtly, and throwing 
 aside her work, burst into tears, sobbing almost 
 convulsively. 
 
 " Why, Jack, dear, what can be the matter ? " 
 asked Gabrielle, now thoroughly alarmed. 
 
 "Nothing," said Jack, defiantly, and then after 
 a moment, she raised her head, a pitiful sight, for 
 her features were convulsed, and the tears rained 
 down her cheeks. 
 
 "Oh, don't yon see how it is? cant you see?" 
 she cried, chokingly. "I love Helen I can't 
 help it, love her at times, dearly, and then at
 
 142 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 times I almost hate her. Can't you see what 
 Baron thinks of her? how he is bound up in her. 
 When she first came here I saw that and she 
 will just set her foot on his heart." 
 
 "How do you know that?" asked Gabrielle. 
 
 "Because I do know it. I have sounded her 
 in such a way that she could not possibly see my 
 drift and she would rather die to-morrow than 
 change her religious belief." 
 
 " Yes, I believe she would ; she ought to," said 
 Gabrielle. "But then Baron would never ask 
 her to relinquish her religion." 
 
 "No! the glorious fellow!" said Jack, a burst 
 of pride lighting up her stained, sorrowful fea- 
 tures, " that he would not his mind is not 
 narrow, he would never seek to force his con- 
 victions upon another, but Helen I have learned 
 this much, Helen would never marry a man whose 
 religious opinions differed from her own. She 
 has such high, romantic notions, that there should 
 be a oneness in belief as well as in other matters, 
 and she will treat Baron as no brother of mine 
 deserves to be treated," and the tears fell plenti- 
 fully again. "That is why I am beginning to 
 hate her."
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 143 
 
 " But perhaps Baron will love her sufficiently 
 to think with her, to see that there never can be 
 any real harmony between iwo persons, unless 
 there is unity in their religious sentiments." 
 
 " How can a man like Baron give up his settled 
 convictions ? " queried Jack, with a doleful shake 
 of the head. "You must remember he is no boy, 
 lie is over thirty years old. And besides he is 
 preparing a series of lectures on modern Atheism, 
 which he is to deliver at some popular club this 
 winter." 
 
 " That settles it then," said Gabrielle. 
 
 " You mean that when Helen hears that, she 
 will never think of Baron again, though she 
 must see what he thinks of her, aye, and love 
 him, too." 
 
 "Yes. I think that is exactly what I mean. 
 I know Helen so well." 
 
 " She is self-willed, opinionated, and a fanatic," 
 said Jack, and turning, marched out of the room, 
 leaving Gabrielle deep in thought, and unsatisfied 
 for the first time since she had come to Castle 
 Brook. The spirit of antagonism had entered 
 this modern Eden, and brought with it a blight 
 that seemed benumbing. The girl had never 
 troubled herself to think very seriously on
 
 144 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 matters so vital to the soul's well being. She 
 had admired Helen's character, her forbearance 
 under injuries, her readiness to do things which 
 seem to most people beneath their dignity. She 
 had seen her in the sick room, quiet, cheerful and 
 efficient, and once, when a case of small-pox 
 broke out in the Seminary, Helen was the only 
 one who could be found willing to take any care 
 of the patient. And yet she knew that Helen 
 had a quick temper, and a subtle sense of and 
 delight in all the refinements of life, that she 
 loathed anything repulsive or contaminating. 
 Hence she was forced to conclude that there was 
 intrinsic worth in the methods that led Helen to 
 sacrifice her own individual tastes and prefer- 
 ences, and imbued her with cheerfulness to 
 perform repulsive tasks for the sake of othsrs. 
 
 All this had its effect upon Gabriclle, though 
 she had never given it much serious thought, but 
 when the time came in which the touchstone was 
 to be applied to her own weak and halting faith, 
 it saved her from the contamination of liberal or 
 infidel principles, and even from a wish to peruse 
 such books as the spiritually blind, halt and lame, 
 have left behind them.
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THROUGH THE WOODS TO CHURCH. 
 " Until he hated man, himself and God." 
 
 'HE first Sunday had been too tempestuous 
 to allow of any one leaving the house, but 
 on the second, the sun shone with a rarely 
 vivid lustre, the fields smiled in the glory of their 
 vernal brightness, and from every tree-top poured 
 forth a flood of melody. Heaven and earth re- 
 joiced in the smile of their Creator, in the vernal 
 beauty of their summer glory. Three days had 
 passed since the outbreak by wliich Jack relieved 
 her mind, and matters had gone on as usual, ex- 
 cept the St. Paul picture had been given up. 
 
 " What a splendid day for the woods ! " said 
 Baron, at breakfast. " How cool and quiet that 
 southern slope over by the Biglow rocks will 
 be!" 
 
 145
 
 146 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 "Let's have a lunch there," said Jack; "we 
 can set the table under the big beech, and Morris 
 will carry the things.'* 
 
 " Leave me out of your calculations, children," 
 said the General, who had been carrying on an 
 animated conversation with Helen. " I am going 
 to take Miss Helen to church. I hope Pangloss 
 will have a good sermon ; he is sometimes rather 
 prosy." 
 
 Baron bit his lip and changed color. Helen 
 only smiled over the table to Gabrielle, and Jack 
 said, with the slightest possible tinge of sarcasm 
 in her voice, 
 
 " I forgot that Helen considers it irreligious to 
 go in the woods on Sunday." 
 
 " Oh, no ! " said Helen, deprecatingly. " You 
 judge me wrongly. I like every tree in the 
 woods. Do we not pass through them on our 
 way to church? I think you told me so, Gen- 
 eral." 
 
 " Certainly ; there is a carriage road right 
 through the heart of our woods, and a very pleas- 
 ant drive," was the answer. 
 
 "Couldn't Ave walk?" 
 
 " Not both ways. You can have your choice, 
 the carriage going or returning."
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 147 
 
 " Going, then," said Baron. 
 
 Jack dropped her tea-spoon, and looked at 
 Baron, enquiringly ; but just then Mrs. Leon 
 arose, and all left the table. Baron went out and 
 came in again a moment after. 
 
 " We are going to have the long team," he 
 said, as he handed a lovely tea-bud to Helen, and 
 a more mature flower to Gabrielle. The long 
 team was the largest carriage in the place, in 
 which six or seven could ride comfortably. " I 
 think," he added, "we shall astonish the natives! 
 Wonderful to relate, mother declares she will go 
 to church. Poor little Pangloss will think an 
 eruption has taken place, and we are all belched 
 forth from the family crater. So get ready, 
 girls," he added, as he left the room. 
 
 " That's too bad ' said Jack, " when I had set 
 my heart on a wood's lunch. I know what I'll 
 do ; I'm not to be cheated out of it. Morris shall 
 carry up a lunch, at any rate, and on our way 
 home we can stop. That won't hurt your con- 
 science, will it, Helen ? " 
 
 " Why, certainly not," said Helen. " I think, 
 on the contrary, it would be very delightful. It 
 is only exchanging the prosy surroundings of the 
 dining room for the poetry of the woods.
 
 148 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 "Helen," said Jack, kissing her, "you are a 
 darling. I believe I begin to understand you." 
 
 " Pray, what can she mean ? " asked Helen of 
 Gabrielle, as Jack went out of the room. 
 
 " She thought you were a Puritan of the Puri- 
 tans, in your religious views, I suppose," said 
 Gubrielle. 
 
 "Well, so I am," said Helen, smiling. "A 
 Puritan of the Puritans. I believe exactly as 
 they did. But do you really think Mr. Baron 
 Lyle was in earnest when he spoke of spend- 
 ing the whole day in the woods?" 
 
 " That has been their custom," said Gabrielle. 
 
 " Is there trouble between them and the cler- 
 gyman? Don't they like Mr. Pangloss? " 
 
 " They don't care about church at all," said 
 Gabrielle ; " there is no special feeling against 
 Mr. Pangloss tluit I know of. They only believe 
 in worshipping God in a more primitive fashion." 
 
 " But do they worship Him ? " asked Helen ; 
 "because there may be just as much sincerity 
 under the arch of a tree as under the arch of a 
 temple." 
 
 " Well," said Gabrielle, reflectively, " I can't 
 tell what they think, you know ; they stroll about
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 149 
 
 and pick wild flowers, and read newspapers and 
 novels, and sing songs, and eat and sleep ; that is, 
 the General does. He often throws his handker- 
 chief over his head, and takes a nap on some 
 mossy knoll. And Baron often brings his pen- 
 cils or his colors, and sketches. Such rare bits 
 of pictures as he makes, 'Sunlight under the 
 Pines,' 'The Rabbit's Home,' cloud and tree 
 pictures, and bits of mess, and now and then 
 some beautiful wild flower. We do have good 
 times, and occasionally Baron pretends to preach, 
 and harangues us ; but I assure you his texts 
 are not taken from the Bible, or his theology, 
 either." 
 
 " And they call that worship ? " queried Helen, 
 gravely. 
 
 " And now I am at the confessional, I may as 
 well state, further, that once or twice we have 
 acted a comedy. It was great fun, but not a bit 
 like Sunday." 
 
 "Oh!" said Helen, quietly, and Gabrielle 
 thought a look of strange determination, blended 
 with pain, came into her face. She glanced at 
 the clock on the bracket over the mantel piece, 
 and said that it was time to go to church ; so Ga-
 
 150 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 brielle ran up stairs to finish her preparation, and 
 Helen went to her own room. 
 
 Barton ville Church was a handsome Gothic 
 building, erected some forty years before by the 
 father of General Leon, It stood embossomed 
 among trees and beautiful shrubs, only the gray 
 ivy covered porch visible from the long avenue 
 in front. It was made of substantial stone, and 
 presented very much the appearance of an old 
 English church outside of London, save that its 
 interior was more cheerful, for the sun shone 
 through richly tinted windows, and sent long 
 shafts of color athwart the marble aisles, giving 
 an expression to the place like that which lights 
 up a stately and somber countenance, that is 
 taken possession of by a radiant smile, once seen 
 never to be forgotten. 
 
 The pews were rather large, and that of Gen- 
 eral Leon was furnished with chairs and rugs. 
 Down into this enclosure the preacher could look, 
 but no one else ; and it was with a curious sense 
 of isolation that Helen took her seat. 
 
 "It is tliis that makes it so dull for them," 
 she said to herself. " It is quite like the con- 
 vent system : no intercommunication with others,
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 151 
 
 even by the eye. It does seem, indeed, as if we 
 were being preached to, exclusively." 
 
 The minister was a bright-eyed, bald-headed 
 man, who gave one the appearance, in the pulpit, 
 of being very small. His delivery was poor, 
 he jerked his sentences out with little regard for 
 smoothness of method, but his manner was sin- 
 cere, and he launched out all his eloquence at the 
 square pew. He preached at it, read at it, prayed 
 at it. Helen settled herself comfortably, with 
 her eyes on the floor. It was rather odd to find 
 him gesticulating at her, hurling his sentences 
 directly into her face, she being first the sinner, 
 then the saint, first the believer, then the unbe- 
 liever, and in all cases the audience. 
 
 The reverend Mr. Pangloss was not conscious 
 of this habit of his. It is even doubtful if he 
 saw Jack half hiding an interesting book under 
 her mantle, and reading in an unconcerned man- 
 ner, or the old General, nodding now and then, 
 or Baron, with his skeptical eyes and clouded 
 countenance, or Mrs. Leon, whose vacant expres- 
 sion told to Gabrielle, at least, that her thoughts 
 were elsewhere. His sermon was "very direct, 
 simple and logical, and the closing part, at least,
 
 152 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 seemed to rivet the attention of both Baron and 
 the General. The text was, "They looked on 
 Him and were lightened, and their faces were 
 not ashamed." 
 
 " Now," he said, gazing sternly at Helen, who 
 just then lifted her eyes, " there are two classes 
 of persons to whom the light in Jesus Christ 
 comes differently. One class is enlightened, and 
 the other lightened, or unburdened. One class is 
 merely intellectually edified or instructed; the 
 other, spiritually edified, or refreshed. To be 
 lightened is to be unburdened. Things are twice 
 as heavy in the dark. When one is stumbling in 
 the darkness anywhere, any extra weight is a 
 double burden ; nay, darkness itself is a burden 
 to one suddenly awakened in the night. 
 
 "To be mentally enlightened," and here he 
 leaned over on his hands, and peered directly into 
 Helen's face, " requires only an ordinary process 
 of mental energy, but to be spiritually enlight- 
 ened requires not only to understand and grasp 
 with the mind, but to grasp with the heart. 
 
 "The darkness of this world is not only its 
 night and shadow, its problems and mysteries, its 
 questions and philosophies. The real darkness
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 153 
 
 of the world is its pains and sorrows unexplained; 
 the heart bowed down and nearly broken with 
 secret grief, home trouble, business trouble, social 
 trouble, misunderstandings, severed friendships, 
 the worry of unsettled matters the cqnscience- 
 smitings, all these gather, like clouds, over the fair 
 lights of life, and hence we see so many gloomy 
 faces. Some cannot laugh with such a load on 
 the heart. 
 
 444 They looked on him and were lightened' 
 whoever they were who had found peace with 
 God." 
 
 Here Jack dropped her book on Gabrielle's 
 toes, and a little subdued commotion foUowed. 
 
 ** They looked on Jesus, the friend of sinners," 
 continued the minister, now pointing squarely 
 into the pew, 44 they looked on Him in His word, 
 in His church ; they looked on Him bleeding for 
 their transgressions, dying for their sins, rising for 
 
 
 
 their justification, ascending for their redemption 
 and intercession; and God sent light into their 
 souls, and they rested, and were lightened by His 
 light. Their burdens fell away, and they saw 
 God's smiling face through tears. The new song 
 came and broke forth in praise ; the dawn of
 
 154 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 heaven's glory began to rise on their soul's vision, 
 and the night of the world's trouble fled away, 
 like clouds before the sun." 
 
 With a side glance, Helen could see that Baron 
 seemed interested. His handsome face was a-glow, 
 and the profile against the window in the pew, 
 looked clear and clean cut as a cameo, while his 
 fine eyes were dark and deep with thought and 
 feeling. The girl's heart fluttered with pleasure 
 he was listening would not some sweet word 
 penetrate the armor of unbelief and give him 
 back his lost faith ? 
 
 " The prodigal looks to Jesus, and is light- 
 ened," continued the preacher. " Another helps 
 him to carry the load of his heavy heart, and. 
 casts the bright beams of His light along the 
 way. 
 
 "A youth once sought to climb into the 
 rigging of a fast-sailing ship. When far* aloft 
 he happened to cast Ids eyes below, and *the 
 sickness and dizziness of fear seized him. 
 
 " * I shall fall I am falling ! ' he cried in 
 terror. 
 
 "The captain stood by, and shouting, answered: 
 ' look up, my lad, look up ! ' He looked up, and 
 came down to the deck in safety.
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE 155 
 
 " No one was ever yet saved by looking down 
 from a high purpose or resolve. Such a look 
 makes a man dizzy with desire to get back to his 
 old level again. Look up ! look up ! while you 
 are going towards heaven ! 
 
 " Such a look as faith and penitence can give, 
 is better than all the towers that impiety and 
 intellectual pride can build. They who built the 
 tower of Babel would escape the rising floods. 
 They made an upward work, and spent just so 
 man}- years in waste and vanity. So no merely 
 human progress, vrith an upward tendency, seeking 
 to supersede and overreach God's plan, can succeed; 
 while one look of love and contrite faith, will 
 build a Jacob's ladder, reaching from earth to 
 heaven, on which God's angels will come and go, 
 bringing peace, yea, even though the weary 
 heart and tired head rest upon a stone on* the 
 hard and painful trials of a broken life." 
 
 Helen forgot to watch Baron, for her own 
 spirit" seemed to soar with the theme. The 
 General moved uneasily; Jack looked pulpit-ward, 
 nervously, and shut her book ; Mrs. Leon started 
 from a light cat-nap, and Gabrielle yawned be- 
 hind her fan, as the preacher closed earnestly 
 with the last part of his text.
 
 156 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 " * Their faces were not ashamed.' 
 
 " When sin is gone, and the load is gone, and 
 the fear is gone, and the Saviour's arms fold the 
 returning child to a warm embrace of forgiving 
 love, and the two faces meet, the Father's face 
 and thine, will not the shame be gone, too? 
 True love kills shame. Divine love has no shame 
 to kill. Shall it be said of us, beloved, 
 
 '"They looked on him and were lightened, and 
 their faces were not ashamed ? ' "
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 HELEN'S DECISION. 
 
 " To be most happy or most miserable." 
 
 J'd Helen decided to walk home; 
 the rest entered the carriage. The minis- 
 ter came out just as they were driving off, 
 and spoke to them with a beaming face. I think 
 the sermon had done him and others more 
 good from the fact of the family of Castle Brook 
 having been there. 
 
 It was so unusual, that the minister counted 
 upon it as a new departure, and pleased himself 
 when alone in his study, by running over parts 
 of his discourse, and hoping that they had touched 
 some vulnerable spot in the hearts that he had 
 had under his earnest instruction for one brieJf 
 hour. 
 
 157
 
 158 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 "I think, my dear, I made it pretty plain to 
 them," he said to his wife. 
 
 Mrs. Pangloss was an invalid, a little, wizen-faced 
 woman, with an immense crop of whity-yellow 
 hair, who sat all day long in a great, calico-covered 
 arm-chair, and whose only pleasure in life con- 
 sisted in the ability of pouring all her complaints 
 into the ear of a too indulgent husband. 
 
 "Pray who are you talking about, Mr. Pan- 
 gloss and please don't speak so loud, it goes 
 through my head like a gong." 
 
 " I was alluding to the Leons of Castle Brook, 
 my dear." 
 
 " Pray don't follow that foolish usage, but say 
 Brook House; why castle, pray?" 
 
 "Surely," said the minister, good naturedly, 
 " why castle ? Brook House is better only 
 everybody calls it so." 
 
 "What did they come to church for? 1 
 thought they were all infidels and atheists? 
 That's the character they've got," said the min- 
 ister's wife, playing with her cap strings, with 
 fingers white and small, like those of a child. 
 
 " Well, I trust they're not so bad as that. . It's 
 only the sou who has gone wrong ; a fine-appear-
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 159 
 
 ing fellow as ever was. Don't you remember < 
 when we first came here he was in your class, and 
 you thought him a boy of uncommon promise ? " 
 
 " Yes, I do. Nobody knew his catechism better 
 than little Baron, and his head was fairly crammed 
 with texts. I remember I gave him a prize, 
 once I think he recited one hundred and forty 
 verses out of the new Testament. Then I was 
 taken sick there came in all the trouble. Patty 
 Nailor took my class, and managed badly. If I 
 could have kept that boy, I would have trained 
 him right. He never would have gone astray. 
 Patty was giddy and thoughtless I would have 
 kept him up to his duty." 
 
 " Let us hope we can win him back," said the 
 minister, thoughtfully. 
 
 Meanwhile, Helen and Baron walked on arm in 
 arm. The scene around them was very beautiful; 
 green, sun-lighted avenues, stretching in every 
 direction, yet plenty of shade, such soft, tremu- 
 lous shadows, as played all over the thick moss, 
 under grand old trees ! They had said but little 
 to each other at first, but as the time went on, 
 they talked of the sermon, and of the beauty of 
 the day, and gradually, of more engrossing themes.
 
 160 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 Was it not strange, that as they drew near the 
 place where the servant at Castle Brook had 
 been instructed to bring lunch, they made their 
 appearance, he with a set, white face, and she 
 quiet and downcast and pale, though trying to 
 preserve an unchanged countenance. 
 
 The lunch was shorn of all its rustic beauty. 
 Jack looked frowingly from one to the other, and 
 Gabrielle felt that something of graver import- 
 ance than appeared on the surface, had happened. 
 Baron laughed and talked in a strained, un- 
 natural voice, at every effort made by the two 
 girls to penetrate the reason for a change 8O 
 strikingly apparent, and as soon as the lunch was 
 over, strode off in gloomy silence, and alone, 
 toward the house. 
 
 Mrs. Leon thought it was damp ; and Helen 
 immediately offered to return home with her, 
 while the old General * poo-poohing ' the idea, 
 sought his favorite nook to sleep, and threw his 
 handkerchief over his head. 
 
 "Now, what has happened?" asked Jack, as 
 she deftly removed the china ware from the white 
 cloth, and shook the latter on the grass. "Do 
 you know what I think?" she added, wrathfully.
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 161 
 
 " I think Baron proposed to her, and she refused 
 him, on account of her ridiculously fanatical 
 notions. Such a man as our Baron, too! she 
 might think herself honored," she cried, folding 
 the fine linen vehemently into shape. "If I 
 find it is so, I shall despise and hate her all my 
 days, just as heartily as I loved and respected her 
 before. The idea ! refused my brother Baron ! 
 I can tell her she won't find another such a man 
 - or family, for the matter of that," continued 
 Jack, throwing the mass of smooth white cloth 
 at her feet. 
 
 "Wait till you know, dear Jack," said Ga- 
 brielle. 
 
 "Know! why it's easy enough to see, isn't it? 
 That ridiculous sermon did the business. I wish 
 I hud staid at home." 
 
 " You didn't hear the sermon, at all events," 
 said Gabrielle, laughing. 
 
 " Didn't I ! I heard it, but it went in one ear 
 and out of the other. I don't believe mother or 
 father, or even you, can repeat one word of it. 
 But Helen can Helen will begin with the text, 
 and finish at amen. That's all she thinks of, 
 because it's for her pleasure and convenience.
 
 162 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 They got talking of it, I know, coming home 
 then Baron dared to disagree with her, for you 
 know how outspoken he is, and I'll venture that 
 there was a regular pitched battle. I hope Baron 
 didn't yield I know he didn't he couldn't, 
 because he's just as honest in his convictions as 
 she is in hers. Oh, dear, how I do hate all 
 religious cant and controversy ! "But I tell you 
 what, if she has refused him, she'll be sorry to 
 her dying day. It will only drive him to ex- 
 tremes, and she might have made another man 
 of him that's if she wanted to I wouldn't 
 if she had married him." 
 
 Gabrielle did not feel herself able to discuss the 
 question. She liked Baron, and Helen was her 
 dearest friend ; hence she could not denounce the 
 latter for any supposed fault. All she knew of 
 her, tended to convince her own mind that duty 
 was more to Helen than the pomps and vanities 
 of any alliance she could make, more to her than 
 even her own happiness. She knew that Helen 
 was capable of any amount of self-sacrifice. 
 
 She was also sure that Helen would confide in 
 her to some extent she always had. As for 
 Baron, she pitied and blamed him. Jack's high
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 163 
 
 flown laudation of her idol, had never trans- 
 formed him in the least in her imagination. The 
 fact that he rejected all revealed religion, was to 
 her well-balanced mind, an enormity without a 
 name. A man without a belief in God, seemed 
 to her an anomaly. She could even imagine him 
 descending so low in the scale of respectability at 
 some time, as to be guilty of the grossest crimes. 
 She was sure she would never dare to marry such 
 a one, not even if he were as handsome, intel- 
 lectual, rich and well descended as Baron Leon. 
 She found herself feeling a sort of pride in Helen, 
 that she had thus asserted her individuality. 
 
 " Of the two," she said to herself, " the man 
 ought to be the most firmly grounded in religious 
 belief, for he has the ship to guide, and all 
 the outside affairs of the family in his hands." 
 
 Finally she wrought herself up to quite an 
 enthusiastic pitch of admiration for her friend. 
 Nobody knew the dear girl as well as she did 
 how her religion sanctified all the little details 
 of her daily life how firm she was in friendship, 
 how unselfish and loving. If ever a girl wanted 
 a home, Helen did ; if ever a girl was encom- 
 ].:i-M-d and impressed by the galling cireum-
 
 164 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 stances of poverty, Helen was. All her tastes 
 were exquisite. It was like a pang of sharp pain 
 to her, to wear and ill-fitting, much-mended glove, 
 or shoes whose shapely beauty had departed. 
 She had once caught her at the work of mend- 
 ing an old glove, and the tears were falling upon 
 it, though she laughed them away the next 
 moment. And then her beauty was of that char- 
 acter that it became more refined and imposing, 
 when well arrayed in soft tints and becoming 
 lustres. 
 
 Such a connection, with such a family, as Jack 
 had hinted, would indeed confer upon Helen a 
 thousand graces to add to her loveliness. She 
 would be mistress of a splendid home, and call 
 many rolling acres her own. The General and 
 his wife would dote upon her, once their daughter- 
 in-law, and Jack would be the most affectionate 
 of sisters. Gabriell^ as she thought of all these 
 things, half wondered at herself, for cherishing a 
 consciousness that Helen would forego all these 
 advantages for the sake of Christ, and yet she 
 was confident of her fidelity.
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 JACK'S PLEA. 
 
 " The open leaves of cold philotophy" 
 
 HEY were very dull that evening. Baron 
 stalked back and forth iu the shadows at 
 the far end of the great parlor, with folded 
 arms and brow gloomy with thought. Jack and 
 Grhrielle sang together at the organ, and Helen 
 sat, her sweet face motionless, in the strong moon- 
 light at the south window. 
 
 Once or twice, as Gabrielle glanced toward 
 her, she thought of her^s a beautiful, calm 
 saint, whose life of renunciation was already 
 begun. Yet, it was very evident something had 
 happened to break the bond between them, for 
 heretofore in the three short weeks that Helen 
 had luM-n with them, the evenings had always 
 
 found Baron by Helen's side. 
 HB
 
 160 NO MOTHER LIKE MINK. 
 
 She was not astonished, therefore, when they 
 went up stairs together, to hear Helen announce 
 that she should go .home on the morrow home 
 meaning the Seminary, where she was to begin 
 her round of teaching and guiding, which she had 
 marked out for herself long before. 
 
 Jack sat on a comfortable foot-stool, lazily 
 unbuttoning her boots. Over her face went 
 quick flashes, for an impulsive temperament 
 changed the rapid currents of her blood more 
 readily than in older and more conventional 
 natures. 
 
 " So you're tired of us ! " said Jack, looking 
 sideways, and throwing her boots on the rug with 
 a peevish gesture. 
 
 "Oh, no, dear," said Helen, sweetly, but with 
 a sad ring in her voice, " you know that cannot 
 be but term will soon commence, and I might 
 as well be at my post there are so many things 
 to do, for preparation." 
 
 " Oh, yes, and you are so fond of that place ! 
 It must be nice up at -four in the morning an 
 ice bath in winter, a hot bath in summer break- 
 fast at six, and such delicious coffee! Gabrielle 
 has told me all about it the unsmiling teachers,
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 167 
 
 all of them saints and angels in carved stone 
 the lovely children, all of them cherubs what a 
 heavenly life it must be ! I quite envy you." 
 
 "You know you don't envy me at all," said 
 Helen, quietly, though Gabrielle knew from the 
 inflection of her voice, how deeply Jack's irony 
 wounded her heart. 
 
 "Well, I think you're such a fool, to stay 
 there," said Jack, bluntly. " You know you've 
 no need, you know you and Baron have quar- 
 relled, you know you're unreasonable and bigoted 
 there now, it's out. You see I can be im- 
 polite and unlady like but then I'm only a girl, 
 and Baron he's my dearest, dearest brother 
 and I hate any one who ill-treats him." 
 
 Gabrielle turned round to her with a warning 
 glance, too late. Helen had left the mirror where 
 she was combing her hair, as if compelled by pain 
 or faintness, and sank upon a chair near by. 
 Every vestige of color had fled from her cheek, 
 and her eyes looked strangely large and glitter- 
 ing, as if she were hunted by some unrelenting 
 foe and could not escape. 
 
 "What are you saying, Jack, do you know? 
 and how it hurts me? There is no place on earth
 
 168 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 BO much like Paradise, so * heavenly,' as you say, 
 as this dear house and its surroundings; you 
 know it must be so. As to your charge that I 
 have quarrelled with Baron, it is unkind. We 
 exchanged ideas to-day and we found that we 
 differed essentially upon some important subjects. 
 It was very painful to me, and perhaps, quite as 
 painful to him, but we " her voice shook a 
 little " we parted friends." 
 
 " Oh, Helen ! " and Jack dashed herself down 
 at her feet, and caught her hands in an agony of 
 appeal, which, if it had not been Jack, with her 
 rashly impulsive nature, would have seemed like 
 a bit of melodrama "there's no use in hinting 
 anything I can't hint, I never could. Nature 
 has given me no half-way impulses ; I must say 
 what I think, or die. Oh, Helen, why couldn't 
 you have humored him ? There's no use in deny- 
 ing it, Baron will never see any one he so likes 
 and respects as he does you, has done so for a 
 year,' more than a year. It's not like him to 
 forget. He had a dog once, a little, pet spaniel, 
 a beautiful creature with brown eyes, that he 
 loved, and that went with him wherever he went, 
 and slept at his door. Somebody killed it we
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 169 
 
 never knew who, and Baron made a funeral for 
 it, just as tenderly as if it were human. He 
 never had another favorite of the kind, never, 
 though many a one has been offered to him. And 
 then he had a bird, a little goldfinch, that he 
 would let no one care for but himself. You 
 ought to see the cage he bought for it, a little 
 bird-palace, and we were all so careful for Baron's 
 sake, for we knew how exclusive was his love. A 
 new servant once opened the cage, and the little 
 creature flew out, and some cat killed that and 
 the cage has hung empty ever since. Don't you 
 see how if he sets his heart upon anything nothing 
 can change it ? " 
 
 " Indeed, I do see it," said Helen, smoothing the 
 short, brown curls from the girl's bright eyes and 
 brow, " and that is the reason I " 
 
 " Oh, don't say it don't say it to me. I am 
 so fond of my brother there are only we two, 
 and he has been such a brother to me ! It seems 
 to me that if any one wantonly injured him, I 
 could find it in my heart to strike that person 
 dead/' 
 
 " Oh, Jack ! Jack ! don't cherish such feelings," 
 cried Helen, in terror, " they are unholy."
 
 170 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 "You think so, perhaps, with your cold heart 
 no, no ; your heart cannot be cold it is only 
 misled by the narrowness of your views you 
 take a one-sided view of things, and you con- 
 demn Baron, because he can't think just as you 
 do. You could make him think as you do, Helen, 
 you could," and her eyes grew like stars in their 
 pleading light. Helen was visibly and strongly 
 affected; she trembled from head to foot, and 
 stopped stroking Jack's hair. 
 
 "You don't understand, Jack," she said, falter- 
 ingly, "I couldn't make you understand how it 
 is your brother Baron, does; and he cannot 
 blame me." 
 
 "And you are going to make his life a desert," 
 said Jack, with a sob, as she lifted herself from 
 her knees. 
 
 " Oh, Jack, dear, don't talk so," said Helen, the 
 tears rolling down her cheeks. 
 
 " Yes, you are going to make his life a desert, 
 and harden and confirm him in what he believes, 
 for he will have nothing else to turn to. And I 
 yes, you will do more harm still, for I shall go 
 with my brother ! I shall have faith in what he 
 does, and believe in what he believes. I will hate
 
 NO MOTHKll LIKE MINE. 171 
 
 Christianity for your sake, for you have put it 
 between you and Baron's love. I will, I tell you. 
 In all the world there shall not be a more en- 
 thusiastic pupil than I yes, I will be Baron's 
 very mouthpiece. You might have saved us 
 both, according to your ideas of salvation ; now, 
 again according to your ideas, you condemn us 
 both to ruin. Never mind, then I will go and 
 be ruined, with Baron. If you are right then 
 I prefer Baron to your cold, frigid principles. I 
 hate them." 
 
 She had said all this in a blaze of passion, 
 whose heat seemed to envelop her, and throw 
 strange beauty into her little, upright figure, and 
 defiantly poised head. Helen sat like a statue, 
 looking at her, her hands clasped, and a sort of 
 horror clinging to her face and attitude. The 
 little fire, still made every evening upon the 
 hearth, for the rooms were lofty and chilly, at 
 night, leaped and fell with fitful rythm, now into 
 strong and bright relief, now into chasms of 
 shadow. Gabrielle listened, half undressed, a 
 wiiite shawl thrown over her shoulder, admiring 
 .lark, in spite of the passion and perversity of her 
 language, and wondering what effect this out-
 
 172 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 hurst would have on Helen, whose rigid posture 
 told how fearfully she was suffering under the 
 accumulating trials of the day. 
 
 Helen's heart was almost broken. Was there 
 a germ of truth in what Jack said, or was this a 
 more overwhelming temptation than any she had 
 yet experienced ? Would it be her fault if Jack 
 threw herself into the meshes of infidelity, body 
 and soul? The girl evinced a rich capacity for 
 influence, either for good or evil upon all with 
 whom she might come in contact. Helen shud- 
 dered at the thought of a girl, a woman, not only 
 destitute of a well balanced Christian belief, but 
 a bold advocate of infidelity and atheism. A 
 woman without God ! as well a world without 
 light ! The dark record of such a life has been 
 written, has been read, and what a record! Aye, 
 it has been acted, to the awful detriment not only 
 of single souls, but of nations. 
 
 But what was Helen to do ? She had used all 
 her woman's wit, all her philosophy, in the con- 
 ference that ensued with Baron on their long 
 way back from church, and sne knew that in 
 argument, in learning, if not in zeal, he was 
 infinitely her superior. She could only oppose
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 173 
 
 to his reason, the logic of the heart, the truths of 
 experience, the power of a godly life. If these 
 did not convince, nothing would, at least nothing 
 within the scope of her ability. Like all intense 
 natures, she knew in whom she believed. She 
 felt the power of that Spirit whom Christ called 
 "the Comforter," from day to day. She had 
 experienced the rare rest of entire faith, in many 
 a dangerous moment, in many a dark hour. 
 Hungry as her heart was for affection, she would 
 have nothing whatever to do with a merely sen- 
 timental love ; she knew its value to be in com- 
 parison with the love which God gives, and 
 permits, merely the flicker of a pale taper, while 
 the other was the steady on-shining of the sun, 
 still bright and warm though encompassed by the 
 darkest clouds. 
 
 Hut she pitied Jack, poor, passionate, undis- 
 ciplined Jack, whose very heart-ache quivered on 
 her lips, and darkened in her eyes. She looked 
 so like the defiant spirit that had spoken in the 
 language of Baron, that ever memorable after- 
 noon. She pitied.herself. yes, from her own high 
 plane of duty, she looked into the torture that 
 im\v and again agonized her own soul, but which
 
 174 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 she was privileged to carry as poor Jack was not 
 because she would not be to the mercy 
 seat. And all this time Jack was waiting, 
 greiving, yet defiant. What should she say 
 to her? 
 
 " It is out of my power ! " she exclaimed, in a 
 sudden outburst of feeling. " Your brother put 
 it out of my power with his own hand. It is 
 much better so, dear Jack, can't you see ? A 
 household divided against itself, can never be 
 prosperous and happy. I should feel all the time 
 like fighting his unbelief, because mine is not 
 a passive nature, and he would be constantly 
 anxious to combat my belief, because he is as 
 aggressive as I am, He saw it perfectly: he 
 thinks it is better as it is." 
 
 " It is not better ! " said Jack, angrily. 
 
 "But then what can I do?" asked Helen, 
 softly, her beautiful eyes swimming in tears. 
 "Would you have me deny my God? my Saviour? 
 If Baron should give his life, to save you from 
 deadly peril, would you dare to be false to his 
 memory ? " 
 
 Jack hid her pained face in her hands. Her 
 turbulent spirit would not give her time to think.
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 175 
 
 " I would have you save Baron," she said, 
 letting her hands fall; "save him every way. 
 According to your belief, he is in danger, and if 
 so, then am I, for I tell you if you desert him, I 
 will follow Baron. I would die, if you leave him, 
 rather than believe in your God." 
 
 "Oh, Jack, dear how little you know what 
 you say how little you can appreciate my 
 motives ! " sighed Helen. " Can't you see it will 
 be better for Baron, if he gives up if every- 
 thing is at an end between us ? It was a beau- 
 tiful dream, too beautiful to last, when I will 
 tell you frankly I saw that I was more to him 
 than a mere friend, but, as I feel towards him 
 it is either the giving up of my faith, or giving 
 up the hope of domestic happiness, and I have 
 chosen, must have chosen the latter there is 
 no other way." 
 
 "Gabrielle, you sit there like a statue," said 
 Jack, passionately. "Do you think Helen is 
 right?" 
 
 "As Helen sees it, Helen is right," said Ga- 
 brielle, half reluctantly. 
 
 Jack turned away, white to the lips, and con- 
 tinued her preparations for rest. Helen, feeling
 
 17C NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 helpless and heart-sore, rose and braided her 
 beautiful, soft hair. Gabrielle silently sought 
 her couch. 
 
 " Jack," said Helen, after a long pause, " don't 
 go to bed angry with me. That is not the way 
 to convince me that I am wrong." 
 
 "Jack, Helen is your guest till to-morrow," 
 said Gabrielle, warningly. 
 
 " What difference does that make ? " asked 
 Jack. "I am angry, and denial would only 
 make me a hypocrite. I hate a hypocrite as bad 
 as I do a Christian," she added, spitefully. 
 Then after a moment's thought, shame over- 
 coming her baser instincts, she said, 
 
 " Helen, I did like you so much ; you are every- 
 thing that is sweet and good, but for this fanati- 
 cism through which you make a martyr of my 
 brother. I'm not going to say I am sorry for 
 what I said, because I must have said it. While 
 you are with us, however, I have no right to 
 make you unhappy, though you have made Baron 
 miserable. Why didn't you tell him," she added, 
 vehemently, " that if he would renounce his con- 
 victions " 
 
 " Stop, Jack," said Helen, gently, but firmly.
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 177 
 
 " I could not honor a man who would change his 
 belief or unbelief from any motive but that 
 of principle. That is building on the sand. 
 Your brother feels strong in his convictions ; 
 they are like truth, to him he is honest, and I 
 shall always feel a strong admiration for him, 
 because he was willing to sacrifice himself, rather 
 than give them up. If ever he does come into 
 the faith and I feel sure he will," she added, 
 with a sweet smile, "it will be because he just 
 as honestly feels that his present course is wrong, 
 and that he is sinning against God by pursuing 
 it. Now, dear, let us leave it all to that great 
 Power who holds us in His keeping, and will do 
 just the best for us that we need." 
 
 " No, I won't ! " said Jack, almost harshly. " I 
 don't believe in a cast iron monster, who is all the 
 time trying us, and punishing us. I told you I 
 should go with Baron, heart and soul, and I will. 
 But - ' she gasped, with a half sob, " I'll try 
 very hard not to hate you." 
 
 " That is so kind," said Helen, smiling sadly, 
 " I should so hate to be hated ! " 
 
 "Oh, yes, you can laugh I wonder how often 
 poor Baron has laughed, to-night I" said Jack, 
 ruefully.
 
 178 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 "I hope he is peacefully asleep," said Helen, 
 the tears coming into her eyes, and turning away, 
 she went into her little closet. 
 
 " Then you will go and we shall be so lonely 
 here," said Jack, snuggling up to Gabrielle, a few 
 minutes afterward. 
 
 " But you know you and Baron are to return 
 home with me," Gabrielle said. 
 
 " "Was I very rude to Helen ? " she asked, after 
 another silence. 
 
 " I thought you were," said Gabrielle, frankly. 
 
 "I was so miserable and unhappy! but I'll 
 apologize to-morrow;" and she did.
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 DOLLY'S NARRATIVE. 
 
 " Softly sweet the song is stealing" 
 
 TATHY played at the party, played beauti- 
 j fully. Everybody appreciated her perform- 
 ance, and she was surrounded by admiring 
 spectators. I did my little part well, I think 
 she says I did and we passed a very delightful 
 evening. To describe it all, the beauty *of the 
 house, the birthday presents, and the feast, would, 
 I fear, be simply impossible. Mother resurrected a 
 nice dress for me out of the depths of aunt Amelia's 
 old trunk. It was a soft lavender silk, with 
 plenty of yellow lace papa asked me if it wasn't 
 dirty? round the neck, sleeves and skirts. It was 
 pretty enough when made over, and looked much 
 more costly than it was. Cathy wore black satin, 
 
 179
 
 180 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 a dress of her mother's made over for her and 
 we admired each other very much. Blue ribbons 
 in her hair, arid pink in mine, completed our per- 
 sonal adornment. I was nervous till I touched 
 the piano, a noble instrument ; but its rich, sing- 
 ing tone, so different from mine or Cathy's, 
 scattered my dread to the winds. 
 
 We did not see Miss Garcelon for some time, 
 she was so in demand by her father's friends. 
 Everything was ready for her when she came 
 home, even to her dress, laid out for her on the 
 bed in her room. But after Cathy had played, I 
 knew that the beautiful girl making straight for 
 the piano, was dear little Gabrielle, of old. 
 
 " I thank you so much for your sweet music," 
 she said to Cathy, as her father introduced her. 
 
 44 And this used to be your little playmate, my 
 dear," he said turning to me. 
 
 44 Oh, yes, you are Dolly, dear, dear Dolly ! I 
 haven't forgotten you," she said. " Jack, come 
 here ; " and a bright, roguish-looking girl, with 
 short curls, and, though very pretty, looking 
 almost like a boy, came up, leaning on the arm 
 of her brother, a very handsome man. These she 
 introduced to me as her other dearest friends, 
 Jaquilene and Mr. Baron Leon.
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 181 
 
 There must be something in a name, or else 
 there was' something more than ordinary in that 
 brother and sister. They looked like two pictures 
 of old times, just stepped out of their frames. 
 Not that there was anything antiquated about 
 them, but they had that high, bred look, which 
 one associates with good birth. Well, we did 
 enjoy ourselves rarely. Cathy played two or 
 three times, so gracefully and sweetly, that I 
 knew she must have made many friends, and 
 Gabrielle was charming. I really believe she 
 does like me in earnest, for every time I came 
 across her path, she was as sweet, genial and 
 cordial as ever. 
 
 Oh, how much I did enjoy that party ! I felt 
 more like a guest than a paid no, not a paid 
 performer, Mr. Garcelon only paid Cathy than 
 a mere pianist. Why is it that such a position 
 seems to be humbling? I know the feeling is 
 wrong. Cathy, who is very brave, felt it, too 
 but she intends to conquer it, and she will. 
 
 " It is so odd," said Gabrielle to me, as we met 
 near her cousin, to whom I was talking, " to see 
 a lady play the violin. But I like it, immensely, 
 and if she will teach me, I will try to study it
 
 182 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 myself, and papa says it will be a help to her. 
 How pretty and grceful she is, too ! Is she going 
 to make it a profession ? " 
 
 I told her all about the situation. 
 
 " Poor thing ! I hope she will succeed," she 
 said, with a half sigh, " and make fame and 
 money. There's a lull in the music, now do 
 you remember my old nurse ? yes, of course you 
 do. I have only seen her once, and I am going 
 to steal away for a moment, and go up stairs to 
 her. The poor thing is sick, has been confined to 
 her room for a long time. She was always kind 
 to me, though she is not a happy, nor I think, a 
 very affectionate woman. Would you like to go 
 with me? You were quite a favorite with her, 
 and might like to renew the acquaintance. Don't 
 you like my dear little friend Jack?" she con- 
 tinued, as I assented, and she linked her arm in 
 mine. 
 
 I said that I liked her face, there was so much 
 character in it. 
 
 "And she has force of character," said Ga- 
 brielle, gravely I called her Gabrielle, for I 
 saw that we two were to be on the footing of old 
 friends, for the present, at least "if force of
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 183 
 
 character means force of will. Does it? I'm 
 sure I don't know. She's as good and sweet as 
 can be, full of original ideas, and* quite imbued 
 with the notion that she is to play some im- 
 portant role in life to be a great reformer, or 
 something of that sort. I think," said Gabrielle, 
 as if to herself, and with a sigh, " that, with her 
 present convictions, that is a great pity, or would 
 be, and mar perhaps the life-work of others but 
 here we are at old nurse's room. I have sent for 
 some cream and cake, so that we may have 
 a little feast together. I thought it would please 
 her so. ' 
 
 She opened the door, softly, and looked smil- 
 ingly in. I noted, with some astonishment, 
 that the room was larjje and furnished \\ith a 
 degree of elegance. There were pictures on the 
 walls, easy chairs, standing here and there, a 
 carpet of very bright colors, too bright, and of a 
 figure too large to please a refined or cultivated 
 taste, and numerous other indications such as we 
 should attach to the idea that the person in 
 occupation must have been of considerable con- 
 sequence. Lying on a broad lounge, with im- 
 mense pillows at its head, was Mrs. Bride, pale
 
 184 NO MOTHEB LIKE MINE. 
 
 and apparently suffering. The face had not 
 changed so much as a long lapse of years might 
 lead one to expect. It had still that fine, proud 
 contour, that had made it so imposing, though the 
 delicacy of the complexion its pure red and 
 white was gone forever. 
 
 The great blue eyes sparkled, as Gabrielle 
 taking the lead went toward her. She threw 
 back the bright shawl that had enveloped the 
 upper part of her person, and putting out both 
 hands, drew Gabrielle close to her with a loving, 
 half reverent movement. 
 
 " Oh, its good, it is to see you home again," she 
 said, and her voice rolled out, firm and clear as 
 of old. " I have longed so to see your sweet face 
 again, and to tell you how beautiful you are 
 grown! And is that your friend? Is that the 
 Miss Helen ye were always writing about ? If it 
 is, 1*11 tell her how jealous I got to be of her." 
 
 " Oh, no, nurse," said Gabrielle, beckoning me 
 to come nearer. " Can't you guess who this is ? 
 You haven't seen her for years but I don't 
 think she has altered so much, unless to grow 
 prettier." 
 
 " Sure and I ought to know," said the invalid.
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 185 
 
 " To be sure you had. You ought to remem- 
 ber little Dolly." 
 
 " Dolly is it? Dolly ! yes, yes, I see the like- 
 ness, now. I thought I knew the face but 
 times do go by so. I've often thought of her and 
 wondered why she didn't come and see me." 
 
 I could not tell her that as a child I had stood 
 rather in awe of her, that her furious outbursts 
 of temper made her a terror to all who knew her, 
 but I murmured some apology, and Gabrielle 
 began a playful badinage which attracted the 
 invalid's attention to her darling. 
 
 I could not define to myself the reason why 
 this woman's manner towards Gabrielle, so at- 
 tracted and charmed me. There wa^g^ expres- 
 sion in her face when looking at her that changed 
 its aspect, and made her seem one of the gentlest 
 and loveliest of characters. She appeared to 
 devour every word she said, she patted the hand 
 she held, with such tenderness, and sometimes 
 held it to her lips, as Gabrielle rattled on about 
 her school life, the teachers, and how glad she 
 was to get home, recalling a hundred little inci- 
 dents of the days when a child, she flew to nurse 
 to redress every wrong.
 
 186 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 " And how strong and hearty you were," said 
 Gabrielle, "and now to find you sick on the 
 couch like a fine lady ! " She told me afterwards 
 that the words slipped out that she was sorry 
 after she said it. 
 
 "And indeed I'm no fine lady," said Mrs. 
 Bride, " and never pretended to be though 
 perhaps I had a reason that " she stopped 
 short, looking first at Gabrielle, then at me. 
 "No, I've never aspired to go beyond my betters," 
 she added, with a kindling of the old fire, that 
 Gabrielle and I knew so well. " There wasn't no 
 need of that. I've had a comfortable life, and 
 seen my heart's wishes carried out, and I'm 
 satisfied.'^ Again she lifted Gabrielle's hand to 
 her lips jffy a beaming glance. 
 
 "Oh,^WTl expect my coming home will work 
 wonders, and you will be up and about, soon," 
 said Gabrielle, lightly. 
 
 Was it my fancy that she rather disliked the 
 devotion of manner with which she seemed to 
 inspire her old nurse. 
 
 "There's a deal of music, down stairs, isn't 
 there ? " asked the woman, after a second of 
 silence.
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 187 
 
 "Yes, and very good music it is," said Ga- 
 brielle. 
 
 " And has my deary been dancing ? " 
 
 "Yes, indeed, all the evening. To tell the 
 truth, I came up here to get a little rest, as well 
 as to see you. 
 
 " What ! tired already ? you shouldn't be tired 
 till morning. Why, I'd a danced my feet off 
 when I was young, rather than give up. But it's 
 a long time since then," and she fell back with a 
 sigh. 
 
 We ate a cream and a bit of cake with her, and 
 then took our leave and went down stairs. I. was 
 so glad to be out of the room, and as in that 
 instance of my sudden suspicion, I co^d not tell 
 why. Down stairs Cathy was looj^^^v me. 
 
 " Mr. Garcelon will have me pkrpBfain," she 
 whispered, her face all alight, " he says there are 
 some new comers who wish to hear me, and it 
 may be to my advantage ; " so I led the way to 
 the piano, and Cathy, now grown accustomed to 
 the situation, quite surpassed herself. 
 
 When Mr. Garcelon, somewhat later in the 
 evening, informed her that a gentleman con- 
 nected with a famous conservatory of music,
 
 188 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 wished to see her, and possibly to give her the 
 advantages of that great institution, I am sure 
 my heart went up in thankfulness to heaven, 
 that the way to a noble, self support, was being 
 smoothed and made easy for her inexperienced 
 feet. 
 
 " Cathy, you are going to be a great genius," I 
 said. "I foresee it, and in the day to come, 
 remember I told you so." Cathy laughed, and 
 put her hand on my lips. 
 
 " A great worker," she said, " if not a great 
 genius. I am determined with HIS help, to 
 master every difficulty. I don't think I have 
 genius, but if there's any power to be got out 
 of hard JM^L I shall get it, you may be sure of 
 that. My only trouble is, I shall have to leave 
 mother, ir^Rake lessons in the city. But in any 
 case, if I leave the old way of living, I must do 
 that. And then she is so anxious that I should 
 succeed, it will not seein so hard for her."
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 GABRIELLE'S PARTY. 
 
 " Oh, come sweet spirit, come to me." 
 
 T was pleasant to be treated as an old friend 
 by the Garcelons ; by the father as well fis 
 the daughter. 
 The mills were all finished, and Mr. Garcelon 
 made father a fine offer, which at first he seemed 
 eager to accept, but on consultation with mother, 
 he decided to continue in his present business. 
 The clue to his decision might be found in 
 a little fragment of conversation, which I hap- 
 pened to hear not that it was intended to be 
 kept from my ear, though I was sitting in a 
 distant part of the room. 
 
 "I don't want to advise you, dear," said my 
 
 189
 
 190 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 mother, "only to call to mind that we were 
 never really more prosperous than now I don't 
 mean altogether in outward circumstances. But 
 we know that you are with a strictly honorable 
 employer not to say a word against Mr. Garce- 
 lon he always treated you honorably. But we 
 know where the greater part of his money comes 
 from." 
 
 " Yes, that's true'" says father, " the distillery 
 business." 
 
 "And someway," said mother, "the money 
 don't seem quite clean. We know what the 
 business is and how many souls it has ruined, 
 and although, thank God, you have nothing to do 
 with it, yet the money that has, comes into your 
 hands." ^p 
 
 "That's so! there's blood on it," said my 
 father, " and yet Garcelon, in everything else, 
 seems to be the soul of honor." 
 
 "Not quite, my dear: you know how he ill- 
 treated his wife." 
 
 "Yes, that's true but very few people bhinn- 
 him for it. I have heard that she did nothing 
 but drink from morning till night." 
 
 "But who put the temptation before her? and
 
 I don't want to advise you, Dtur.
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 191 
 
 who brewed the drink ? The Brocks knew her 
 when she was a young girl, before she became 
 Mrs. Garcelon, and a purer and more temperate 
 creature never irved, they say. She didn't fall 
 all at once it was a gradual process, until 
 at lust there was no way of stopping her ; 
 and I have heard that he put her out of the 
 house." 
 
 44 Yes, it's a sad story, though pretty well 
 hushed up in these parts," said my father. 
 
 " And since you've left the mill, someway my 
 heart is lighter," said my mother. " I can think 
 and work and even pray, with a clearer insight 
 into the will of God. Look at Harry ! I can 
 hardly believe my own eyes, though I know it is 
 an answer to believing faith. You know we 
 must do all the will of God, dear, if we want to 
 take Him at his word. Every promise is coupled 
 with a command." 
 
 At this point Dick called me to get a collar for 
 him, and I left the room. When I came back, 
 mother was sitting alone, and I knew by the 
 manner she rocked back and forth, with that 
 peaceful, shining look on her face, singing her 
 favorite hyinu,
 
 192 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 " Oh, for a thousand tongues to sing 
 
 My great Redeemer's praise, 
 
 The glories of my God and King, 
 
 The triumph of His grace, 
 
 that my father had made his resolve, and that it 
 met her wishes. 
 
 My mother had spoken of Harry no wonder 
 she said she could hardly believe her own eyes 
 Harry had gone on from raising his head in 
 response to mother's untiring urging, to lifting 
 his body to a sitting position, and then, won- 
 derful to relate, he had positively helped himself 
 out of bed, and now sat for a portion of the day 
 in a great easy-chair, reading, writing, sketching 
 and painting. lie was getting flesh, withal, and 
 his face seemed to take on some new charm with 
 each recurring day. A wondrous delicacy of 
 complexion and expression gave him an almost 
 startling beauty. He was busy and happy from 
 morning till night ; with his various employments, 
 and our good minister came at stated periods, and 
 read and studied with him. This seemed to all 
 the town's folks, to the doctor, and to ourselves, 
 something little short of a miracle. Harry never 
 referred to it without tears, and a fervent declara-
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 193 
 
 lion that it was mother's faith, mother's prayers. 
 He believed in mother as Catholics believe in 
 their saints. To him she was an incarnation of 
 the beauty and purity of Heaven. Indeed one 
 of our dearest friends was heard to say, not, I 
 trust, profanely, that in his idea, she was only 
 second to the Virgin Mary. So did her life out- 
 shine upon others ; without much talk about 
 herself no cant, never forcing her opinion upon 
 her associates, but from an irrepressible, upspring- 
 ing life-power, from the belief and strength of 
 her living Christian faith and experience. 
 
 One day not long after this, we were surprised 
 by a visit from Gabrielle. She came in a little 
 Hushed and heated by her walk, and it seemed as 
 if the old relations between us were instantly 
 renewed. 
 
 " I don't see that you change at all," she said, 
 as mother came out of Harry's room to welcome 
 her. " You look just as you used when Dolly 
 and I came in from a walk or play, to get some 
 milk, and you always gave us a plate full of your 
 incomparable cookies. And the room I used 
 to think nothing in our house was half as hand- 
 some, and now it seems positively glorified, and
 
 194 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 such charming taste ! I know it's not a bit 
 conventional, to rattle on in this way, but some- 
 how, I can't help it." 
 
 Mamma kissed her, and insisted on her taking 
 off her hat. 
 
 " Don't you smell the cookies, baking ? " she 
 asked. 
 
 " Yes, the minute I opened the door, I noticed 
 it. I do believe I'll stay and take tea. Jack and 
 her brother are gone to some convention, and 
 won't be back till late to-night, and there's 
 nobody at home to miss me, much only nurse," 
 and she half sighed. "I told her where I was 
 going, so if I am a little late, papa will come or 
 send for me." 
 
 She handed her hat and mantle to me, and 
 taking her handkerchief from her pocket, a paper 
 fell out. 
 
 " Oh ! " she laughed, " there's where my learned 
 friend Mr. Baron Leon, is going to speak, 
 to-night. They wanted me to go, but I told 
 them that I was quite irreligious enough without 
 hearing such arguments as they will advance.'* 
 
 Mamma read the paper with some surprise. 
 
 " So your friend is a free thinker," she said.
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 195 
 
 " An out-and-out infidel ; oh, dear, Mrs. Greg- 
 ory, he is so good, too ! " 
 
 " That is certainly iii his favor," said my 
 mother, with a smile, "only he is trying to 
 work out his salvation in the wrong way. And 
 is his sister an infidel, too ? " 
 
 " Jack is anything that her brother is," said 
 Gabrielle. 
 
 "Which shows the power of example," said 
 mother, her face a little shadowed. " It troubles 
 me more to hear that said of a woman, than a 
 man. I don't know why it should ; all souls are 
 of like value before God, but a woman's opportu- 
 nities, although they seem limited, are really 
 more far reaching, and more subtly used. But I 
 must go and see to my baking," and mother 
 tied her white apron on again, and left the 
 room. 
 
 " Oh, how happy you must be to have such a 
 mother," half sighed Gabrielle, following her 
 with sad, strained eyes. " If I only could think 
 that a mother would meet me when I go home 
 and kiss me ! why, a mother's kiss must be some- 
 thing heavenly I I don't think we are half pitied 
 enough, we motherless girls. Put yourself in my
 
 196 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 place iii that great house, going from room to 
 room, and no mother in any of them ! No mother 
 to go to for counsel, for advice, or for sympathy ! 
 When I have had a joyful, happy time, and every- 
 thing goes smoothly the thought that I have no 
 mother to tell it to, takes away half the. pleasure. 
 And I am even foolish enough to this day, when 
 I am dressed for a party, and see myself in the 
 glass, with unappreciative eyes, to whisper, 
 
 " How do I look, mother ! " 
 
 "And then I just fancy her approving me, and 
 calling me pretty. It may be silly, but it's 
 harmless, and does me a world of good." 
 
 The pathos of her voice went to my very 
 heart. 
 
 "You must be my sister," I said, "and then 
 my mother will be your mother." 
 
 "Very well let's seal the compact with a 
 kiss," was her reply. "But of course, you 
 wouldn't like me to call her 'mother." 1 
 
 "If it is any comfort to you, certainly," I 
 said.
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 GABRIELLE'S VISIT. 
 
 " In harmony ever blending." 
 
 HAT a glorious afternoon it was ! Nothing 
 seemed wanting to make our felicity in 
 each other's society, perfect. I see the 
 vine-shaded window, now, the summer roses 
 blooming on the outside, the white path to 
 the garden gate, the road beyond, shaded by 
 tall trees. I bring out my lace work, as we sit 
 together, Gabrielle and I, and show her the stitch, 
 and she begs me to teach her, and we bend our 
 heads close together, and our fingers intertwine, 
 and she laughs at my agility, and I laugh at her 
 mistakes, and we are very merry and jolly to- 
 gether, feeling, at least I feel as if there was not 
 a care or sorrow in the world. And almost 
 
 197
 
 198 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 imperceptibly the conversation leads to things of 
 the past, and she tells me many little stories of 
 her school days the teachers, every one of whom 
 she photographs to the life, from the little gray- 
 eyed girl who takes charge of the younger 
 children, to the venerable head teacher, a woman 
 of fine commanding presence, born to rule. 
 
 Particularly she dwelt upon one of the dearest 
 and sweetest of her schoolmates, Helen Trevort, 
 in whose praise she could not seem to say enough. 
 It appears that she owes to her all the good that 
 has been developing in her character for years 
 past. 
 
 "She is truth and sincerity itself," she said, 
 " there is no affectation about her, and no selfish- 
 ness, such as one meets with in most school-girls. 
 She just seems to delight in helping others, and 
 if you could see her, when she is doing something 
 she particularly likes, such a rapt, beautiful ex- 
 pression comes into her eyes ! I wonder how it 
 is, some people seem born almost saints. Your 
 mother is one of those and now I know who 
 Helen always reminded me of your mother!" 
 
 I smiled my apprecia'tion of the delicate com- 
 pliment.
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 199 
 
 " There ! " she said, a moment after, " I think 
 I have got the stitch, and can do this alone. 
 Won't you give me some music?" 
 
 I was so ashamed of my little spindle-legged 
 'piano ! and told her so. 
 
 " It was quite impossible," I said, " to keep it 
 in tune, and the strings would break." 
 
 "Dear me, but it's very sweet and silver- 
 toned," she said, coming towards me and it, as I 
 was spreading out my music, "and you would 
 charm music out of anything in the shape of 
 a piano. What a beautiful touch you have! 
 What do you think of my piano?" 
 
 " Ah ! that is glorious indeed ! " I said. 
 
 " And yet papa don't like it. He has spoken 
 for a new one, made by a very eminent firm, 
 I forget the name. The one I have was give.n 
 me, or rather left me by a cousin, who died some 
 three years ago. It was new the year she died 
 but someway, papa has taken a dislike to it. Of 
 course it will have to be put in a room by itself, 
 and I hate to think of it so utterly neglected. 
 Now, why can't you have it here ? It would be 
 quite a favor, and papa don't care what becomes 
 of it, if it is only out of his sight. Of course he
 
 200 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 don't like to sell it to any one not in the family. 
 You can dispose of this, unless you set too much 
 store by it." 
 
 I listened, it may be imagined, with what a 
 beating heart and quickened pulse. I had been 
 delighted with the soft, rich, mellow tones of the 
 instrument, but had never dreamed of possessing 
 one so valuable, even if I should be enabled to 
 purchase one. Now it was almost thrust into my 
 possession, for here was Gabrielle pleading for me 
 to take care of it. 
 
 " And you can keep it forever and a day," she 
 said, "unless I should sometime become poor," 
 she added, laughing, " then I might claim it." 
 
 "Then you should come here, and we would 
 share it together," I said, gleefully, with no 
 thought beyond the oddity of the idea. 
 
 I thanked her again and again, but insisted 
 upon paying her in some way. "If you could 
 take lessons, now " 
 
 "The very thing!" she exclaimed, clapping her 
 hands. "I never cared much for music, till I 
 heard you and Miss Brock play the other night. 
 Then I was sorry I had wasted my opportunities 
 as I have. Will you really teach me ? "
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 201 
 
 " Indeed I will," I said, and my heart was run- 
 ning over with thankfulness to the dear Father in 
 Heaven, who so bountifully provided for my 
 wants. I had left the matter with Him ; I went 
 to Him just as I should have gone to a rich, 
 earthly father, and stated my case, and so left it 
 with Him. How wonderfully and how beauti- 
 fully He answered me, I leave the reader to see. 
 
 Just then mamma came in to set the table, and 
 as I ran to help her, I told her the good news. If 
 Gabrielle was looking at us she must have seen a 
 sort of telegraph despatch lightening out of both 
 our eyes. Hers said, 
 
 " I told you he would," and mine said, 
 
 " Yes. I know it." 
 
 "Harry wants to be wheeled in to take tea 
 with us," said mother. "He has been busy 
 getting himself up for the occasion." 
 
 That was pleasant. I was very proud of. 
 Harry's beauty and acquirements. And when I 
 wheeled him in, such a picture, in his fresh white 
 linen suit, I noticed that Gabrielle started and 
 flushed. I knew he would astonish her, for 
 hitherto I had said very little about him. His 
 hair, moustache and whiskers had always grown
 
 202 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 luxuriantly, and were kept well trimmed, and his 
 sweet simple manners, so thoroughly refined, gave 
 him the appearance of one quite used to society 
 and yet he had been a recluse all his life. We 
 had honey and tea-biscuit and cookies for tea, 
 with most delicate slices of well-cooked ham, cut 
 cold. I could see that Gabrielle enjoyed the 
 meal, thoroughly. Phil broke out once in rather 
 an unexpected manner, as boys will : 
 
 " I guess mother you'll have to draw on your 
 faith pretty hard," he said, " if Harry's going to 
 be a minister." 
 
 " My son ! " exclaimed mother, half reprovingly, 
 while Harry flushed. 
 
 "Well, he said he was," said Phil, "didn't you, 
 Harry?" 
 
 "I'll tell you some other time," said Harry, 
 without looking at him, and I am sure I could 
 have sent the young marplot from the table. 
 But then it was so like a boy ! 
 
 Then after tea Harry staid with us, and we had 
 some singing, and when Harry left us, mother and 
 Gabrielle and I sat out on the porch, with the 
 scent of roses and sweet clover and heliotrope 
 coming up from garden and field.
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 203 
 
 I was so delighted when Gabrielle praised 
 Harry, and we told her what a wonder it seemed 
 that he was recovering, so that the doctor thought 
 he would have the complete use of his limbs, 
 perhaps before a year. 
 
 " And does he really think of a .profession ? " 
 asked Gabrielle. 
 
 "He has talked of it owing so much, as he 
 does to the direct instrumentality of God, he 
 thinks he can do no less than devote the life 
 restored by Him to His service." 
 
 "I don't wonder," said Gabrielle, sighing. 
 "How much nobler such a career than the one 
 my dear Jack's brother is engaged in ! And yet 
 he thinks he is doing the world service." 
 
 " The insolence of unbelief is almost beyond 
 parallel," said mother. " If all Christians had as 
 much faith in their mission, as these people have 
 zeal and audacity in their no-belief, the world 
 would very soon be brought to the knowledge 
 of God." 
 
 " Oh, what delicious music I " exclaimed Ga- 
 ln idle, after a short pause. 
 
 Mother listened smilingly. We were accus- 
 tomed to it, but Gabrielle was in ecstacies. The
 
 204 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 Brocks were all playing some weird fantasia for 
 violin, flute and piano. 
 
 " Mother, suppose we take Gabrielle over ! " 
 I' said. 
 
 " Oh, pray do," said Gabrielle, springing up.
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 A HAPPY EVENING. 
 " Oh, lii>t the song." 
 
 'HERE was a bit of road, some grassy turf, 
 ' j and then a street to cross. This brought 
 us to the pretty little cottage into which I 
 was delighted to escort Gabrielle. There was a 
 shaded light at the piano, at which Cathy and her 
 mother had been standing, and a low table placed 
 beside Mr. Brock's couch, on which stood a 
 little music-stand, and two wax candles. We 
 had waited till the performance was over, and 
 were cordially welcomed. Gabrielle begged them 
 not to lay the instruments aside, as she had come 
 'specially to hear the music, and asked them if 
 they would be willing to play the same thing 
 again, to which they assented cheerfully. 
 
 20'*
 
 206 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 Mr. Brock lay bolstered up by pillows, flute in 
 hand, his hair, which had grown rather long, 
 curling about his neck. He looked, Gabrielle 
 said, like a spiritualized Beethoven. The little 
 room was very trim and pretty the evening 
 breeze slowly swayed the white curtains to and 
 fro, and under the influence of the music, we 
 were all disposed to be more or less enraptured. 
 
 " What an atmosphere to live in ! ' cried 
 Gabrielle, " how happy you must be ! " Cathy 
 laid aside her violin, and simply said, 
 
 " Ah, yes, we are very happy with our music, 
 but we shall not be all together, long \ I am to go 
 away soon." 
 
 " But for her own good," said Mrs. Brock, 
 smiling. 
 
 " It should not have been so, if I had been able 
 to work for her," said Mr. Brock, looking at his 
 wasted white hands, " but here I am a block 
 no more a man." 
 
 " Now, my dear," said his wife, with the tears 
 in her eyes, "you know you were only saying 
 to-day, how thankful you were that the fingers 
 would work," 
 
 " Yes, yes, I was, I am ; " and he held the flute
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 207 
 
 again with a caressing touch, "but then I get 
 very impatient, very unhappy. Come you and 
 sit by me, Mrs. Gregory, and let me tear your 
 faith to pieces. I feel savage, just now." 
 
 Mother shook her head, laughing. 
 
 "It's no use, Mr. Brock," she said, "your 
 head and my heart are natural foes." 
 
 " But I do get the advantage of you ; come, 
 now, confess," he said. 
 
 "You ask me questions I cannot answer you 
 bring up isolated texts of Scripture, and I have 
 to go home and hunt up the context, and by the 
 time I get through with that, you are ready with 
 some other perplexing query," answered my 
 mother, in perfect good nature. "I think I must 
 let you severely alone, after this, and not try to 
 convert you to my views." 
 
 " Oh, no, no ! please," he cried, holding out 
 both hands, " don't you desert me, Mrs. Gregory ; 
 for though I don't believe in your doctrines, 
 I believe in you." 
 
 "But I am the result of my doctrines," said 
 mother, "so if you believe in me, you must 
 believe in them." 
 
 " Ah, you are yourself as nature made you
 
 208 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 and we won't quarrel. My wife loves you like a 
 sister and her good friends are my good friends. 
 Let doctrines go." 
 
 " Yes, let doctrines go," said my mother, " 'out 
 we must not let faith and good works go. We 
 must not forget who is the author of both. 1 
 should be a traitor to the noblest aspirations of 
 mankind, if I didn't speak for that if I did not 
 speak for HIM," she added, solemnly. 
 
 Mr. Brock moved uneasily, and at that moment 
 there was a knock at the door. Cathy answered 
 it, violin in hand, for they were just perparing for 
 some more music, and ushered in Bony and his 
 sister. 
 
 "I told them they might come down here, 
 to-night and we would play for them," whispered 
 Cathy. ''Shall we send them into the other 
 room ? " 
 
 " No, indeed," said mother, who overheard her, 
 "give them every possible chance for develop- 
 ment. I am sure they will behave very well, 
 while here." 
 
 And they did. A great change was observable 
 in them both. Bony had lost that selfish, stolid 
 look, that had before characterized him, and wore
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 209 
 
 an almost animated, certainly a cheerful counte- 
 nance. His Sunday afternoons at our house- had 
 cultivated self-respect, and his shoes were care- 
 fully tied, while his hair, always beautiful and 
 soft, was combed and curled as if with a laudable 
 ambition to make the best of the few natural 
 advantages he possessed. I had great hope for 
 Bony, who seemed anxious to emerge from the 
 evil conditions that had heretofore kept him 
 bound, hand and foot to sloth, to force, to igno- 
 rance. Very often I was made to remember 
 Ernst Brock's assertion that the boy had a good 
 head. He was learning the first principles, 
 readily, and listened with an interest that made 
 the t;usk of teaching pleasant. 
 
 His brain not being naturally sluggish, devel- 
 oped, even in the short time we had him under 
 instruction, witli a rapidity that was sometimes 
 startling ; and kindness, to which he had so long 
 been a stranger, had broken up the egotism which 
 is inherent in nature, and more or less exaggerated 
 in neglected children; so that he began to think 
 of something beside himself. 
 
 The girl had always been a daisy of a creature, 
 and possessed a good many attractive qualities.
 
 210 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 For music she had a passion, and through that 
 specialty, Cathy, whose charge she was, had had 
 great influence upon her for good. She was 
 neatly dressed, and looked so unconsciously lady- 
 like, that Gabrielle fell in love with her pretty 
 face at once. 
 
 When we told her their history, she too was 
 solicitous to enter on the good work, and readily 
 promised to take Cathy's place, when she left for 
 the city. 
 
 " So you must come to Garcelon House, where 
 I live," she said to Genie, and was not a little 
 surprised when the girl hastily withdrew her 
 hand, and shook her head. 
 
 "I don't want to I drether not," said the 
 girl, folding a bit of her dress, and growing 
 very red. 
 
 "Oh, yes, you will learn to like it, quite as well 
 as here," said Gabrielle, encouragingly, " and I've 
 lots of pictures there to show you." 
 
 " She said she'd never go there, agin ! " said 
 Bony. "They bad treated her. That woman 
 struck her, and said swear words to me, and 
 we've neither ever been there sence." 
 
 " Ah, yes, I comprehend but / was not there
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 211 
 
 then, and I should like to see any one that I 
 invite to my father's house, ill treated," said 
 Gabrielle, with spirit. "There won't be any 
 danger of that, I assure you." 
 
 The girl looking up into the sparkling face, 
 seemed to gather confidence from it. 
 
 " I like you," she said, simply. 
 
 " And I like you, and I rather think we shall 
 be the best of friends. What a dear little thing 
 it is ? " said Gabrielle aside, to me, " and what a 
 charming family ! " 
 
 By this time the trio had made ready to play 
 again, but scarcely had a bar of music sounded, 
 when the door opened, and Ernst stood before us, 
 flushed and breathing quickly from his walk. 
 Cathy flew into his arms, Mrs. Brock embraced 
 him, and then he knelt down by his father's side, 
 and threw his arms about him like a boy. 
 
 " How much better you are, father ! " he said, 
 delightedly, " Cathy has been writing me, but I 
 thought I would come and see for myself." 
 
 ** Ernst, you don't see our Dolly, said Cathy, 
 beamingly. 
 
 " Oh, yes, I do," and he shook hands with me, 
 and I introduced him to Gabrielle.
 
 212 NO MOTHER LIKE MLNE. 
 
 Mother signalled that we should go, but none 
 of them would hear it. Cathy lit the fire in the 
 kitchen, and put the kettle on, Mrs. Brock drew 
 out the table, mother sent Genie into the house 
 for some of our fresh cookies, and these with 
 home-made pretzels, tea and fruit, furnished a 
 comfortable little supper, of which we all partook. 
 
 Cathy beckoned me out in the kitchen to show 
 me that Ernst never come empty handed, and 
 sure enough a large basket full of grocery pack- 
 ages stood on the table. 
 
 " He is such a glorious brother ! " said Cathy. 
 " And he is delighted to think that I am going to 
 have such advantages, and I shall board where he 
 does. That won't seem so much like going away 
 from home, will it ? " 
 
 " I am very glad for you, Cathy," I said. 
 
 'And how good of Miss Gabrielle to take 
 Genie! I felt anxious about her, but that's all 
 over. Now I am going to call Genie to wash the 
 dishes we must play that sonata." 
 
 So Genie and her brother went willingly to 
 work, and Ernst sat with his eyes fixed on his 
 father, as he played, seemingly, with all the ease 
 of his former perfect health.
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 213 
 
 We were a very happy gathering. Ernst said 
 he should take the midnight train back, as his 
 work was very pressing, and at ten o'clock, a ser- 
 vant came for Miss Gabrielle with the carriage, 
 and mother and I went home together, where we 
 found father fast asleep on the lounge.
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 A LETTER FROM CATHY. 
 " They have their own reward" 
 
 FEW changes occurred within the following 
 month. Cathy had gone to the city, our 
 -" | V room was beautified by the new piano, 
 Bony and his sister were at work at their old 
 employment, and Harry stood upon his feet 
 tremblingly, strugglingly, yet he stood. 
 
 I had several times visited Gabrielle, and made 
 the acquaintance of Miss Jack Leon, and her 
 brother Baron. They had in turn all been to our 
 house, on the occasion of a little farewell party 
 given by us to Cathy Brock. There was some- 
 thing so noble, yet so touchingly sad in the ex- 
 pression of Mr. Baron Leon, that one could but 
 be affected by it, and I found myself wondering 
 
 214
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 215 
 
 what trouble he could have seen, that had so 
 depressed him. Mother and he became good 
 friends at once. His originality of thought, his 
 pleasant manners and handsome face, were all 
 passports to our favor. My mother avoided all 
 controversial points, but I saw that he was 
 always interested in the simplest things she said. 
 
 I was standing near her when he gave her a 
 blush moss-bud. He had been out in the garden 
 with Gabrielle. 
 
 "'A thing of beauty is a joy forever,' Mrs. 
 Gregory," he said, " only I don't agree with the 
 sentiment. All joy is short lived transient as a 
 drop of dew." 
 
 " But stop," said mother, as he turned towards 
 Gabrielle. "Who knows but what a moment 
 of joy to us, may vibrate for a million years? To 
 us, here in the flesh, come the transient flash and 
 sparkle, but even that quick delight may be 
 caught up by some invisible spirit of the universe, 
 be communicated to other spheres, and other 
 hearts, until when it has gone its rounds, it has 
 wrought such wonders as we never dreamed of, 
 and travelled, we cannot calculate what) dis- 
 tances."
 
 216 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 He smiled and looked a little startled and 
 astonished. 
 
 " I confess," he said, " the idea is new to me, 
 and very charmingly put." And then he sighed, 
 and his face grew dark again, "but I don't 
 believe in invisible spirits," he added, and looked 
 down at her, smilingly. He is very tall, and my 
 mother is a little woman. 
 
 " Don't you ? " she said, pleasantly. " Well, 
 we are not always to blame for our individual 
 convictions." 
 
 He evidently expected some other answer, and 
 some such impression forced him to say, 
 
 " You won't tolerate me in that fashion when 
 you know me better, Mrs. Gregory. Perhaps you 
 have heard of my lecture over in Ashbury." 
 
 " Oh, yes. I have re?d it in a paper a friend 
 of mine sent me from there," was her reply. 
 
 "Horribly mutilated, no doubt," was his re- 
 sponse. "Really, Mrs. Gregory, you force me to 
 do homage to your superior Christianity," he said, 
 after a momentary silence. 
 
 "My superior Christianity," repeated my 
 mother, with a little pause after each word. " It 
 seems to me Christianity can hardly be qualified.
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 217 
 
 It is so perfectly adapted to the human soul, that 
 wherever it is shrined, it is always, simply, the 
 lessons taught us by Christ." 
 
 "Your Master has some uncouth disciples," 
 said Mr. Leon, with the slightest suspicion of a 
 sneer. 
 
 "Whoever has truly learned of HIM, has 
 learned good manners," said my mother with 
 a smile. 
 
 " Baron, dear, come and sing do come," said 
 Jack, thrusting her curly head and sparkling face 
 into the group, "I have promised for you." 
 
 "How dare you take such a liberty," cried 
 Baron, with simulated heat. " I can't leave Mrs. 
 Gregory." 
 
 " Oh, Mrs. Gregory please tell him to go," 
 pleaded Jack. " I'm afraid he's very naughty 
 and very daring. He is BO in earnest, you know 
 and I don't think any one ought to bring such 
 matters up in company. Mrs. Gregory, he's very 
 honest and just as good as gold, in spite of his 
 opinions," she continued, at which we all laughed. 
 " Though don't think I dislike his opinions, for I 
 am his pupil and most devoted servant ; but 
 most people, of course, above all Mrs. Gregory, 
 wouldn't agree with him."
 
 218 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 " What in the world are you trying to make 
 me out, Jack ? " asked her brother, but his cheeks 
 were flushed. " Please don't defend me till I am 
 attacked. Mrs. Gregory and I were talking like 
 two old friends, and here you pounce upon me 
 like a little bat.'' 
 
 " I'm not a bat," said Jack, " and you are the 
 dearest brother in the world, if you will only 
 come and sing, as I have promised," and she 
 drew him along with her. 
 
 Another month passes rapidly away. Cathy 
 has written me several letters about her new 
 place of abode, the conservatory, the pupils, the 
 professors. They are giving her single lessons, 
 not in class, as she expected. 
 
 "They seem very willing to help me," she 
 writes, "and are kind enough to say that my 
 progress is something phenomenal. From a 
 young master, who was very taciturn, I am 
 turned over to Professor Grimsky, a noble, lion- 
 like, old man, with an immense mane of shaggy 
 hair, and eyes so soft and clear, that it makes me 
 happy only to look in them. There are thirty 
 young ladies in singing, forty for the piano, and 
 only me for the violin ; consequently I am very
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 219 
 
 much looked at and wondered over, and com- 
 mented upon. It is so new that they don't quite 
 know what to make of it. But they are very 
 still when I play, and seem to enjoy it. 
 
 " I have the dearest little old landlady in the 
 world i and the next room to Ernst's. Oh, I 
 only wish you were here. You ought to study, 
 you with your fine musical talent and then the 
 city is so wonderful ! Ernst takes me now and 
 then to the libraries and the galleries, and con- 
 certs, but he don't have much time. He told me 
 to remember him to Miss Dolly when I wrote 
 we often talk of you and that sweet mother. 
 
 "I know you keep my dear papa company, 
 sometimes. I am so afraid of those moods he 
 gets into ; but if anybody can do him good, 
 mentally and spiritually, it is your mother. She 
 never forces her religion upon one, like physic, 
 but gives it as one gives sweet flowers from 
 which all the thorns have been extracted. Oh, 
 how I love your mother ! 
 
 " Glorious news that, about our poor castaways. 
 I am delighted that they have at last got into 
 pleasant homes. It is a labor of love, but as you 
 say, the reward is immense."
 
 220 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 I always felt a little blue after reading Cathy s 
 letters. It was not envy, I hope, because she was 
 enjoying advantages denied to me. But a little 
 reflection, a little of something far better, when I 
 could feel that I left it all with HIM, dissipated 
 the darkness and softened the regret, and I was 
 ready to go on again. Bony, whose uncouth 
 surname had made place for * Robert,' was so 
 changed, mentally and morally, that he astonished 
 us all. Genie was already a prime favorite with 
 Gabrielle, who had taken her in hand with a will, 
 and not only taught her, but dressed her in neat, 
 nice garments. 
 
 " Biddy Bride is just furious about it," she said 
 to me one day, " she seems to mortally hate that 
 poor, innocent child ; and much as I think of her, 
 and am grateful for past kindnesses, I feel myself 
 disliking her very much when she pours out the 
 vials of her wrath upon Genie. I am obliged, 
 much against my will to smuggle her into the 
 house, for fear of one of Biddy's terrible fits of 
 passion. And for her part, Genie is mortally 
 afraid of Biddy, so that my labor of love proves 
 a task of no small magnitude, I assure you. But 
 I shall hold on to Genie, for I am getting to love
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 221 
 
 the little creature she is so tiny for her age 
 and I believe she loves me. Papa has also taken 
 a fancy to her, and seems to be interested in her 
 progress, so that but for Mrs. Bride, everything 
 would go on famously." 
 
 I thought one could hardly be blamed for 
 being afraid of Mrs. Bride ; I was afraid of her. 
 
 At last I am going to the conservatory where 
 Cathy is, to study the science of music. Hith- 
 erto, I have been working by rule, but there is 
 something beyond that, a fine interpretation of 
 the spirit and beauty of music, that I long to get 
 at, and I think I shall. It is wonderful, as I said 
 to mother, how all my difficulties are smoothed 
 away, and what I long for with my whole heart, 
 sooner or later comes into my possession. 
 
 " Not so wonderful to the Christian believer," 
 said my mother, "who remembers the promise, 
 
 4 Delight thyself in the Lord, and He shall give 
 thee the desires of thine heart.' " 
 
 " And I most devoutly thank Him for giving 
 me such a mother," I said. 
 
 44 Amen ! " responded a gruff, hearty voice, and 
 there stood Dr. Berg, who, finding the door stand- 
 ing open, had dropped in, to see how my brother 
 was getting along.
 
 222 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 "So Mr. Harry is up on his feet, I hear 
 well, well it took something more than medi- 
 cine to do that that is " and he sat down 
 gravely in a chair near the window. 
 
 "A very sad accident has happened," he added, 
 " and they want you up to Garcelon House, Mrs. 
 Gregory." 
 
 That was so like Doctor Berg !
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 JACK'S FOREBODINGS. 
 " And Jfowers of every hue and tcent are there" 
 
 ND so you think the Gregories are rather 
 nice/' said Gabrielle, as she caught up a 
 dainty scarf she was arranging on a garden 
 hat. She had been something of an invalid for 
 the past day or two. 
 
 " Yes, very nice, if you will," said Jack. " Mr. 
 Gregory looks more like a minister, when he is 
 dressed for Sunday, than a common working 
 man." 
 
 "He is not common there is nothing common 
 about him," responded Gabrielle, "he was well 
 educated and comes of a good family, but he was 
 always poor, I suspect. I have heard that an 
 uncle educated him for the profession he studied." 
 
 223
 
 224 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 " What ! really a profession ? " 
 
 "Yes, that of an architect, unfortunately. The 
 business nearly ruined his eyes, and he was 
 forced to seek other employment. lie has been 
 for years foreman in papa's mills, but I believe ho 
 has a clerkship, now, in some engineering shops." 
 
 "Dear me well, they are very nice people, 
 then and that oldest son of theirs is .as beauti- 
 ful as a picture. Something or other I said the 
 other night, when we there, seemed to shock 
 him, terribly. I wonder if he has forgotten it? 
 lie really appeared to be quite pleased with me, 
 till then, and I had no idea how rude I was, till I 
 thought it over. I wish I was nice and delicate 
 like you and Dolly why can't I be, I wonder? 
 Don't you suppose if I had had sisters, it would 
 have made a difference?" 
 
 "Very likely ? " said Gabrielle, "though I love 
 you just as you are, my dear little Jack." 
 
 " Jack, too being called Jack," said the girl, 
 musingly, "I believe that has made me half a 
 boy. Baron has always been my playmate, 
 though such ages older than me and I have 
 formed my opinions in his mould not that 
 Baron is ever rude, poor, dear fellow ! I expect
 
 NO MOTHEB LIKE MINE. 225 
 
 that the Gregories consider me hopelessly wicked, 
 perhaps lost." 
 
 44 Oh, no, no," said Gabrielle, now trying on the 
 finished hat at a mirror. u On the contrary, Mrs. 
 Gregory speaks very highly of you." 
 
 " Oh, does she ? She is the sweetest woman I 
 ever saw if I were dying, I should like to hold 
 her hand in mine. It would seem almost like 
 taking her with me. Now, if Helen were only 
 like that!" 
 
 "Helen t* like that," said Gabrielle, "the 
 nearest like Mrs. Gregory of any one I ever 
 saw." 
 
 Jack shook her head. 
 
 44 She never would have treated Baron so. By- 
 the-way, did I tell you that Baron had a letter 
 from her ? " 
 
 44 No ! " said Gabrielle, with a look of interest. 
 44 1 was just thinking of writing to Helen." 
 
 44 Yes / wouldn't correspond with her, if I 
 were. Baron but then you know men will do 
 such odd things ! I coaxed him to let me read it, 
 and slipped it into my pocket. Such a prosaic 
 letter! I never could see a bit of romance in 
 Helen.* 1
 
 226 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 " Her whole life is a romance, to me," said 
 Gabrielle, while Jack was hunting in her pocket 
 for the letter. 
 
 " Well, I don't know unless you call poverty 
 and hard work, romantic. I shouldn't, I'm sure," 
 said Jack. 
 
 The girls sat in a large octagon room in the 
 tower at the east corner of Garcelon House, that 
 led to a beautiful conservatory, which was the 
 pride of Mr. Garcelon's heart. Every spring and 
 fall certain choice plants which he imported 
 were added to his already numerous collection 
 of flowers, till now the place was one bed of 
 bloom and fragrance. It was the favorite sitting- 
 room, and Mr. Garcelon, before he went to the 
 city, always read his paper there of a morning, 
 while Baron sketched and wrote and read there, 
 as it pleased him. Such an air of peace and 
 quiet as reigned through the house to-day, was 
 almost unprecedented. Mrs. Bride kept her 
 room, the housekeeper was busy weighing sugar 
 and preserving strawberries in another part of 
 the house ; Baron was out walking, and Miss 
 Stebbins, Gabrielle's cousin, had gone to the city 
 to visit some other i ilations.
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 227 
 
 " I'll read it to you by bits," said Jack, opening 
 the letter. 
 
 u Baron thinks her talent for description is 
 quite remarkable. But first comes a sort of 
 what shall I call it argument dry enough; 
 shall I skip that?" 
 
 " Not for the world," said Gabrielle, " nothing 
 that Helen writes can be uninteresting." 
 
 "Well I suppose she is answering some no- 
 tions of his so here goes." 
 
 " * I remember what you asked me but in 
 return, let me ask you something. Measure your 
 experience by these questions. After yielding to 
 doubt, did you feel more satisfied with life and its 
 surroundings? Was it pleasantcr to look at a 
 dead blank, a hideous chaos without shape or 
 color, without Mm or moonlight, than at the 
 kingly tare of Jesus Christ? 
 
 "Did you feel safer in the arms of what you 
 call destiny, which might th: \nv you from chance 
 to chance like a human foot-ball, than in the anus 
 of Him who said with all the authority of a God: 
 1 Come unto Me all ye that labor and are heavy 
 laden and 1 will yive you / 
 
 Ami hnv is more," said Jack, turning over 
 the 1 at. -l>ut he will have an answer for her."
 
 223 / NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 "Did the comparison of your infidel authors 
 with the character of Christ, give you a more 
 exalted view of their lives and labors He seek- 
 ing to build up, they to pull down and destroy. 
 Are their lessons as sublime as His their motives 
 as pure ? Which is noblest, to die for a man, or 
 seek to kill his faith? Say that Christ and the 
 Gospel r.re my ths ! Which forms the best ideal 
 for your following, Jesus Christ, or Thomas Paine? 
 giving to the latter whatever honor his intellect 
 and his statemanship cull for." 
 
 "Ah! here iy something which I think nicer 
 reading," said Jack, after a minute's pause. 
 
 "Don't call my 'work stupid. We were all 
 children once, you know, and the least and 
 poorest little child is an interesting study to me. 
 
 " Our school room is very cheerful the pupils 
 keep it bright with flowers, and it is in a wing of 
 the house, open on three sides to the air and 
 sunshine. 
 
 "One door looks upon an old fashioned garden, 
 where thousands of flowers grow at their own 
 sweet will. The gardener is only allowed to 
 prune here, and keep the weeds out, and the 
 bushes straggle everywhere, turning their blush-
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 229 
 
 ing buds in all directions, while the scraggly 
 branches of the gnarled old fruit trees, reach to 
 the high windows of the church next door. 
 Another outlook is the lawn, exactly in front, 
 wide and trim, and emerald green, where bees 
 and humming birds flit, lazily, after they have had 
 their feast out in the old garden. This place is 
 always full of cool shade, fcr the old church roof, 
 and the great chestnuts opposite, and the elms 
 scattered here and there over it, throw long, 
 sweet shadows, while the sunlight dances like a 
 thousand will-o-the-wisps in and out over the 
 cool, short grass. 
 
 "The third door shows us near glimpses of 
 evergreen and box hedges, and away beyond, the 
 sloping fields and beyond them a chain of hills 
 whose coloring would defy the most vivid im- 
 agination of the most ambitious of artists to 
 reproduce so you see I am not so poorly off for 
 pictures." 
 
 "Let me see," said Jack, turning the pages,*" 
 musingly, "that's not so bad, is it?" and she 
 looked up to find Gabrielle sitting quietly, with 
 folded hands, her dark eyes gazing away beyond 
 into depths that only the inner vision penetrated.
 
 230 NO MOTHER LIKE MINK. 
 
 "Now I do expect you are back, yourself, at the 
 old school,' said Jack, laughing. 
 
 " I certainly was," said Gabrielle, with a start. 
 " After all it was a pleasant place, though I was 
 always longing to be out of it, and in the busy 
 world, again. Helen is right it is a. place to be 
 happy in." 
 
 M Humdrum I," said Jack, puckering her lips. 
 "Give me a more active life out in the world. 
 Oh, Gabrielle! I wonder if I shall die young' 
 There is so much to be done so much that 
 I could do! and life is so sweet! When I think of 
 the possible darkness the perhaps nothing, 
 after death, I positively shudder to my soul." 
 
 "Leave out the soul," said Gabrielle, impul- 
 sively, "say you shudder to your boots. They 
 are at least tangible. What right have you to 
 claim a soul, if you deny immortality ? " 
 
 " Hush, Gabrielle you make me think of my 
 waking up, last night. Oh, such an hour! Did 
 you ever feel that you were not alone, when to 
 the senses, you were ? How they came crowding 
 about me! What were they ? I saw nothing. It 
 made me think of death ; a thing that has never 
 troubled me, before. I never saw anybody die.
 
 NO MOTHKK I.IKE MINE. 231 
 
 In all my experience nobody has died out of our 
 house, not even among the servants. Baron told 
 me that there were two between us, two brothers, 
 who died, but it always seemed like a dream to 
 me. Why, how I run on ! what is the matter 
 with me ? I positively feel cold to my heart." 
 
 "Find something in Helen's letter to warm 
 you," said Gabrielle, trying to laugh, for Jack's 
 mood had insensibly affected her. 
 
 44 Yes where is it ? oh ! " 
 
 44 4 1 have recently won a beautiful little gold 
 medal, for nursing:' yes, I can imagine that Helen 
 would make a splendid nurse," said Juck, looking 
 up over the top of her letter. * 4 4 Marie, one of 
 the angels of the house, has been ill for weeks, 
 and it was my privilege to take care of her.' 
 Think of that, Gabrielle, privilege to stay in a 
 sick room all day ! ugh ! " 
 
 44 She died, poor little thing, with her head on 
 my shoulder, and fancied at the last, that I was 
 her mother I was so glad of that." 
 
 Jack looked up again made an impatient 
 gesture, and threw the letter as far as she could 
 throw it. 
 
 "What's the matter now, Jack?" asked Ga- 
 brielle.
 
 232 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 " Oh I'm sick of it all ; I'm full of wretched 
 fancies; have been all day. How still the house 
 is ! If somebody would play, I would dance and 
 shout, and scream to make a noise. Isn't it 
 horrible!" 
 
 " You're homesick ! " said Gabrielle. 
 
 44 1 wonder if I am?" answered Jack, with a 
 plaintive quaver in her voice. " Dear old Castle 
 Brook ! and I did so want my mother, in the 
 night." 
 
 She hid her face in Gabrielle's arm, as the 
 latter passed it about her waist. 
 
 "Why, Jack! so bright and sunny always! 
 What has come over you ? " 
 
 " Mother ! mother ! " gasped Jack, and sobbed 
 for a moment, unrestrainedly. 
 
 "I don't know; I'm just a fool, I suppose," she 
 said as her face emerged to the light again, all 
 wet and rosy. " Pray don't let Baron know I 
 guess I am a, little homesick Baron wanted to 
 start for home, to-morrow, but I said no. I think 
 I'll go, though. I guess we had better go." 
 
 " You'll think differently to-morrow, perhaps," 
 said Gabrielle. 
 
 "Perhsip:;, but we must go soon you have
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 233 
 
 little Dolly she is a great deal better than I 
 am I'm not satisfied, you know," she shook her 
 lif.nl, dubiously; "I'm not right there's some- 
 thing wanting Oh, I wish I had never known 
 Helen Trevort! It would have been so much 
 better for Baron and me. Oh, goody ! there's the 
 lunch bell! Bless the lunch bell! Stop I'll 
 just bathe my eyes a minute, and come down 
 directly."
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 NURSE BRIDE'S WARNING. 
 
 " The clouds are Hack in Heaven." 
 
 HEY found Mr. Garcelon and Baron in the 
 lunch room, the former in high spirits, the 
 latter participating somewhat in the exhila- 
 ration of his host. 
 
 " She is a splendid little thing ! " he was saying 
 as the girls entered, " taut and trim, and sits the 
 water, what does the poet say 'like a thing 
 of life ! ' I leave the poets and poetry to my 
 little girl, here." 
 
 "Why, papa! we^ didn't expect you," said 
 Gabrielle, putting up her lips to be kissed. 
 
 "Of course not, but I'm just as welcome, I 
 hope well, I've done a stroke of business to-day 
 bought Lyndsay's yacht the nicest little 
 thing a beauty! And I'm going to take you 
 all to Havermead to see it. It's only six miles." 
 
 234
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 235 
 
 "Oh, papa, you forget! / can't go," said 
 Gabrielle, her face quite changed and sad. "Doc- 
 tor Berg has forbidden me to leave the house for 
 a week." 
 
 " Tut ! tut ! I'd forgotten that ankle of yours," 
 said her father. It was only a slight sprain, 
 yet very much depended upon absolute quiet. 
 "Well, I wonder if I must change my plans? 
 It's really my first holiday for weeks." 
 
 " No, indeed, papa I am not selfish enough 
 for that, I hope. Take J^ck and Baron they 
 will enjoy it I am sure, won't you Jack ? " 
 
 " Well, I should like it,'.' said Jack, " I should 
 like uncommonly to catch one more glimpse of 
 the great, grand water, before I go home but I 
 won't go without you, Gabrielle." 
 
 " Oh, yes, you will," said Gabrielle, cheerfully, 
 "you must let me see the yacht through your 
 eyes, you know. It wouldn't seem a bit nice for 
 papa and Baron to go without you. As for me, 
 worse things might happen than to have to stay 
 at home for a sprain; I shall get along very 
 nicely, and at four, you know, Genie comes here, 
 so I shall be well rid of all encumbrances, and 
 quite free to hear her lessons. So go ! "
 
 236 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 " All right," laughed Jack, quite bright again, 
 and apparently forgetful of her recent nervous 
 fancies, " we'll just enjoy ourselves in your stead, 
 for I confess a little jaunt will do me good and 
 you won't think me selfish ? " 
 
 " Not in the least," said Gabrielle, with a kiss, 
 and presently the three were in the carriage at 
 the door, and Hale, the coachman, started the 
 horses. Gabrielle stood at the window, waving 
 her handkerchief, and Jack, laughing, her face a 
 very sunbeam, waved,, so furiously that she drop- 
 ped her handkerchief, and the carriage had to be 
 stopped and then Jack kissed her hand, and 
 that was the last she saw of Jack, though she 
 still stood at the window, looking musingly out. 
 
 Later on that afternoon, Gabrielle looked out 
 again. The wind was rising, and the atmosphere 
 assumed a dull, olive-green color, save when at 
 intervals the sun burst forth to shed its pule gold 
 upon the mist, and glorify for one brief moment 
 everything it shone lipon. 
 
 Genie came punctually at four. Those were 
 happy hours to her, when she could sit alone with 
 Miss Gabrielle in that grand room, where she 
 could both see and smell the beautiful flowers,
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 237 
 
 and without fear or hesitation repeat her lesson. 
 No wonder the child associated it in her mind 
 with the heaven she sometimes thought of, with a 
 dim appreciation of its glories. So far the two 
 had never been disturbed at their studies. The 
 girl was prettily dressed in a neat gown of some 
 thin plaid material, which Gabrielle had had 
 made out of one of her own dresses, and her 
 blue-gray-eyes danced under the short curls that 
 were tied up by a pink ribbon, by Gabrielle 's 
 own hands soon after she had come in. 
 
 " I don't feel much like giving a lesson," said 
 Gabrielle, when at last they sat down together, 
 " suppose we just have a good time and let the 
 books go." 
 
 "And oh, Miss Gabrielle, will you play just a 
 little for me ? " asked Genie. 
 
 " That I will, as long as you like. Say, Genie, 
 I wonder if you could learn ? " 
 
 " Oh, Miss Gabrielle ! " cried the girl, and her 
 eyes shone like stars, "I never expect to do 
 that." 
 
 44 And why not, child, if I have a mind to teach 
 you," said Gabrielle, looking over some old 
 music.
 
 238 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 If any one were disposed to be critical in com- 
 paring the two faces, and if one were a good 
 judge of beauty, one would hesitate before pro- 
 nouncing the cultivated, high bred face of Ga- 
 brielle, the loveliest of the two, as they sit there 
 together ; for Gabrielle has bade Genie come to 
 the piano, and is diligently teaching her the 
 names of the ivory keys. The face of the pauper 
 child, instinct with newly awakened intelligence, 
 is undeniably the most delicately, daintily beau- 
 tiful ; though they do not look unlike sisters. 
 
 Gabrielle seems taken with a sudden admiration 
 of the face, for she bends down, with a lingering 
 look, and then quietly but fervently kisses the 
 white forehead. 
 
 " Genie," she says, " don't let any one but me 
 tell you you are pretty, child." 
 
 "Nobody does say it, ever," says Genie, quietly. 
 "And I'm not very pretty, I don't think it's 
 you and Miss Jack are handsome oh, yes, and 
 Miss Dolly but I'm too little.'* 
 
 "How old are you, Genie?" 
 
 "I guess I'm fifteen. That's what Grannie 
 Lynch says. She remembers when I was brought 
 there it was an awful storm."
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. . 2o9 
 
 "And your mother how long ago do you 
 remember her?" 
 
 " Oh, I don't remember her at all," said Genie, 
 with a puzzled little shake of the head. "She 
 died in a day or two and I was a teeny little 
 mite of a baby." 
 
 44 And who took care of you and brought you 
 up, poor child ? " asked Gabrielle, a sudden pity 
 bringing the tears to her eyes. 
 
 "Oh, everybody that could, I suppose. I 
 remember being carried about by Bony, before he 
 got hurt. He has always been a kind brother to 
 me " and a terrified glance aside, and a low cry, 
 ended the sentence. 
 
 Gabrielle followed the look, and her eyes fell 
 on a muffled figure standing by the door ; the old 
 nurse, pale and gaunt and haggard, regarding 
 the pair with a withering glance, her great blue 
 eyes and the heavy circles around them, making 
 her face cadaverous, almost ghastly. 
 
 " What are you doing there ? " she cried, point- 
 ing to Genie, "that's no place for a poor-house 
 brat." 
 
 "Genie don't you move!" said Gabrielle, 
 the color coming red in her cheeks, and mounting
 
 240 . NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 to her brow. "Now, nurse," she continued, as 
 she pressed the frightened girl back into her seat, 
 " I shall not allow you to insult this poor child. 
 Go back to your room, or you will have a reckon- 
 ing with papa." 
 
 " You talk to me that way, do you ? You for 
 whom I have toiled and suffered, and always with 
 a mind for your good and your welfare that's 
 cruel of you, Gabrielle Garcelon ! " 
 
 " I don't mean to be cruel, nurse ; but this poor 
 child is under my protection while she is here. 
 You must treat my friends with the same civility 
 that I treat yours." 
 
 " Mine ! I've no friends," said the woman, 
 beginning to cry. " Nobody'll mourn over my 
 coffin when I'm dead and gone no matter how 
 much I've give for others, with what heart burn- 
 ings and heart breaking. I'm only a paid ser- 
 vant, after all and it's hard to give up all your 
 own, and die at last with your lips shut, any- 
 way." 
 
 "Nurse, what are you driving at? How 
 strangely you talk ! " said Gabrielle, as the 
 woman, apparently forgetful of her first motive 
 for coming down stairs, hobbled to the easy chair,
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 241 
 
 and sank down upon it, hiding her face in her 
 hands. 
 
 "Nothing, child, nothing!" she said, after a 
 long pause, " only I don't like to see you wasting 
 your fine talents over a girl you know nothing 
 about, and raising them as will sting you after 
 you've tended and helped 'era. No good ever 
 comes of such things, I tell you now." 
 
 " Never mind, nurse," said Gabrielle, " you are 
 only exhausting yourself for nothing I shall be 
 very careful, and you must have more faith in 
 me. It's very wrong of you to have such feel- 
 ings toward ,the poor and helpless. They've 
 never done you any harm." 
 
 "Haven't they?" and now Mrs. Bride stood 
 up with blazing eyes, and features strongly work- 
 ing. " Wait, Miss Gabrielle, wait awhile ; maybe 
 I'll know when the death stroke comes and 
 then " 
 
 The door was thrown open by the housekeeper, 
 whose face was very pale. 
 
 " Oh, Miss Gabrielle if you please will you 
 come out here I don't know what to say 
 but you won't break down," she added, implor- 
 ingly. "There's a messenger here and and 
 he must tell you I can't."
 
 242 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 Gabrielle felt her strength deserting her. She 
 dared not, indeed could not move for a moment ; 
 the room and the furniture went spinning about 
 her, and she felt a deadly faintness at her heart. 
 Presently she went to the window, and saw 
 a horse trembling and panting yet, under the 
 pressure of his forced ride. 
 
 " Oh, nurse, what shall I do ? " she murmured. 
 
 "I'll go," said the woman, lifting herself and 
 tottering forward, but Gabrielle rushed past her, 
 and flew down the stairs, and stood white and 
 trembling before the man who had ridden thither. 
 He was a stout, red-faced man, sitting upon one 
 of the huge leathern chairs in the hall, fillipping 
 his whip-lash through his fingers, but at sight of 
 Gabrielle he stood up and looked at her with 
 pity, hesitating to speak. 
 
 " You have brought me bad news ; what is it ? 
 Please tell me quickly I " said Gabrielle grasping 
 at the edge of the heavy oaken table. " My 
 father! has anything happened to him? or to 
 Mr. Leon or or Jack?" she asked, with 
 quivering lips. 
 
 "All of 'm, ma'am, leastways, the yacht was 
 upsot by a sudden squall, and none of 'em bein'
 
 NO MOTH Ell LIKK MINE. 243 
 
 sailors, consequence was they didn't know how to 
 manage. Two of 'em come to shore, Miss, 
 but " he bent his eyes to the ground, unwilling 
 to see the anguish of her face. 
 
 "Which two?" she a^jked, with a nervous 
 motion of the hands. 
 
 44 The young gentleman and the young lady, 
 Miss." 
 
 u And my father ! " cried the girl wildly, " my 
 father ! " 
 
 44 Well, Miss," said the man, more and more 
 reluctantly, 44 they couldn't find him. They took 
 the young lady into the White Hen, a public 
 house near by, to bring her too, and it was my 
 orders to ride here at top speed, and have a 
 doctor sent for, and beds got ready, and hot 
 water and blankets and them things, Miss." 
 
 44 But my father ! my father ! " moaned Ga- 
 brielle. 
 
 44 They mout a' found him, you know," said the 
 man, 44 there was boats out, for a mile or more 
 round. The young man as swum to shore with 
 the young lady, Miss, offered hundreds, if they'd 
 go and find him and likely as not they will," 
 lie added. " People, you know, is brought to,
 
 244 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 offen, after bein' hours in water. They'll try 
 everything they can, Miss." 
 
 " Oh, tliis is terrible ! M cried Gsibrielle, " only 
 a few short hours ago Mrs. Yorkings," she 
 exclaimed, as the housekeeper came in sight, 
 "have plenty of hot water and the beds and 
 flannels ready I'm sure I don't know what to 
 do," and she walked the floor wringing her 
 hands. 
 
 "I guess, Miss, that's the carridge," said the 
 man, as the sound of wheels and horses feet 
 drew near. 
 
 " Send somebody for Dr. Berg, immediately," 
 said Gabrielle, then with a sinking heart, and 
 trembling in every limb, she threw open the door, 
 and waited. 
 
 The first person who got out of the carriage, 
 was Dr. Berg, himself. They had met him on 
 the way. Then came a gentleman, into whose 
 arms was handed a strange, limp burden, well 
 wrapped up, then Baron himself descended and 
 followed, almost staggering, while death could 
 not have altered his face. 
 
 " Oh, Baron 1 Baron ! " cried Gabrielle, in an 
 agony, "where is my father?"
 
 NO MOTHER LJKK MINE. 245 
 
 He, gazing at her, as at something a great dis- 
 tance off, replied mechanically, "they will bring 
 him, soon," and walked on, following the man 
 who carried Jack. Gabrielle looked vaguely 
 about her, saw the servants coming up sind down 
 stairs, heard doors shut and open in the distance 
 
 - then everything grew dark about her, and she 
 
 
 
 remembered nothing more.
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 BARON'S UNBELIEF. 
 
 " Of plearwe changed to weaknets " 
 
 OOR little Genie had gone home from the 
 hushed house, sobbing all the way. Ga- 
 brielle had just lifted herself from the 
 sofa where they had laid her when she fainted, 
 and the water with which they had bathed her 
 head was still streaming down her face. There 
 was no voice to be heard anywhere, for though 
 Baron was walking back and forth with a singu- 
 larly unsteady motion at the end of the room, his 
 footsteps were muffled by the thick carpet. 
 " Oh, Baron ! " cried Gabrielle, piteously. 
 He came rapidly toward the lounge. 
 "How you must have suffered!" she said, 
 looking wanly up into his eyes, forgetting her 
 
 246
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 247 
 
 own trouble in pity for his altered face. "Has 
 have they brought papa home, yet ? " 
 
 " Not yet ! " he said gloomily. 
 
 "Will they ever, do you suppose?" she 
 asked, earnestly. 
 
 " I hope so I am looking for it." 
 
 "And Jack is she comfortable? can I see 
 her?" 
 
 " Good God ! " he exclaimed, abruptly, " is it 
 possible you don't know ? " 
 
 " Know what ? " she faltered. 
 
 " That Jack is dead ! " 
 
 With one long, heart-rendering cry, Gabrielle 
 threw herself upon the couch, and buried her 
 face in her hands, shuddering from head to 
 foot. 
 
 "Oh, Baron, I can't bear it indeed it is too 
 much," she sobbed. " Why must all this calam- 
 ity fall upon us, when we were least prepared for 
 it ? I wish I had gone, now, and died with poor 
 Jack and papa." 
 
 And indeed for the time, she did heartily wish 
 it. Presently she sat up, looking like a drenched 
 lily, and her eyes followed Baron's movements as 
 he commenced his monotonous walk.
 
 248 NO MOTHEK LIKE MINE. 
 
 " Baron ! " the called, softly. 
 
 He came again towards her. 
 
 " If I could only see Dolly's mother, I think I 
 should feel better," she whispered, falterinjj^y. 
 
 " You will see her soon. Doctor Berg has gone 
 there said he would call on his way," the door 
 bell tinkled faintly, "and there I suppose she is. 
 / don't care to see her," and he turned to go. 
 
 " Baron don't go ! " cried Gabrielle, holding 
 forth her hands, " don't go : I am frightened." 
 
 He came back again, and was standing by the 
 foot of the lounge when Mrs. Gregory entered. 
 Not a word did she utter, only went forward, and 
 folded poor Gabrielle to her bosom holding her 
 in a long, silent embrace. 
 
 Baron turned his head away. 
 
 He bit his lip, and the tears came to his eyes. 
 Jack had loved her; why did he feel a repugnance 
 toward her presence just now? 
 
 He resumed his walk. The servant came in 
 and lighted the gas, in a broad flare when he 
 went out, Baron turned it down. He heard 
 Gabrielle and Mrs. Gregory, talking together, 
 earnestly, Gabrielle sobbing as she spoke, in 
 answer to the low questions.
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 249 
 
 
 
 "He doth not willingly afflict, my dear, not 
 willingly," came to his ear, and his cheeks and 
 brow flushed. 
 
 "You will say, I suppose, that your God, 
 has brought this affliction upon us," he cried, 
 angrily. 
 
 "He holds the winds and the waves in His 
 hand,'* she said, quietly. 
 
 "And changes them, and hurls them in his 
 anger upon a poor inoffensive girl and drowns 
 her for His glory! I'll believe in no such God." 
 
 u No, my friend, not in the state you are in now 
 nothing could make you believe/* 
 
 " Yes, there is one thing ! " he said, almost 
 fiercely, " one thing ! " 
 
 "And what is that?" 
 
 " Let God give me back my little sister, and I 
 will believe in Him. She was all I had every- 
 thing has been stripped from me, now ; it is too 
 cruel ' too cruel ! " He lifted his hands clenched 
 and rigid above his head, then dropped them 
 helplessly, and turned away murmuring, bro- 
 kenly, 
 
 M My little Jack ! my little girl ! " 
 
 " Can you not leave her in His hands," asked 
 the gentle woman.
 
 250 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 "No! no; I want her I needed her. Oh, 
 God, if there be a God, give me back my sister ! 
 I am unmanned, I am totally unmanned," he 
 murmured, moving on, staggeringly. " And there 
 is the mother she knows it by this time and 
 my poor old father! they lived in that girl. 
 Jack was their idol." 
 
 " But is it not cause for thanksgiving, that one 
 of their children is spared to them ? " asked Mrs. 
 Gregory, all the time holding and smoothing, and 
 softly patting Gabrielle's hands. 
 
 "A questionable mercy," he answered, in the 
 old spirit, and turning abruptly, he left the room. 
 
 "And now, my dear," said Mrs. Gregory to 
 Gabrielle, "I am going to stay here all night, and 
 watch and wait for tidings. You must go to bed." 
 
 " No, no, no ! I cannot," and the girl fell back. 
 
 "My dear, are you not willing to do your 
 mother's commands ! " 
 
 That broke her down. 
 
 " I will do whatever you say," she replied, 
 meekly rising, " only stay by me." 
 
 " I have come for that very purpose," was the 
 quiet response. "Dolly sent her love I need 
 not say that she is in deep sympathy indeed all
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 251 
 
 of us suffer for and with you. There," holding 
 Gabrielle close, "now, you can go, nicely, and if 
 you do not sleep, you can at least get a little 
 rest." 
 
 Poor Gabrielle ! in spite of all her anguish, her 
 eyes were heavy with sleep and sorrow. In a 
 few minutes the regular breathing told that she 
 slept.
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 ALMOST A MIRACLE. 
 " The sjririt has iU energies sustained." 
 S soon as she was quite sure that Gabrielle 
 
 'n would not miss her, Mrs. Gregory rang for 
 " ^ the housekeeper, and requested to be taken 
 to the room where Jack was lying. 
 
 " Can I see her quite alone ? " she asked. 
 
 "Certainly: two of the girls are sitting up, but 
 they'll be very glad to go," was the response. 
 "Oh, madam, isn't it awful? We're all of us 
 almost shocked out of our senses Mr. Garcelon 
 gone lying in the water, there, and this dear 
 young lady I Oh, ma'am, I shall never get over 
 it, I believe." 
 
 This she said as they were going up stairs and 
 along the passage. The two girls started as the
 
 NO MOTHER LIKK MINE. 253 
 
 door was opened, and were quite glad to be 
 dismissed even for a brief time. The body lay 
 in bed, covered with a long linen sheet. Rever- 
 ently Mrs. Gregory turned down the top, and 
 there, as in a peaceful sleep, composed and smil- 
 ing, was poor little " mad-cap-Jack," as her father 
 called her. Nothing to remind one of death, 
 except the faint dark lines under and around the 
 eyes, but even those were not marked. Mrs. 
 Gregory lifted the nerveless hand, there was as 
 yet nothing rigid about its outlines r it moved to 
 her touch, and she bent down closely and scanned 
 the pretty, bright face, and the lips that seemed 
 ready to speak. 
 
 "Everything has been done, I suppose," she 
 said, looking up to the housekeeper. 
 
 "Everything twice where they brought her 
 in, and here. We've been kept busy for hours." 
 
 " And yet," murmured Mrs. Gregory, " I had a 
 brother who was drowned and given up for dead, 
 after everything had apparently been done in 
 vain. He is living now. Shall I tell you," she 
 added, cautiously, after a second of silence, "I 
 don't believe this child is dead ! ' 
 
 " Good heavens, madam ! " cried her listener,
 
 254 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 with vehemence, pressing both hands over hei 
 chest, as if to keep her astonishment down. 
 
 " And if you will try to have a little faith in 
 what I say and will help me only we two 
 there can be no possible harm in our trying to 
 resuscitate her." 
 
 " Oh, madam ! to touch a corpse ! " : ied the 
 housekeeper. 
 
 " I don't think it is a corpse," said Mrs. Greg- 
 ory, sententiously ; "but if you have any dread 
 of it who can I depend on to help me ? " 
 
 "I'll not be so silly," said the housekeeper, the 
 color coming slowly into her face ; " if you really 
 think she mayn't be dead, why, I'll try and help 
 you. The pretty child can't hurt us dear little 
 one ! She was so bright and happy '. " 
 
 "Very well, we won't waste words. I see she 
 has not been washed and dressed yet, and for- 
 tunately there is a fire-place here. v 
 
 "Yes'm, and a crane, and everything handy. 
 This was our sick room." 
 
 " Then have a fire built here, immediately, and 
 have a kettle and boiling water brought up. Get 
 out some blankets, and bring up a little brandy, 
 yourself. Hurry, please, and keep your own 
 counsel."
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 255 
 
 The housekeeper left the room, and Mrs. Greg- 
 ory locked the door and fell on her knees beside 
 the sweet, inanimate body. Words there ^xere 
 none not even the lips denoted that a soul was 
 wrestling with God only the clasped hands, 
 the pale inspired face and closed eyes, the out- 
 ward fervor visible almost as a halo permeating 
 the whole frame, told that the spirit in com- 
 munion with G6d was hanging upon ms promise. 
 
 It was not long before all things were arranged. 
 Together the two worked, unaided, into the small 
 hours of the morning. The body was enveloped 
 in hot blankets, respiration simulated 
 
 u I never saw such a woman," the housekeeper 
 was wont to say, in dwelling upon that eventful 
 night, "she never stopped for a minute, she 
 never wearied she prayed she breathed in 
 her nostrils, in her mouth she poured down 
 stimulants, long after I had given up in despair, 
 and once when she looked round at me her 
 hair had fallen down and her eyes shone under it 
 like stars, and her glance went through and 
 through me, like a shock of lightning. 
 
 44 4 Come here ! ' she said, and oh, her face ! 
 'I think I feel her heart beating!'
 
 256 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 "Well, that was a moment I* assure you was 
 worth living for a good long life, to see. I went 
 there ; she took my hand and pressed it on the 
 breast. And God help us all, there was a motion 
 now and then. 
 
 " k We mustn't give up now,' she said, and she 
 looked kind o' wild like and breathed short, like 
 one almost wore out and so she was. 
 
 " We didn't give up we worked harder than 
 before and just as the blessed clock struck 
 three, that child opened her eyes ! 
 
 "Well, I can't tell you how I felt then. I 
 could a-screamed, and indeed I held both hands 
 tight over my mouth. To think that all the 
 household was asleep, and we there, watching a 
 soul come back ! they weeping and moaning 
 even in their dreams for their dead, and we 
 rejoicing over our living ! " 
 
 At this point of the story, the tears were stream- 
 ing down the woman's cheeks, no matter how 
 often she told it ; and no wonder. 
 
 Yes, the eyes did open, the heart did beat, 
 faintly, oh ! so faintly at first. Mrs. Gregory, 
 her brow damp, her locks all wet with the almost 
 unprecedented exertions she had made, beckoned 
 the housekeeper to put up her hair, and kept her
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 257 
 
 glance intently on Jack's face, holding the spoon 
 to her lips. At last the breathing became regu- 
 lar the face contorted with slight spasms, and 
 almost inaudible groans, proved awakening con- 
 sciousness. 
 
 " I suffer ! " were the first words she said, with 
 an effort that was painful to witness. 
 
 " It will be over, soon, darling ; you are grow- 
 ing better every moment." 
 
 "Who is it?" 
 
 "Dolly's mother, dear." 
 
 " Oh, yes I I thought I knew the voice. 
 I am a little better, though I can't quite see." 
 
 "Never mind that will all come right, in 
 time." 
 
 "What is it? what has happened? Oh, I 
 remember the boat! the wind! the frightful 
 wind ! Where is my brother Baron ? " 
 
 "Safe in the house, dear, and asleep, I hope." 
 
 " He caught hold of me," she murmured, after 
 a brief silence. "Did he swim with me to the 
 shore ? " 
 
 " He kept you up till a boat rescued you but 
 I wouldn't dwell upon the matter, now that you 
 are safe." 
 
 "No I am very, very tired. Where am I? *
 
 258 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 " At home, in Gabrielle's house." 
 
 "Dear, dear Gabrielle ! I am so glad she staid 
 at home her father would have missed her so." 
 
 Evidently she had forgotten the fact that Mr. 
 Garcelon was with them, for she said nothing 
 further about him, and presently sank into a 
 light slumber. 
 
 " A meracle ! as much a meracle as ever was ! " 
 muttered the housekeeper, wiping her eyes. 
 
 " God's great mercy," sighed Mrs. Gregory, 
 and then her strength seemed to desert her. She 
 threw herself down by the sleeping girl, and for 
 a little time availed herself of the services of the 
 housekeeper, who bathed her head and rubbed 
 her hands, and brought back her fast failing 
 consciousness. 
 
 " You think we had better say nothing about 
 it, to-night?" said the housekeeper, as she sat 
 down by the side of the bed. 
 
 "It's so near morning, now and I am so 
 thoroughly weary ; indeed we both are in need of 
 sleep it will be better to wait good news will 
 keep, you know so you had best lock the door, 
 and take the lounge yourself. She is sleeping 
 sweetly, now and the danger is all past, thank. 
 God ! "
 
 The Discovery.
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 CLAIMING THE PROM 8E. 
 ** / truth's e'ernul t 
 
 ITII the early morning came a telegram. 
 Mr. Garcelon's body had been found 
 nearly a mile beyond the place where the 
 yacht was upset. He had been in the water all 
 niLrht, and life was of course entirely extinct. 
 
 (iahrielle got the news first. She had slept 
 uneasily, her dreams teeming with images of 
 terror. Through the kind thoughtfulness of 
 Mrs. Gregory, one of the girls, dismissed from 
 the service of watching Jack's supposed drad 
 body, was sent into her room, and she felt the 
 comfort of having some one to speak to, through 
 the dreary, sleepless watches of the night. 
 
 Gabrielle liad never seen much of her father. 
 H
 
 200 NO MOTHER LIKE JUNE. 
 
 It was only through the influence he had on her 
 life, that she felt bound to him. Generally he 
 was a very reticent man, and devoted to money 
 getting. He was as fond of his daughter as his 
 nature permitted, and then in the business world 
 he was a man of mark his word was as good 
 as his bond and perhaps, unconsciously, Ga- 
 brielle shared the'common failing of valuing one 
 according to the measure of his success. Be that 
 as it may the knowledge that she was father- 
 less, jarred every chord of her heart, and the 
 terror of the death which struck a man in the 
 full flush of health and success, and in possession 
 of all his faculties, out of existence at one fell 
 blow, gave to her sorrow an added horror. 
 
 As yet she knew nothing of the wonderful 
 thing that had happened. Neither did Baron, 
 who, when he awakened, felt like a man bound 
 hand and foot in the darkness of some cell of 
 torture. He rose before it was quite light, and 
 dressed, because he could do nothing else, and 
 to lie and think would be unendurable. At five, 
 the dawning day brightened the tops of the trees 
 and the eastern sky began to flush. Baron pre- 
 pared to go out, and try the effect of a long walk,
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 261 
 
 in t lie fresh morning air. It seemed to him that 
 nerves and blood and heart were all stagnant 
 within him, and he must do something to rouse 
 himself from this death-like torpor. 
 
 A knock at his door. 
 
 " Mr. Leon, are }*ou awake ? " said a soft voice. 
 
 He opened the door. Mrs. Gregory stood 
 there, a curious light in her face, and her eyes 
 transfixed him, they were so luminous, so speak- 
 ing with mingled love and delight. 
 
 "Mr. Leon, I have good news for you," she 
 said, quietly. 
 
 44 Are my father and mother here, so early ? " 
 he asked. 
 
 "No but One is here who calls you. Do 
 you remember what you said last night that 
 if God would give you back your sister, you 
 would believe in him?" 
 
 u I do," he replied, gravely, and he seemed to 
 shrink from his tall stature, and the color in his 
 face went and came. 
 
 " Very well God has given you back your 
 sinter. Come and see." 
 
 Like one in a dream, only his chest rose and 
 fell, violently, he followed her. He saw her open
 
 262 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 the door of that room where he had kissed Iris 
 dead sister. He heard her suy, as he paused oil 
 the threshold, awe-struck, 
 
 "Jack, Baron is coming; would you like to 
 see him ? " heard her reply, 
 
 u Yes indeed, dear, dear Baron ! " and he rushed 
 into the room, awe-struck and overpowered, and 
 white us any ghost. He had only time to see Mi's. 
 Gregory put her finger to her lip, and he was 
 half lying on the bed, his sister's arms about him, 
 and he lifting her from the pillow and straining 
 her to his bosom, with inward sobs that almost 
 burst his heart. 
 
 Presently he felt his hand taken, and looked up 
 to see Mrs. Gregory, tears in her eyes, but evi- 
 dently trying to restrain him. 
 
 ^ Before this solemn evidence," she whispered, 
 "and before God, I hold you to your promise." 
 He looked at her bewilderingly. 
 
 "You may you may!" he said, still feeling 
 and speaking like a man in a dream, " but how 
 can I reconcile this wonderful vision with what I 
 saw and heard yesterday ? It is beyond belief." 
 
 "You must go, now your sister is very 
 weak," said Mrs. Gregory, "and needs much 
 rest by-and-by I will tell you."
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE, 263 
 
 
 
 Later in the day, he learned all the facts, from 
 the voluble tongue of the housekeeper. With 
 what emotions he rushed from the house to 
 intercept his parents and gladden their sorrowing 
 hearts, I leave the reader to judge. 
 
 Mr. Garcelon was brought homo, and the 
 funeral took place on the second day, with much 
 state and ceremony. 
 
 The fact of Jack's restoration was the one 
 beam of sunshine that penetrated the darkness 
 of sorrow and death. All the town was talking 
 about it, and the devotion and heroism of Dolly's 
 mother, were lauded to the skies. 
 
 Jack still continued weak and ill, in spite of 
 the daily visits of Dr. Berg, and the various 
 delicate nourishments sent up to the sick room by 
 the kind neighbors. 
 
 * I think," she said, one day, " if I could only 
 see Helen, and hear her sweet voice, I should get 
 well sooner." 
 
 " Then Helen shall come," said Baron, with a 
 wildly beating heart. "I will write her, my- 
 self." 
 
 And Helen came to Garcelon House, more 
 beautiful, more spiritual than ever ; and Jack sat
 
 264 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 l 
 
 day after day, her wasted Jiand in hers, and 
 listened and loved and believed. Baron was very 
 silent during those days. He seemed constantly 
 communing with himself. Arrangements had 
 been made that as soon as Jack should be able to 
 be moved, the family was to return to Castle 
 Brook. They had delayed much on Gabrielle's 
 account, the poor girl pleading her loneliness, 
 when they should desert her, and yet affirming her 
 anxiety to remain at Garcelon House for the 
 present. 
 
 One day Helen and Baron were sitting together 
 at dusk. Gabrielle was with Jack in her room, 
 and though the gas was lighted, it was burning very 
 low. The conversation turned on Dolly's mother, 
 and Baron with much agitation related the events 
 of that never to be forgotten night. 
 
 " What a wondeful woman! and how much you 
 owe to her, under God I " said Helen. 
 
 " Yes. I made her that promise in full faith - 
 yet with a man of my temperament, it takes time 
 and research to settle down permanently upon a 
 different belief. I think when I stood by that 
 bed with Jack in my arms, I did put up x involun- 
 tarily, something like a prayer and since then.
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 265 
 
 I have tried more than once to pray. Meantime, 
 I am reading the Scriptures, thoroughly, and 
 intend to study them in the original." 
 
 " Oh, how delightful I I have always longed to 
 do that," said Helen. 
 
 44 You have also done more than you think, 
 perhaps. Do you remember that memorable 
 Sunday ? It was solely on your account that we 
 went to church I had not been inside the old 
 place for ten years, and such memories as it 
 stirred within my bosom ! There was the old 
 man who had shown so much solicitude, so much 
 hope and faith in me, when I was what he called 
 a promising boy. Perhaps they crammed me 
 with too many texts, but I give them the credit 
 of doing it for my good as well as to show off my 
 smartness. Well, I sat there, thinking of all I 
 had had to unlearn and what struggles it had 
 cost me. To be sure I ha<l had no very profound 
 religious convictions, but then it had been a hard 
 fight to convince myself as ultimately I did 
 that physiology was a better guide than religion, 
 and that the body was all that there was 
 nothing to live in the hereafter. However, I 
 will not talk of that to you for I see it dis- 
 cs you.'*
 
 266 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 Helen had turned her face away; now she 
 looked at him again, pale, but smiling. 
 
 " Well, little as you might imagine it," he con- 
 tinued, "I carried home a sentence out of that 
 sermon, that I never shall forget. It was this : 
 
 * So no merely human progress, with an upward 
 tendency, seeking to supersede and overreach Crod"s 
 plan, can ever succeed. * 
 
 * 4 I have carried that to rest with me. I have 
 waked up with it singing in my ears. I have 
 tried to forget it, but there is something magnetic 
 about it, it has confounded and troubled me. 
 But I hope now I shall soon lay the ghost of 
 that accuser. 
 
 44 And, Helen, when I see my way clear to 
 renounce all ray doubts for something tells me 
 I shall do so even in the face of the strange 
 training I have given myself, then I will not 
 ask you, before then will you consent to 
 become something yet dearer than friend or 
 sister." 
 
 And her answer was very sweet. 
 
 u I have such faith in your integrity of purpose 
 and love for the truth, that I can safely promise 
 you without waiting.'*
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 DOLLY'S NARRATIVE ENDED. 
 
 " Our $eub have wings" 
 
 1|| T devolves 011 me, it seems, to finish the 
 remaining pages of this little book, and I 
 
 J can assure the reader that it is a labor of 
 love. 
 
 Cathy Brock is already giving concerts in the 
 large cities, and has been enabled to purchase the 
 little cottage in which they have lived so long 
 and happily, for her parents, who think, and 
 with good reason, that there never was such a 
 dear, affectionate girl. Mr. Brock has a wonder- 
 ful chair, in which he can drive himself out, 
 having the complete use of his hands, and in 
 which, singular to relate, he goes to church every 
 pleasant Sunday. He is contemplating taking 
 
 27
 
 268 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 a class, and says, cheerfully, that he is only 
 waiting to finish his theological studies. He is 
 much brighter and happier in his enforced invalid- 
 ism, his wife says, than he ever was in the best 
 days of his health. The change has come about 
 so gradually, that nobody is surprised. It seems 
 like a natural result of his wife's faith and care, 
 and his own seclusion from the world in which he 
 has been able to test the power of Christianity to 
 make a man's life useful and happy, in spite of 
 surrounding circumstances. 
 
 Gabrielle is very busy, and apparently very 
 happy. Both Genie and Bony now Robert 
 Garcelon, are at Garcelon House, since the death 
 of Mrs. Bride. They are there riot as the 
 adopted, but as the real brother and sister of 
 Gabrielle, the children of her father and her 
 mother. The story that she told me, sounds so 
 much like a romance, an invention of the brain 
 or pen, that I should shrink from placing it here 
 only I know it to be true. 
 
 After Mr. Garcelon's death, Mrs. Bride grew 
 rapidly worse, and when the doctor had pro- 
 nounced that her end was near, she sent for Ga- 
 brielle, and made a confession.
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 269 
 
 I will endeavor to give the fact in Gabrielle's 
 own language. 
 
 " For old nurse ! she had grown very pinched 
 and wan, and quite gentle in her manner. She 
 said she had not long to live, and as her old 
 master was gone, she wished to make restitution 
 as far as possible. Then she told me of poor 
 mamma's habits, and how at one time, she set fire 
 to the cradle in which her own Mrs. Bride's 
 little girl, an infant not quite two years old was 
 lying asleep. The child was burned to death, 
 and her poor mother frantic and wild with grief, 
 declared her intention of prosecuting the luckless 
 woman, and disgracing the family. But at last a 
 compromise was effected. I was nearly the age 
 of her little Bessy, and I was given in her charge, 
 to care for and consider as her own. This was 
 not the cruel arrangement it might seem, for my 
 own poor mother was not capable through her 
 intemperate habits, contracted, I nm sorry to say, 
 at my father's table, of caring for either of her 
 children. Nurse was always to have a home with 
 my father, well furnished rooms, and a servant. 
 Consequently she came to look upon me as her 
 sole charge, and when my unfortunate mother
 
 270 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 
 
 left the house, taking with her, her oldest child, 
 a boy, Mrs. Bride claimed more privileges than 
 ever. My father, for the sake of peace, granted 
 all her wishes. He was very fond of me, and 
 through his partial kindness, she managed to 
 have her own way, and rule the house. 
 
 " That was before we came here. 
 
 "When my father built Garcelon House, and 
 the mills, and took Mrs. Bride with her husband 
 and her charge out here, my mother had been 
 missing twelve or fourteen months. Every effort 
 was put forth to discover her whereabouts, but 
 she thoroughly eluded pursuit. It is now known 
 that she was with a cousin, who for the sake of a 
 few diamonds she carried with her, kept her con- 
 cealed, but eventually turned her away. Nurse 
 Bride, on hearing of the woman found in the 
 great storm, in destitute circumstances, and sus- 
 pecting it might be her, went there to investigate. 
 Sure enough, it was my poor mother, but she was 
 then dying, and could recognize no one. From 
 that time until the day on which the fear of 
 death led her to confess, my nurse never betrayed 
 her knowledge of this fact. It was very heart- 
 less, very cruel, for how much misery and sorrow
 
 NO MOTHER LIKE MINE. 271 
 
 might have been prevented, had these poor chil- 
 dren come sooner to their rights. But she seems 
 to have hated my mother, and that hate included 
 all but my father and myself, so that the mother- 
 less waifs were left to the tender mercies of the 
 pitiless world. My father never knew that 
 another child was born to him, though he made 
 provision in his will for his son and his wife, 
 should they ever be found. 
 
 " This is the secret of nurse Bride's undying 
 hostility towards these children, and for which I 
 think she was sorry at the last. Dear little 
 Genie ! it is so good to have a sister of one's 
 very own ! she shall share as fully in the benefits 
 of my father's will, as I do." 
 
 And so Genie and Robert are -at Garcelon 
 House, the distillery business is broken up, and 
 Robert is to be sent to school and made a man 
 of a good one he will make, I warrant. 
 
 Gabrielle is very proud of her little Sister, and 
 as gentle and loving as a saint toward her new 
 brother, who would scarcely be known for the 
 same boy in his fine, well fitting clothes. 
 
 And now for the people at Castle Brook. We 
 are all invited to Baron's wedding, which takes
 
 272 NO MOTHER LIKK MINE. 
 
 place in the course of the next month. Jack is 
 slowly getting on, though it is feared that she 
 will never regain her former robust health. Still 
 I understand that she is quite as merry, vivacious 
 and original as formerly, for which I am devoutly 
 thankful. Mamma and I do not believe in a 
 religion that makes long faces. They are all very 
 busy getting up the bridal outfit, and the General 
 and his wife say they had rather take Helen for a 
 daughter, in her poverty, than any heiress who 
 might be found, and it is presumable that there 
 are many in the circle of their acquaintanceship. 
 
 About ourselves. 
 
 Naturally we should come last. Harry is well 
 and almost robust in health, not quite. Dr. Berg 
 says we should not look for that for years to 
 come. It is enough that we have him in our 
 midst, bright, intelligent and active. General 
 Leon, who cannot do enough to testify his grati- 
 tude toward my mother, has entrusted papa with 
 an agency that is very profitable, and which also 
 gives him the desire of his heart, which is to 
 travel. He is to go abroad in a few weeks, and 
 Harry is to accompany him. I am no longer at 
 the Conservatory, but have plenty of pupils of
 
 NO MOUTHER LIKE MINE. 273 
 
 ray own, and all the leisure that is good for me. 
 Cathy wrote me the other day that, she had a 
 presentiment that I was to be her sister. I don't 
 know ; that is looking quite too far ahead, 
 for me. 
 
 Meantime I am very happy with all my sur- 
 roundings. Surely CJod has given us abundant 
 blessings, and I still assert, from my own individ- 
 ual experience and I think I have a right to 
 assert, that in all the world THERE is NO MOTHER 
 
 LIKE MINE.
 
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