1 
 
 r* 
 
 *2W

 
 The Parting Visit. 
 
 S-" page 19.
 
 HETTY POINTER; 
 
 GOD KNOWS BEST 
 
 FOUR ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 y 
 
 ORK : 
 
 PUBLISHED BY GARLTON & PORTER, 
 
 (SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION, .'00 Jll'LBEKBY-STIlEET.
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1867, 
 BY CARLTON & PORTER, 
 
 in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for 
 the Southern District of New-York.
 
 YRi. 
 
 P2 
 
 If? 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 C1IAPTKR PAOF 
 
 I. LEAVING HOME 1 
 
 II. NEW FACES AND NEW SCENES 22 
 
 III. MRS. ELLIS'S STORY 34 
 
 IV. MAGGIE GRAHAM 43 
 
 V. THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL PROJECT 51 
 
 VI. THE DISAPPOINTMENT 59 
 
 VII. WATTY A HELPER 63 
 
 VIII. THE TRANSLATION 71 
 
 IX. JAMIE'S PRAYER 81 
 
 X. DEATH 92 
 
 XI. LIFE FROM DEATH 104 
 
 XII. STRIVING AFTER GOOD 110 
 
 XIII. HOME AGAIN 119 
 
 XIV. THE VOICE OF CONSCIENCE 124 
 
 XV. THE BONFIRE 129 
 
 XVI. THE PRESENT 137 
 
 XVII. THE ACCUSATION 142 
 
 XVIII. DEATH OF MR. GRAHAM 154 
 
 XIX. CONCLUSION . . 162 
 
 THE PARTING VISIT '. . . . 2 
 
 WATTY'S TACTICS 66 
 
 THE PENITENT 101 
 
 THE BONFIRE . . 134
 
 SHLF 
 YRL 
 
 HETTY PORTER. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 LEAVING HOME. 
 
 " You will let my child go to church at least 
 once every Sabbath, and to the Sunday-school 
 regularly ! " 
 
 " O yes, certainly, Mrs. Porter. I belong to 
 the Church myself, and of course am very par- 
 ticular that those in my employ should attend 
 service. Give yourself no uneasiness on that 
 account. As far as the moral influence of my 
 house is concerned, I may say, it will be good. 
 AS regards the work, as I said before, it will be 
 very light. I really don't need another servant. 
 I hire one only to please my housekeeper, whose 
 services I value so highly as to be willing to do 
 almost anything to keep her with me." 
 
 It was with a voice in which a tone of sad- 
 ness was very perceptible, though she tried to
 
 .- 
 8 HETTY PORTER. 
 
 smother it out, that Mrs. Porter said, " Well, I 
 will talk with Hetty about it ; and, yes, I am 
 quite certain that she will be willing to go with 
 you when you start." 
 
 " "Which will be to-morrow in the eight o'clock 
 train. I will have the carriage driven up here ; 
 and, of course, after what has been said, I shall 
 not expect your daughter will disappoint me ; " 
 and with a little condescending bow, the lady, 
 Mrs. Manson, took her departure. 
 
 It was a rather humble room in which this 
 fragment of a conversation took place, yet it was 
 a very pleasant one, with its scrupulous neatness 
 and order. The front door stood wide open, 
 admitting the warm sunshine of an afternoon 
 in the early spring. A neatly swept walk led 
 from the door to the gate, and on either side of 
 it were long flower beds, in which the delicate 
 plants, their winter coverings just removed, 
 were beginning to show themselves. Beyond 
 these, and in a row along the white fence, were 
 many tall trees and much thick shrubbery. 
 Altogether it was a very pretty looking place, 
 and one would imagine that the inmates of the 
 Ijttle white cottage might be happy. But
 
 HETTY PORTER. 9 
 
 there was a skeleton of sorrow here, as in many 
 another place that appears pleasant to the eye. 
 It was drunkenness. The husband and father 
 was a daily trial and shame to his family. 
 
 "Well," Mrs. Porter said to herself as Mrs. 
 Manson turned away, " Well, it can't be helped 
 now, and worse things than this might happen 
 after all." Then she took up her sewing, which 
 had lain in a large basket by her side, and soon her 
 fingers were flying as swiftly as had been their 
 custom, from morning till night, for years past. 
 
 In a few moments a strange sound of heavy 
 tapping was heard upon the flagstones that led 
 up to the door. Then a very delicate looking 
 boy, supported by a couple of crutches, hobbled 
 into the door, and sank down wearily into a large 
 arm-chair near it. 
 
 " You look very tired, James," said Mrs. 
 Porter ; " I am afraid you have taken too long 
 
 a walk to-day." 
 
 i 
 " Yes, mother, I am tired ; but it was such a - 
 
 beautiful afternoon, and I kept thinking of old 
 Mrs. Eay. You know the doctor says she can't 
 live O, mother, isn't it dreadful to die with 
 no hope in God ? "
 
 10 HETTY PORTEE. 
 
 " Yes, my child, it must be ; we must pray 
 for Mrs. Eay. God would receive her even 
 now. But don't talk any more, James, you are 
 too tired ; " and Mrs. Porter rose and placed a 
 pillow behind his head, and, leaning wearily 
 against it, he closed his eyes. 
 
 Mrs. Porter ssemed to be expecting somebody, 
 for she glanced often from her work down the 
 road. Soon she caught the gleam of a snowy 
 apron, and saw a blithe little figure hurrying 
 along. A few moments later steps were again 
 heard on the pavement ; but this time they were 
 light, free ones. It was Hetty Porter, the twin 
 sister of James, but very different in appear- 
 ance. Their features were much alike ; but the 
 brightness of Hetty's dark eyes, her pink cheeks 
 and red lips, contrasted painfully with the pallid 
 expression of James's face. 
 
 Hetty's arms were full of books, for this was 
 the last day of the term of school. As she came 
 I in and placed them upon the table she glanced 
 nervously at her mother. 
 
 Mrs. Porter understood the look, and, said 
 with a smile, " Well, Hetty, you are going to lay 
 by your books now for a while, are you not ? "
 
 HET,TY PORTER. 11 
 
 " O mother ! then you have decided ; " and 
 Hetty sank down into a chair, a disappointed 
 expression on her face. 
 
 " Yes ; I have tried to do for the best ; but 
 don't look so sorry, child, you are not going to 
 bury your books, or if you are, you will dig 
 them up again I hope. Mrs. Manson has been 
 here this afternoon, and she expects you to go 
 with her to-morrow morning." 
 
 " What is it, mother ? Hetty isn't going away, 
 is she ? '' said James, opening his eyes and look- 
 ing anxiously toward his mother. 
 
 " Yes, James, I shall have to tell you now. 
 Hetty is going to spend the. summer with Mrs. 
 Manson, the lady that has been visiting at Squire 
 Lawton's, you know, doing light work for her 
 housekeeper." 
 
 " Going out to work ! O, mother, must she? " 
 and James bowed his head on the top of one of 
 his crutches. For a moment he was very still ; 
 then he said, in a voice which trembled with 
 feeling, " It is too bad, too bad." 
 
 " What is too bad ? " said Mrs. Porter gently. 
 
 " Why, here I sit from morning till night, 
 a great boy, doing nothing, only a burden, while
 
 12 HETTY PORTER. 
 
 my sister, a girl, has to go out to work. I am 
 of no use ; why " 
 
 " O, Jamie, don't ! " and Hetty was by his 
 side in a moment, pressing his head back against 
 the pillow, and brushing his hair from his fore- 
 head, as if she thought to charm away with her 
 light fingers his murmuring thoughts. 
 
 She succeeded, for the old patient, calm look 
 came over his face, and he said in a very quiet 
 voice, " Couldn't we manage some way, mother ? 
 There are those hats," and he glanced at a pile 
 of plaited straw upon the table ; " I am sure I 
 could make more if " 
 
 If James had finished his sentence he would 
 have said, " if I could sell them ; " but the hope- 
 lessness of the case seemed to strike him here, 
 and he said no more. 
 
 Mrs. Porter paid no attention to the remark 
 concerning the hats, but she said cheerfully, ". I 
 don't think this is the very worst thing that 
 might happen. To be sure we shall miss Hetty ; 
 but it will be pleasant to get letters from her, and 
 we shall be so glad to see her in the fall. Besides, 
 James, God knows best, and he has seemed to 
 order it in this way."
 
 HETTY POET EB. 13 
 
 ~9 
 
 " Yes, I know mother ; but if I could only 
 work myself if I could only do something; 
 but," he added, checking himself, "I ought 
 not to complain ; God knows best." 
 
 Mrs. Porter noticed that James looked even 
 paler than usual, and telling him that he must 
 not talk more, she assisted him to the lounge, 
 where, completely exhausted, he lay very still ; 
 but his thoughts were busy, and he could not 
 sleep. 
 
 After James had lain down Hetty took her 
 books and went up stairs to her own room. This 
 was a particularly pleasant place to her. Here 
 she had passed many quiet hours, with only her 
 beloved books for company. Hetty had early 
 shown a great aptitude for learning. It was 
 one of her most cherished hopes that she should 
 some day be a teacher, and she often thought 
 how nicely she would support her mother and 
 Jamie then. Her mother had sympathized with 
 her in this desire for an education, sending her 
 to school as much as she was able with her limited 
 means. 
 
 For once, at least, Hetty went up stairs with 
 none of her lively snatches of song, keeping
 
 14 HETTYPORTER. 
 
 time to her steps. As she entered the room, she 
 felt as if it would be a great relief to sit down 
 in her little study-chair that was drawn close to 
 the table and looked so inviting, and have a 
 cry over her troubles; but she did not; 
 !e had something of her mother's force and 
 strength of character about her. She drove 
 back the tears, and commenced to talk to her- 
 self, an old habit of hers. 
 
 " What a little goosey you are, Hetty Porter ; 
 just as if you couldn't work as well as other 
 folks. "Well, I suppose I'd better put my books 
 out of the way somewhere. Nobody will want 
 them throwing around. There is mother's 
 chest ; they will be as safe there as if they were 
 buried in the depths of the ocean." 
 
 Then she lifted the lid and put them down 
 one by one, and it seemed to her as if she was 
 laying by with them all the bright hopes, the 
 beautiful dreams that had been so inexpressibly 
 dear to her. The great red chest was like a 
 grave for them, and something of the pain of 
 those that bend over a grave came with a rush 
 into her heart, and sent the tears, that she could 
 not now restrain, into her eyes. She was wiping
 
 HETTY PORTE E. 15 
 
 them away, angry with herself for her weakness, 
 when she heard her mother's step behind her, 
 then felt her mother's arm around her. 
 
 "Hetty, do you think your mother is very 
 cruel ? " 
 
 " O no, mamma ! you are the dearest, best, 
 kindest mother that ever was," and Hetty rose, 
 and in her quick, impulsive way flung her arms 
 round her mother's neck. 
 
 Mrs. Porter unloosed her clinging arms, and 
 commenced in a hurried way to walk the floor. 
 At last she said, speaking rapidly, as if the sub- 
 ject was disagreeable, and one to be got over 
 with as quickly as possible, 
 
 " Your father is getting worse and worse ; for 
 a long while he has done nothing for us. We 
 are very poor, Hetty; all that I can earn will 
 be barely sufficient to meet our most pressing 
 wants. I shall be very thankful if we do jiot 
 have to sell our home, but I shall try hard to 
 keep it. I shall work hard this summer, and I 
 hope by fall to be able to have you back to 
 school. I have told you this," she continued, 
 sitting down, " because I wished you to know 
 why I send you from me."
 
 16 HETTY PORTER. 
 
 " I don't want to go to school," said Hetty ; 
 " why shouldn't I work as well as you ? But O, 
 mother, do you think we shall have to sell our 
 home ? what would become of us?" 
 
 " ' Take no thought for the morrow, for your 
 heavenly Father knoweth ye have need of all 
 these tilings ; ' do you believe this, Hetty ? " 
 
 "Yes, mother." 
 
 " Then don't let us borrow any more trouble. 
 I want to talk with you now and give you some 
 advice that I think will be of use to you." 
 
 The mother talked long and earnestly with 
 her child, especially of those things, both of 
 a temporal and spiritual character, that would 
 have occurred only to a mother's mind. In the 
 midst of their conversation they heard the sound 
 of Jamie's crutches down stairs, and Mrs. Porter 
 said, " James is up now, let us go down ; try 
 and be cheerful, Hetty. Poor child, he takes 
 your going away very hard I see." 
 
 The evening passed away very swiftly, there 
 was so much to say, so much to think of. Very 
 earnest were the prayers that were offered up 
 that night. God had given to Mrs. Porter both 
 of her children to walk with her in the road to
 
 HETTY PORTER. 17 
 
 heaven. One of them was a very mature Chris- 
 tian, so zealous in his love and works for God 
 that he was sometimes even a reproach to his 
 mother. These three were bound together with 
 a more than natural love. The Christian love 
 sanctified that love, and made it more intense 
 and holy. 
 
 Where was Mr. Porter this evening while his 
 wife and children were talking, and praying over 
 the sundering of their little family circle? In a 
 grog-shop at the farther end of the village; 
 surrounded by a set of low, vulgar men, listen- 
 ing to, and sometimes joining in, horrid blas- 
 phemies against that God his family so loved 
 and revered. Mr. Porter had not been always 
 the man he is to-night. There was a time 
 when he would have scorned his present associ- 
 ations a time when he went regularly to church, 
 and night and morning prayed with his family. 
 But that time was long ago; he was treading 
 now with a quick step the path to destruction. 
 
 Hetty awoke with a start the next morning, 
 for her room was full of light. She had intended 
 to get up very early that morning; but there 
 was no help for it now, and dressing herself as
 
 18 H E T T Y P O R T E R. 
 
 quickly as possible, she hurried down. Mrs. 
 Porter had arisen long before ; she had got Het- 
 ty's trunk all in readiness, and now had break- 
 fast nearly prepared. 
 
 " Would you not like to go out in the yard, 
 Hetty, till I call you? " said Mrs. Porter. " You 
 will find James there ? " 
 
 Among the trees of the yard was a little arbor, 
 which had been made by binding the thick 
 branches of two trees together for the top, and 
 putting a trellis on one end for a vine to clamber 
 over. Hetty was not surprised to find James in 
 this place upon his knees, for he often came here 
 to pray. She sat down quietly on the seat 
 not far from him. Now and then she caught 
 a few whispered words, and she thought she 
 had never seen him look so happy and so beau- 
 tiful before.* 
 
 When the boy arose he did not seem in the 
 least surprised or annoyed at his sister's presence. 
 He smiled his own sweet smile, then sat down 
 by her side without speaking. 
 
 " You got up very early this morning, didn't 
 you, Jamie ? " said Hetty. 
 
 * See Frontispiece.
 
 IlETTYPORTEB. 19 
 
 " Yes, but I lay awake a long while thinking, 
 thinking." 
 
 "What about?" 
 
 James lowered his voice, and spoke very rev- 
 erentially as he said, " I was thinking how I 
 wished Jesus was here on earth now, and- that I 
 could go and kneel before him, and ask him to 
 heal me ; and then he would say, perhaps, ' Do 
 you believe that I am able to do this ? ' and I 
 thought how truly I could say, ' Lord, I be- 
 lieve.' " 
 
 "My poor brother," said Hetty, sadly looking 
 down at the useless limbs, " how I wish you 
 might be healed." 
 
 " I didn't care so much for myself, but I did 
 want to work for mother ; but now, Hetty, I am 
 perfectly satisfied as it is. I believe that God 
 would heal me this very moment if it was for 
 the best. O, the Lord is good, so good to me !" 
 
 There was a long pause ; then James said, 
 " Hetty, suppose I should never see you after 
 to-day." 
 
 " O Jamie ! you don't mean you think you are 
 going to die, do you ? " and Hetty looked with a 
 
 sudden fear into his face. 
 2
 
 20 HETTY PORTER. 
 
 " I only mean perhaps I shall, and perhaps 
 you will ; but if we should, either of us, wouldn't 
 we meet again in heaven ? " 
 
 " I hope so," said Hetty. 
 
 James clasped his hands, and said in a sort 
 of ecstacy, " O, this world is just nothing 
 compared with that great, wonderful, glorious 
 Eternity ! " 
 
 Soon they heard their mother's call, and to- 
 gether they went into the house. The moments 
 flew rapidly, for they still had much to say, and 
 soon the carriage drove up to the door. 
 
 Mr. Porter had just arisen and come out into 
 the kitchen, as Hetty, with her hat and shawl 
 on, stood ready to go. He made no remark, 
 asked no questions, but sat down sullenly to the 
 breakfast which his wife hastily placed upon the 
 table. "What did he care where his child was 
 going ? 
 
 Hetty kissed her mother and James ; then 
 a sudden impulse made her turn to her father. 
 She reached her hand toward him, half fearfully, 
 and her voice trembled as she said, " Good-by, 
 father." 
 
 Mr. Porter looked up at her with a stupid
 
 HETTY PORTER. 21 
 
 sort of wonder ; then pushing away the proffered 
 hand, and saying with a scowl, " Don't be a 
 fool," he turned to his breakfast, nor lifted his 
 eyes from it again. 
 
 At another time Hetty would not have noticed 
 this rebuff; but now, as she was going away, it 
 seemed almost more than she could bear. But 
 another kiss from her mother, and a pressure of 
 James's hand, comforted her, and she entered 
 the carriage and was soon borne away, leaving 
 two lonely hearts behind her. 
 
 In after years this, her last parting with her 
 father, was one of the saddest pictures in Hetty's 
 memory.
 
 22 HETTY PORTE B. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 NEW FACES AND NEW SCENES. 
 
 HETTY went into the cars feeling rather down 
 hearted, as was very natural for one leaving 
 home for the first time; but she soon forgol 
 herself in her interest in the new faces anc 
 scenes around her. She looked out at th( 
 houses and trees, that seemed to fly past, ther 
 back at the sleepy passengers within, and slit 
 found much to interest her in their dull faces, 
 Her imagination supplied her plentifully witl: 
 information which, if fanciful, was quite inter- 
 esting. 
 
 After a while Mrs. Manson, who was sitting 
 opposite, seemed to catch the prevailing sleep 
 iness, for she leaned back against the cushions 
 and closed her eyes ; and Hetty, leaving hei 
 pleasant fancies, turned her attention towarc 
 her. She thought she read a proud, cold ex 
 pression on the lady's face, and somehow she 
 felt as if there was not much love or sympathy
 
 II E T T Y P R T E B. 23 
 
 in her nature. Perhaps she was 'wrong, as one 
 is apt to be when they judge hastily ; but the 
 white rose-buds that surrounded the lady's face, 
 the stiff folds of her silk dress, indeed every- 
 thing about her, all said the same thing to the 
 child, who had always an ear for such mute 
 informers ; and she turned to the window, her 
 thoughts all driven homeward, and wondered 
 how she should live without her mother's kind 
 words, and dear Jamie to help her do right. 
 Then she thought of the great Father who 
 would lead her gently and lovingly if " if, as 
 Jamie says, I will only put my hand in his." 
 She was praying in her heart for this guidance 
 and love when the cars again stopped, and Mrs. 
 Manson rose, and beckoning her to follow, went 
 out. 
 
 Just outside of the village, half hid by a 
 maple grove, was a large white house. This 
 was Mrs. Manson's home, and Hetty thought, 
 as she rode over the long carriage-path, and 
 noticed the pretty grounds, and the wide piazza, 
 that it was almost as grand and nice a place as 
 Squire Lawton's, the one by which she always 
 judged.
 
 24 HETTYPORTER. 
 
 As the driver brought his horses to a stand 
 with a loud " whoa," a boy came out of the 
 house, and, flinging open the stage door, assisted 
 Mrs. Manson out, with many exclamations of 
 delight and surprise at her arrival. 
 
 Hetty followed them into a little library, 
 which opened from one side of the wide hall. 
 Dr. Manson, the lady's husband, a tall, grave- 
 looking man, in dressing-gown and slippers, was 
 in this room. He rose, and, extending his hand 
 to Mrs. Manson, said, ' "Welcome home ! you 
 have given us a pleasant surprise.' ' : 
 
 " Yes," said the lady, throwing off her bonnet 
 and shawl, and sitting down by his side, " I 
 changed my plans, and have come home sooner 
 than I intended when I left you." 
 
 A long conversation followed, for both the 
 boy and his father had many questions to ask 
 and to answer. Hetty sank down into a chair 
 near the door, feeling very uncomfortable, and 
 wishing heartily that some disposal was made 
 of her. Now and ^then she caught a quizzical 
 glance from the boy, who was leaning over the 
 back of his mother's chair ; but, besides this, 
 she was entirely unnoticed for a very long time,
 
 H E T T Y P O B T E R. 25 
 
 as it seemed to her. At last Dr. Manson looked 
 toward her, and said to his wife, " Whom have 
 you here ? " 
 
 " O, I had quite forgotten," replied Mrs. Man- 
 son. " This is a little girl I have brought for a 
 peace-offering to Ellis. Watty, my son, will 
 you show her down to the kitchen ? " 
 
 Watty opened the door and went out, and 
 Hetty followed after. He commenced whistling 
 a tune that had all sorts of ups and downs to it, 
 which he kept up till they had got through the 
 long hall, through a large room that opened 
 from it, down a few stairs, and stood at the 
 kitchen door; then he brought it to a sudden 
 stop, and, turning round, said, " What is your 
 name ? " 
 
 " Hetty Porter." 
 
 He flung open the door and they entered a 
 large room. No one was in sight, but there 
 was a sound of steps above them. 
 
 " Ellis ! Ellis ! where are you ? " called 
 Watty. 
 
 " I'm up stairs, what do you want ? " replied 
 a strong voice. 
 
 " Come down a minute."
 
 26 HETTY PORTER. 
 
 " Wait till I get through sweeping." 
 
 Watty handed Hetty a chair, a mark of polite- 
 ness of which he had shown no trace before ; 
 then he stood up before a fireplace, in which a 
 few coals were sputtering out tiny sparks, and 
 puckered up his mouth for another whistle ; but 
 a new idea seemed to strike him just then, for 
 he unpuckered it before he had well commenced, 
 and drawing round a large covered arm-chair, 
 he said in a whisper to Hetty, 
 
 " Just go behind there a minute, where she 
 wont see you. I want to have a little fun." 
 
 Hetty did not see where the fun was coming 
 from ; but hardly daring to refuse, or to ask any 
 questions, she went behind the chair, and stoop- 
 ing down out of sight, waited for its develop- 
 ment. 
 
 Soon steps were heard coming down the -stairs 
 and over the floor, that made the chairs and 
 stove jar in time to them. Hetty peeped curi- 
 ously from one side of her hiding place, and saw 
 a large, queer looking woman standing with a 
 broom in her hand. 
 
 " What do you want ? " she said. 
 
 " O, nothing very particular, only mother has
 
 HETTYPORTER. 27 
 
 got home, and she has brought you one of the 
 nicest presents." 
 
 " What is it ? " and the woman's voice became 
 much pleasanter. 
 
 " It's the queerest thing it can wash dishes 
 and scour knives without your turning a crank 
 or anything." 
 
 " O, go away with your fooling." 
 
 " It's true, Ellis, honor bright." 
 
 When Watty said " honor bright," he con- 
 sidered that he had affirmed a thing as stoutly 
 as it was possible to affirm it. Mrs. Ellis under- 
 stood this, and her voice had a good deal more of 
 interest in it as she said, " Why, it must be a 
 strange thing, what on earth does it look like? " 
 
 " It looks real good ; come to think, it would 
 do to set up in the corner for an ornament when 
 you aint using it." 
 
 " I don't care for your ornaments," said the 
 woman scornfully ; " but now, Watty, you just 
 run up stairs like a good boy and bring it down. 
 I'll get the hang of it, so I can wash up the dishes 
 with it to-night." 
 
 "It aint up stairs, I brought it down with 
 inc."
 
 28 HETTY PORTER. 
 
 " Is it in your pocket ? " she said, looking sus- 
 piciously at him. 
 
 " No ; now, Ellis, you needn't think it is any 
 insignificant little thing, that a fellow could 
 put in his pocket. I tell you it's a real, genuine, 
 superfine article." 
 
 "Why don't you show it, then ? what's the use 
 of fooling?" 
 
 " I will, this very minute, if you will promise 
 me one thing." 
 
 " Well ! " she said impatiently. 
 
 " That is, let me make a little paste to-night 
 when you build the fire in the stove." 
 
 There was nothing that annoyed Ellis BO much 
 as to have Watty " clustering round in the 
 kitchen ; " but there seemed to be no other way 
 to satisfy her curiosity, which was becoming 
 insupportable, and she gave her consent. 
 
 " Will you now, honor bright ? " 
 
 "Yes, I say; hurry, wont you?" 
 
 Watty pulled aside the chair, and Hetty, 
 blushing under Mrs. Ellis's wondering gaze, rose 
 to her feet. 
 
 Watty laughed loudly ; and when he noticed 
 Hetty's burning face he burst out into another
 
 HETTY PORTER. 29 
 
 explosion, and said, " You needn't be so fright- 
 ened, she wont hurt you if she does look fierce ; " 
 then, before Mrs. Ellis had recovered from her 
 surprise, he left the room, turning as he reached 
 the door to say exultingly, " I'll be down in a 
 little while to make my paste." 
 
 ""What does he mean?" said Ellis, looking 
 first at the retreating boy, then at the child be- 
 fore her. 
 
 "I suppose he means me" said Hetty. 
 
 " You ! who are you ? " 
 
 " I am Hetty Porter. I came home with 
 Mrs. Manson. She has hired me to work here 
 this summer." 
 
 " O ! " said Ellis, the light dawning upon her. 
 Then she commenced a deliberate survey, which 
 began at the crown of Hetty's hat, pausing a 
 long time at the blushing face below it, then 
 extending gradually down to the braid on the 
 bottom of her dress. 
 
 Hetty was half frightened at first ; she was not 
 used to such ill-mannered proceedings; but she 
 glanced up at Mrs. Ellis, and becoming a little 
 reassured, she began to study her in turn. 
 
 Ellis was a very tall, spare woman. Her
 
 30 II E T T Y P O R T E R. 
 
 
 
 form and features seemed made up of angles, so 
 square were their outlines. She had light yel- 
 low hair, which she wore in a twist almost on 
 the top of her head, and the comb that confined 
 it there towered up, looking, Hetty thought, 
 like a sentinel on some high rampart. 
 
 At last Ellis seemed satisfied with her exam- 
 ination ; her eyes came up again with a rapid 
 motion to Hetty's face, and she said, " Well, I 
 declare I'm glad if I'm going to have a little 
 help ; if there's anybody on earth that needs it 
 I do." Then her thoughts turned to what "Watty 
 had said, and she exclaimed angrily, " That boy 
 told a regular lie." 
 
 A lie seemed a horrible thing to Hetty, and 
 somehow she felt as if it belonged to her to 
 remove the accusation, so she said, "I don't 
 think he really did; he said I could wash 
 dishes without your turning a crank, and I 
 am sure I can," laughing a little at the idea, 
 then adding somewhat doubtfully, " but he 
 did deceive you," I think. 
 
 Ellis paid no attention to Hetty's attempt at 
 palliation. She pointed to a table in one corner 
 and said, " You can take your things off there."
 
 HETTY PORTER. 31 
 
 Hetty obeyed, then went and sat down by the 
 fireplace. After a while Ellis brought some cof- 
 fee for her to look over, saying, " You may as 
 well be doing that as doing nothing ; " then she 
 was left alone for a while, for Ellis went up to 
 lay the table for tea in the dining-room. 
 
 Hetty and Ellis had tea together in the 
 kitchen. Ellis asked a great many blunt ques- 
 tions which it was a real pleasure for Hetty to 
 answer, it seemed so good to be noticed by some- 
 body. She found out afterward that it was only 
 on rare occasions that Ellis was so sociable. 
 Generally her tongue was a silent member. 
 
 Hetty felt a great desire to please, and she 
 said, as she rose from the table, " Now I will 
 wash the dishes better than any machine could, 
 see if I don't." 
 
 " No, you'd spile your good clothes ; wait till 
 to-morrow, when you have your every-day rig 
 on," said Ellis ; and Hetty was very thankful, 
 for she had forgotten that she had on her best 
 dress. 
 
 After a while Watty came down to make his 
 paste. He was full of jokes and fun, but for 
 once Ellis was not very much annoyed. The
 
 32 HETTY PORTER. 
 
 prospect of having help had put her in good 
 humor. 
 
 When Hetty had finished the coffee she helped 
 Watty paste some birds with plumage painted 
 in the brightest colors, and some fierce looking 
 animals, on pieces of canvas ; and he, in consid- 
 eration of her services, condescended to tell her 
 why he was doing it. 
 
 " You see, we boys are getting up a kind of 
 menagerie ; we have got a lot of snakes, and 
 bugs, and things, and one of the boys got his 
 sister to draw these foreign birds and animals, 
 and I painted them, and I am going to paste 
 them on canvas to make them stout enough to 
 stand the wear and tear, you know." 
 
 Watty went up stairs congratulating himself 
 that the new girl " wasn't mopish and cross like 
 Ellis." " Why, she's dreadful obliging," he said 
 to himself. 
 
 At last Hetty went up to the room that Ellis 
 showed her, feeling much happier than she did 
 when she first entered the house and sat so un- 
 comfortably in.Dr. Manson's library. " It is not 
 so bad as it might be," she said, repeating her 
 mother's favorite expression to herself; then, 
 
 .
 
 HETTY PORTER. 33 
 
 falling down on her knees, she prayed earnestly 
 for herself and for the dear ones far away. 
 
 Hetty's room was a small one, almost a closet, 
 opening from the one Ellis occupied. " I won- 
 der if she is a Christian," thought Hetty, as she 
 heard Ellis coming up to bed, and she watched 
 anxiously to see if she would kneel down ; but 
 she did not ; and Hetty covered her face in the 
 bedclothes and thought how much, how very 
 much strength she should need in the new life 
 she was now commencing.
 
 34: HETTY PORTER. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 MRS. ELLIS'S STORY. 
 
 ONE by one the days passed away, bringing 
 plenty of work, and plenty of steps for the little 
 servant in Dr. Manson's kitchen. There was 
 nothing very hard for Hetty to do ; her mother 
 had made that one of the conditions of her com- 
 ing ; but the almost ceaseless motion in which 
 Mrs. Ellis kept her often made her very tired. 
 Besides this there were other little troubles that 
 she found in her new position. Mrs. Ellis was 
 not really cross ; but she had such a sharp, quick 
 way of giving her orders, and she was so very 
 unsocial ; she kept up such a grim sort of silence, 
 that Hetty was often very lonely, and sometimes 
 a little homesick, though she would never con- 
 fess it in her letters to her mother and James. 
 During his vacation Watty was much in the 
 kitchen. Pie was laying up a pile of wood in 
 the shed, and often in the day he had to stop 
 his work and come into the kitchen to have
 
 HETTYPORTER. 35 
 
 a little fun, and play off some of his practical 
 jokes ; and Hetty learned after a while to laugh 
 as heartily at them when they were played upon 
 herself, as though they did not annoy her. 
 
 Hetty really liked Watty. The gay, lively 
 boy had a way of winning almost everybody for 
 a friend ; but after all, he was another of the 
 little troubles that she had to contend with. 
 
 "Watty Manson was called a very polite, gen- 
 tlemanly boy. At the little parties that were 
 very fashionable among his young friends, he 
 always shone a " bright particular star," as well 
 for his proper conduct, as for the fun and frolic 
 that seemed a part of his nature. But when he 
 came down the long hall into the kitchen his 
 politeness seemed to evaporate in the whistling 
 that always accompanied him on that route, 
 and when at last he flung open the door, it was 
 all gone and he acted under no more restraint 
 than a young Indian. Hetty did not at all relish 
 the easy superiority that he assumed over her. 
 He abbreviated her name to " Het," an abbre- 
 viation that she considered as detracting very 
 much from her dignity. 
 
 Hetty went to church and to Sabbath-school
 
 36 HETTY POBTEB. 
 
 regularly. Mrs. Manson took her into her own 
 class, and after a while the first impression that 
 the lady was stern wore away and she really 
 liked her. She explained very clearly the diffi- 
 cult passages in the Bible lessons, and made 
 the whole interesting with historical facts and 
 anecdotes relating to them ; but there was never 
 that direct appeal to the hearts and consciences 
 of her scholars that Hetty's old teacher always 
 made ; she sometimes talked to them in a general 
 way of their duty to God ; but never spoke to 
 them individually of this, nor tried to lead them 
 with loving words to the Saviour. 
 
 Excepting on Sunday, Hetty saw but little of 
 Mrs. Manson ; once in a great while only she 
 came down into the kitchen. She trusted every- 
 thing to Mrs. Ellis, and Hetty soon found that 
 Ellis was exceedingly proud and jealous of this 
 trust. If at any time anything did go wrong, 
 enough so to call for an explanation or reproof 
 from the lady of the house, Ellis had always an 
 excuse that quite shifted the blame from herself; 
 and another of Hetty's troubles was, that she 
 was found so convenient a scapegoat for the 
 kitchen accidents; but this trouble did not
 
 HETTY PORTER. 37 
 
 occur often, for Ellis was a thoroughly good 
 housekeeper, and things went along smoothly 
 under her care. 
 
 Sometimes Hetty went up stairs on errands, 
 into the rooms which seemed so grand and 
 beautiful to her. The pictures on the walls of 
 the parlor surpassed everything she had ever 
 before seen, and she thought she should never 
 tire of looking at them. One evening she 
 went into Mrs. Hanson's room to assist her in 
 dressing, and this room she thought the prettiest 
 in the house. The pure white curtains, the 
 neat engravings on the wall, the easy chairs 
 and lounge, everything so tasteful and rich, that 
 Hetty lay awake long that night, building a 
 house for her mother, James, and herself, with 
 a room in it exactly the counterpart of Mrs. 
 Manson's for her mother's room. 
 
 One night, after the day's work was done, as 
 Hetty was standing by the window trying to 
 find something outside for company for her 
 thoughts, her eye fell upon an old-looking house 
 that stood back a little from the road in a large 
 field. She had noticed this house often before. 
 Once she thought she saw smoke ascending from
 
 38 HETTY PORTER. 
 
 one of the chimneys ; but she had concluded she 
 must be mistaken, for there never seemed to be 
 any stir around there, and it looked such a tum- 
 bledown affair as to be hardly a fit dwelling- 
 place for any one. But to-night she took a 
 great interest in the old house ; perhaps it 
 was because she could find nothing else outside 
 that would bring her any new thoughts. This 
 was certainly the source for many ; for after she 
 had conjured up a history for it, and put in it 
 tenants according to her fancy, she wandered off 
 from the simple ruins that she saw to the grand 
 old ruins of the old country, and traveled round 
 from place to place, visiting them, as she often 
 did, in her imagination. 
 
 " You have lived here a great many years, 
 haven't you, Mrs. Ellis ? " said Hetty at last as, 
 tired of her own thoughts, she turned from the 
 window. 
 
 During the day it was almost an impossibility 
 to get anything in the shape of conversation from 
 Mrs. Ellis ; but there were times when the day's 
 work was done, and she sat idly before the fire- 
 place, when she seemed to have a little soci- 
 ability about her. These were golden moments,
 
 HETTY PORTER. 39 
 
 as Hetty had found out ; and now, as she turned 
 from the window, she felt that one of these rare 
 opportunities had come. 
 
 " Yes, a long while," said Mrs. Ellis, in answer 
 to the question. 
 
 " How long ? " continued Hetty, drawing a 
 chair upon the hearth and sitting down. 
 
 " Well, I don't know exactly ; ever since 
 Watty was a baby, and he's a great ugly boy 
 now." 
 
 " Do you know who lived in that old queer 
 looking house back in the field last ? " said Het- 
 ty, hurrying to change the conversation. 
 
 " I know who lives there now," replied Mrs. 
 Ellis. 
 
 " Does anybody live there now ! I thought it 
 was all in ruins." 
 
 " Yes ; there's an old man, and a puny little 
 ghost of a child lives there now." 
 
 " O, do tell me about them ! " said Hetty, 
 hitching her chair up closer, and looking appeal- 
 in gly into Mrs. Ellis's face. 
 
 Ellis looked down with a stare into Hetty's 
 eager eyes, and said, " Why, what a queer 
 young one ; there isn't any more to tell."
 
 40 HETTY PORTER. 
 
 " But, Ellis, now please do begin at the begin- 
 ning, and tell ine all you know about them ; " 
 and Hetty, in her eagerness, grasped Mrs. 
 Ellis's hand in hers. 
 
 It was something new for Ellis to tell a story ; 
 but the touch of Hetty's fingers and the child's 
 eager face, raised so imploringly, prevailed, for 
 Mrs. Ellis had a heart, though, perhaps, it would 
 take a good deal of searching to find it. 
 
 " "Well, let me see," said Ellis, leaning for- 
 ward and resting her chin in both hands ; " I 
 guess it's about four years since they first came 
 here. His name is Graham, and he's an English- 
 man. I know Mrs. Manson was saying she 
 wished that old house would take fire and burn 
 up, she didn't like to have such a shabby -looking 
 thing so near her ; then the first thing we knew 
 they moved in there. They say he's dreadful 
 rich ; but, mercy me, it don't do him any good 
 nor the child either." 
 
 "Tell me about the child," said Hetty. 
 
 " Well, I don't know much about her ; they 
 say she's his grandchild. She came here once 
 to buy a quart of milk, that's the only time I 
 over saw her ; she never goes to school or any-
 
 HETTY PORTER. 41 
 
 where ; she was a little' puny thing, and she had 
 on a ragged, faded dress. The old man goes 
 away every year yes, it's just about this time 
 I presume he's gone now, and that child stays 
 there all alone." 
 
 " What does he go for ? " asked Hetty. 
 
 "Mrs. Manson says that probably he has 
 money, rents, or something due, that he" goes 
 to get that's all I know about them ; " and 
 Mrs. Ellis raised her head again ; " are you 
 satisfied now ? " 
 
 " Yes, thank you, Ellis. O, it is dreadful, 
 dreadful, when God is so good to give him 
 money that he should be so wicked about it ; " 
 and Hetty .looked into the dark ashes and 
 thought of great iron vaults, and bags heavy with 
 gold, and of greedy gray-headed misers, such 
 q,s she had read about ; then she went again to 
 the window, and looked with a new interest at 
 the old house. It was almost night now, and 
 the shadows around it were very thick; but 
 Hetty's fruitful imagination could pierce through 
 them all, and through the dark, thick walls, 
 and it saw a little girl with white hands folded 
 patiently, and such a pale, sad, sweet face, with
 
 42 HETTYPOKTER. 
 
 v 
 beautiful large blue eyes, sitting there in the 
 
 shadow all alone. 
 
 " It's time to go to bed," said Ellis from the 
 fireplace. " I've got a lot of work to do to-mor- 
 row, and I'm awful tired. 1 wonder if there 
 will ever be any rest for me." 
 
 Hetty turned from the window, and said ab- 
 ruptly, speaking the thoughts that Ellis's words 
 brought, and somehow these thoughts were con- 
 nected with the little girl, " There is rest for the 
 weary in heaven." 
 
 Ellis paid no attention to Hetty's words, but 
 lighted a candle and went up stairs. If she 
 ever had any thoughts of God, or holy things, 
 no one ever knew it, for she never spoke such 
 thoughts. 
 
 The little girl glided into Hetty's prayers 
 that night; and, in asking a blessing for the 
 unknown child, she felt happier herself, and 
 sank to rest with that peace in her heart which 
 only God can give.
 
 HETTY PORTER. 43 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 MAGGIE GRAHAM. 
 
 A FEW evenings after the conversation with 
 Mrs. Ellis Hetty was sitting again over the 
 large fireplace. This time there was a bright 
 fire blazing there, and red coals sending out a 
 glow that seemed very beautiful and cheery to 
 the child. The day had been damp and rainy, 
 and after a good deal of persuasion Ellis had 
 allowed her to build a fire there. 
 
 Hetty was alone now, for Mrs. Ellis had been 
 called up stairs ; yet most interesting company 
 danced and leaped up over the andirons, or lay 
 glowing and blinking on the hearth. It was so 
 easy now to build castles and churches, to see 
 queer little figures dressed in flame-colored gar- 
 ments jumping up here and there in all sorts of 
 attitudes, and making all sorts of motions. 
 
 Hetty was enjoying her bright fire, and the 
 pictures that were set so thickly in it, when she 
 was almost startled from her chair by a vivid
 
 44 HETTY PORTE K. 
 
 flash of lightning, and a roar of thunder that, 
 seemed to shake the whole house. These were 
 succeeded by many others, and the room was 
 often filled with blinding light. 
 
 After the first start and exclamation, Hetty 
 sank back into her chair perfectly composed. 
 She felt no fear, for she knew that God rules the 
 earth at all times, that he holds the lightning 
 under his restraint, and that nothing can harm 
 one of his children but by his permission. Her 
 faith in God was not in name only, but it was a 
 real and substantial feeling which took deep root 
 in her soul and pervaded her whole being. 
 
 Louder arid louder came the thunder, quicker 
 and more vivid the lightning, and the rain 
 splashed thick and heavy upon the windows. 
 
 " What a dreadful night ! " said Hetty to her- 
 self, throwing another stick upon the fire ; "1 
 never saw such sharp lightning in all my life." 
 
 Just then she heard some one step quickly up 
 to the door; then came a timid knock, and be- 
 fore she could rise from her chair the door was 
 pushed open, and somebody, wrapped from head 
 to foot in a large shawl, which was dripping 
 with rain, entered.
 
 HETTY PORTER. 45 
 
 Hetty was a little frightened now ; it was 
 such a strange looking person that had so sud- 
 denly intruded upon her. It might have been 
 an old woman, for the form was bent almost 
 double ; but she could see nothing but a pair of 
 frightened eyespeeping out from under the shawl. 
 
 " Can't I come in here and stay till it gets 
 through thundering ? " said a trembling voice in 
 a very appealing tone. 
 
 " O yes ; certainly, certainly," said Hetty, re- 
 assured ; " sit down here by the tire, where you 
 can get dry," and she drew another chair to the 
 hearth. 
 
 The strange visitor complied ; and as the drip- 
 ping shawl slid down from her head, Hetty saw 
 that it was not an old woman, but a child who sat 
 beside her. As she saw this, every trace of fear 
 vanished, and curiosity took its place. 
 
 " Sit up closer, where you can get dry," she 
 said, stirring up the fire. " How came you to 
 be caught out in such a dreadful night ? " 
 
 "I wasn't caught out," said the child in a 
 low voice,. " but I couldn't stay there. I was so 
 frightened, and I know there was somebody in 
 the house. I could hear them walking just as
 
 46 HETTY PORTER. 
 
 plain, and talking too, so I just snatched up my 
 shawl and ran as fast as I could, and I could 
 hear them running after me just as plain, step, 
 stepping." 
 
 " "Who ? (), I know ! You were frightened, 
 and you thought so ; were you all alone ? " 
 
 " Yes, grandpa is gone. O how I wish he 
 would come home ! " 
 
 " "Well, it's too bad. I don't wonder you were 
 frightened," said Hetty, drawing her chair closer 
 to the trembling child. " What is your name ?" 
 
 " Margaret. Grandpa calls me Mag." 
 
 " That's a pretty name, Maggie especially. 
 What's your other name ? " 
 
 "Margaret Graham." 
 
 " Margaret Graham," said Hetty, seizing the 
 little girl's hands in her eager welcome, " how 
 glad I am to see you. Mrs. Ellis told me all 
 about you, and I did so want to see you." 
 
 The child looked surprised, and suddenly 
 drew her hands from Hetty with a timid motion. 
 Hetty was a little hurt by this, and she leaned 
 back in her chair and looked at her, not know- 
 ing what to say more. 
 
 Margaret was pale and thin enough to answer
 
 HETTY PORTER. 47 
 
 the description of any miser's child; but the 
 beauty that Hetty's imagination had endowed 
 her with when she heard Mrs. Ellis's story was 
 not hers ; still there was something winning in 
 the pinched, eager expression of her face, and in 
 the timid, large gray eyes, that Hetty thought 
 were almost as beautiful as the blue ones she 
 had given her. The child's form was very much 
 bent, and between her shoulders was a large 
 bunch, which gave her a very strange, unchild- 
 like appearance. 
 
 " You aint afraid now, are you ? " said Hetty, 
 beginning again. 
 
 " No, not much," replied the little girl, " but 
 I'm afraid to go back. I could hear somebody 
 rapping on the windows just as plain, and it 
 seemed as if the lightning would burn up the 
 house." 
 
 " Always when I'm afraid I pray to God," 
 said Hetty. 
 
 " I don't know how to pray," said the child. 
 " I never saw any one. I guess it wouldn't do 
 much good if I did." 
 
 " O yes, it would, Maggie ; the Lord would 
 hear you, I know he would."
 
 I 
 
 48 . HETTY PORTER. 
 
 " When yon pray to him, don't he ever let 
 anything touch yon ? " 
 
 " No, never." 
 
 " Well, I wish I knew how, then ; you get 
 down on your knees, don't you ? " 
 
 " Yes, and then you ask God to take care of 
 you, just as you would ask your grandfather, or 
 any one else, to do something for you." 
 
 " Almost always when I ask grandpa to do 
 anything for me he says ' no,' " replied Margaret. 
 
 " Well, then you mustn't ask God as you ask 
 your grandfather," said Hetty, correcting her- 
 self; "you must expect he will do what you ask 
 him." 
 
 "O dear, I don't know how?" she replied 
 despondingly. Then she sat still for a few mo- 
 ments shivering in her wet clothes. 
 
 " You must come up stairs with me," said 
 Hetty, " and get on something dry ; you will 
 take your death-cold." 
 
 Maggie was at first determined to go home ; 
 but a look out into the darkness sent her trem- 
 bling back to the fire, and then she was easily 
 persuaded to stay. 
 
 " Will you learn me to pray, so I wont never
 
 HETTY PORTER. 49 
 
 be frightened again ? " she said, as Hetty drew 
 the dripping shawl from her. 
 
 " O yes," said Hetty, eagerly clasping her 
 hand, which this time was not withdrawn. " Let's 
 go right up stairs now ; and you must get off 
 your wet clothes as soon as possible." 
 
 Hetty said a simple prayer that night, and 
 had Maggie repeat it after her. She was taking 
 her first religious lesson, and it was well she had 
 so childlike a teacher." 
 
 " Do you ever read in the Bible, Maggie ?" 
 said Hetty, after she had tucked her warmly in 
 bed. 
 
 " No ; I found a book that said ' Holy Bible ' 
 on it once, on the top of the cupboard, but there 
 wasn't anything in it I could understand." 
 
 " Don't your grandfather read in it ? " 
 
 " No, I never saw him ; but he's got a lot of 
 great big books that he does read in." 
 
 " Did he show you how to read ? " continued 
 Hetty. 
 
 "Yes, he showed me a good while ago. I 
 can read pretty well now, he says." 
 
 Hetty ran down stairs with Maggie's clothes, 
 and spread them out on chairs to dry. She told
 
 50 ^ HETTY PORTER. 
 
 Mrs. Ellis, who had just come down, about her 
 visitor, and Ellis's sympathies were aroused by 
 her story for the poor frightened child. 
 
 Then she went back again up stairs, and as 
 she bent over Maggie she saw that she was sleep- 
 ing as calmly as if those dreadful fears had never 
 tormented her. 
 
 "I do believe the Lord has heard her, the 
 very first prayer that she ever made," and Hetty 
 bent down and kissed the calm and peaceful 
 face.
 
 HETTY PORTER. 51 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL PROJECT. 
 
 ALL Hetty's persuasions, strengthened as they 
 were by an invitation from Mrs. Ellis, could not 
 induce Maggie to stay to breakfast the next 
 morning. Her fears had all vanished with 
 the night's shadows, and now she seemed in- 
 tensely anxious to return to her post of duty, 
 from which the noises of the previous night had 
 driven her. 
 
 " You will pray now, wont you, Maggie ? " 
 said Hetty, as the little girl, with her shawl 
 over her head, stood ready to go. 
 
 " Yes, I will pray if it thunders again and I 
 am frightened." 
 
 " O but, Maggie, you ought to pray every 
 night and morning if you aint frightened." 
 
 Maggie made no reply. How could she, who 
 had never been taught, know that God is a 
 friend, a precious Comforter as well as a 
 
 Protector ? 
 
 4
 
 52 HETTY PORTER. 
 
 "I like you," she said in her childish way, 
 turning back from the door, " you're a real good 
 girl." 
 
 " And I like you ever so much," replied Het- 
 ty. " I'm going to teaze Mrs. Ellis to let ine 
 come up and see you some time." 
 
 "Well, I guess grandpa wont care if we 
 stay out doors," said the child ; then she turned 
 and walked rapidly away. 
 
 All through the day Hetty thought of Maggie 
 Graham. Somehow it seemed as if she was a 
 charge sent to her by God. She pitied the 
 lonely child, and her pity took a practical turn. 
 She determined to do something to make her 
 happier. The Sunday-school was the goal toward 
 which all her thoughts tended ; she had been 
 brought up to believe that from these institu- 
 tions proceeds almost everything of good, and 
 it was no wonder that her first thought should 
 be to get Maggie to attend. At last she became 
 so anxious to talk with' her on the subject that 
 Mrs. Ellis was besieged with entreaties, which 
 finally prevailed, and she put on her hat and 
 started for the old house in the large field. 
 
 " I don't wonder Maggie gets lonesome and
 
 HETTY PORTER. 53 
 
 frightened here," she said to herself as she 
 neared the place ; " why, it looks as if it was 
 made on purpose for owls and ghosts to live in." 
 
 Hetty was at first undecided at which door 
 to seek admittance; but after running her eye 
 over the building, and seeing that one part of it 
 looked a little more substantial than the rest, 
 she went up to the door in this part and 
 knocked. One knock did not give her ad- 
 mittance, neither did three or four; and feel- 
 ing greatly disappointed, she was turning to go, 
 when she saw a pair of eyes peeping from the 
 window, and in a moment more heard footsteps 
 approaching. 
 
 " Did I frighten you, Maggie ? " said Hetty 
 as the little girl opened the door. 
 
 " Yes ; I couldn't think who it could be," said 
 Maggie, taking hold of her hand and drawing 
 her in, then carefully closing and bolting the 
 heavy door after her. 
 
 After the door was closed the long passage 
 was very dark, and but for Maggie's guiding 
 hand Hetty would often have stumbled over 
 its uneven floor. At last Maggie opened the 
 door into a large room which seemed almost
 
 54 II ET-TY PORTER. 
 
 dazzlingly light in contrast with the dark pas- 
 sage, and Hetty looked curiously around. 
 
 This room bore the traces of repairs, and had 
 quite a comfortable appearance. There was a 
 fireplace in it, much larger than the one in Dr. 
 Manson's kitchen. In one corner stood a tall 
 clock ticking loudly, and near that an Old-fash- 
 ioned heavy looking chest of drawers, on the 
 top of which were piled a great many large 
 leather-covered books. 
 
 " When do you expect your grandfather 
 home, Maggie ? " said Hetty, after scanning in 
 the moment's pause, the contents of the room. 
 
 "He will come to-morrow, for he said he 
 wouldn't stay but five days, and this makes 
 four. I've kept count of them." 
 
 Hetty soon introduced the subject of her visit, 
 and after a great deal of exclamation and per- 
 suasion Maggie fell in with the idea, and at 
 last became almost as much interested as Hetty 
 herself. 
 
 "If grandpa would only let me," she said; 
 " but I most know he wont." Then she added 
 after a pause, " if you would ask him, perhaps 
 but I don't believe he will let me anyhow."
 
 HETTY PORTER. 55 
 
 " I will come up and ask him," said Hetty ; I 
 aint much afraid to come." 
 
 It was almost dark before Hetty bade " good- 
 by " to her new-found friend, and turned her 
 back upon the old house with its ruins and its 
 one room of comparative comfort. 
 
 Watty was in the kitchen trying to mend a 
 fracture in his ball. Every few moments the 
 needle would slip out into his hand so sharply, 
 that if he had been a girl' he would surely have 
 cried out with pain. 
 
 " O, Het, I'm glad you have come ! " he said 
 as she entered. " It's about as much use to ask 
 Ellis to do anything for you as it is to ask a 
 porcupine." 
 
 " What is the matter ? Of course you can't 
 rnend that without a thimble ; let me see." 
 
 Hetty took her thimble out of her pocket, 
 and soon had the ball-cover stitched nicely to- 
 gether. 
 
 " You are one of the 'cutest girls I ever saw," 
 said Watty, by way of showing his gratitude as 
 she handed him the ball. 
 
 " Thank you," replied Hetty meekly. 
 
 "O you needn't! I will say it again some
 
 56 HETTY PORTER. 
 
 time when you do some other little chore for 
 me." 
 
 Hetty made no reply ; and "Watty, after he 
 had gone through with a part of that old tune, 
 stopped short as his eye fell upon Hetty's hat 
 on the table, and, making her a very low bow, 
 he said, " Have you been out making afternoon 
 calls?" 
 
 " Yes," said Hetty, laughing. 
 
 "Will your ladyship do me the honor to 
 inform me where you have been ? " 
 
 "To see Margaret Graham." 
 
 " What, that old man's girl ! I don't believe 
 that story, now; you wouldn't have been here 
 alive and well if you had." 
 
 "Mr. Graham wasn't at home," replied 
 Hetty ; " but is he such a dreadful man, 
 Watty ? " 
 
 " I aint afraid of him," said Watty, with a 
 scornful toss of his head, " but a girl would be, I 
 guess. He has got the sharpest eyes I ever saw ; 
 they are sharper than a two-edged sword ; but 
 what on earth started you to go up there ? " 
 
 With a few questions Watty drew the whole 
 story from Hetty, and she dwelt a long while
 
 HETTY PORTER. 5t 
 
 upon the idea which now had full possession of 
 her mind getting Maggie to Sunday-school. 
 Watty was much interested, though he would 
 have been loth to confess it. 
 
 " I had to teaze her a long time to make her 
 say she would go ; she said she went down to 
 the village once, and there were some boys that 
 made fun of that queer bunch on her back, and 
 called her names, and " 
 
 " They ought to have been thrashed," inter- 
 rupted Watty. 
 
 " That's so ; she hasn't got any clothes that 
 look very good, and she says she knows her 
 grandfather wont get her any new ones. She 
 tried on her best bonnet and her shawl, and she 
 did look real queer with them on ; the bonnet 
 almost hides her face ; she looked just exactly 
 like a little old woman all bent over. I am so 
 afraid somebody will laugh at her ; if they should 
 I know I could never get her to go again." A 
 sudden thought seemed to strike Hetty here, for 
 she turned to Watty, and said abruptly, " You 
 wont laugh now, will you ? " 
 
 " I should think you would be ashamed of 
 yourself to ask me snch a question," said Watty,
 
 58 HETTY PORTE E. 
 
 indignantly. " I wonder, now, if you think I'm 
 such a mean, sneaking fellow as that." 
 
 " O no ! no ! " said Hetty, anxious to appease 
 his wounded dignity, " I didn't really think you 
 would ; but you know you do sometimes make 
 fun of me." 
 
 " That's an entirely different thing ; but, be- 
 fore I would laugh at a little deformed child, 
 I'd, I'd", 
 
 While Watty was trying to think what he 
 would do in such a case Mrs. Ellis called Hetty, 
 and he was left to finish his sentence to himself.
 
 HETTY PORTER. 59 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE DISAPPOINTMENT. 
 
 HETTY tried to make herself believe that she 
 was not at all afraid as she walked again toward 
 the old house. Perhaps she was not; but for 
 some cause or other her heart beat a great deal 
 faster than usual, and her hands trembled as she 
 put down the bars close to the house. 
 
 This was the day she had set to ask per- 
 mission for Maggie to go to Sunday-school ; and, 
 in accordance with the arrangement, she found 
 Maggie was waiting outside for her. 
 
 " Is Mr. Graham in there?" said Hetty in a 
 whisper. 
 
 " Yes ; he is sitting down by the table read- 
 ing. Maybe you hadn't better go in. I don't 
 believe it will do any good." 
 
 "O yes, I will," said Hetty quickly. "Let 
 us go right in now, and not stand here and 
 dread it." 
 
 Maggie held out her hand, and again led
 
 60 HETTYPORTER. 
 
 Hetty through the dark passage. Every moment 
 Hetty's heart beat faster and faster, and the ex- 
 citement sent a very uncomfortable rush of blood 
 to her face. 
 
 Maggie led her up before a table where an 
 old man was sitting. Her first impulse was 
 to cover her face with both hands as he turned 
 his eyes upon her ; but with a grand effort 
 slje rallied up all the courage she had left, 
 and said : 
 
 " Mr. Graham, I have come up to ask you to 
 see if you would let Margaret go to Sunday- 
 school." 
 
 If Hetty had been one of the greatest of nat- 
 ural curiosities, the old man could not have re- 
 garded her with more fixed attention. She knew 
 those dreadful eyes Watty had spoken about 
 were upon her, though she had not the courage 
 to raise her own. At last he pointed to the 
 door, and said in a very sharp voice, " You had 
 better go home. I don't want anybody hanging 
 around here." 
 
 Hetty was not long in taking this advice. She 
 only stopped long enough to see the tears start 
 in Maggie's eyes ; then she hurried out, and,
 
 HETTYPORTER. 61 
 
 stumbling through the dark passage, she found 
 herself outside at last; and, with her disap- 
 pointment, and her great indignation at being 
 treated so uncivilly for company, the road to 
 Dr. Manson's seemed very short. 
 
 If there ever was a time when Hetty wished 
 to be left quite alone, it was that evening as she 
 sat down to think ; but she was disappointed in' 
 this, for, just as her thoughts had driven a big 
 tear into each eye the door opened, and Watty 
 came in. 
 
 lie noticed the hurried wiping of her eyes, 
 and he came up and peered with a droll expres- 
 sion into her face. 
 
 " Who has been breaking your heart now ? " 
 he said ; " is it smashed entirely ? " 
 
 Hetty made no reply to this, but turned her 
 head away with an impatient motion. Watty, 
 like all his sex, was a great hater of tears, and not 
 knowing exactly what to say, he stood for a mo- 
 ment in silence ; then thinking, perhaps, if he 
 asked a civil question he might get an answer, 
 he said : " Have you been up to Mr. Graham's 
 to-day ? " 
 
 After a little while Watty knew the whole
 
 62 HETTY PORTER. 
 
 story ; and at its conclusion he laughed as 
 he said : 
 
 " Well, I thought you were making pretty 
 big calculations the other night. That old 
 man is cross as a bear. He ought to be shut 
 up in a room, and have nothing but tigers 
 and wolves to wait on him all his life."
 
 HETTY PORTE K. 63 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 WATTY A HELPER. 
 
 THE next morning, as Hetty was standing before 
 the large table washing the dishes that stood in 
 big piles there, the outside kitchen door opened, 
 and Watty, with a gun slung over his shoulder, 
 caine in. 
 
 " Well, Het," he said, (leaning his gun against 
 the wall and sitting down by the table,) " I've 
 bearded the lion in his den, I've tamed the tiger, 
 I've charmed the rattlesnake." 
 
 "Relate your adventures," Sir Knight, said 
 Hetty, " and you shall be crowned with " 
 
 "A wreath of laurel by the lily-white hands 
 of the fairest lady in the land ; are they yours, 
 Het ? " said Watty, interrupting her, and glanc- 
 ing down into the soapsuds, where Hetty's hands, 
 looking, if the truth must be told, rather coarse 
 and red in that position, were moving busily 
 among cups and plates. 
 
 Hetty blushed a little as her eyes followed
 
 C4 HETTY POUTER. 
 
 Watty's ; then, with an impatient toss of her 
 head, she said, (adopting Mrs. Ellis's oft-re- 
 peated words,) "I wish you would go up stairs." 
 
 " "Well, I will," said Watty, jumping up and 
 going toward the door. " I was going to tell 
 you something, but you will have to whistle for 
 it now." 
 
 Hetty did not whistle for it ; she did not, even 
 by a look, invite him to eome back ; but he, 
 though evidently regretting the necessity of 
 coming without an invitation, could not keep 
 the story to himself, and sitting down again he 
 commenced without further preliminaries. 
 
 " You see some of us boys went into the woods 
 hunting, and when we were coming back past 
 that old shanty, who should we see but the old 
 man himself, out trying to put up the fence round 
 liis garden ; it was all blown down flat ; he would 
 get up one end of the rail and go to fix the 
 other, when down the whole would tumble. I 
 happened to think of that little girl of his, and 
 thinks I, ' Now, sir, I'll try my hand on you my- 
 self, and see what luck I have ; ' so I told the 
 boys not to wait for me, and started off that way. 
 Well, he was glad enough to get my help, so he
 
 
 Watty's Tactics.
 
 II E T T Y P O R T E R. 67 
 
 didn't snap at me as he would have done. After 
 I had got well to work and showed him how 
 nicely I could put the rails up, I commenced to 
 talk with him about that girl, Maggie, I believe 
 you called her. I talked like a lawyer. I can't 
 begin to tell you all I said, and he had to listen, 
 for you see I was helping him all the time." 
 
 " What did he say ? " asked Hetty. 
 
 "I was coming to that ; after all I could say, 
 he wouldn't v promise to let her go to Sunday- 
 school ; but, just as I had got about the last rail up 
 he said, ' Mag told me that girl that was up here 
 yesterday lives to your house ; ' and when I said 
 'Yes,' he said, ' If you want to, you may tell 
 her that I wont mind if she does come up once 
 in a while to see that young one of minej she 
 has done nothing but cry and teaze ever since.' 
 ' I don't see, for my part,' continued Watty, ' why 
 that wont be as well as to have her go to Sim- 
 day-school, and better in some respects, for then 
 there will be no danger of her being laughed at. 
 Don't you think you ought to thank me for 
 what I have done ? " 
 
 " Yes, I do thank you," said Hetty. 
 
 " When a girl has any trouble, all she can do
 
 68 HETTY PORTER. 
 
 is to sit down and cry over it ; no wonder she 
 grows up so soft ; but a boy will make a thing 
 work somehow. Not that I cared anything 
 about this, but I thought I would be your law- 
 yer and practice a little, because I expect to be 
 a lawyer some time. But it was a hard case a 
 hard case," and Watty pretended to wipe the 
 perspiration from his face. 
 
 "I don't believe I shall go," said Hetty 
 after a pause. 
 
 "And why not?" 
 
 " Well, I don't care about going to a place 
 where I have been sent home once," and there 
 was quite an expression of pride on Hetty's 
 face. 
 
 This was a new idea to Watty ; probably, if 
 he had thought on the subject at all, he would 
 have said that a girl who washed dishes, made 
 beds, and swept, had no right to be particular. 
 
 " Well, I am sure I don't care whether you 
 go or not ; but I guess, after all, you don't care 
 so much about that little Maggie as you pretend 
 to. I should suppose when you think of that 
 little lonesome girl there crying " 
 
 "I believe I will go after all," interrupted
 
 II E T T Y P K T E R. 69 
 
 Hetty, her pride beginning to thaw at the men- 
 tion of Maggie's tears. 
 
 Watty went up stairs, but soon came down 
 again with a book of colored engravings. 
 
 " You might take these up," he said ; " per- 
 haps it would keep her from being lonesome 
 sometimes." 
 
 Toward night Maggie herself came down ; 
 her grandfather had given her permission to 
 recall his words. If Hetty had any pride left, 
 it quite vanished under Maggie's pleadings. 
 The little girl's eyes were very red, affirming, 
 by their appearance, Watty's assertion. Poor 
 child, she had had a little taste of the enjoyment 
 of society, and the giving it up had been very 
 hard for her. 
 
 " We can play Sunday-school," said Maggie ; 
 " can't you come down every Sunday and have 
 one right there in our house ? " 
 
 " I don't know. There is a long time Sunday 
 afternoons that I have nothing to do ; but I don't 
 know as it would be exactly right." This Het- 
 ty said to herself more than to her companion. 
 But she added after a moment's thought, " I 
 don't believe there could be any harm in it. I
 
 70 HETTY PORTER. 
 
 will go. Yes, Maggie, can you get a Sunday- 
 school lesson ? " 
 
 Without waiting for a reply, Hetty ran up 
 stairs and got her little pocket Testament. She 
 opened it at the second chapter of Matthew, 
 and said, " "We will begin right here, Maggie. 
 You can learn as many verses as you please, 
 and we will talk about it, and I will tell you all 
 I know about it. Wont we have a good time ? " 
 
 Maggie readily assented to this ; then putting 
 the Testament in her pocket she started for 
 home, for her grandfather, she said, had told 
 her not to stay a minute.
 
 HETTY PORTE E. 71 
 
 CHAPTEK VIII. 
 
 THE TRANSLATION. 
 
 THE Sabbath-school, as Hetty and Maggie called 
 it, was a blessing to both the teacher and scholar 
 who were its members a blessing to Hetty, for, 
 in trying to benefit and make Maggie happy, 
 she was humbly following the great Master's 
 example, whose entire life was a mission of love 
 and of doing good to others, but more especi- 
 ally was it a blessing to the little lonely child. 
 Maggie was not an especially ignorant child on 
 all subjects ; but on the subject of religion she 
 was very much so. She had some vague ideas of 
 God and heaven ; but of the love of Christ, the 
 wonderful story of his life and death, she knew 
 almost nothing ; but as she read the Testament, 
 and Hetty explained it to her, the light dawned 
 upon her ; and she who had scarcely known any- 
 thing of earthly love opened her heart readily 
 to this wondrous heavenly love and her lonely 
 life was made brighter and happier on account
 
 72 HETTY PORTER. 
 
 of the teaching of a little girl not many years 
 older than herself. In her childlike way she 
 took in all the great truths of the Bible without 
 a doubt; and who shall say that God did not 
 bless this simple faith, and that Maggie was not 
 a Christian, though, perhaps, she could never 
 tell at what precise time she was adopted into 
 God's great family. 
 
 A room as far as possible from the only ten- 
 antable one of the house in which Mr. Graham 
 always sat was chosen for the Sunday-school. 
 Hetty went up one afternoon and helped Mag- 
 gie to brush down the curtains that the spiders 
 had hung over the window and around the 
 walls, and to sweep the floor, whose dust had 
 probably lain undisturbed for years. Then they 
 found a couple of broken chairs in one of the 
 rooms, and, carrying them up, their apartment 
 was furnished. 
 
 It was seldom that Hetty saw anything of Mr. 
 Graham ; and if by chance she did meet him, ho 
 scarcely ever paid any attention to her by word 
 or look, and when he did she would rather he 
 had not done so, for his very greeting had some- 
 thing sour about it.
 
 HETTY PORTER. 73 
 
 And so the summer days glided away. Hetty 
 had commenced already to count the days be- 
 fore the fall term of school at home would com- 
 mence ; but of late there was mingled with her 
 expectations a little fear, for her mother had not 
 for a long time written anything about her com- 
 ing, and she was afraid by the tone of the letters 
 that things were not much better at home, and 
 that her mother was not much richer than when 
 she left. 
 
 One afternoon Ellis sent Hetty up stairs on 
 an errand to Mrs. Manson. These errands were 
 always welcome, for they broke in upon her 
 monotonous kitchen life, and gave her an oppor- 
 tunity to see something more agreeable than its 
 coarse surroundings. 
 
 Mrs. Manson was engaged in the sitting-room 
 giving her parting orders to a young dress- 
 maker, who was standing with a large bundle 
 in her arms. She motioned Hetty to wait, then 
 she continued with her directions. 
 
 Watty was sitting by a table with a large lex- 
 icon before him. He turned over leaf after leaf, 
 and looked down the long columns hurriedly, and 
 a cloud on his face that did not at all become
 
 71 HETTY PORTER. 
 
 him grew darker with every column passed 
 over. 
 
 " Botheration," he said at last, very emphatic- 
 ally pushing the book away from him with a 
 jerk that sent a number of smaller ones upon 
 the floor. 
 
 " Watson, my son, I am surprised," said Mrs. 
 Manson, turning toward him. 
 
 " Well, mother, I am sorry, but I can't 
 help it. This Yirgil lesson bothers ine tremen- 
 dously. I can read it all pretty well but one 
 line, and I might as well try to read Chinese as 
 that. I can't get the least particle of sense out 
 of it," 
 
 " Be patient ; take time to look out the words." 
 
 "Yes, I suppose I may as well give up all 
 hope of having any fun first as last. The boys 
 are waiting for me this very minute to play 
 base-ball. You see they have chosen me umpire 
 this week, so I not only spoil my own fun but 
 their's too." After a moment's pause he took 
 up his book, and going to Mrs. Manson, said : 
 
 "You just look at it, mother; I shouldn't 
 wonder it you could read it right off." 
 
 Mrs. Mansou took the book and read over the
 
 HETTYPORTEE. 75 
 
 words slowly. In a moment she handed it back, 
 saying, 
 
 " No, "Watty, it has been so long since I have 
 read Latin I have forgotten all about it. Pile 
 up your books now and go to your game, your 
 father will help you this evening," and Mrs. 
 Manson turned again to the dressmaker. 
 
 " Father never helps me ; he says I must look 
 out my lessons for myself; and Mr. Sheldon 
 will never excuse me," said Watty as, sitting 
 down again by the table, and resting his head 
 on both hands, he looked hopelessly upon the 
 open book. 
 
 "When Mrs. Manson repeated the words, 
 Hetty recognized them at once. She remem- 
 bered spending a long time looking out that 
 very passage only a few days before she left 
 home ; and, for being sorry for "Watty, and per- 
 haps quite willing to show him that she knew 
 more than he gave her credit for, she went up 
 to the table and said in a low voice, 
 
 " I know just how it goes, Watty, let me read 
 it for you ; " and before he could speak she drew 
 the book from between his elbows and read the 
 passage.
 
 76 II E T T Y P R T E B. 
 
 If Hetty, the little servant girl, touched, like 
 Cinderella, with the magic wand of some good 
 godmother, had stood before him, resplendent in 
 satin gown and glass slippers, Watty Manson 
 could not have been more surprised. Hetty 
 enjoyed his looks of astonishment exceedingly ; 
 but she did not give him a chance to express it 
 in words, for just then the dressmaker closed the 
 door behind her, and Hetty went up to Mrs. 
 Manson and did her errand ; then, with a shy 
 look of triumph toward Watty, she left the 
 room. 
 
 From that day there was a great change in 
 Watty's deportment toward Hetty. He never 
 mentioned the subject of the lesson, for, truth 
 to tell, it was not a very agreeable one. The 
 idea that a girl a girl, too, younger than him- 
 self, and, to cap the climax, a girl who worked 
 in his mother's kitchen, could read what he 
 could not, was exceedingly mortifying. But 
 though he never mentioned it in words, his 
 actions showed plainly that he remembered it. 
 Hetty, by means of those few words in Virgil, 
 had climbed up a great many rounds on the lad- 
 der of his estimation. He. seemed to think that
 
 IlETTYPORTER. 77 
 
 fate was very cruel in obliging a girl who could 
 read Latin to do kitchen work, and he showed 
 his sympathy in various ways. He dropped the 
 offensive " H,et " at once, and became almost as 
 gentlemanly in his mother's kitchen as in her 
 parlor. 
 
 There are many older than Watty Manson 
 who act by precisely the same principle. The 
 poor and ignorant are like so many machines set 
 in motion in the morning to run through the 
 day. No allowance is made for nerves, none 
 for a sensitive heart beating somewhere among 
 the whir of wheels; therefore, nothing like 
 politeness is necessary in the intercourse with 
 them. 
 
 Hetty did not fail to set down this agreeable 
 change to the right cause ; and as she saw how 
 much good that little knowledge had done for her, 
 it is no wonder that she should be desirous of in- 
 creasing it. This desire was perfectly proper ; 
 but in Hetty's case it was allowed to grow into 
 murmurings against Providence. 
 
 " No one is anybody unless they have an 
 education," she said to herself over and over 
 again, and each time with a more decided feel-
 
 78 HETTY PORTER. 
 
 ing that she was, by somebody or something 
 very cruelly and unjustly treated. 
 
 Hetty, on the morning she left home, had, 
 without her mother's knowledge, smuggled a 
 French grammar into her trunk. She had said 
 to herself, " Perhaps I may get a little time, 
 and if I do it wont do any harm to learn a few 
 of those verbs ; " but the spare time had never 
 come ; she had scarcely opened the book since 
 she had been at Dr. Manson's. Now she turned 
 to her French grammar with a determination 
 that, somehow or other, she would find time to 
 study it. She was determined to grapple with 
 fate, and this seemed to be the only way she 
 could do so at present. 
 
 Hetty carried out her resolutions bravely. 
 Often in the early morning, or late at night, she 
 would sit up in bed, with a shawl drawn over 
 her shoulders, to study; she repeated French 
 verbs to herself, in the midst of washing dishes 
 and scouring knives, and French verbs were for 
 a while almost her meat and drink. Gradually, 
 the time that she had before held as sacred was 
 intruded upon, the holy words of the Bible were 
 strangely mixed up with irregular conjugations,
 
 HETTY PORTER. 79 
 
 and sometimes thoughts of them were in her 
 heart when she was on her knees pretending to 
 pray. 
 
 Hetty was very miserable all this time. She 
 tried to make herself believe that she loved God 
 as much as she ever did, but that stern voice in 
 her soul told her she did not. Her religious life 
 was dying out. Her hurried prayers could not 
 be tolerated by a holy God. 
 
 Perhaps Mrs. Ellis did not notice any change 
 in Hetty, for she was still ready to do all her 
 bidding. Perhaps Maggie did not, for she still 
 read the Testament to her, told her stories, 
 and taught her Sabbath-school hymns. Perhaps 
 Mrs. Porter did not mistrust it, for Hetty was 
 very careful that none of her murmurings should 
 creep into her letters ; but she herself felt tlie 
 change, and it is no wonder that she became 
 unhappy. 
 
 Early in the fall Mrs. Porter wrote to Hetty, 
 saying that " she was very sorry," but she found 
 her desire of having Hetty back to school that 
 fall was doomed to disappointment. Things had 
 not gone as well as she had hoped and Hetty 
 must be patient and " wait."
 
 80 HE TTY PORTER. 
 
 Hetty bad feared this, but the truth was none 
 the less bitter. She received the letter with 
 a passionate burst of tears, quite unlike the 
 patient Hetty of other days. 
 
 Mrs. Porter wished very much to have Hetty 
 come home on a visit, but Mrs. Ellis set her face 
 like a flint against this ; so she still stayed in Dr. 
 Manson's kitchen, and still she clung to her 
 French grammar.
 
 HETTY PORTER. 81 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 JAMIE'S PRAYER. 
 
 " When Jesus calls me, I must go 
 To meet him in the promised land." 
 
 JAMES PORTER repeated these lines softly to 
 himself one afternoon sitting in the open door, 
 looking out upon the trees and shrubs, whose 
 summer green was fast changing to the gold and 
 crimson of autumn. 
 
 " 1 should feel all ready to go, mother, if if 
 I could only see father a Christian first," he 
 said, hesitating on the last words. "It is only 
 just getting into a chariot all waiting for you, 
 and going up, up, you don't know where, but it 
 is so beautiful all around you." 
 
 Mrs. Porter moved uneasily in her chair. She 
 did not like to hear him talk so familiarly on 
 this subject, dreadful to her when she thought 
 of it in connection with her children. Jamie's 
 words for weeks past had often sent a thrill of 
 fear through her heart. She would not have
 
 82 HETTY PORTER. 
 
 confessed this fear. She tried not to believe 
 that his words were prophetic. Nevertheless, 
 the belief and the fear were there, very real, 
 and very uncomfortable. 
 
 James did not think of death as something 
 far away, something unreal and shadowy, but 
 as a presence very near to him. True, he 
 thought sometimes with pain of leaving his 
 mother and sister; but the only object that 
 seemed really to bind him to earth was his 
 father. He had always prayed for him, but 
 never before had there seemed to be such a 
 weight and agony of prayer laid upon him. He 
 was thinking of him hour after hour in the long 
 day, and sometimes he could not sleep for the 
 thoughts of the condemnation resting upon such 
 as his father pressing heavily upon his heart, 
 till he found relief by sliding down from the bed 
 upon his knees, and repeating his oft-repeated 
 prayer in his behalf. 
 
 One afternoon, as the daylight was just begin- 
 ning to fade from the little front room, James 
 was lying upon the lounge. He had been sleep- 
 ing ; but he opened his eyes just as Mr. Porter 
 rose from the table and took his hat to go out.
 
 HETTY PORTER. 83 
 
 Mr. Porter glanced at his child lying there so 
 still and white, almost the picture of death. As 
 he did so, James turned his head and met his 
 father's eye, and he saw at once that he was not 
 intoxicated, a circumstance that was getting 
 more rare every day. 
 
 A sudden thought and desire seemed to strike 
 him, for he said quickly, " Don't go away, 
 father ; stay with me, I am all alone.' 
 
 While Mr. Porter had long ago lost his love 
 and interest for his wife and Hetty, the little 
 crippled boy had still a large share in his affec- 
 tions larger, perhaps, than he himself knew. 
 He was not yet a totally depraved man, and 
 there were times when the good impulses rose 
 strongly and strove for the mastery. 
 
 Mr. Porter laid down his hat and came 
 toward the lounge. ""Why, Jimmie, how like a 
 scarecrow you look," he said; "you aint sick, 
 are you ? " 
 
 " I guess not ; I don't feel any pain ; you 
 will stay with me a little while, wont you ? " 
 
 " I can't ; I've got to go down street. Where's 
 your mother ? " 
 
 " She has gone to carry her work home.
 
 84 HETTYPORTEK. 
 
 Can't you afford to stay with me one evening, 
 father? I am going to leave you before long." 
 
 Mr. Porter looked surprised ; but James con- 
 tinued quietly, " I am going to die, father." 
 
 Mr. Porter burst out into a coarse laugh, and 
 said, " No such thing Jimmie ; don't be a fool. 
 You are going to be a man yet, and like as not 
 you wont always be lame either. When I get 
 around to it I am going to send you off to that 
 man what's his name? to be cured." 
 
 This was an old promise. When Mr. Porter 
 felt any stirrings of pity for his patient child, or 
 any self-condemnation because he did not fulfill 
 the father's duties to him, this was the way 
 he quieted his conscience, " Jimmie should be 
 sent off to be cured." 
 
 James shook his head with a smile, then 
 placed his thin white hand in his father's. 
 
 " Dear father, Jesus will cure me before loncc. 
 
 ' O 
 
 It don't make me feel bad to thing of dying, 
 only I am sorry to leave you, and mother, and 
 Hetty ; but they are going to heaven too when 
 they die ; and you, father, you will, wont you ? " 
 Mr. Porter shook off the light hand, rose im- 
 patiently, and walked toward the door.
 
 II E T T Y P O R T E 11. 85 
 
 " I knew it would be something like that you 
 would be saying to me ! What's the use, boy ? 
 don't get me mad at you. First, it's the parson ; 
 he will get hold of my shoulder, and go over a 
 long yarn of his stuff: then Squire Lawton will 
 corner me up somewhere, and tell me what a 
 mean, wicked fellow I am ; and now you try to 
 soft soap it over. I tell you, if that's what you 
 are trying to get at and are afraid to say it, " I 
 must drink, I can't help it, and there's no use 
 talking." 
 
 " I'm so sorry," said James sadly. 
 
 Mr. Porter seized his hat and rushed out of 
 the door; but his heart had been touched, as 
 only James could touch it. He reached the 
 gate, looked a moment down street, then turned 
 half reluctantly back. " What if he should die 
 there all alone ? " he said to himself; "she must 
 be a curious woman to leave him so, not a soul 
 around." 
 
 James did not hear his father's step in the 
 room ; he was lying very still with his hands 
 clasped. Mr. Porter went up to the lounge and 
 caught a few words of a simple prayer that made 
 
 him verv uncomfortable. But he was not the one 
 
 6
 
 86 HETTY PORTER. 
 
 to acknowledge such feelings, and sitting down 
 by the lounge, he said in a loud voice : 
 
 " See here, Jimmie, I have come back to stay 
 with you till your mother comes." 
 
 James opened his eyes and turned to his 
 father. " You are real good, father. I dm so 
 sorry for you. O, father, you don't know how 
 much I pity you ! " 
 
 " Pity me ! well, to be sure, I haven't heard 
 that word these many years. But you was 
 always a good little boy, Jimmie, a little soft and 
 chicken-hearted to be sure, but a good little boy 
 always." 
 
 " Then you will miss me a little when I am 
 gone." 
 
 " But you aint going ; what's put that notion 
 into your head ? " 
 
 " But if I should die, father ! " 
 
 " Yes, of course, I shouldn't have any one to 
 pity me then," and Mr. Porter tried to laugh. 
 
 " Jesus pities you," said James, speaking with 
 a courage that was not natural to him, for he 
 knew his father seldom listened quietly to talk 
 of this character. 
 
 But Mr. Porter was not angry now ; he "could
 
 II E T T Y P O R T E K. 87 
 
 not be with that whispered prayer for him still 
 in his mind. He saiJ nothing, but tried to look 
 stern and indifferent. 
 
 " "Wont you let me talk with you ? " continued 
 James, half fearfully. 
 
 " Yes, go ahead, if it will do you any good ; 
 I suppose I can listen." 
 
 " And you wont be angry with me, I know. 
 O, father, I have prayed for you so much, and 
 somehow it seems just as if God was going to 
 help you stop." 
 
 James hesitated ; he did not like to say that 
 other word. Mr. Porter said it for him, his 
 voice trembling more with feeling than with 
 anger. " Stop drinking ! no use praying for that. 
 Don't pray for me any more, Jirnmie. I don't 
 like to have you." 
 
 " But, father, I know you would like to break 
 off from this dreadful habit." 
 
 " Like to break off ! " said Mr. Porter, rising 
 and walking the length of the room, then look- 
 ing almost fiercely back. " I'd work on my hands 
 and knees day in and day out if I could get rid 
 of this" 
 
 He did not finish his sentence, but came back
 
 88 HETTY PORTE K. 
 
 and sat by the lounge. "You have made a 
 sneaking baby of me," he said, " but I would 
 never have said that to any one else. You never 
 seemed to hate me for what I am ; " this he said 
 more to himself, as he leaned forward and looked 
 steadily upon the floor. 
 
 " You can break off, if you would only pray 
 to God. He will give you strength." 
 " Pray ! what's the use of praying ? " 
 " But the Lord would help you ; only try." 
 " I tell you, I don't know how to pray ; what's 
 the use of tormenting me ? " 
 
 James sank back upon the lounge and covered 
 his eyes with both hands. After a moment he 
 commenced again in a trembling voice, 
 
 " Do you mind, father, one Sunday, a long 
 time ago, how you carried me in your rrms to 
 Sunday-school ? I can remember it just as plain. 
 Mother led Hetty, and it was the first time 
 either of us ever went. I remember just how 
 bright the sun shone, and how beautiful every- 
 thing looked. You used to pray then, didn't 
 you? or you wouldn't have taken so much 
 pains to get us there. Don't you remember it, 
 father?"
 
 HETTY PORTER. 89 
 
 Mr. Porter did remember it ; there was 
 scarcely a moment in his sober hours that 
 memories of those days did not haunt him. 
 
 " Yes, yes, I remember ; you was a little bit 
 of a fellow then. It was the first Sunday after 
 the new church was finished, and I gave two 
 hundred dollars for that very church ; but that 
 was nothing then, for I expected before this 
 time to be richer than Squire Lawton himself. 
 Well, to be sure," he added, with a low laugh 
 that somehow sounded very unnatural, " I was 
 a fool then, and I am a bigger one now." 
 
 " But, father, we might have all those happy 
 days back for us all. Wont you, now, O wont 
 you ask God to help you? Wont you pray as 
 you used to ? " 
 
 Mr. Porter leaned back in his chair, and 
 clasped his hands together moodily. Not only 
 did he hear the voice of that frail child pleading 
 with him, but he heard the voice of conscience 
 speaking louder than it had spoken before for a 
 long while. 
 
 " I tell you I can't pray ; it wouldn't do any 
 good if I could." 
 
 "Yes, father, Jesus pities you. He was
 
 90 IIETTYPORTEE. 
 
 in all points tempted as we are, yet without 
 sin." 
 
 Mr. Porter made no reply, and James con- 
 tinued after a pause : " If you can't pray, father, 
 /can. If you would only let me pray a little 
 while now : you wont mind, will you ? " 
 
 James waited a moment in vain for a reply ; 
 then he slid from the lounge to the floor, and, 
 clasping his hands, commenced to plead for his 
 father in a voice that trembled at first, but 
 gathered strength as he proceeded. 
 
 Mr. Porter felt very uncomfortable. He 
 would have been glad to be out of reach of that 
 voice ; but he could not rise ; he seemed as if 
 chained to his seat. Never before had James 
 prayed with such earnestness, never before had 
 he come so near to God. Long did he plead in 
 simple, childish words ; but at last his voice, 
 which had been strong and clear, died out to a 
 whisper, his head fell forward upon the- lounge, 
 and he lay still, panting for breath ; he had 
 exerted himself so much in prayer that the 
 strength was all gone from the frail body. 
 
 Mr. Porter started up and lifted his child upon 
 the lounge. " He is dying ! " he said in a voico
 
 HETTY PORTER. 91 
 
 of agony as he looked at the still, white face. 
 But James opened his eyes after a moment, and 
 looked with a smile into his father's face. 
 
 "When Mrs. Porter returned she found her 
 husband kneeling by the lounge bathing Jamie's 
 temples. This was an unusual sight to her, but 
 she made no remark, and he in a few moments 
 took his hat and went out, while Mrs. Porter 
 occupied his vacant place. 
 
 Mr. Porter did not go to the bar-room that 
 night. He wandered around the village an 
 unhappy, conscience-stricken man, paying no 
 attention to the greetings or jeers of his low 
 associates, whom he met now and then in the 
 street. At an early hour he returned home, 
 and as he lay down that night his mind was in 
 a strange state, between remorse for the past, 
 and alternate hope and despair for the future ; 
 but this thought was the chief one in his mind : 
 "James shall be sent off to be cured." He 
 resolved over and over again that he would 
 find work, so that he might be able to effect 
 this. Alas for the resolutions that are made in 
 our own strength !
 
 92 HETTY PORTER. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 DEATH. 
 
 THERE came a warm, pleasant day among the 
 latest in the fall. It was one of those which 
 strike us with an indefinite feeling of sadness, 
 by its suggestions of death written so plainly in 
 the glow and flash of the foliage amid the decay 
 and death prevailing in the natural world. So 
 as life merges into death comes the brightest 
 tints. Death's shadow is more glorious far than 
 Life's brightest noonday. Perhaps something 
 like these thoughts came to James as he sat by 
 the open window ; and, sitting there, he seemed 
 himself but a part of the autumn picture that 
 represented the triumph of that which we call 
 Death over Life, for the same shadow was pass- 
 ing over him, and his life was glowing as bright- 
 ly under it as glowed the life of Nature around 
 him. 
 
 " It is so beautiful to-day, and I feel so well, 
 I should like to go out into the village," said
 
 HETTY PORTER. 93 
 
 James, turning from the window ; " perhaps it 
 will be the last time this summer," he added, as 
 he noticed the look of pain on his mother's face. 
 
 With some reluctance Mrs. Porter consented. 
 Tying around his neck the warm red tippet and 
 bringing him his crutches, she bade him again 
 and again " to be careful, don't go too far, and 
 be sure and come home early." 
 
 Mrs. Porter watched from the door as long as 
 she could see the little bent figure, and until the 
 last gleam of the red tippet streaming back in 
 the wind disappeared, then she returned to her 
 little sewing-chair, and if we could have heard 
 the prayer that went up from her heart as she 
 sat still a moment before taking up her work, it 
 would doubtless have formed itself into these 
 words : " O God, spare me my children ! " 
 
 A word just here in regard to the calls James 
 was in the habit of making. When he was very 
 young he had been converted to God, and from 
 that hour there had arisen a great desire, which 
 grew stronger as his religious life strengthened, 
 to do something for God. He could not sit idly 
 by, although he was weak, and almost helpless. 
 Poor child, he did not realize that he was doing
 
 94: HETTY PORTER. 
 
 far more in the Lord's vineyard than many to 
 whom strength and ability have been given. He 
 went from house to house among his acquaint- 
 ances, and many who would not listen patiently 
 to religious talk from others could not resist 
 James's earnest childish pathos. Pity for him, 
 probably, constrained many to listen, and to 
 welcome him to their homes ; but many more 
 loved him as they would love a ray of glad sun- 
 shine in a dark place. He read his Testament 
 by the bedside of the sick, he talked of heaven 
 so familiarly that it seemed almost like bring- 
 ing it down to earth ; and sometimes by these 
 bedsides he offered up simple, earnest prayers 
 for their occupants. Doing this, James did not 
 think that he was overstepping the bounds of 
 propriety, nor indeed was he ; it was not every 
 one, perhaps, that could have done as he did ; 
 but James had been called and fitted of God, 
 and out of the mouth of this child the praise of 
 God was being perfected. 
 
 On the afternoon of which we write he visited 
 a number of his friends, and never before had 
 he seemed so happy, never before had he carried 
 Giich an atmosphere of heaven with him.
 
 IlETTY PORTER. 95 
 
 " He's an angel, sure," said old Mrs. Caty, an 
 Irish woman, " an' it wont be long he'll be for 
 staying in this cold world; the wings'll grow 
 before long, mind ye." 
 
 Jarnes was not aware he had stayed late, till 
 the shadows of night admonished him ; then, 
 fearful of giving his mother uneasiness, he hast- 
 ened homeward. He reached a corner, and was 
 just turning it, when he saw a sight that made 
 him pause. Coming down the street, with his 
 arm linked in that of one of his low associates, 
 was Mr. Porter. He was swaggering along, 
 talking very loudly, and sometimes profanely. 
 This was not an unusual sight, but it was a par- 
 ticularly unpleasant one to James just then. 
 Since the day he had talked and prayed so earn- 
 estly with his father, he had fondly hoped that 
 a change was coming over him. He had shut his 
 eyes persistently against facts, and tried hard to 
 believe what he so much wished to believe. Now 
 he was undeceived; but over all the pain and 
 disappointment rose the intense desire to save 
 him yet. He knew well where his father was 
 going, for just down the road was that dreadful 
 grog-shop.
 
 9G HETTY POKTER. 
 
 He sprang forward as Mr. Porter came near 
 him, and placing a hand upon his arm, said 
 quickly, " O, father, don't you go there, come 
 home with " 
 
 Mr. Porter looked up with surprise ; then a 
 flash of anger came over his face. It was quite 
 a different thing to be moved and led by James 
 when he was alone with him, and to be per- 
 suaded in the presence of his associates. He 
 was partially intoxicated, and a laugh from his 
 companion roused his cowardly shame. Not 
 realizing what he was doing, he gave James a 
 quick push, and saying angrily, " Go home 1 " 
 passed rapidly on. 
 
 James tried to balance himself, tried to catch 
 something to save himself from falling, but in 
 vain ; he fell heavily, his head striking against 
 a stone step. A few moments of consciousness 
 of great pain, then a numbness came over him, 
 and he lay insensible. 
 
 He was lifted up soon after by a man passing 
 on the street. He was immediately recognized, 
 for everybody in the village knew Jamie Porter, 
 the crippled boy, and then they carried him 
 home to his mother.
 
 II E TT Y P O R T E R. 97 
 
 Restoratives were applied, a physician was 
 called, everything was done, but for some time it 
 was done in vain. At last he opened his eyes 
 and looked around, but it was a strange, wild 
 glance. " He is out of his head," whispered the 
 doctor, as James muttered something in a low 
 voice. 
 
 " Will he live ? " said Mrs. Porter, an hour 
 later, as the doctor took his hat to go. 
 
 " I will call again in the morning," he said 
 evasively, turning from her. 
 
 a But, doctor, will he live ? " 
 
 " I cannot tell ; it was a hard blow, and he 
 hasn't much constitution to help him rally. It 
 is a hard case, but I will do all I can." 
 
 Mrs. Porter turned with a sickening feeling to 
 the lounge. James lay with his eyes half closed, 
 still muttering those incoherent whisperings. 
 
 "Don't you know me, Jamie?" she said, 
 bending over him, and listening to his words. 
 
 But no gleam of recognition came into his eyes 
 as he looked up at her. She caught the word 
 u father," repeated many times, with some- 
 thing between that she could not understand. 
 
 Late in the morning of the next day, as Mrs.
 
 98 HETTY PORTER. 
 
 Porter still sat by the lounge, where she had 
 watched all night, her husband entered. His 
 face wore the surly look that it always did after 
 a night of debauchery. Toward morning he 
 had come home intoxicated, and the neighbors 
 who were in, out of pity for his wife, hastened 
 him off to bed, where he slept heavily, knowing 
 nothing of the life and death so evenly balanced 
 in the room just below him. 
 
 There came a few words of a demand for 
 breakfast, but they were checked as his eyes 
 fell upon the lounge. 
 
 " What is the matter ? " he said hurriedly. 
 
 " He has been hurt very badly ; he fell at the 
 corner and hit his head ; I am afraid he will 
 die," she said, her eyes filling. 
 
 In a moment the whole occurrence of the pre- 
 ceding day flashed into the mind of Mr. Porter. 
 Mrs. Porter was prepared to see him show some 
 feeling, for she knew that he loved James as 
 much as he was capable of loving anybody, but 
 she was not prepared for the violent emotion he 
 did show. His limbs trembled, and his face 
 turned very white. " I have killed him ! " he 
 said, sinking down into a chair. 

 
 II E T T Y P R T E K. 99 
 
 " What do you mean ? " said Mrs. Porter, 
 shocked and surprised at his words. 
 
 He made no reply, but sat still a moment 
 trembling all over, and rocking himself to and 
 fro ; then he rose, and coming to the lounge, 
 sank down by its side. 
 
 "What do you mean?" again asked Mrs. 
 Porter. 
 
 " I mean I killed him. I pushed him down ; 
 wretch, villain that I am ! " 
 
 Mrs. Porter soon after found out the whole 
 truth; but though not understanding now 
 her husband's words, she dared ask no more 
 questions. 
 
 All that day and night James was delirious, 
 and Mr. Porter was nearly so. He walked the 
 floor almost constantly ; he would eat nothing, 
 and speak to nobody but the doctor, whom he 
 entreated over and over to save James. 
 
 Conscience was speaking to him very loudly 
 now, and he could not put by its upbraidings at 
 pleasure. Wicked and dissolute as he had been, 
 there were none who saw him through all that 
 long day and night that did not pity him. James 
 continued to grow worse, so much so that they
 
 100 HETTY PORTER. 
 
 dared not remove him to a bed, but made him 
 as comfortable as possible with pillows on the 
 lounge. Often he would cry out for his father, 
 and beg of him in imploring tones not to go 
 away. " Father, stay with me." 
 
 But after two days the delirium left him. 
 He had just awakened from a short sleep, when 
 he said in a low, almost breathless whisper, 
 " Mother." 
 
 " Do you know me, my son ? " said Mrs. Por- 
 ter, looking eagerly into the large blue eyes, 
 from which the wild, vacant stare was now 
 gone. 
 
 Mr. Porter heard his wife's words, and sprang 
 toward the lounge. James saw him in a mo- 
 ment, and lifting, with a great effort, his feeble 
 hand, he placed it in his father's, " Dear father." 
 
 " O Jimmie, my boy, I have killed you ! " said 
 Mr. Porter, sinking down and hiding his eyes 
 from James's deathly face. 
 
 It was evident now that James was dying ; 
 but even as his sight was growing dim, as every 
 sense was leaving him, he was true to the work 
 which had so filled his heart leading his father 
 to God.
 
 HETTY PORTER. 103 
 
 " Dear papa, I am dying ; wont you promise 
 me now ? O, father " ' 
 
 Ik 
 
 " Yes, yes," said Mr. Porter quickly, " I will 
 do anything ; but don't die, Jimmie, don't. I will 
 promise anything you ask. I .will send you off 
 to be cured. I will do everything." 
 
 So with these almost frantic promises Mr. 
 Porter strove to ward off the angel of death. 
 James lay a moment still and calm, while the 
 shadow that the angel cast brightened into glory 
 on his face, then he rallied again and said in a 
 low whisper, " Jesus will help ; pray, father ; " 
 then he turned his glassy eyes to his mother, 
 and made an effort to speak; but the words 
 died into an inarticulate whispering. She bent 
 eagerly forward, but caught only the words 
 " Mother, Hetty." A few quick catchings of the 
 breath, a few short struggles, then all was over.
 
 104 HETTY PORTE B. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 LIFE FROM DEATH. 
 
 "A LETTER for you, Hetty ! " said "Watty, com- 
 ing in and tossing one upon the table. 
 
 Hetty glanced up with a look of welcome for 
 the letter, and recognized her mother's hand- 
 writing. Little thinking what a weight of sor- 
 row the tiny envelope contained, she continued 
 with her work, for it made Mrs. Ellis scold if, 
 under any pretext, she stopped in the midst of . * 
 it. But at length, as Mrs. Ellis left the kitchen, 
 Hetty's impatience got the better of her faith- 
 fulness, and wiping her hands hurriedly she 
 opened the letter. " I must just peep in and see if 
 they are all well," she said ; " it has been a long 
 time since mother has written, and Mrs. Ellis 
 will never know it." 
 
 But the first line she read made her forget all 
 about Mrs. Ellis. Jamie was dead ! She stood 
 with the letter crushed in her hand, hardly 
 comprehending the terrible truth ; but when, at
 
 HETTY POETER. 105 
 
 last, its full meaning came to her, she sanlKiown 
 by the table, and bowing her head on her arms, 
 great sobs shook her frame. 
 
 " What on earth is the matter ! " said Mrs. 
 Ellis, coming in, and standing still in astonish- 
 ment at the unusual sight. 
 
 Hetty held out the letter by way of reply, for 
 she could not speak. 
 
 " "What is the matter ! your mother aint dead, 
 is she?" 
 
 "No, no; it's Jamie, my brother," she said 
 between her sobs. 
 
 " Well, that's.too bad," said Ellis, moving to- 
 ward her work ; " but you just chirk up, Hetty, 
 and finish washing the dishes, and then you may 
 go up stairs and stay till dinner time." 
 
 Hetty obeyed; but how wearily passed the 
 remainder of her work ! She finished it with 
 trembling hands, and with the hot tears running 
 down her face. 
 
 But at last it was done ; the dishes were all 
 piled away, and Hetty for a short time was free. 
 She went up stairs with a slow step, and fling- 
 ing herself by the side of the bed, wept and 
 sobbed herself into calmness.
 
 106 HETTY PORTER. 
 
 Wfien she became composed enough she read 
 the remainder of the letter. It was just such a 
 one as Mrs. Porter, earnest, prayerful Christian 
 as she was, might be expected to write on such 
 an occasion. " Look to God, Hetty," she said, 
 " for strength to bear this. Never think of 
 Jamie as dead, but as just commencing that 
 beautiful life of which he talked so much." 
 
 But for a moment Hetty's heart rose in re- 
 bellion. " Why is God so cruel to us ? " she 
 exclaimed passionately ; then her thoughts went 
 backward to her last parting with James, and 
 the talk with him in the arbor. . 
 
 "If we should either of us die, wouldn't we 
 meet again in heaven?" The question came 
 back with mournful distinctness, and asked again 
 for an answer. " "Would she meet him again ? " 
 She had not the least doubt that James was in 
 in heaven, but would she ever go there ? This 
 question conscience asked her, and in that mo- 
 ment she saw clearly what a long, long distance 
 she had wandered from the right way ; she felt a 
 sense of the wickedness of her heart- wanderings 
 and murmurings against Go4; she realized the 
 sin into which her ambition had led her.
 
 HETTY PORTER. 107 
 
 We. cannot trace Hetty's thoughts further; 
 she pursued them with tears streaming down 
 her cheeks ; but at last they became insupport- 
 able, and she sank down again upon her knees. 
 It was a long while before she grew calm enough 
 to pray ; the prayer began in sobs, but as it 
 ended she became more composed. 
 
 Before Hetty went down she took her French 
 grammar, which was lying in the window, and 
 opening her trunk, placed it at the very bottom. 
 " It shall lie there," she said, " till God gives 
 me time and opportunity to study it." As she 
 said and did this a sweet peace came into her 
 heart. It was a feeling that had nothing joy- 
 ful about it ; the desolation and mourning that 
 Jamie's death had brought was still in her 
 heart, but the sense of God's anger against her 
 was taken away. 
 
 It was long after dinner time before Hetty 
 went down. She had forgotten all about the 
 outside world and its requirements ; and when 
 at last they did come to her remembrance and 
 she hastened down,*she found the work all done. 
 
 " You ought toj[iave d&lled me, Ellis," she said 
 as she looked round.
 
 108 HETTY PORTER. 
 
 Mrs. Ellis made no reply to this remark, but 
 glanced up at her curiously. 
 
 " She don't look so very down about it after 
 all," were her mental words ; but Ellis did not 
 understand what a storm and conflict Hetty 
 had gone through to reach the peace and calm 
 that was written in her face. 
 
 Hetty received sympathy in her affliction. 
 Mrs. Ellis showed hers in the way we have 
 mentioned, the only tangible way with her. 
 Watty expressed his in a few words, for he was 
 very much afraid of being thought sentimental ; 
 but Hetty understood that he was sorry for 
 her, and she was satisfied. Mrs. Manson called 
 her up stairs and talked kindly with her; and 
 even Dr. Manson condescended to say, (the first 
 time he had spoken to her,) 
 
 " Remember, when you see your friends fall- 
 ing all around you, that your time will come 
 soon." 
 
 By some means Hetty's letter had been 
 delayed a number of days. Her mother 
 had written for her to come home to the 
 funeral, but that was impossible now. Hetty 
 was nevertheless very desirous to go home.
 
 HETTY PORTER. 109 
 
 She felt that it would be such a relief to see 
 her mother; but Mrs. Ellis was opposed to 
 this, and Mrs. Manson joining her objections 
 to her housekeeper, Hetty contented herself 
 with writing a long letter to her mother 
 instead of visiting her.
 
 110 HETTY PORTER. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 STRIVING AFTER GOOD. 
 
 MORE than a week had passed since Jamie's 
 death, and Mr. Porter in all that time had 
 scarcely spoken to anybody. Not once had 
 Jamie's name escaped from his lips, and the 
 mention of it by others seemed to give him the 
 greatest pain. Kind neighbors supplied him 
 with work, which he seemed very anxious to 
 get, and he worked faithfully from morning till 
 night. He spent his evenings at home, often 
 sitting moodily by the fire, perhaps not uttering 
 a word the whole evening. 
 
 Still Mrs. Porter sewed on. The shadow of 
 death had fallen heavily upon her heart, but it 
 was brightened, nevertheless, by those rays of 
 light which shine always for the Christian. She 
 clung now more closely than ever to Hetty, and 
 the hope was every day growing stronger that 
 she should soon be able to have her home again. 
 She watched her husband anxiously, and prayed
 
 HETTY PORTER. Ill 
 
 earnestly that the reformation might not be 
 transient, but become a fixed and settled 
 principle. 
 
 One evening, two weeks after Jamie's death, 
 Mrs. Porter was sewing, with her workstand 
 drawn closely to the stove. Mr. Porter had been 
 bending low over the hearth, and as the red 
 glow of the fire shone upon his face, it showed 
 an expression of even more than usual melan- 
 choly. At last he rose, and walked the floor 
 with a troubled, faltering step. 
 
 Mrs. Porter looked up and her eye met his. 
 "Are you sick to-night?" she ventured to 
 inquire. 
 
 "No," he replied, sitting down again. "I 
 tell you what it is, Anna," he said, (for the first 
 time for years calling her by her given name,) 
 " I feel just like like a murderer." 
 
 As he spoke the last word he covered his face 
 with his hands. " O don't talk so ! " said Mrs. 
 Porter, hurriedly ; " George, you are too cruel 
 to yourself." 
 
 " I don't know what makes me think of Jim- 
 mie so much to-night," he said, taking down his 
 hands and looking in the fire again. " O, you
 
 112 HETTY PORTER. 
 
 needn't stare at me so, there isn't a day but 
 what I think of him ; but somehow it seems 
 just as if he was right here to-night." 
 
 " Dear James ! " said Mrs. Porter sadly, " his 
 work was all done ; he was ready to go." 
 
 " Yes indeed ; tell me something about him, 
 Anna." 
 
 Mrs. Porter hardly knew what to say ; but 
 she saw that her husband now was as eager to 
 hear that dear name as he had before appeared 
 to be to suppress it. She recalled many of 
 Jamie's words and acts, many of the little mis- 
 sions of love that he had engaged in, and re- 
 peated them. Mr. Porter listened intently ; he 
 had been like one dead to his child while he 
 lived, but now Jamie's death was wakening into 
 life a new interest and love for him. 
 
 "Do you suppose he would have died if- 
 if well you know if I hadn't pushed 
 him ? " 
 
 " Yes, George, I know he would. The doctor 
 said he could not have lived long, and James 
 seemed to realize that death was near, for he 
 talked about it sometimes. The only thing that 
 troubled him was you ; but now you are really
 
 HETTY PORTER. 113 
 
 different. O how happy James would be if he 
 could " 
 
 " Anna, do you suppose," interrupted Mr. Por- 
 ter, turning round in his chair and looking at 
 her, " do you suppose there is any hope for me, 
 such a wicked wretch as I am ? " 
 
 " O yes ! " said Mrs. Porter, her voice trem- 
 bling with joy at such words from him; "I 
 know there is, only pray. God will forgive you ; 
 he has promised to." 
 
 " I haven't drank a drop since that day," said 
 Mr. Porter slowly, as if weighing every word. 
 " I couldn't now if it was to save my life. I 
 signed the pledge this afternoon." 
 
 " Thank God !" burst forth from Mrs.- Porter's 
 lips; "and wont you now, my dear husband, 
 wont you turn to God and pray for help ? wont 
 we have those old happy days back again?" 
 and Mrs. Porter rose and placed her hand on 
 her husband's shoulder. 
 
 " If I could ! if I only could ! " Then he shook 
 her hand off lightly, and rising, commenced to 
 walk the floor again, while Mrs. Porter sank 
 down into his chair, and bowing her head, offered 
 up from her heart an earnest prayer in his behalf.
 
 114 HETTY PORTE R. 
 
 A long silence came between them, then Mr. 
 Porter drew a chair to the stove and sat down 
 again. 
 
 "We have another child Hester; where is 
 she?" 
 
 Mrs. Porter was not loth to speak of Hetty ; 
 she wished to interest her husband in her, and 
 she succeeded. She spoke of Hetty's great love 
 for her books, and her quickness to learn, and 
 ended by saying how much she wished to have 
 her back again. 
 
 " She shall come," said Mr. Porter earnestly. 
 "It's a shame, a mean shame write to her 
 right off and tell her to come home. Squire 
 Lawton has given me that job of his barn, and 
 I shall make good pay. There's a little mort- 
 gage on this place, to be sure," he added, hesitat- 
 ing, " but I shall soon pay that off." 
 
 Mrs. Porter was surprised at the fact of the 
 mortgage, and at another time it would have 
 troubled her much ; but now she was so happy, 
 thinking of the great change that had come 
 over her husband, that she only replied cheer- 
 
 fully, 
 
 " And I can help you, George, and we shall
 
 HETTY PORTE B. 115 
 
 be so happy, and God will bless us if we only 
 look to him." 
 
 It was getting very late. Mrs. Porter waited 
 in vain for further words from Mr. Porter ; then 
 she rose, and drawing the stand toward him, 
 placed the large family 5ible upon it. 
 
 " Shall we have family prayers now, as we 
 used to ? " she said softly. 
 
 Mr. Porter, with a sudden start, leaned back 
 in his chair, and commenced turning the 'leaves 
 rapidly. At last he tried to read, but his voice 
 trembled, and the words seemed to choke him. 
 
 " I can't, Anna," he said, pushing the book 
 toward her; "you read to-night; I will after 
 this, God help me ! " 
 
 Mrs. Porter's voice trembled too, but it was 
 with joy. A song of thanksgiving went up 
 from her heart while she was reading one of 
 David's beautiful psalms, then they knelt ; and 
 once again, after all his wanderings, Mr. Porter 
 came back to the right way, the way which can 
 be entered only by prayer and faith in God. 
 
 It was very late that night before the little 
 cottage was still ; but for years, perhaps, its 
 humble walls had not held within them a
 
 116 HETTY PORTER. 
 
 happier heart than Mrs. Porter's. Her husband 
 turning to God Hetty coming home it was 
 too much joy ! 
 
 The next morning, as Mr. Porter stood with 
 his hand on the door-knob ready to go to his 
 work, he turned toward his wife and said, after 
 a momentary hesitation, 
 
 " You had better write this morning ; tell her 
 to come right off." 
 
 Mrs. Porter willingly consented. She hurried 
 through her work, then hastened up stairs to 
 comply. It was Hetty's room, looking just as 
 it did when she left it ; there, in one corner, was 
 the great chest that shut in her treasured books. 
 " Poor child," said Mrs. Porter, as she gathered 
 paper, pen, and ink together, " she has waited 
 patiently a long while, how glad she will be to 
 get this ; but what a coming home it will be not 
 to see Jamie ! " 
 
 Mrs. Porter wrote only a few lines ; it took 
 few words to hold the joyful message. " I will 
 just run down to the post-office now," she said 
 as she sealed it ; " perhaps it will go out to-day." 
 
 She had just reached the front door, when a 
 sight met her eyes that made her motionless.
 
 HETTY PORTER. 117 
 
 Coming up the walk was a crowd of men bear- 
 ing among them a burden. It was Mr. Porter ; 
 his face was deadly pale, his eyes were rolled up 
 and fixed. 
 
 Mrs. Porter did not faint ; she was not the 
 woman to lose her senses at the time they were 
 most needed. She rushed for the restoratives, 
 which, on a similar occasion, she had applied to 
 James ; but as she held them out with a trem- 
 bling hand to the doctor, who had just come in, 
 he shook his head. "No use," he whispered, 
 " he is dying." 
 
 Once only Mr. Porter's eyes wandered from 
 their fixedness, and something like a smile 
 played over his lips as he saw his wife bending 
 over him. He made an effort to raise his hand ; 
 Mrs. Porter clasped it in hers ; then in a few 
 moments, without a struggle, with scarcely a 
 visible sign, his soul passed away. 
 
 Mr. Porter had climbed very high to a part 
 of his work. A misstep had hurled him down 
 with such force upon the heavy timbers lying 
 around that it broke a blood-vessel, and, as we 
 have seen, he very soon expired. 
 
 The neighbors said that this was a judgment
 
 118 HETTY PORTER. 
 
 against Mr. Porter ; that, as he had been the 
 cause of his child's death, so had God visited upon 
 him a similar death ; but let us not judge ; we 
 will leave all with God who judgeth righteously. 
 Just as Mrs. Porter had begun to taste was 
 her cup of happiness dashed from her hand! It 
 was a sad trial to her. She forgot all the long 
 years of Mr. Porter's dissolute life, and thought 
 of him only as the kind husband he once had 
 been and had just commenced to be again.
 
 HETTY PORTER. 119 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 HOME AGAIN. 
 
 THERE came another letter to Hetty containing 
 news of death. She wept when she read it, but 
 we cannot blame her if it was less bitterly than 
 at the news of Jamie's death. This time she 
 went home to the funeral ; she was clasped in 
 her mother's arms, and then went softly, half 
 fearfully, into the room where her father lay. 
 A shudder came over her as she thought of 
 her parting with him on that well-remembered 
 morning ; the memory was bitter, and she could 
 not look calmly upon the white, passionless 
 face. 
 
 Hetty went to the graveyard where they had 
 lain her father and James. The cold winds, 
 forerunners of winter, blew chilly around her, 
 but she heeded them not; she sat down by 
 Jamie's grave to think. " "Where is he now ? " 
 might it not be possible that he was even that 
 moment looking down upon her? and she looked
 
 120 HETTY PORTE E. 
 
 up at the white clouds suddenly, half thinking 
 to see that loved face, with its sweet smile, gaz- 
 ing down through them. The question of that 
 morning, remembered now with pleasure as she 
 thought of her brother, with painful sadness as 
 she glanced at her father's grave near her, came 
 back and required yet again an answer; this 
 time the one her heart gave was not like that 
 given before. " Yes, she would meet him in 
 heaven ; " she felt an assurance that Jamie's 
 Saviour was her Saviour, then why need she 
 fear or doubt ? 
 
 Hetty thanked God earnestly before she left 
 the graveyard, that, though she had not now, yet 
 she once had a brother like James. She did not 
 realize fully, perhaps, what a blessing he had 
 been to her, what an influence for good his life 
 had had over her ; yet she felt it in a vague 
 way, and thanked God that she had had such a 
 brother. 
 
 Hetty was not to remain at home. Mrs. Por- 
 ter found that her house, as her husband had said, 
 was mortgaged, not very heavily it is true, yet 
 enough so to require a great effort on her part 
 to remove it. She could not bear the idea of
 
 HETTY PORTER. 121 
 
 giving up the home where she had passed the 
 happiest and the saddest part of her life ; be- 
 sides, if she should, where could she go ? 
 
 " I will help you all I can, mother," said 
 Hetty ; " we must keep our home." 
 
 The days passed rapidly, and the last one 
 came of Hetty's stay. She went up stairs in 
 the afternoon to spend a few parting moments 
 in her room. She had just lifted the cover of' 
 the chest, and was taking out her books and 
 looking them over, when her mother came 
 in. 
 
 " I am very sorry, Hetty," she said, seating 
 herself by the window. 
 
 " "What for ? " replied Hetty, turning with a 
 smile. 
 
 " Why, that you can't go on with your 
 studies ; that was what . you were thinking 
 about, wasn't it ? " 
 
 " No, mother ; I was wondering if I could 
 sell my books that would help us some." 
 
 Mrs. Porter's looks showed her astonishment 
 at this idea. " Why, you haven't given up all 
 hopes?" she said. 
 
 " I don't know," Hetty replied, " going over
 
 122 HETTY PORTER. 
 
 to her mother and pressing her face close to the 
 window. 
 
 " Don't be discouraged, daughter," said Mrs. 
 Porter, while a tone of sadness crept into her 
 own voice. 
 
 " No, mother, I am not," said Hetty, turn- 
 ing quickly ; " you think I am fretting about 
 not going to school, but I was thinking what 
 James said the last morning I saw him.. He 
 had been telling me how much he had wished 
 that he might be cured ; ' but now,' he said, ' I 
 am perfectly satisfied as it is, for God knows 
 best.' " 
 
 " And can you say that now, Hetty ? " 
 
 " Yes, mother." 
 
 " That is right, my child ; let us both remem- 
 ber that, in all cases, God knows best." 
 
 " But, mother, you can't imagine how wicked 
 I have been." 
 
 Hetty drew a stool to her mother's side, and 
 laying her head in her lap, told her the whole 
 story of her heart wanderings and murmurings, 
 and what had caused them ; she told how wicked 
 and miserable she had felt, and how, at last, she 
 had been roused by the news of Jamie's death.
 
 HETTY PORTER. 123 
 
 Before Mrs. Porter and Hetty left the room 
 that night they bowed in prayer there, and 
 rose from their knees much strengthened and 
 comforted. . 
 
 " If it is God's will that you should have an 
 education he will make an opening for you, 
 Hetty," said Mrs. Porter as they went down 
 stairs together.
 
 124 HETTY PORTER. 
 
 CHAPTEE XIY. 
 
 THE VOICE OF CONSCIENCE. 
 
 THE winter came, and its days were passing 
 swiftly away. Some of them were rather lonely 
 to Hetty, but generally they went pleasantly, for 
 she carried now a contented heart, which had 
 t & wonderful power of brightening the dark 
 places. 
 
 The "Sunday-school" still flourished, and as 
 the winter advanced it grew into almost a day- 
 school as well. Maggie's love for society had 
 been aroused, and now she seemed never quite 
 contented unless Hetty was with her. She 
 would watch for her hour after hour at the win- 
 dow, and rush out to greet her on her approach. 
 The little girl often came down to Dr. Mansou's 
 now, for somehow her grandfather seemed to 
 grow less strict with her ; perhaps Hetty had 
 awakened in his heart also a little love for 
 society. Maggie would sit hour after hour in 
 the large kitchen watching Hetty at her work,
 
 HETTY PORTER. 125 
 
 aud sometimes joining her in fragments of 
 conversation. 
 
 When the weather became cold they were 
 obliged to move their Sunday-school into the 
 room where Mr. Graham stayed. At first he 
 seemed annoyed at their presence, especially 
 when Hetty opened her Testament to read, 
 although she read always in a low voice, and 
 the two girls sat as far away from him as possible. 
 Mr. Graham was almost always reading in one 
 of the large old books that stood on the top of 
 the chest of drawers ; but Hetty, once or twice 
 in looking up, caught his eye fixed upon her, 
 and she knew he had been listening. 
 
 The Bible did not engage all the time the 
 girls spent together, though Maggie seemed to 
 love that book above all the rest. Watty fol- 
 lowed his first loan of a book with many others, 
 and they spent happy hours in looking at the 
 engravings ; besides, Hetty had a fund of stories 
 at her command, and many Sabbath-school songs 
 to draw from at pleasure. The two girls were 
 very happy together, and God was blessing 
 Hetty's weak endeavor to do good even more 
 than she knew.
 
 126 HETTY PORTER. 
 
 One Sunday afternoon Hetty had been hear- 
 ing a few verses that Maggie had learned ; as 
 she finished she drew her shawl round her 
 to go, 
 
 " Stay a little while longer," pleaded Maggie ; 
 " read one more chapter, just one." 
 
 Hetty sank back in her chair again, and 
 opened her Testament. She read along in the 
 chapter to which she had chanced to open till 
 she came to these words, " What shall it profit 
 a man if he gain the whole world and lose his 
 own soul ? " In a moment she thought of Mr. 
 Graham, and somehow she felt that he was 
 listening. Her voice trembled so that she could 
 hardly read, and she glanced up nervously to- 
 ward him ; she met his eyes fixed upon her, 
 and the blood rushed to her face as she looked 
 quickly down again. 
 
 " I guess you have stayed about long enough 
 for to-day," spoke up the old man sternly, as he 
 pushed his chair back and walked heavily to the 
 other side of the room. 
 
 Hetty, without a word, rose quickly to go; 
 while Maggie, putting her little hand out to de- 
 tain her, said, the tears starting to her eyes,
 
 HETTY PORTER. 127 
 
 "What is it ? -what lias Hetty done, grandpa ? 
 you will let her come to see me, wont you? " 
 
 " Stop your whining ! " he replied angrily ; 
 " she had better learn to be civil." 
 
 " I didn't mean anything, indeed I didn't," 
 said Hetty quickly. 
 
 Mr. Graham only frowned a reply, and Hetty 
 hurried out. Maggie started to follow her, but 
 her grandfather called her back. 
 
 "What made me look up just then? what 
 made me blush so ? what made my voice trem- 
 ble ? " were the words that hurried themselves 
 through Hetty's mind as she walked home. 
 This was the second time she had been sent away 
 from that house, and she felt like saying, as she 
 said before, that she would never, never go there 
 again. " how sorry I am I read that chap- 
 ter ! " she said to herself; " what made me turn 
 to that ? I suppose he thought I did it on 
 purpose." 
 
 Hetty did not know that what she called 
 an unlucky accident was but the placing by 
 Providence of a weapon in her hand to hurl 
 against the stronghold of covetousness and 
 sin in which Mr. Graham had been inclosed
 
 128 HETTY PORTER. 
 
 fur many years. lie was not really angry 
 with Hetty, he was angry with himself for 
 having "been caught listening; angry at the 
 book which contained those words that so 
 strangely troubled him for Mr. Graham had 
 heard them before, knew they were in the 
 Bible, and more than all professed to disbe- 
 lieve the contents of that book.
 
 HETTY PORTER. 129 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE BONFIRE. 
 
 " "WELL, for once in my life, I'm going to have 
 a little rest," said Ellis one morning as she 
 came down into the kitchen, and seated herself, 
 duster in hand, with a sigh of relief that fore- 
 shadowed the rest that was to come. 
 
 " How are you going to get it, Ellis ? " said 
 Hetty, turning toward her. 
 
 " "Well, you see, Mrs. Manson has got a letter 
 from her brother out west, and he wrote to have 
 her meet him at a place I don't know where, nor 
 I don't care ; but they are going to start next 
 Monday, and they are going to stay three 
 weeks." 
 
 ""What, the doctor, and "Watty, and all?" 
 
 " Yes, the whole tribe of them." 
 
 " O that will be nice ! " exclaimed Hetty ; 
 " then we will only have our own work to do." 
 
 " Yes, the rooms up stairs will have to be 
 aired and dusted once in a while; but that is
 
 130 HETTY PORTER. 
 
 just nothing to the everlasting frizzing, and 
 frying, and baking, and setting tables and wait- 
 ing on 'em." 
 
 Ellis had given a right plan of the intentions 
 of the Man son family. On the next Monday they 
 started on a journey to the western part of the 
 state. Watty came down into the kitchen on 
 that morning to give them his " parting adieus," 
 as he said. Hetty shook hands with him, and 
 returned a few of his almost numberless bows, 
 but Ellis was very stiff. She kept in remem- 
 brance the litters he had made, the mud and 
 snow he had tracked in on her clean floors, and 
 the thousand other ways in which he had an- 
 noyed her ; and she would only say in parting 
 that she was glad he was. going, she wished he 
 would stay forty years ; whereupon Watty pre- 
 tended to cry, and so, in the midst of mock 
 tears, he left them. 
 
 The days that followed were indeed days of 
 rest to Mrs. Ellis and Hetty. Ellis made no 
 objections now to having Hetty spend her time 
 mostly with Maggie ; indeed, she seemed after 
 the work was once done up in the morning to 
 like to have her away.
 
 HETTY PORTER. 131 
 
 The annoyance that Hetty had felt at being 
 sent home had passed off. She could not resist 
 Maggie's pleadings, and, as Mr. Graham never 
 afterward showed signs of anger toward her, 
 she in time forgot the occurrence of that Sunday. 
 
 As the winter advanced and signs of spring 
 approached, Mr. Graham's health failed rapidly. 
 Though he would not acknowledge he was sick, 
 yet many days he kept the lounge from morn- 
 ing till night. It happened, very fortunately 
 for him, that just at that time Hetty could be 
 there so much ; for, although Maggie eagerly 
 did all she could, she knew but little about 
 taking care of the sick. It was Hetty that 
 made the nice toast and -tea. It was she that 
 shook up his bed so carefully, and did so quiet- 
 ly those countless little things essential in a sick 
 room. 
 
 Mr. Graham would lie for hours with half 
 closed eyes, listening to the talk of the two girls. 
 He never made any objections to their reading 
 in the Bible, though at times the words seemed 
 to make him uneasy. 
 
 " How beautiful heaven will be, Maggie," 
 said Hetty one day as they sat together by the
 
 132 UETTY PORTER. 
 
 window, while Mr. Graham lay upon the lounge 
 apparently sleeping, " and how nice it will be to 
 meet our friends there. I think the first one 
 that I shall see will be my brother Jamie." 
 
 "Are you such a silly goose 'as to suppose 
 there is such a place ? " said Mr. Graham, speak- 
 ing up so quickly that Hetty turned with a 
 sudden start ; she had supposed him sleeping. 
 
 It was the first time that he had ever spoken 
 to her on such a subject; but she answered 
 quickly, the blood rushing to her face in her 
 excitement. 
 
 " O yes, I know there is ! " 
 
 " Well, well, I don't know it ! " he replied, 
 closing his eyes again. 
 
 He lay still for a long while, and Hetty had 
 just tied on her bonnet to go, when he opened 
 his eyes again and beckoned to Maggie. 
 
 " Bring me those books," he said, raising him- 
 self upon his elbow and pointing to the chest of 
 drawers. 
 
 Maggie climbed up into a chair and reached 
 them down, while Hetty brought them one by 
 one and placed them \>y the side of the lounge. 
 
 Mr. Graham took up one and turned over a
 
 
 
 The Bonfire.
 
 HETTY PORTER. 135 
 
 few leaves, then lie placed it back, and with a 
 great effort lifting them all with both hands, he 
 held them toward Hetty. 
 
 " Burn them up," he said ; " throw them into 
 the fireplace." 
 
 Hetty and Maggie looked at each other in 
 astonishment ; was he growing crazy ? " Why, 
 grandpa, burn up all those books you read in 
 so much ! " said Maggie. 
 
 " Yes, burn them up," he replied emphatical- 
 ly ; and as Hetty walked reluctantly toward the 
 fireplace he added, " they are infidel books. I 
 have tried hard to be one ; but it's hard now, 
 it's hard." 
 
 Hetty hesitated no longer; she threw the 
 heavy weight upon the blazing wood. As she 
 did so she said impulsively, " I wish I had 
 every infidel book in the world to burn along 
 with them, what a splendid bonfire they would 
 make." 
 
 All three watched the fire till the last trace 
 of the books disappeared ; then Mr. Graham 
 sank back, wearied with the effort he had made, 
 and with the excitement of his feelings. 
 
 " Wouldn't you like to have the minister
 
 136 HETTY PORTER. 
 
 call ? " said Hetty, half fearfully, going up to the 
 lounge, for she felt that Mr. Graham ought to 
 have encouragement and help in the putting 
 away of evil from him. 
 
 But he only shook his head for a reply, and 
 Hetty did not dare say more. 
 
 Was it the effect of the readings of the Bible, 
 of the many texts that had been repeated out of 
 it, of the simple explanations and the comments 
 upon them, and the conversations relating to 
 them, that had caused this bulwark of infidel- 
 itv to totter? "We do not know, nor will 
 
 it 
 
 Hetty know until that last day which shall re- 
 veal all things : but this we do know, the con- 
 stant reading or hearing of the Bible cannot 
 fail of having an influence for good ; and if its 
 truths are received in simple faith they must 
 become the greatest of blessings. Perhaps 
 Hetty's and Maggie's conversation, breathing 
 forth this childlike faith, had awakened some- 
 thing similar in his heart. We cannot tell ; we 
 know only the deeds that sprung from his 
 feelings.
 
 HETTY P on TEE. 137 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 THE PRESENT: 
 
 "WHY, Ellis, what is the matter? you are 
 putting the duster in the stove for wood." 
 
 Ellis started up at Hetty's words, and shut 
 the stove-door quickly. She had just come 
 down stairs, looking nervous and half frightened, 
 and acting strangely. Hetty noticed this, and 
 inquired anxiously, "Are you sick, Ellis ? " 
 
 " You tend to your business and I will tend 
 to mine," was the sour reply ; and thus rebuffed, 
 Hetty turned back to the work in which she 
 was engaged without saying more. She was 
 called from it in a moment, however, by Ellis, 
 telling her to carry the duster up stairs and put 
 it in its place. 
 
 Hetty did as she was commanded, secretly 
 wondering all the time why it had been brought 
 down stairs at all. She went up into the long 
 hall that had such a lonely, deserted look about 
 it now; the door of the parlor stood open, and
 
 138 HETTY PORTER. 
 
 she thought of those beautiful pictures on its 
 walls, and she wished greatly that she might 
 just go in and look at them again ; but she 
 knew that, without permission, she had no right 
 to do so, and, hurrying away from the tempta- 
 tation, she soon stood at the kitchen door again. 
 
 All that day Ellis continued to act strangely. 
 She trembled at any little noise, and seemed 
 very absent-minded. Hetty dared ask no ques- 
 tions, but she watched the strange motions with 
 wonder. 
 
 Toward night Hetty went up to see Maggie. 
 "Perhaps it will be a long time before I can 
 come again," she said as she was about leaving 
 for home. "Dr. Hanson's folks are coming 
 home to-morrow, and then there will be a great 
 deal to do, you know. Ellis says we shall have 
 to make up for lost time." 
 
 " But you must come every Sunday," 
 pleaded Maggie. 
 
 "Yes, we will try to keep up our Sunday- 
 school." 
 
 " "What is that you are saying ? " said Mr. 
 Graham, rousing himself from his stupor and 
 looking at the girls.
 
 HETTY PORTER. 139 
 
 " Nothing, grandpa," replied Maggie, going 
 up to the lounge, " only Hetty says she can't 
 come here so much, because Mr. Manson's folks 
 are coming home ; but I tell her she must come 
 every Sunday for our Sunday-school." 
 
 "Can't come any more? Well," he said, 
 turning to Hetty, " you have done a good deal 
 of work here. I am willing to pay you " 
 
 " O no," she said, interrupting him. " If I 
 have done you any good you are perfectly wel- 
 come to it." 
 
 He lay still for a moment without speaking, 
 then he pointed to Maggie. "Do you want 
 her to go to Sunday-school with you ? " 
 
 " O grandpa ! may I ? " said Maggie, joy- 
 fully. ' 
 
 " Yes, as soon as it gets warm weather you 
 may go, and you shall have some new clothes 
 to wear." 
 
 " O how good, how kind you are ! " Hetty 
 could not refrain from saying in her great joy ; 
 but Mr. Graham paid no attention to her praise ; 
 he closed his eyes again, and Hetty went out, 
 followed by Maggie. 
 
 The joy that shone in Maggie's face made her
 
 140 HETTY PORTER. 
 
 almost beautiful, notwithstanding her sharp 
 features and the bunch on her back. 
 
 " O how nice it will be to go to Sunday- 
 school ! " she exclaimed ; " aint grandpa real 
 good now ? " 
 
 Hetty readily assented, kissing the bright, 
 glowing face ; then she hastened home, for it 
 was already growing dark. A new surprise met 
 her there. The Manson family had returned 
 a day sooner than they intended, and the house 
 was once again all stir and bustle. 
 
 Hetty was glad to see them all. It was a real 
 pleasure now to go up stairs to lay and wait 
 upon the table, and to hear again the lively chat 
 around it. She appreciated the few kindly 
 words that Mrs. Manson gave her in greeting 
 her, for it was very seldom that the lady noticed 
 her by word or look. She appreciated still more 
 the little bow the doctor made her, for it was 
 still more seldom that he paid any attention to 
 her presence. 
 
 "Watty's recognition of the little servant girl 
 was more substantial than his father's and moth- 
 er's had been. He came down in the evening 
 with a book which he had brought as a present
 
 HETTY PORTER. 141 
 
 for her. He presented it in that easy, careless way 
 peculiar to him, and Hetty hardly knew how to 
 thank him as she wished, he ignored so persist- 
 ently all her attempts. The book contained the 
 portraits of distinguished women, many of whom 
 had risen from obscurity and poverty to high 
 positions in the world, with a short sketch of 
 the lives of each. As Hetty saw the contents 
 of her book she felt the delicate compliment 
 that "Watty had given her in choosing it, and 
 thanked him again in her heart. 
 
 When Hetty lay her head down upon the pil- 
 low that night, and ran over the events of the day 
 in her mind, she felt that it deserved a white 
 mark for its record. Maggie going to Sunday- 
 school, Doctor and Mrs. Manson so kind, and 
 then that beautiful, beautiful book; so, in the 
 midst of pleasant thoughts, she fell asleep.
 
 142 HETTY PORTER. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 THE ACCUSATION. 
 
 " MRS. HANSON wants to see you in the 
 parlor," said Ellis, coming down stairs the next 
 morning. 
 
 " Wants to see me ! what for ? " exclaimed 
 Hetty, with surprise in her voice. 
 
 " Go and see," said Ellis, leaving the room as 
 she spoke, and shutting the door very energet- 
 ically behind her. 
 
 Mrs. Manson was standing by the marble 
 mantle with the fragments of a beautiful vase 
 in her hands. 
 
 " Can you tell me," she said sternly as Hetty 
 entered, " how this came broken ? " 
 
 Hetty had an unfortunate habit of coloring 
 at any little excitement or unforeseen occur- 
 rence. The blood rushed now to her face, and 
 as Mrs. Manson continued to look closely and 
 sternly at her it extended over her forehead, 
 and she felt her whole face burning painfully.
 
 HETTY PORTER. 143 
 
 " No, ma'am, I cannot," she answered at last, 
 looking Mrs. Man son full in the face. 
 
 " I am sorry to hear you say that," said the 
 lady coldly ; (l your face speaks the truth better 
 than your tongue, I am afraid." 
 
 " But, Mrs. Manson, I do not know who broke 
 it. I have not been in the room since you have 
 been gone." 
 
 " Don't say that again," she said sternly. 
 " The vase was a valuable one, and I am sorry to 
 lose it ; but I do not care so much about that as 
 I do to hear you tell such dreadful falsehoods." 
 
 " I did not do it," persisted Hetty, hiding her 
 face in her apron, trying vainly to keep back 
 the sobs. 
 
 " It makes me shudder to hear you repeat 
 that. Don't you know that God is listening to 
 all this that you are saying ? " 
 
 Hetty did not reply ; she could not command 
 her voice. 
 
 " What would your poor mother think to hear 
 this ? For her sake I will give you a chance to 
 take it back. Go away now. To-morrow morn- 
 ing come to me in my room, and if you do not 
 confess that you broke the vase, then you must
 
 144 HETTY PORTER. 
 
 go home. I cannot tolerate a girl that tells lies 
 in my house." 
 
 Hetty turned sobbing away. She knew that 
 she was innocent, and to be accused, to be talked 
 to in this way, it was horrible. 
 
 She sank down into a chair as she entered the 
 kitchen, and her partly suppressed grief burst 
 forth in great sobs that shook her whole frame. 
 " Don't, don't," said Ellis in a husky voice. 
 " It'll all pass over ; it's no killing matter after 
 all." 
 
 "But I didn't do it," said Hetty stoutly; 
 " and Mrs. Manson is going to send me away 
 unless I say I did." 
 
 " O she wont ! that's only a scare," said Ellis, 
 trying to speak lightly. 
 
 All the rest of the day Ellis avoided Hetty as 
 much as possible. She was evidently troubled, 
 and uneasy about something. Hetty was too 
 much occupied with herself to notice this, nor 
 did she stop to think who broke the vase ; she 
 only knew she did not do it. 
 
 It was well for Hetty that Ellis did not call 
 upon her, for she felt as if she could not work. 
 She spent the afternoon in her room, and a
 
 HETTY PORTER. 145 
 
 most miserable afternoon it was. A lie had 
 always seemed such a wicked thing ; and now 
 to be accused of telling one was so humiliating, 
 BO dreadful ; how her mother would feel to have 
 her come home in this disgrace ; but just here 
 was a consolation her mother would believe 
 her story, she would know that she was inno- 
 cent, but she would go home only to be a bur- 
 den. Then how meanly Mrs. Manson, and the 
 doctor, and Watty too would think of her, and 
 Watty had given her that beautiful book ; but 
 she couldn't keep that now, she wouldn't while 
 he considered her a liar ; and there came a fresh 
 burst of tears with the last word. She took the 
 book and went down stairs, hoping that he 
 would come into the kitchen that she might 
 return it. Watty did not come in, and Hetty 
 sat before the fireplace with her swollen and 
 aching eyes hid in her hands, while Ellis went 
 back and forth in the kitchen casting furtive 
 glances at the unhappy child, but never once 
 speaking a word. 
 
 In the evening Maggie came down, and for once 
 Hetty was not glad to see her. Her grandfather, 
 she said, was better to-night, and he had given
 
 146 HETTY PORTER. 
 
 her permission to come down and stay an 
 hour. 
 
 Hetty did not wish to trouble Maggie with 
 her trouble, so she told her nothing of it ; and 
 evaded, as much as possible, the questionings 
 that her swollen eyes brought up. 
 
 " I have stayed 'most an hour," Maggie said, 
 after they had talked a while; "but can't you 
 read a little before I go ? " 
 
 Hetty took out her little pocket Testament 
 and opened it; well, perhaps, would it have 
 been for her if, in her trouble, she had opened 
 it before. She turned with a sudden impulse 
 to the fifth chapter of Acts. She had often 
 read the solemn account before, but never had 
 it been so impressed upon her mind. Those 
 two successive deaths never had seemed so 
 real before. If she had looked at Ellis, as 
 she explained the story to Maggie, she would 
 have seen her wince and tremble under the 
 words. 
 
 When Hetty came in from accompanying 
 Maggie part way home Ellis sat with her head 
 bowed on the table. She looked up immedi- 
 ately with a half-frightened expression.
 
 HETTY PORTER. 147 
 
 "Do you suppose that is true you read to- 
 night ? " she said. 
 
 " Of course," replied Hetty, looking at her, 
 a suspicion flashing into her mind. 
 
 " But God don't kill folks that way now ! " 
 
 " Perhaps not ; but it shows how much he 
 hates a lie, and how truly he will punish it 
 some time." 
 
 Ellis said no more, but hid her face again on 
 the table. Hetty thought of the morning that 
 Ellis had come down looking so frightened and 
 acting so strangely, and with the thought came 
 a strong belief that she had broken the vase. 
 She tried to gather courage to ask her about it, 
 but her voice failed her ; she dared not do it. 
 Then she went slowly up stairs to her own 
 room, but not to rest ; the trouble on her heart 
 was too heavy to lose in a quiet sleep. 
 
 Hetty packed her things together the next 
 morning. She had made up her mind to go 
 without seeing Mrs. Manson again, for she was 
 not willing to confess what she had not done ; 
 but the lady sent a message by Ellis for her, 
 and she obeyed. 
 
 " If you would only just say you did per-
 
 148 HETTY POUTER. 
 
 haps you know," faltered Ellis, catching hold 
 of Hetty as she stood in the door. 
 
 Hetty pulled herself away ; she would not 
 listen to what Ellis was trying to say, but 
 rushed up stairs, anxious to have the dreadful 
 interview ended. 
 
 Dr. Manson was sitting in his wife's room. 
 When Hetty entered he put down his paper 
 and, pushing back his spectacles, looked solemn- 
 ly at her. 
 
 " I hope," said Mrs. Manson, leaning forward 
 in the large arm-chair, " that you have re- 
 pented of your sin, and are willing to confess it 
 now. I have made up my mind that if you do 
 so I will pass it over and say no more about it." 
 
 Hetty only shook her head in reply. 
 
 " And you still persist in your falsehoods. I 
 cannot encourage such wickedness in my house 
 you must go." 
 
 " But I did not break the vase," faltered Hetty. 
 
 " I have told you not to say that again," said 
 Mrs. Manson in a very stern voice. "Your 
 face yesterday showed and to-day it shows every 
 appearance of guilt. You must have done it, 
 for there was no one in the house but you 
 * I
 
 HETTY PORTER. 149 
 
 Ellis, and she says that you were up stairs often. 
 .Remember, I do not send you away because you 
 broke the vase, but because you have told false- 
 hoods about it." 
 
 Hetty could not speak ; she felt the sobs rising 
 in her throat as she turned quickly to go. 
 
 " And all liars shall have their part in the 
 lake that burneth with fire and brimstone," said 
 the doctor solemnly, as she reached the door. 
 
 Hetty hurried out into the hall. She met 
 Watty on the stairs as she was going down. 
 
 " I want to give you back ' that book," she 
 said,- hiding her red eyes from him as he stop- 
 ped his steps and his whistling and looked 
 sharply at her. 
 
 "Whew! what's to pay now? Don't you 
 like the book ? " 
 
 " O yes, it's beautiful ; but I don't want to 
 keep it when you think everybody thinks I 
 tell lies." 
 
 " I wouldn't make such a big fuss about all 
 the vases in the world. I don't believe you 
 broke it anyhow, 'pon my word I don't." 
 
 "Don't you now, truly? " said Hetty, eagerly 
 Baking down her hands.
 
 150 HETTY PORTER. 
 
 " No, I don't. I wouldn't wonder if it was 
 cats, or something. I saw a yellow cat around 
 here this morning, and like as not she was the 
 very one that done it. A witch in disguise, you 
 know ; they can crawl through key -holes, or 
 cracks, or anything, and this cat did look just 
 like a witch; she had the queerest eyes; did 
 you hear her screech last night ? " 
 
 " O you are making fun of me," said Hetty, 
 the tears starting again ; " you do believe 1 
 broke it." 
 
 " No I don't, honor bright, black and white. 
 I don't as true as I live, Hetty." 
 
 Hetty did not doubt longer. " Thank you," 
 she said earnestly ; " I will keep the book, then, 
 and thank you again for it. I am going home 
 now ; good-by." 
 
 "I'll just talk with mother about this. I 
 think it's real mean to send you off so." 
 
 " O no ! don't say a word. I wouldn't have you 
 for anything. I couldn't stay now anyways." 
 
 " Well, good-by, then," he said, starting along, 
 and commencing the tune that meeting her had 
 interrupted ; but he turned again and called 
 out, " I am going to Uncle Law ton's befor 

 
 HETTY POETEK. 151 
 
 long, and perhaps I will run over and see 
 you." 
 
 Hetty only bowed in reply, and hastened on. 
 There was one who believed her innocent, and 
 the knowledge of this made a very wide streak 
 of light in the dark cloud that was over her. 
 
 Ellis was sitting crouched over the fireplace. 
 Hetty went up to the hearth, and, looking into 
 the fire, repeated softly to herself the words that 
 just then came to her mind, the words that Dr. 
 Manson had flung at her : " All liars shall have 
 their part in the lake that burneth with fire and 
 brimstone." 
 
 Ellis rose from her chair trembling all over, 
 and seized Hetty's hand. 
 
 " I say it's too bad ; you shant go, I say you 
 shant " she stopped suddenly, and sank down 
 in her chair again. 
 
 The conviction had been growing stronger 
 in Hetty's mind that Ellis was the guilty one. 
 " How mean it is," she thought, as she stood 
 looking at her, " to lay it t>n me." She was try- 
 ing to gather courage to ask her a direct ques- 
 tion concerning it, when Watty burst in at the 
 kitchen door.
 
 152 HETTY PORTER. 
 
 " I say it's smart," he said, " to make you 
 walk down to the depot just like some old 
 well, I don't know what; but I am just going to 
 harness up the pony and take you down, so 
 when you are ready let me know." 
 
 " O no. I can walk just as well as not. I 
 wouldn't have you do it for anything; your 
 mother wouldn't like it." 
 
 " I guess the pony is mine. Uncle Lawton 
 gave it to me, and I'll risk its hurting the car- 
 riage. If I'm a mind to take a ride this morn- 
 ing and go down past the depot, I wonder if its 
 anybody's business." 
 
 Hetty had just begun to expostulate further, 
 when she was saved the trouble by the sound 
 of a little, weak step, which she knew to be 
 Maggie's, at the door, and she hastened to open 
 it, with a feeling of thankfulness that she was 
 going to see her once more before she left. 
 
 " Grandpa wants you should come up, Het- 
 ty. He is sicker to-day can't you come ? Do 
 come, Hetty," said Maggie in a quick, excited 
 way the moment she entered. 
 
 Hetty hardly knew what to do ; she wanted 
 to go with Maggie very much, but if she
 
 HETTY PORTER. 153 
 
 did she would miss the cars. A little more 
 pleading from the little girl, and a suggestion 
 by Watty that she could just as well go home 
 to-morrow as to-day decided her, and she hast- 
 ened up stairs after her bonnet and shawl, and 
 in a few moments was walking rapidly with 
 
 Maggie to the old house in the field. 
 10
 
 154 HETTY PORTER. 
 
 CHAPTEK XVIII. 
 
 DEATH OF MR. GRAHAM. 
 
 MR. GRAHAM was lying in a stupor when the 
 girls entered. " I think he is very sick." said 
 Hetty, bending over the lounge. " Why didn't 
 you tell me he was so bad ? and I would have 
 hurried more." 
 
 " He wasn't so when I went away," said 
 Maggie breathlessly; "he was talking all the 
 time. What shall we do? " 
 
 " Can you run for some boy, for the doctor ? 
 No, you stay and I will. I can go faster." 
 
 But just then Mr. Graham looked up with 
 a glance of recognition. 
 
 " What can I do for you ? " said Hetty, bow- 
 ing at the head of the lounge. 
 
 He made no reply, but kept his eyes fixed 
 upon her. Hetty was alarmed at the strange 
 expression on his face, and rising up softly she 
 hurried away for assistance. 
 
 Mr. Graham's disease had rather suddenly
 
 HETTY PORTER. 155 
 
 developed alarming symptoms. The doctor 
 gave no hope of his recovery. " I ought to 
 have been called before," he said ; " I am afraid 
 it's too late now." 
 
 Mr. Graham recovered his consciousness, and 
 became able to speak in whispers ; but he failed 
 every day, and all knew that the end was near. 
 Maggie was so frightened that she was incapable 
 of doing anything. She would sit for hours to- 
 gether by the bedside gazing into her grand- 
 father's pallid face, with tears in her eyes. 
 Stern though he had been to her, yet the ties of 
 nature were strong in her young heart, and 
 she loved him dearly. Hetty now took charge 
 of all the work ; she watched and waited upon 
 the sick man unceasingly. With her the doctor 
 left his orders, and she was faithful in seeing 
 them obeyed. She gave up all thoughts of 
 going home at present. She could not leave 
 Maggie clinging so helplessly to her, and the 
 old man needing to have so many things done 
 that she could do. 
 
 In health, Mr. Graham had repelled almost 
 everybody from him ; but now, as the news 
 spread abroad that he was sick, many called in
 
 150 HETTY PORTER. 
 
 to see him. The minister came; but, though 
 Mr. Graham listened earnestly to all that he 
 said, yet he would not converse with him. The 
 only thing that showed he had any interest in 
 religion was his insisting upon having the 
 "Sabbath-school" daily. Hetty's voice often 
 failed as she read the chapters and felt his eyes 
 fixed upon her. She knew she was reading 
 God's word to one just on the verge of eternity, 
 and she prayed earnestly for direction to choose 
 appropriate passages. 
 
 A few days after Hetty came to Mr. Gra- 
 ham's, Mrs. Manson called with some little 
 delicacy for the sick man. She spoke kindly to 
 Maggie, then turned and beckoned Hetty with 
 her to the window. 
 
 " I am sorry, my child," she said, taking 
 Hetty's hand as she stood before her, " I am 
 sorry I accused you so wrongfully. I have 
 found out all about that vase ; it was Ellis her- 
 self that broke it." 
 
 " O I am so glad ! " exclaimed Hetty joyful- 
 ly ; " so glad that you don't think I told that lie. 
 I thought it was Ellis all the time, she acted 
 so strangely. I was almost certain it was."
 
 HETTY PORTER. 157 
 
 " Then why did you not tell me your 
 
 suspicions ? " 
 
 " O, I didn't want to accuse her unless I knew 
 without the least doubt ; besides " 
 
 " Well," interrupted Mrs. Manson, coloring a 
 little at the implied rebuke, though Hetty did 
 not intend it as such, "I never saw any one 
 suffer so much as she has about it. Her con- 
 science troubled her so that she could not rest, 
 and she came to me and confessed it all. It 
 seems she went up to dust the parlor the same 
 day we returned, and in removing the vase it 
 slipped from her hand ; and she was so afraid 
 of being blamed that she threw suspicion 
 upon you, instead of frankly confessing it as 
 she ought. If she had done so I should have 
 treated it as an unfortunate accident, and said 
 nothing about it." 
 
 " But you will forgive her now ? " said Hetty 
 thoughtfully. 
 
 "I have done so. She has been punished 
 enough already ; but what I wanted to say to 
 you is this, you must come back again. I take 
 back, of course, all those things I said to you, 
 I am sorry for them."
 
 158 H'ETTY POKTEK. 
 
 "But I cannot leave Maggie now," said Hetty, 
 glancing toward the bed. 
 
 " No, of course not. You are doing nicely 
 here, Hetty, nicely. Your pay shall go on all 
 the same, for I am glad to see you so kind to 
 the sick; but I think you will be released from 
 here before long," and Mrs. Manson's eyes fol- 
 lowed Hetty's and rested upon the sick man's 
 face. He cannot live long," she added in a 
 whisper ; " then you must come back." 
 
 " Yes, ma'am," said Hetty sadly, and Mrs. 
 Manson turned away. 
 
 A great weight was lifted from Hetty's heart ; 
 but there was only time for little under-currents 
 of joy, for her thoughts were engaged upon the 
 sick man. He gre\y worse rapidly, and needed 
 much care. 
 
 But there came one day when his failing ener- 
 gies seemed to rally. He talked considerably 
 with neighbors who came in and requested to 
 have a lawyer called, and spent some time 
 with him in putting finishing touches to his 
 will. 
 
 He seemed so bright that Maggie was almost 
 crazy with joy, and Hetty said to the doctor
 
 HETTY PORTER. 159 
 
 wlien he came in, " He is a great deal better ; 
 he will get well." 
 
 But the doctor did not share in this hope. 
 He shook his head, and said solemnly, "It is 
 only the last flickering of the lamp. I shouldn't 
 wonder if he should die to-morrow." 
 
 The words sank sadly into Hetty's heart. 
 "Was he reconciled to God? O how could 
 they let him die so ? " 
 
 She went up to the bedside when at last the 
 three were left alone, feeling as if she must say 
 something. 
 
 " If you would only let me call the minister," 
 she faltered with tears in her eyes, " if you 
 would only let him pray " 
 
 * "What a strange child you are ! " said Mr. Gra- 
 ham, interrupting her, not angrily, but in a kind 
 voice ; " I tell you I would be ashamed to ask 
 God to forgive me now after I have been so 
 wicked all my days ; but if you think it would 
 do any good to pray, you may pray. I had a 
 great deal rather hear you than the minister." 
 
 The blood rushed into Hetty's/face, she felt 
 as if she could not do that ; but then a thought 
 of her sainted brother, how often he had done
 
 160 IlETTY PORTEK. 
 
 this very thing, and a thought of that old man 
 so near, so very near death, decided her, and 
 she sank upon her knees. At first her voice 
 did not rise above a whisper ; but gradually, as 
 she forgot herself, it became strong and earnest. 
 Maggie knelt sobbing beside her, with her little 
 hand in hers. 
 
 When Hetty rose she met Mr. Graham's eyes 
 fixed upon her. " You are a good child," he said 
 kindly, " but it's too late for me now," and the 
 look of pain that Hetty had noticed before 
 crossed his face. 
 
 " But Jesus died for all. He would forgive 
 you now. I know he would if you would only 
 pray." 
 
 " I haven't prayed since I was a little child. 
 I don't know how." 
 
 " Can't you just say, * for Jesus's sake.' " 
 
 " For Jesus's sake," he repeated in a low 
 voice. It was a solemn sight. An old man 
 old in sin as well as years being taught by the 
 lips of a child those blessed words. He repeated 
 them yet again, then closed his eyes wearily. 
 For a moment he lay quite still ; but he started 
 up suddenly, and drawing Maggie to him kissed
 
 HETTY PORTER. 161 
 
 her tearful face, then sinking back upon the 
 pillows, he lay apparently unconscious for a 
 long time. 
 
 Hetty turned away from the bed unsatisfied. 
 How could she be otherwise ? O, these death- 
 bed repentances are not the things to offer up 
 to God. How can we rob him of everything 
 that belongs to him day after day, year after 
 year, trusting to the few last moments of life to 
 make it all right. It is too dangerous. God 
 will not be mocked. 
 
 The next day, as the doctor had prophesied, 
 Mr. Graham died. He had been lying in a 
 stupor for a long while ; suddenly he roused him- 
 self, and made a quick motion to those who sur- 
 rounded his bedside, then fell back panting and 
 gasping for breath. Maggie rushed to him and 
 threw her arms in fright round his neck, but in 
 a moment it was only breathless, lifeless clay 
 that she embraced.
 
 162 HETTY PORTER. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 THE house was filled to its utmost capacity at 
 the funeral. Through all the services Maggie's 
 quick convulsive sobbing could be heard as she sat 
 close to the coffin, the only relative and mourner. 
 
 It was pitiful to see the little orphan's grief. 
 No one could comfort her in any degree but 
 Hetty, and to her she clung as if she were her 
 only friend on*earth. 
 
 The day after the funeral the will was opened, 
 for all were anxious to know what to do with 
 Maggie. Mr. Graham had not left as much 
 property as many supposed he would leave ; but 
 enough was left to amply provide for Maggie 
 all her lifetime. The last clause of the will 
 was one that surprised many, and Hetty Porter 
 most of all. It was a clause making over a 
 handsome present to her ; not a large one, to 
 be sure, but enough the thought came to her 
 immediately to pay off the mortgage.
 
 HETTY PORTER. 163 
 
 As we have said, Hetty was very much sur- 
 prised at Mr. Graham's remembering her in his 
 will, she had never thought of such a thing ; but 
 others said it was no more than right, though 
 it was strange that the old man should have 
 thought of it. 
 
 " What a comfort she has been to that little 
 child of his," they said, " and what a help to 
 him too in all his sickness." All were glad for 
 the child whom they had seen so patiently and 
 busily at work when they had called at Mr. 
 Graham's. 
 
 Hetty determined to go immediately home and 
 commence her studies again. Now had God pro- 
 vided the way, and so made known his will con- 
 cerning her, and her will and desires coincided 
 exactly. 
 
 After the funeral Maggie went home with the 
 guardian who had been appointed for her. and 
 the old house was shut up and all allowed to go 
 to ruin together. 
 
 Hetty walked down that afternoon with 
 Watty, who came up to accompany her to his 
 home, her home no longer, for to-morrow the 
 cars would bear her far from it
 
 164: HETTY PORTER. 
 
 How different was the greeting that 
 Doctor and Mrs. Manson gave her from the 
 parting words she had received but a short 
 time since. Both seemed to try to make all 
 possible amends for their unkind words and 
 suspicions. Hetty did not take her accustomed 
 place in the kitchen, but gathered with them 
 round the table upon which she had so often 
 waited. In the evening she sat with them 
 under the big chandelier in the library, and a 
 most happy evening it was. Doctor Manson 
 and his wife talked very kindly to her; they 
 commended her for her determination to get 
 an education, and encouraged her to proceed. 
 And Watty ? yes, he had much to say also, and 
 somehow his hearty words had more of interest 
 in them for her, for she did not forget never 
 would forget, she said that while others 
 believed her guilty, his faith had remained 
 unshaken. 
 
 In the morning Hetty went down stairs. She 
 had rather dreaded to meet Ellis, and as she 
 first entered the kitchen she seemed hardly to 
 know what to say ; but one of her quick im- 
 pulses came over her as she noticed how sad
 
 HETTY PORTER. 165 
 
 Ellis looked, and she went up to her and flung 
 her arms round her neck. 
 
 Ellis could not resist this unexpected greet- 
 ing, and the tears almost choked her as she said, 
 " It was mean, any how." 
 
 " Don't say a word about it," said Hetty 
 quickly. " I forgive you, and God will too if 
 you will pray to him." 
 
 " I do pray," said Ellis, bending down and 
 speaking in a low whisper, " I've been awful 
 wicked. Do you suppose there is any help for 
 me?" 
 
 " O yes, yes ! I know there is. O, I'm so 
 glad, Ellis, for you will be so happy if you are 
 a Christian. Don't give up, but keep praying. 
 I shall pray for you too every night and 
 morning." 
 
 Hetty went up stairs to get her trunk in 
 readiness, while Ellis followed on to help, telling 
 her all the time in a broken voice how miser- 
 able that lie had made her, and how wicked, 
 how dreadful wicked she had been, and how she 
 was trying to find forgiveness. 
 
 At last the trunk was all ready. Hetty turned 
 to give a last look at the little room one last
 
 166 HETTY PORTER. 
 
 look out at the window by which she had so 
 often sat sometimes in joy, sometimes in sor 
 row. The tears started to her eyes as she noted 
 the old house in the field, and thought of all 
 that had passed within it. Then she turned, 
 and flinging her arms again around Ellis's neck, 
 she whispered, " God will help you, I know 
 he will ; keep praying, dear Ellis, and I shall 
 remember you always, and always pray for 
 you." 
 
 Watty drove Hetty down to the depot. She 
 made no objections now, for she knew his 
 mother would have none. Mrs. Man son stood on 
 the piazza, and spoke kindly " good-byes," while 
 Doctor Manson made a stately bow from the 
 hall. Hetty looked back suddenly at the 
 moment of starting, and saw Ellis standing in 
 the kitchen door with her apron to her eyes. 
 With a last bow to her, and a last glance at the 
 pleasant house, she was borne away. 
 
 We cannot follow Hetty step by step any fur- 
 ther. She worked her way through the pre- 
 paratory course, and finally graduated. She 
 spent a few years as teacher in a ladies' semi- 
 nary. Afterward, as the wife of a minister, she
 
 HETTY PORTER. 167 
 
 spent many happy years, useful in her day and 
 generation. She found always that God knows 
 best, and that he would guide and lead her if 
 she put her trust in him, even as she had found 
 in childhood. 
 
 Before we leave "Watty we must say this much 
 further of him. He passed through boyhood 
 without an experimental knowledge of religion; 
 but a revival occurred at the college in which 
 he graduated soon after he entered it, and he 
 was one of the first to be awakened. His chosen 
 profession was the law ; but after many strug- 
 gles, it is true, he gave that up, for he heard the 
 voice of God telling him to preach his gospel, 
 and he dare not refuse the call. 
 
 Maggie died early; but she had lived near 
 her Saviour, and her death was very, very happy. 
 
 THE END.
 
 
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