who have had their adoring gaze fixed all had set in unusually early; her grandtheir lives upon this exampler of self-de- father had been entirely laid up with a nial and gentleness, and who have no severe attack of his old enemy, rheumaother? If it was superfluous to say to tism; and the responsibility of gaining English people that the religion of the what little they could, at a time when Koran has not the value of the religion of work was scarce and provisions dear, fell the Old Testament, still more is it super- wholly to Margot's share. Poor child! fluous to say that the religion of the Imams the neighbours who saw her with her load has not the value of Christianity. The in the village, and Mrs. Lee, who sneercharacter and discourse of Christ possess, ingly said she looked like a packmau, little I have often elsewhere said, two signal knew that the burthen she carried was powers: mildness and sweet reasonable- light compared with her heavy heartness. The latter, the power which so heavy and sorrowful, as she remembered puts before our view duty of every kind how small was the sum for which she had as to give it the force of an intuition, as to been able to sell her nets and one or two make it seem,- to make the total sacrifice boxes, and how little it would do towards of our ordinary self seem, the most sim- giving them even necessaries in the home ple, natural, winning, necessary thing in from which she had started that morning the world, has been hitherto applied with all but fasting. but a very limited range, it is destined to an infinitely wider application, and has a fruitfulness which may yet transform the world. Of this the Imams have nothing, except so far as all mildness and self-sacrifice have in them something of sweet reasonableness and are its indispensable preliminary. This they have, mildness and self-sacrifice; and we have seen what an attraction it exercises. Could we ask for a stronger testimony to Christianity? Could we wish for any sign more convincing, that Christ was indeed, what Christians call him, the desire of all nations? So salutary, so necessary is what Christianity contains, that a religion - a great, powerful successful religion - arises without it, and the missing virtue forces its way in! Christianity may say to these Persian Mahometans, with their gaze fondly turned towards the martyred Inams, what in our Bible God says by Isaiah to Cyrus, their great ancestor:-"I girded thee, though thou hast not known me." It is a long way from Kerbela to Calvary; but the sufferers of Kerbela hold aloft to the eyes of millions of our race the lesson so loved by the sufferer of Calvary. For he said: "Learn of me, that I am mild, and lowly of heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls." From Good Cheer. THE NEAP REEF. BY MRS. PARR, AUTHOR OF "DOROTHY FOX." CHAPTER V. She so wanted to take the poor old man a little tobacco; he hadn't had a pipe for days, and, as he often said, he could stand anything so long as he'd got his baccy. Not a murmur had escaped his lips, but Margot knew well the cause of his restlessness, and the reason why he couldn't sleep at night. Just before she reached the small shop, she turned up a side lane to count her money once more, and see if she could only get half-an-ounce, even that would be such a treat to him; and resting herself by leaning against the low stone wall, she stood looking at her money, and trying to persuade herself that she was not so very hungry: she really thought she might do without anything more until she got back again. "Margot," said a voice at her side, and she started to find Dick Barry there. "Were you counting your money," he asked laughingly, "to see how much you've got for Mother White's sugar-sticks?" Sugar-sticks! when she was so hungering after a piece of bread that she could scarcely think of aught else—and the tears, which lay close to her eyes while she battled to keep them down, brimmed over and rolled in great drops down her cheeks. "What's the matter then, eh, Margot?" and the young fellow's tenderness spoke in his voice. Oh, nothing!" she answered, brushing her hand across her eyes; "but winter is a sad time, and grandfather has been ill, and is so stiff." "Are ye going to Mavor's with the nets?" he asked, looking at her bundle. "I've been - and and "the tears AND how had it fared with Margot during these months of Philip's absence? would come and the voice grew husky – Alas! but sadly. The winter, which was they they took two boxes, but they always a time of hardship and privation, 'don't want any nets." Love is the best sharpener of some instincts. Dick didn't want to be told more; he understood now the reason of the drooping attitude, the wistful gaze at the few coins in her open hand, and why her tears were so ready to flow. "Don't be cast down," he said softly. "If you didn't want to carry 'em back, and you'd let me have 'em -I'm going to Luton to-morrow I might get an offer there for 'em." "Truly! Oh, I should be so glad to get them sold! for you know, Dick, we have been very hard driven this last month." way. "I didn't know," he said, looking down and kicking at the flints which lay in his "How should I know? You never tell me anything. You won't even treat me like a friend. 'Tisn't as you promised in that talk, Margot; and I've kept my word, you know.' She tried to avoid answering him by undoing the bundle she carried, Honfleur fashion, across her back. "Ah!" she exclaimed with a sigh of relief; "but it was heavy. The nets will make it all the lighter when they're gone." "You shan't carry any of it further," said Dick resolutely. "Get what you've got to buy, and I'll wait where you like, and as long as you like, but I'm going to carry this home for you." "No, no, please; I'd rather not; let me have the boxes; I'm not a bit tired now." "Of course I don't want to force my company on you," said the young man moodily; "if you're ashamed for it to be seen, or said, that you walked down the village with me, I'll go one way and you can go another." "Dick!" and Margot looked into his face, "when you've just been so kind to me!" acting and skylarking about as I do? No; "What do you want me to do?" she asked softly. 66 Why, nothing, but let me come and see you sometimes, and sit quiet and yarn with the old man; then I should ha' a reason for stopping away from Craft's. And then if you'd ask me to do any little thing so as I saw you trusted me, why it ud cheer me up so that I know I should get on." Margot was silent. Surely, she thought, Philip could not object to this; he was a good man, ready to help anybody, and, as he said, he only disliked Barry because he was idle and too fond of gay company, which he would not believe he ever intended to give up. Poor fellow! that was just it; nobody believed him; they all laughed at his intentions, though she felt certain he meant what he said. Then she had told him that Philip and she were betrothed lovers; so of course Philip. would not be jealous any more. Still she felt doubtful and hesitated. Did not the good God see her heart and know her wish was to please Him and Philip? Should she say Yes or No? He would help her; and repeating the words alternately on her fingers, and finding the little finger and Yes came last and together, she turned round, and putting her hand on Dick's, said "It shall be as you say now; and when Philip comes back we will all be friends, and he will help you more than anybody could. Stay, and I will go and get my bread and the tobacco for grandfather, and then we'll go up the road and back by Turncross." "Kind!" he echoed impatiently. "I ain't kind; 'tisn't kind to do what pleases ye most in the world. Oh, Margot!" he went on, "you don't know what a different chap you might make o' me only by giving me a hoist up now-and-then by asking me to do any little thing for ye. I don't look for more than that now, because I see you haven't got it to give me; but he's away, and the old man's laid by, and 'twouldn't be much to let me strive to make you see I ain't such a reglar bad one but that you might make a man of me. I know what On their road Margot artlessly let Dick you're thinking about," he continued look-into many of the privations which she and ing at her somewhat perplexed face; her grandfather had lately suffered, the "you're wondering what he'd say. Ah! consequence of which was that the kind'tis easy enough for him to keep straight; hearted fellow determined to stick hard at do you think, if I'd had the luck to win work, and not spend his wages beforehand, what he has, that I should want to go jack-by which means he could, by different de 1096 vices, contrive to help Margot and her grandfather without their suspecting it. So a few days after, he went to the cottage with a story of a shop at Luton which had given him an order for various nets and lines. "If you'll make 'em," he said, addressing old Dutton, "I'll undertake to get them convoyed all right." Whereupon, between receiving the money for those already disposed of, and this order, which insured more to come, the poor old fellow, weakened by his recent illness, was quite overcome, and in a quavering whisper told Dick "that God would bless him, for they'd bin two upon one for the last month. Ah! and it's longer than that since my poor lass has known what the taste of a full meal is. I know the meaning of her being chock-a-block afore she's had enough to feed a sparrur; 'tis all cos o' me that I shall ha' the more," and a sob choked his utterance and obliged him to be silent lest Margot should overhear him. This, then, was the foundation for the village gossip. Dick Barry stuck to his work; he was frequently absent from Craft's, and when he went, instead of waiting to be among the last to leave, he was often among the first to go, saying he must be up early in the morning: lastly, he had been met several times crossing the beach, or, if the weather was bad or the tide high, going down Turncross way. Will Smith had met him, and asked if he was bound on a French cutting-out expedition; and his chums began throwing out hints about Margot, at which the young fellow's good-looking face would redden-up like a girl's, and he would stammer out such flat denials as only confirmed their suspicions. But Margot heard nothing of this; she only saw that by degrees Dick was growing different. She felt their brother-and-sisterly sort of footing to be very pleasant; and it was cheerful for somebody to come and chat with her grandfather, whose strength came but slowly. Dick had a fine voice, and loved music dearly, and first he would sing, and then Margot would join him. Sometimes they would make the old man give them one of his quaint ditties, and Margot would laugh till the tears came, as, in a very high key, he bellowed out "Adoo to you Spanish ladies! adoo to you ladies of Spain! sang the pathetic history which had for its chorus "Oh! take lesson by a fly, Never give way to luxury." or Assuredly no people in Redneap spent an evening more cheerfully or innocently, not excepting even Mrs. Lee, although she went to chapel and class meetings, and returned home criticizing the preacher or his hearers; or, if they happened to satisfy her, applying his condemnations and reproof, not to herself, but to somebody she knew, and whom she felt sure" they must ha' come home to." Even when she prayed for her son, the sole possessor of all the softness in her somewhat hard nature, it was rather in the spirit of thanking God he was not like other sons whom she knew of. He was honest, sober, npright; yes, she had brought him up to be very different from most whom she could name. All these praises, in her strong love, were repeated by poor Margot, as she, too, nightly asked God to bless Philip Lee, and send him home in safety to her. To her? Ah! how came it that such as she should have the blessing of this man's love? And, in her humility, she joyfully thanked God for his goodness to one who had so little but love to offer in return. It happened about this time, that the rectory Christmas treat was given, and to it all Redneap was invited, including, of course, old Dutton and Margot. The prospect of a little gaiety filled the girl with delight, the only drawback being that her grandfather didn't see how he could get so far. “'Tis such a journey round," he said dolefully, "and I don't think I could manage Turncross." 66 Yes you can, and you shall," exclaimed Margot. "I'll drag you, and push you, and pull you, until you cannot help going on and getting to the top." When Barry came, he volunteered his help, and so it was arranged that he was to come to the cottage at a certain hour, and between them the old man was in some way to be got up to the rectory. "And you make your mind easy about getting back, Margot," said Barry, "for if it's fair I'll get Thompson's boat, and if not I'll go back with you and see him all safe home." Therefore, had all been known, there was really no need for such a nudging of elbows as went round the room when, a little late, her eyes dancing with excitement, her rich colour deeper than usual from the no small exertion of pushing, while Barry dragged, poor old Dutton up the steep ascent - Margot entered between the two men, and went forward to make her curtsey before Mrs. Chenevix and the ladies assembled. "Annie! d'ye see? Well, I never did," exclaimed Mrs. Lee in a half-audible | minds whether I wouldn't say what lay on whisper, following Margot with her eyes, my tongue to tell her." while Annie thought she had never seen any one so bewitching in all her life. She didn't wonder at the gracious smiles of the gentry at the evident admiration of the men clustered together about the room. All her thought was, did Margot prefer Dick to Philip?-if not, what chance had she? Why, he couldn't help himself; nobody could resist her. She believed young Mr. Chenevix even was losing his heart to her as he bent down talking to her in her own tongue, the sound of which brought out her smiles, and made sweet dimples play about her laughing mouth. "Oh! Philip will never give her up," she almost groaned, in answer to another whisper from the widow. "Isn't she looking most lovely?" "'Tis the foot, not the face, the devil's knowd by," snorted Mrs. Lee; "and she's showed her hoof rather too plain for my son, or any other honest man, I hope, to be fobbed off by her brazen face, however pretty it may be." Annie said no more; but as she sat watching her rival her heart sank within her, feeling how little chance her homely face and prim ways gave her. The question that seemed uppermost in her mind, and which she felt compelled to ask every one who sat beside her, was, "Isn't Margot Dutton looking sweet and pretty?" "Well, yes," answered Mr. Vesey, whom the hospitable rector always begged as a personal favour to be present at this general and social gathering. "The gift of a very comely presence has been bestowed upon her, and I trust she will be kept from setting undue store upon what often proves to be one of Satan's most powerful snares. We are speaking of our young foreign friend," he added, turning to Mrs. Lee, to whom the kind-hearted minister's charitable blindness was often a sore stumbling-block. "Friend, indeed!" said the widow angrily. "I don't know of anybody who'd own her as such. She looks to me for all the world like a tambourine wench, with that rory-tory red and yaller handkercher, and them miserable brass ear-drops." "Yes, it's a thousand pities that nobody takes it upon them to speak out to her," put in the minister's wife, whose amount of tact in smoothing over the numerous offences of the small congregation quite equalled her husband's share of the chief of the Christian virtues. "When she came up to us just this minute, I'd two "My dear!" my dear!" interrupted her husband hastily, "remember the word should be in season, and the girl is young, and has been without guidance. If we pluck at her feathers now, the flesh will be rebellious; let us rather seek to touch her heart by gentle means, and moulting time will come, and these gay feathers will fall off of their own accord. Eh, neighbour Lee? you will agree with me there I know;" and he fortunately turned away to speak to some one near, and so escaped hearing the contemptuous snort by which the widow relieved her outraged feelings. "I do declare," she exclaimed as soon as Mrs. Vesey was well out of hearing, "if Mr. Vesey ain't enough to aggravate a saint! Sometimes I wonder whether he's quite so sharp as he should be. You know his sister was a little hippy after her two boys was drown'd, and p'raps 'tis in the family." "Oh my, I hope not!" said Annie; "but I'm glad Mrs. Vesey didn't speak to Margot; 'tis better left to some other time than this, I think." "Well then, Annie, you think wrong: for if Mr. Vesey don't choose to answer to his call as a minister, his wife should speak for him. He's a great deal too fond of keeping his mouth shut, is Mr. Vesey, and thereby lettin' the devil score one on his side; and, mark my words, if folks as withhold reproofs they should ha' uttered don't find that it's no such easy business to wipe out that tally.” Later in the evening, when Margot, after several attempts, which had been adroitly thwarted, got over to Mrs. Lee's side, and feeling drawn towards any one belonging to her absent lover, said in a soft shy whisper, "I wish Philip was here, Madam, he would so enjoy it, and we should have nothing left to wish for," Mrs. Lee answered her in a tone which all could hear, that she didn't know what difference her son's being there could make to her. She had to be told if there was any reason why it should make or mar her pleasure. Whereupon the bystanders said to Mrs Lee, that they thought she'd given Margot her answer; and to one another, that there was no cause for speaking like that to the girl before everybody; and, as sure as eggs was eggs, Mrs. Lee would be sorry for it some day, for they could see Margot meant nothing towards Barry, though he seemed almost as mad after her as Philip Lee himself. CHAPTER VI. THE hawthorn was blossoming in the Redneap hedges, the cuckoo was telling its good tidings to the glad villagers; the winter was over, the spring time had come and with it had come Philip Lee. Yes, Philip was at home again; and, having done ample justice to the substantial tea she had set forth in his honour, he sat by his old mother's fireside, pipe in hand, prepared to listen to the vast heap of news which for his benefit, amusement, and in- | struction she had been all these months past accumulating. Mrs. Lee took out her knitting, and settled herself to enjoy, as only a woman can, the pleasure of retailing all this amount of gossip and soon she was deep in John Chubb's illness and death, the unnecessary display made at his funeral, the sermon preached by Mr. Horan, of whom, it was said, Mr. Vesey was uncommonly jealous; the various good or bad ventures made by the different boats, the prospects of the fishing trade, &c.; until, in the midst of a graphic account of Mrs. Craft's headstone, her son interrupted her by saying, somewhat irrelevantly, "How are all the maidens? Mrs. Lee gave him a sharp glance, but she only answered, "Oh! all very well. Annie Turle was here on Sunday. Ever since you left she would ha' me go there o' Wednesdays, and have my tea and go to chapel with her; 'tis quite a pleasure to go to a place o' worship with that girl, for she'll bring away the sermon, word for word, and repeat it like a book. Annie's her mother's girl there, for all the Batesons were wonderful hands at remembering things." Philip gave a few more puffs at his pipe, and then he asked, "Have you seen anything of old Dutton?" Not lately." Here something went wrong with the pipe, and Philip had to turn completely away from his mother to remedy it, during which time he said, with assumed indifference, “Nor Margot?" Naomi Lee pursed up her thin lips as, without taking her eyes from her knitting she answered her son's question. "Nobody ever went down to the beach, or passed Craft's, without being pretty sure to see Margot wherever the men are you may hear her voice above all. In my day, a girl wouldn't ha' bin much thought of that every man could make free and have his joke with." "Oh! she means no harm, mother. You forget how different she was brought up; 'twas the natural thing there for the women to sit gossiping with the men. They're all just like her." 66 Oh, indeed!" said Mrs. Lee, with well-feigned surprise. "Then I'm thankful I live in a Christian country where the women know what decency means, and sit in their own houses all the week, and go to church or chapel on Sundays, and don't go giggling and gostering without a bit o' bonnet on their heads, and long ear-drops hanging to their ears; if that's the French way, thank the Lord that I'm English." And Mrs. Lee knitted away more vigorously than before, while Philip sat with troubled face and heart, wondering how his mother would act on hearing that he had chosen the chief of these offenders to bear her name, to fill her place, and to step into those shoes which were now employed in shaking off the dust of her resentment into the faces of the whole nation of foreigners. 66 Come, come, mother," he said at length, "you mustn't speak hardly of her, for "but Mrs. Lee interrupted him by exclaiming "Me speak hard o' her! Well, I'm sure Philip, you'd best listen to what others ha' gct to say. Just ask Mr. Vesey what's his opinion o' a girl who could go up to the rectory feast flaunting her great long ear-drops as bold as brass afore the ladies, and sit up laughing and jabbering away her lingo to young Mr. Chenevix and Cap'en Fortescue, as if she was one o' their own sort; or put the question to Mrs. Davis, if she'd let her Sarah Jane set foot inside a dancing booth, as I understand Margot might ha' bin seen at Rickfield Revels, capering away like one o' Richardson's show-gals. But there, 'tis no business o' mine, nor o' yours neither, for that matter, so we needn't waste our time haggling over things that don't concern us.' "What Margot does concerns me very considerably, mother," said Philip, determined to avow the engagement without any more delay. "Surely!" answered his mother. "What a pity then, that you wasn't home to advise her against taking up with a raff like that Barry, who she's walked with for the last why, a'most ever since you left. 'Twas in everybody's mouth; for, as Mrs. Vesey said, far better she'd tie a stone round her neck and jump into the sea than drag herself down with such a fellow as Barry." "I'll never believe it!" exclaimed Philip, |