they said, "with a silver spoon in her mouth," and, come what might, she'd be sure to fall on her feet.

Mary's little girl overheard some such remarks one day, and came in to her mother in a state of great excitement, to know what Mrs. Webster could mean. Mary smiled.

"So I was, child, I think," she said. "Leastways, if the spoon wasn't silver exactly, the kind of food grandmother fed us children with was;-and, Jane, I will give you some of that same food to think about, just a few texts which babes may easily understand, and which lie at the root of all the good luck Mrs. Webster says your mother has had, and which she, too, for all that, may have, if she only desires it. Listen "-and Mrs. Mortimer fetched the Bible down from the shelf, and after turning over its pages for a minute or so read as follows: "I love them that love Me, and those that seek Me early shall find Me.' 'Riches and honour are with Me; yea durable riches and righteousness.' 'My fruit is better than gold, yea than fine gold; and My revenue than choice silver.' 'For whoso findeth Me findeth life, and shall obtain favour of the Lord.' There, Jane," said Mrs. Mortimer, as she closed the book reverently, "you may tell Mrs. Webster that's where good luck comes from, and may you, my child, never seek it elsewhere. Since your father's death God has indeed, I am very sensible of it, led us by a wonderful way, and I do not wonder that those of our neighbours who know

Him not, and who never go to Him in prayer to help them, think it chance' or 'fortune;' but we know better, don't we, my child? we know from whence our help has come. And as to 'falling on our feet,' is it not again written in the Bible, that The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and he delighteth in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be cast down, for the Lord upholdeth him with His hands"" (Psalm xxxvii. 23, 24). "And then," added Mrs. Mortimer, almost triumphantly, "comes after that, dear father's favourite text, and many's the time he has told me how it eased his mind, when he thought of you children, 'I have been young, and now am old, yet never saw I the righteous forsaken, or his seed begging their bread.' It's only, Jane, that God's been fulfilling His promises, and that's what, if we trust Him, we may always expect, and it is just dishonouring Him not to do so."

And here we must bid good-bye to Mrs. Mortimer and her family. That she has her trials and her crosses as well as others we doubt not, otherwise her faith would never find exercise; but we doubt not, at the same time, that, having once tasted God's gracious answer to her prayers, she receives strength according to her need. When last we heard of her she was still in constant work as a leather-stitcher, and living in the same house in Conyer's Court-a centre of influence and piety there. Riches, indeed, she has not, but she earns

nevertheless quite sufficient for all her wants. Her eldest girl, when old enough, was admitted as a dayworker at the government clothing-factory, and is in the receipt of excellent wages, but Mrs. Mortimer means to put the second girl, Jane, to service, thinking it on the whole a better training for future womanhood, than too much sedentary labour.

Dear friends, perhaps there are some of you that, visited with trials, are still standing before your doorway, looking with disheartened spirits at the drift of trial which has fallen unexpectedly in your path, wondering how ever a way can be cleared for you through it. If such there be, depend on no earthly arm for its removal, but take the clearing into your own hands. Seek first, as Mary Mortimer did, God's guidance, and then go forward, as she did, determined to overcome. Yet be not, on the other hand, over hasty, but push inquiry, and ascertain facts, and above all gain knowledge before you decide your course of action, and then in the leadings of Providence there is little doubt the same "good luck" will befal you as befel her, viz., provision, happiness, a useful life here, and a firm hope through Jesus Christ that hereafter you may dwell with Him in heaven above, where want and trial are no more.

BESSIE BUCHANAN'S BANKING

BOOK.

CHAPTER I.

"Take care of the pence, and the pounds will take care of themselves."

It was a fortunate thing that the sun rose clear and bright over the village of Carlton, in Essex, on the morning of the 5th June, 185-. There were to be gay doings in Carlton on that day, and its usually quiet inhabitants were roused into more than ordinary excitement at the prospect of a double wedding; the brides being natives of the place, and, moreover, the two prettiest girls that the village owned.

Bessie Rogers and Kate Davis were first cousins, and within a year of the same age; albeit as unlike in character as their bringing up by mothers with totally adverse views of life could make them. As it has often been remarked, both here and elsewhere, it is "the mothers" who mould the characters of their sons and daughters, and who, as generation after gene

ration succeeds each other, leave the stamp of their influence on our English homes, and on the, individual lives on whose words and actions the comfort or discomfort of those homes consist. Ah, sad indeed it is to weigh this great fact, and then to consider how very little responsibility on this score is felt by the majority of young people; who accept the duties of marriage without the thought of what their influence may prove to their successors in life, of whom their own offspring in general forms a part.

Bessie Rogers, the elder by one year of the two brides-elect, was a modest-looking fair girl, with a neat, trim figure, but somewhat old-fashioned in her ways. At least, she was in general called so, having nothing of that dash about her that one sees so much in most girls nowadays, and which gives them the appearance of being altogether independent of their parents or the world at large. Bessie's mother, Mrs. Rogers, had early been left a widow, with one child, and she had needed sorely to train Bessie to be a true helpmate to her in that struggle for life which widowhood among the working classes so generally entails. Thus, her little girl had, when very young, a mere child in years, been put to every kind of practical housewifery that her mother's lonely cottage afforded. But all such had been learnt out of school-hours; for if there was one thing more than another Mrs. Rogers valued, it was the good schooling the village of Carlton offered, and which, she knew, in after-life