Her excellent daughter, whose fragile form seemed little calculated to breast the storms of adversity that now threatened her, was unwearied in attention to her dying parent.  She saw there were heavy trials before her, and knew they could not be averted, though she could not tell how she was to meet them; but there was a trusting feeling in her young heart, that must ever be inseparable from a trust in God’s over-ruling providence; and as she sat through the long nights, watching by her mother’s bed, a thousand vague shadows of the future flitted before her, and many schemes offered themselves to her mind; she tried to drive them off, for it seemed to her sinful.  She durst not think, but she could pray; and she did so; and oh! the eloquence of that simple trusting prayer, that her God would protect and bless her and the two young beings, whose sole dependance she was soon to be.  How widely changed was her position in a few short months!  The petted, and almost idolized child of doting parents, whose every wish had been anticipated, must now soon exert herself to support her orphan brother and sister.

Mrs. Willoughby, as is often the case with those suffering from pulmonary affection, went off very suddenly; and now was every threatened evil likely to burst on poor Helen’s devoted head; but though weak in the flesh, she was strong in faith.  Relying, as she had been early led to do, on her God, she seemed to rise with fresh energy under accumulated trials.  She soothed and kissed the weeping children by turns, but their grief was so violent, they refused to be comforted.

The night her mother was consigned to the grave, was indeed a trying one to Helen.  The good clergyman, who had gone back to the house after the funeral, now knelt in prayer with the bereaved ones, and commending them to the care of their Heavenly Father, took leave, promising to be with them early next day.

“Farewell, my child,” said he, to Helen, “fear not for the future, for it is a merciful and loving God who lays his rod upon you; and though the clouds of darkness loom heavily around you, with Him nothing is impossible; and He could, in one moment, disperse them, if it were better for you.  May you be purified by the affliction He sends.  Good night, once more, and remember that not a sparrow falls to the ground unheeded by Him who made it.”

How was it that this feeble child of affliction, went to bed that night in some degree composed?  For every earthly hope seemed blighted.  Her parents, one by one were re-called; her little patrimony taken away; and she and the little ones left almost friendless.  Was it to make her the better feel where she could and must place her sole dependance?  Doubtless it was.  Oh! ye happy sons and daughters of prosperity, do you read this description, which many an afflicted one is now realizing, with apathy?  Do ye regard it as an over-wrought scene of trial?  Believe me it is no such thing.  While you are surrounded by every earthly comfort, I will say by every earthly luxury; lolling, perhaps, on your sofas, or in your easy chairs, your cup filled to overflowing with every blessing, hundreds of your fellow creatures, young as you, are suffering privations, you hardly like to think of, but which they, alas! have to bear.