it please our Heavenly Father to remove you, fear not that He will fail to care for the fatherless and widow.”  A short time before his death a sweet peace and hopeful trust settled over his spirit, and the religion he had sought in health afforded him a firm support in the hour of death.  When all was over, and the mother and daughter found themselves left alone, their fortitude well-nigh forsook them, and they felt almost like yielding to a hopeless sorrow.  Emma was at this time but fifteen years of age, possessed of much personal beauty, and also a very amiable and affectionate disposition.  Since the age of six years she had attended school, and made rapid progress in her various studies till the sad period of her father’s death.  As Mr. Ashton had foreseen, Mr. Tompkins, the man who held the mortgage, soon called upon the widow, informing her that the time had already expired, and unless she found herself able to meet the claim, her dwelling was legally his property; but, as a great favor, he granted her permission to occupy the house till she could make some arrangement concerning the future, giving her, however, distinctly to understand, that he wished to take possession as soon as she could find another home.  Mrs. Ashton thanked him for the consideration he had shown her, little as it was, telling him she would as soon as possible seek another home, however humble it might be; and Mr. Tompkins departed with a polite bow and a bland smile upon his countenance, well pleased that he had got the matter settled with so little difficulty.  I presume he never once paused to think of the grief-stricken widow and her fatherless daughter, whom he was about to render homeless.  Money had so long been his idol that tender and benevolent emotions were well-nigh extinguished in his world-hardened heart.  For a long time after Mr. Tompkins left the house Mrs. Ashton remained in deep thought.  There are, dear reader, dark periods in the lives of most of us, when, turn which way we will, we find ourselves surrounded, as by a thick hedge, with difficulties and troubles from which we see no escape.

At such periods it is good for us to call to mind the fact, that the darkest cloud often has a silver lining, and that if we discharged, to the best of our ability, our duties for the time being, the cloud, sooner or later, will be reversed, and display its bright side to our troubled view.  The time had now arrived, when Mrs. Ashton must come to some decision regarding the future.  She had no friends to whom she could turn for aid or counsel in this season of trial.  When quite young she had emigrated from England with her parents and one sister, and settled in Eastern Canada.  About the time of her marriage and removal to W. her parents, with her sister, removed to one of the Western States:  and it may be the knowledge that she must rely solely upon herself enabled her to meet her trials with more fortitude than might have been expected.  Some fifty miles from W.