form of the beloved lost one might not even there be lying at his feet. But nothing met his strained and anxious vision, save the same flat prospect of sand and smoothly spreading water. "Is that her? It is!-it is!" suddenly broke forth from his lips, as he bent his head eagerly forward, thinking he espied a white form sitting down upon a jutting point of the beach. He hastened to the spot, calling on the name of the child as he went along. But alas! alas! when he arrived at the spot where he thought the cherished form was sitting, his eyes were greeted with no sight but the low bank of sand, and his ears were saluted with no voice save the continued moan of the incoming waters. An illusion, which his temporarily disordered fancy had conjured up to his senses, had completely deceived him. The form of which he was so earnestly thinking, was there only in his imagination. The deception was one that was most natural, and he was exceeding loth to separate it from his belief. Even thatbereft as he was at that moment of one of his heart's treasureswas a source of far more consolation to him than nothing at all; and he involuntarily stood for some time upon the spot where the apparition had shown itself, as if rivetted to a place it should select for its temporary rest. seen. It was not long after, when he posted back to his hut again, filled to overflow with wonder at the thought of what he had He narrated all faithfully to his wife, while she treasured it away in her heart. It was manifest that both were affected most deeply with a strange and superstitious belief that their adopted child had for a moment sat alone by the sea-shore, and then disappeared as unexpectedly as she had come an angel of light for their feet, and of love for their hearts. To be Continued. This More people are controlled by affection than reason. shows that we were made to excel in love rather than knowledge; and where affection and reason combine, they make the subjection of the heart the truest empire. |