And little Lina? Still in her father's arms. She likes to be there: she can get her tea quite comfortably, and she loves to lay her head on his shoulder between whiles. It is such a new sensation, this tender, protecting love, which seems to wrap right round her. Now and then she closes her eyes, and asks herself, "Is it really heaven, or only a dream?" Then, as the clatter of cups and saucers, and the heaped-up plates of breadand-butter and plum-cake recall to her mind the actual truth, she muses softly to herself: "Heavenly Father is so kind. Yes! Lina is so happy now. What a lot I shall have to tell the angels when I go Home, of all the beautiful things that did really happen at last, just as if I were somebody else, and not poor little Lina. Won't mother clap her hands for joy when I tell her father's like the little girls' papa she used to talk about. It seems so funny, but it's all quite true, that my father-my very own fathershould be nursing me on his knee, and every now and then stooping down to kiss me, and speakingoh, so kind! It seems almost like the man we read about in the Bible who had a devil, only Jesus made it come out of him. My father that used to be must have been as bad as that poor man, only he had the drink in him, and not a devil, unless they both mean the same. My father that is now, is—well, just as if he had met Jesus, and Jesus had made the bad spirit come out of him, and it had left him good and kind like mother used to say he was before he took to going to public-houses, when they lived in a pretty cottage in the country, and grew cucumbers, and had a lark to sing in a cage, and always went to church on Sundays!" Thus Lina mused, and in her very gladness laughed softly to herself. "What is it, child?" asked her father, in a gentle whisper, drawing her fondly to him. For answer, Lina pressed the hand she held in hers; then raising her eyes until they rested upon her father's face, with a lingering look of love, she said— "Oh, daddy, daddy! it seems so much like Heaven -that's all." And here we will leave little Lina in the arms of her father, no longer desolate and loveless, but happy, and tenderly cared for. What need to tell what happened later?-how that those loving arms bore their precious burden by easy stages homewards to the little village in which the child was born, that she might breathe once more her native air, and be amongst her mother's friends;-how that the two -father and child-lived for each other, and grew together in faith and love, and in the image of God's Son. The day would come at last when the never weary arms would miss their gentle burden, but the child would never cease to be tenderly sheltered by a Father's love, folded in a Father's embrace. The story has its lessons; there is no need to dwell upon them here-they will speak for themselves to the hearts for whom they are intended. There are little Linas everywhere. God help us to find them, to seek them out, to give them the sympathy they crave, the love they yearn for. If, when we come across the shoeless, sorrow-stricken boys and girls of our large cities, we remember Lina, they will not be passed unheeded. The cold, dark days of their sad lives will be brightened and cheered by gentle words and loving smiles, and we ourselves made happier in thus ministering to the little ones for whom the Saviour died. Watson and Hazell, Printers, London and Aylesbury. OOKS FOR THE YOUNG AND FOR LENDING LIBRARIES SELECTED FROM MESSRS. HENRY S. KING & Co.'s CATALOGUE. NEW WORKS BY HESBA STRETTON. The Wonderful Life. With a Map and Illuminated Frontispiece. Fcp. 8vo price 2s. 6d. [Preparing. This slight and brief sketch is merely the story of the life and death of our Lord. It has been written for those who have not the leisure, or the books, needed for threading together the fragmentary and scattered incidents recorded in the four Gospels. Of late years these records have been searched diligently for the smallest links which might serve to complete the chain o those years of a life passed amongst us as Jesus of Nazareth, the Carpenter, the Prophet, and the Messiah. This little book is intended only to present the result of these close investigations made by many learned men, in a plain continuous narrative, suitable for unlearned readers. Cassy. A New Story, by Hesba Stretton. Square crown 8vo. Illustrated, uniform with 'Lost Gip.' Twenty-fourth Thousand. Price Is. 6d. The King's Servants. By Hesba Stretton, Author of 'Lost Gip.' Square crown 8vo. uniform with Lost Gip.' Twenty-ninth Thousand. Eight Illustrations. Price Is. 6d. Lost Gip. PART I.-FAITHFUL IN LITTLE. PART III.-FAITHFUL IN MUCH. Six By Hesba Stretton, Author of 'Little Meg,' 'Alone in *** A HANDSOMELY BOUND EDITION, WITH TWELVE ILLUSTRATIONS, PRICE HALF-A-CROWN. |