It was a bright, autumnal day, warmed by the lingering breath of a just sped summer, some three years after the events in our last chapter, that a bevy of maidens, sparkling with the life and exuberance of youthful spirits, gathered around the foot of an old maple tree beneath the shade of its falling leaves.

It was a picturesque scene worthy an artist's pen. From the laughing blonde to the brunette's dark, flashing eye, every type of beauty seemed to have its representative there, while ever and anon, as the breeze swept through its branches, the old maple showered their fair heads with its gorgeously tinted leaves. Some merrily wove their brilliant hues into fantastic

wreaths and placed them on their companions' brows, while others, filled with more earnest thoughts, conversed together in low, eager tones.

"To-morrow we part," said one in a voice of thrilling sweetness; "and who knows, girls, how and when we shall meet again !"

The fair speaker's waist was at once encircled by loving arms.

"Oh! we shall meet often, I trust, dear Nellie," was the cheerful reply; "you know we've promised to assist at each other's bridal, and I'll venture you'll be be the first to call for our services."

"I shall never marry," said the first speaker with decision.

"You never marry! Ha! ha! ha! It will require even more than your strength of mind to resist such a host of importunate lovers as will hover about you."

"Well done, Hattie; you seem to have the gift of foresight," said another; "can not you predict something nice for the rest of us ?"

"Oh! Nellie is different from any of us, you know, girls; there is something so grand, so wild, so fascinating about her, that it fairly bewitches every body; and then her position in society will be so brilliant, too. No, I can not promise any of you such a future as hers."

"Let us be the first, then, to render allegiance to this queen of hearts," cried a light-hearted girl approaching Nellie and kneeling in mock obeisance before

two others laid a magnificent crown of her brow. Instantly every knee was bent earnestness, while the air resounded with shouts of "Long live our queen."

ly girl received this rapturous homage for a silence; the color rapidly flitting upon her essive face, and her lustrous eye beaming notion which showed how deeply her heart

I indeed your queen, dear girls," at length 'tis not allegiance I'd crave, but love."

repeated one of the group; "who so loved chool as Nellie Morrison ?"

pected, or admired, or honored ?" chimed in ces at once.

lear girls, I shall never forget your kindness on," said Nellie with deep feeling, "never, should not meet again, as something within e shall not. But come, 'tis time to return to o prepare for the morrow."

we shall all have an opportunity to test our onor, respect, and admiration," said another. 't you dread the examination, girls?" k Nellie has the most severe ordeal to pass ust to think of reading one's own composipresence of so many learned people as will. hose aristocratic Eversons from Philadelphia, e. They say Walter Everson is very highly but he's disagreeable enough for all that,

I'm sure, with his high notions. Going abroad hasn't improved him one whit. At least, I think so."

"Do your best, Queen Nell, to captivate his highness," playfully rejoined another; "nothing but royalty, it seems, will meet his views."

"I am dizzy-faint. Let me go to yonder brook ; please do not follow me," stammered Nellie, abruptly leaving the astonished group and hastening to the shade of a neighboring grove, through which a tiny stream gurgled its way along.

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may

Why can I never hear that name without this wild throbbing at my heart?" she murmured, clasping her hands tightly across her breast; "what power is it that so stirs my soul to its very depths at every thought of him! He knows me not; he can never know the spirit he awaked to life, nor can he gaze into its inmost recesses, where lies his image embalmed forever. What do I not owe him! education, friends, happiness, nay, almost life itself, and yet I may not tell him this not fall down before him, as I fain would, and bless him next alone to God! To-morrow I shall be in his presence, shall breathe the same air, shall look upon that face whose every lineament is so indelibly stamped here. The very thought fills me with inspiration! to him alone, of all that listen to my words, shall my spirit address itself. What, if some answering chord should waft its joy back to my heart! What, if spirit meet spirit in happy recognition!"

With a radiant smile, Nellie sought with fleet steps

JUDICIOUS TEACHINGS.

175

the solitude of her own room, where for hours she reveled in the bright and beautiful creations of her own fancy.

The morrow came with its freight of sunshine, smiles, and tears. To none of the pupils in Miss Hargrave's establishment did it bring such mingled emotions of joy and sadness as to her who had been taken from the mountain wilds and placed under the gentle teachings of one so eminently fitted to mold her cha

racter.

Nellie had found in Miss Hargrave just such a friend as she needed; judicious, kind, ever ready to sympathize in the varying moods of her pupil's peculiar temperament, guarding and guiding with tender faithfulness the brilliant though somewhat erratic mind given to her charge, and, above all, securing the ardent, confiding love of the warm-hearted girl. It was not till after that affection had been most cordially reciprocated that Mrs. Waters ventured to communicate Nellie's story to her teacher, and when, through her tears, Miss Hargrave exclaimed, "Dear, noble girl, she shall ever find a friend in me," Mrs. Waters felt that she had rendered a truly valuable service to her protégé.

Miss Hargrave fulfilled her promise in no measured degree, and was richly repaid for her care by the wonderful growth and development of Nellie's mind and

character.

Her labor of love, however, was at an end, for the day which dawned so brightly and with such eager