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lege, and our young president would have to employ professors."

"Very well," said she, gayly. "Stranger things have happened; and I don't despair of seeing our little Carl a learned professor yet."

CHAPTER IX.

GLIMPSE OF A CHRISTIAN HOME IN A STRANGE LAND.

Good friends are among God's most precious gifts to youth; and there are few places where a Christian can be cast, in which such may not be found. True religion is a power which draws together and holds united those who would otherwise be strangers. As we go on in the pilgrimage of this world, we have more and more reason to admire the unexpected ways in which Providence brings us acquainted with those who have done us the most good. Often the meeting is without any endeavour of our own, and yet the results are momentous. Some such thoughts as these passed through the mind of our young schoolmaster, on the evening which followed his introduction to Mr. Mill.

The Rev. Frederick Mill was the pastor of

As

the little church which Carl Adler attended;
for you may be sure he did not allow himself
to lack the blessed advantages of public wor-
ship. As a stranger, he had taken an humble
seat in the gallery, until the rich tones of his
voice drew the attention of the clergyman,
who, indeed, had too few persons gifted in this
way. His eye often turned on Carl, whom he
found always intent on what was said, or de-
voutly joining in the acts of worship.
good ministers of Christ are used to do, Mr.
Mill took an early occasion to learn the name
of this punctual attendant, and at length de-
tained him at the close of the service, and
drew from him some particulars of his history.
The interview was not without tears; for Carl
found that Mr. Mill had been in Europe, and
had even visited his native region. From this,
it was an easy transition to visit at the par-
sonage, which was on a hill-side, about three
miles from the school. The times which he
chose for these visits were at the close of the
week's work, and, when he became better

D

known, he was often invited to remain until Monday morning. The Smiths did not fail to rally him in regard to this, and to repeat the name of Matilda Mill in a sly, good-humoured way; but Carl maintained, with a pensive earnestness, that for him the charm of the house was in the excellent pastor.

Spring Hill, the residence of this pious and accomplished family, was named from a bold fountain which broke out from the side of a little mount, among rocks and vines, and dashed away over the banks to join a rivulet which coursed through the meadows below. The house was old but spacious, commanding a view of neighbouring bays and islands, with intervening fields and groves. The walls were overgrown with vines; and honeysuckles and sweetbriers clambered about the windows. Within, every thing bespoke competency, ease and comfort, rather than display or novelty. The chief room was the library, which was surrounded with valuable books, on which the eye of Carl rested with admiration and almost envy.

But that which most affected him was the religious atmosphere of the place. He had been in Christian families before, but never in one like this. The father, the mother, the only daughter, Maria, and the three little boys, nay, the very domestics, seemed to be under the power of a religious training. The Scriptures, without any violence or any affectation, were evidently the rule of the house, as they were the topic of daily but natural remark. Mutual improvement and gentle affection breathed over all the little society, and all their words and acts. Doubtless there was much of human imperfection and sin, but it was in a great degree hidden from the partial eyes of Carl.

The first Saturday evening which he spent at Spring Hill was long remembered by him. They combined to rid the diffident stranger of those feelings of restraint which he could not, all at once, shake off. As they sat on the broad portico, which overlooked a grassy hillside, the younger ones gambolled over the velvet turf, in sight of the placid father. The