goodness of our heavenly Father. Nothing but the strong sense of duty
can sustain the heart under such anxiety as falls to the lot of the
faithful missionary and his family. Love divine is the constraining
and blessed principle that bears the fainting spirit up. 'We love Him
because He first loved us.' Let that, my own dear boy, be your motto;
and then if you lose your life in the service of your Lord, you will
find it again in eternal joy."




CHAPTER IV.


After a short pause, Mrs. Ward said, with a smile, "You will be wishing
to hear the story of Boxa's ancestor, a dog, as I have said, deserving
of renown. It chanced, in one of his official journeys, your grandfather
visited a part of the coast peculiarly fatal to European vessels,
especially to those outward bound to Quebec in the spring; the shore in
the neighbourhood being very low, and the ledges of rock extending far
out to sea. On one of the islands which he visited, he took up his abode
in a neat cabin belonging to a planter, where he found welcome shelter,
and a cheerful fire made from the wreckwood scattered abundantly upon
the shore. There was a family of children, a merry group of boys and
girls, who kept jingling in their hands some sort of playthings.

"What have you got there, my boys?' he asked. They showed him their
treasures, which proved to be bunches of small desk and cabinet keys,
that had been picked up from the wrecks--a melancholy kind of toy, he
could not help thinking. By-and-bye the good wife spread the hospitable