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It was evening; the strangers had returned to Brodick, and it seemed to Salome unlikely that they should meet again, for the next day they were to proceed to the more northern Highlands. The widow had just laid her lovely Adah to rest, praying that her gentle slumbers might be blessed by Him, who blessed the little ones. She was again seated beside her father, asking strength from on high to reveal to him her conviction of the Messiahship of Jesus of Nazareth. Suddenly the old man spoke: "Salome, you must anxiously watch Adah. She has in some way heard of the Nazarene, and knows that He was crucified."

"I told her, father," said Salome, the colour flushing her usually pale cheek, and the tears rising in her large dark eyes.

"You told her! It is not wise at her age to speak of such things. She must some day know of the blasphemy of the carpenter's son, but not now."

"Oh, father!" said Salome, and she threw herself on the ground beside her father's knee, and with tears streaming down her cheeks, she said, firmly and gently, "I believe in Jesus of Nazareth as the Son of God, as the King of Israel." The old man's eyes flashed anger, whilst his cheek and lips were white with anguish and with rage.

For a moment he lost all self-control: "Unworthy Salome! I spurn thee from my feet!" and pushing her away, she fell pale and senseless on the ground.

And then, there was a return of parental feeling. Alarmed at her death-like look, his trembling hand laid her

on the low hair couch of that little sitting-room; and when Salome opened her eyes, she saw her father bending over her to bathe her temples with refreshing scent, whilst the large tear-drops fell, one by one, from his aged eyes.

"Father! my precious father!" she faintly said, as she gently pressed her cold, nervous hand on his.

"A serpent in my bosom," he muttered, "and yet my child. Oh! oh! Why, why are my grey hairs thus brought with sorrow to the grave?. Surely, surely, all these things are against me."

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"No, no, father; the Lord will give grace and glory. No good thing will He withhold from them who walk uprightly.'

"Why, child, quote the promises of the prophets? They are not for them who forsake the religion of their forefathers, the altar of El-elohe Israel."

"But, father, my faith is still the faith of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. If I have erred, convince me of my error."

"Art thou still open to conviction?" and a gleam of hope seemed to brighten the despairing countenance of the poor, aged Israelite.

"Yes, my precious father; let me tell you why I believe that Jesus of Nazareth is He, of whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write, and you tell me why you believe not; and may our God, and our fathers' God, show unto us, 'the Truth.'

The old man was silent for a little while; then, confi

dent in his opinion that Christianity was a delusion, that its belief was a lie, that it stood on sandy ground, from which he could soon overthrow it; and seeing in the visions of the future his Salome restored to the belief of her childhood, and that without his kindred knowing of her apostasy, a look of pleasure beamed again upon his fine countenance, and with a kindling eye he looked upon his daughter, exclaiming, "Amen, my child: soon shall the mist be cleared and thick darkness no longer cover thine eyes. In thy light, thou great Jehovah, may we yet see light.”

Salome gratefully kissed her father's hand, and after a little while, with a tottering footstep, she retired to rest. She thanked the God of her salvation that He had tempered the rough wind in the day of His east wind: she heard the voice of Jesus say, yet more plainly, "My grace is sufficient for thee."

Her agitated spirit gradually calmed, and though she heard the old clock on the cottage staircase strike all the early hours of morning, she at length fell into a gentle slumber, and dreamt that the Lord of glory stood before her crowned with thorns; and whilst she gazed, each thorn seemed changed into a beauteous crown, whereon were written the names of many whom she loved,-of Adah, and of Naomi, of Ethelda, and of the little Harry; and then He seemed to speak unto her, and said, "Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life." She replied, "My father, my father, too, O Lord!" but the bright light

vanished. She awoke, and the cry of her dream became the earnest entreaty of her soul," My father, my beloved father! O Lord, show him the glory of the Crucified!" Again Salome slept, and she woke strong in the faith, and girded in the strength of her God, for the conflict of the day.

CHAPTER XVIII.

WIDOW

M'LEOD.

"He looks abroad into the varied field

Of Nature, and though poor, perhaps compar'd
With those whose mansions glitter in his sight,
Calls the delightful scenery all his own.

His are the mountains, and the valley, his,

And the resplendent rivers: his t'enjoy

With a propriety that none can feel,

But who, with filial confidence inspired,

Can lift to heaven an unpresumptuous eye,

And smiling say-'My Father made them all.""

Cowper.

A GUSTY day, with heavy showers, was nearly closed. hind the mountains of Mull the sun was setting very stormily, and the waves,-crested as it were with flame, reflected from the fiery sky,-rolled onwards among the rocks and tangled sea-weed that lay on the northern side of the Bay of Oban.

Ethelda, with Rowland, had been collecting specimens of shells of the varied algæ, and now, rather tired, they had climbed a projecting rock, where Ethie observed, mused upon, and delighted in the beautiful scenery, which her brother's ready pencil sketched.

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