"I don't think," continued Mrs. Grafton, "the poor man will continue many days."

"Just wait one moment, if you please," said Helen.

"And that hungry mother, with her young babe!" said the aunt. "I never saw a famishing infant before."

"How ridiculous!" exclaimed Helen; "really, that I. should never have taken up perspective before!"

"I am afraid the man is insensible to his situation," observed the aunt. "He shows no sign of feeling beyond the suffering of the moment.”

"I wish they would leave their door open," said the niece. "Don't you think, dear aunt, we might ask them to leave it just half open, you know?"

But by this time the patience of the elder lady was quite exhausted, and in an unusually prompt and decided manner, she desired her niece to put away her pencils, and return immediately home. Their walk was a silent one, for their minds were so differently occupied, that it would not have been easy to carry on any connected conversation; and besides this difficulty, Mrs. Grafton was thinking very earnestly how it would be possible to impress the mind of her niece with any right conviction, that there were other things in the world of quite as much importance as herself, and her own trifling affairs..

The grave thoughts of the aunt, however, were suddenly interrupted by an exclamation of delight from her niece, on coming suddenly in sight of a man seated on the

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knotted roots of an old tree, with his arm resting over a dog, which seemed determined to steal up and lick his face, as if in the superabundance of its affection and its joy.

"What a sweet picture!" said Helen. "And that dear, lovely dog! Do you think the man would give it to me?” Perhaps he would sell it;" replied Mrs. Grafton, recognizing in the person of the man, the same individual who had left the cottage.

"Do you want to part with your dog?" asked Helen, without a moment's hesitation, as soon as she had reached the spot.

"Not exactly that," replied the man.

"You want to sell it, I suppose," said Helen, "at the best price you can get?"

"That I want to sell him," said the man, "is not quite the truth-that I must sell him, would be nearer the mark, Miss."

"Suppose I give you half-a-crown," said Helen.

The man shook his head; and Mrs. Grafton looked on in silence, determined to see what her niece would do, before she interfered.

"The dog is worth a million of money to me," said the "He once saved my life."

man.

"I should be enchanted with a dog that would save my life," said Helen. "Suppose I give you five shillings?" But the man still shook his head; and Helen went on

to ask him how he could afford to keep a dog, and to tell him how much better off he would be without it, provided he was poor, as indeed he seemed to be.

"I know all that," said the man; "or, at least, if I don't know it, it isn't for want of having it told me. Το cut the matter short, I'll take a guinea for the dog-not a farthing less. No, I'll drown him first."

"I have a great mind to give the man a guinea," said Helen to her aunt. "He looks extremely poor, and he must be a good kind of man, or he would not be so fond of his dog."

"Do as you please," said Mrs. Grafton.

"There, then," said Helen, holding out the gold. "Now the dog is mine!"

"Not yet," murmured the man, bending forward, and stooping over his dog, so as to conceal the workings of his face from observation. "You and I, old fellow," he continued, "were never parted before. How do you think you shall like it—eh?"

"He is shedding tears, I do declare!" whispered Helen to her aunt. "Oh! I am so glad I have bought his dog! We ought to be kind to such people, ought we not, dear aunt?"

But the kindness of the aunt was of a very different description from that of the niece. "Come, come !" said she; "we have let this folly go on a little too far. Keep your poor dog," said she to the man, "we have no inten