back from the tube. "Where do you keep it?

It can't be in that little place?"

"It must be very old-fashioned," said Owen, laughing. "I shouldn't wonder if Noah had

one in the ark."

Patty looked puzzled. Mrs. Gray bent over

her, smiled a little, and glass out of its rest.

asked.

drew a little piece of "What is that?" she

"I can hardly see anything," said Patty. "That is your tidy,” said Mrs. Gray —“ a thin slice cut across the bony spine of a sea-urchin.” "Here is something prettier," said Owen; and Patty looked again, and saw a great many little baskets made of diamonds - tiny fruit-plates, sparkling in the sun, and looking as if they were made of jewels. All sorts of graceful forms that Patty had seen in vases and dishes she saw here in rainbowed light.

"That is earth from Barbadoes," said Owen. "Earth?" said Patty. "Do people tread on it? Why don't they break the pretty things?" "They are too small to break," said Owen ; you cannot crush a grain of dust."

୧୧

But what are they?" said Patty. "All dust is not like that."

"We call them Polycistineæ,” said Owen. "They are the glassy skeletons of tiny creatures that lived thousands of years ago. When they laid the Atlantic cable, they laid it on thick beds of these beautiful things. God made glass long ago."

When Patty looked through the microscope again, she saw what seemed like beautiful Nautilus shells, made of the same clear gems. Owen told her they came from the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea; and then he showed her a little slice of rattan that looked like delicate lace. "You have a beautiful microscope," said Mrs. Gray; "who gave it to you, Owen?"

"My grandfather," answered the boy, "before all our troubles began. It is the only thing I have kept. It was good to be thinking of God and His quiet ways, when the cannon were roaring all round."

"I didn't know Southern people cared for such things," said Patty, timidly.

"Oh!" said Owen. "I do not know many people who have microscopes," he added; "but one Southern general, I know, who spent his life over snakes, until that first gun was fired at Fort Sumter."

Patty said nothing; she could not understand how people could love God, and study his ways, and yet not think exactly as she did about slavery and the war. She pitied Owen; and when, after a few kind words, they went down stairs, and Mrs. Gray put out her hand to say good bye, Patty put up her lips of her own accord to kiss the dying boy.

"Oh, mamma!" she said, as she climbed up into the wagon, "won't Owen be happy soon? He seems so sad in this world!"

The cart rattled down the hill, but Patty thought very little of the dreary, ruined fields that they were jolting through. She was thinking of the beautiful things Owen had shown her, and how soon he would leave them all, and gaze, instead, into the face of God himself. All of a sudden the mule stopped, and the cart drew up with a jerk, at a little landing near the Long Bridge. The steamer had not made the landing. "We are in good time,” said mamma; but while she said it, a man in uniform drew near, and touching his hat to Mrs. Gray, said a few words to Tony, whom he seemed to know. Then Patty saw that a large row-boat lay at

the landing, with a flag floating, and several men resting on their oars. Tony looked a little puzzled; but he came up to Mrs. Gray, and said,

ee

Colonel Amory thought you would like to row down the river, because that was the way you went twenty years ago. That boat is for you, and the superintendent will spare me, if you would like to have me go with you."

Mrs. Gray's eyes sparkled. "I should like the row so much!" she said; "but is there any need of my troubling you?"

ee

Perhaps," said Tony, doubtfully; "indeed, Miss Sophie, I think you will be better off. There is a village at Mount Vernon, and Judy has a sister there. I think I had better keep on with you. I know Minnie can make you more comfortable than the lady at the house."

Mrs. Gray answered by a look, and stepped carefully into the boat, where the black bags were already lying. Patty had never been in a row-boat in her life, but she sprang bravely after her mother. Tony sat down a little way from them.

As soon as they got away from the landing,

the men began to sing. They were Germans; there were eight of them, and they sang some German boat songs, keeping time to their oars, so that it seemed as if the plash were part of the music.

"This is the way I went before," said Mrs. Gray to Patty; "but I had sixteen men then. Use your eyes, little girl; there are some canvas-backs; do you see them?”

"Canvas-backs?" said Patty, sleepily, for she had been listening to the song; "those are the ducks that breed in Alaska - arn't they?"

Mrs. Gray nodded. The oars moved so quickly that the boat seemed almost to drift down the stream; and when, at the end of half an hour, Alexandria came in sight, she gave a little cry of surprise.

"What is the matter, mamma?" said Patty.

"I am surprised to see so large a town," said her mother; "and the wharves look busy. They show the change the war has made. When I came here twenty years ago, grass grew in the streets, and we found the girls at the town pump with their pitchers, chatting just as if it were a little country village!"