my journey to the mountains the next day, nor did I return till nearly the end of August, when I once again found myself, early on the afternoon, near the precincts of Le Bächen Hölzli, and walking along the road which leads from Thounne, along the banks of the lake, which road terminates a short way farther onwards. The little path-way described also by Aleine, soon presented itself, and I entered a range of green and beautiful fields, having that peculiar point of the hill before me, which I had selected as my land-mark. As I neared this point, I entered a small orchard of beautiful apple trees; the grass was green beneath the trees, and several cows were feeding in the shade, for the day was hot. As I advanced, I observed one cottage, and then another, through the shafts of the trees. These cottages were of that exquisitely beautiful form, seen, I believe, in no part of the world so perfectly as in Swisserland; one stood more forward than the other, and in the wooden gallery in front, I saw a venerable peasant, busy with her spinning-wheel,-it was Aleine's grandmother, and as I presented myself in the little open space before the cottage, she knew immediately that I was the gentleman who was expected at that time by her grand-daughter.

Accordingly she hastened down and gave me a welcome as if I had been the dearest friend she had on earth. "Dear Sir," she said, "Aleine will be so happy-nay Sir, she has been happy ever since you spoke those blessed words; but come in," she added, "and take some refreshment, and then, Sir, I will explain it all to you."

"I will have nothing till your supper-time," I answered; "I know your customs, you sup at sunset; then I will partake with you," and I followed her up her wooden stairs, into a neat apartment, where was a long oaken table at one end, and a small fire-place at the other, a handsome Geneva clock being the only

superior piece of furniture in the room. I was soon seated opposite to the old lady, who began to utter that which was uppermost in her thoughts, without the delay which a more courtly person would have used, yet with all that best polish of manner, which is always found in a greater or less degree in persons studious of conforming themselves, or rather I should say, of being conformed to the image of the blessed Son of God; "Sir," she said, "I consider it as a particular favour bestowed on me by my heavenly Father, that my child happened to fall into your company in Le Bächen Hölzli. It pleased God at that time that you should drop a few words, which were made the means of opening my eyes to the principal sin of my very sinful life, viz. unthankfulness; which proceeds, my good Sir, from unbelief, and that of the grossest sort; for how, Sir, should we, who, I trust, have no doubt that Christ has died for us, have any fears, lest all lesser good things which are necessary for us, should be denied; for, he that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?" Rom. viii. 32.

"But, Sir, I know not how it was, (only that I was a wicked and worthless being, the chief of sinners ;) I had got into a sort of way, that although I had much comfort in the view of the Lord's goodness as promised to me through Christ in the world to come, I could not discern the many earnests of his goodness in this world; however, the child being instructed by you, Sir, through the divine blessing, came home that evening, and told me all that you had said to her; and that night, Sir, after supper, and the door was shut, she said, grandmother, now let us pray in the new way, and as I did not forbid her, after we had read, we knelt down, and as I had used her to do at times from a little one, led the prayer; Oh! it was

beautiful, Sir, it was instructive, it made out the words of Holy Writ, 'out of the mouths of babes and sucklings, thou hast perfected praise.' I could not tell you all the mercies the poor little girl found to enumerate, for they came in childlike, without much order or method, or, as it were, curious wording; but when she thanked God that her father and mother, and that sweet infant, her precious brother, were now rejoicing in heaven with their Redeemer, and not here in this world of sin, I could bear it no longer, but broke out in sobs and groans, being, as it were, struck to the heart, and confounded with a deep sense of my ingratitude, in having gone mourning so many years, through a land set thick with mercies. Well, Sir, and that sweet spirit has held the child, and I often laugh and say, when she is suggesting subjects for our evening thanksgiving, that things will go well with her now, since she finds flowers where others would pass by and say, the land is altogether naught and barren, (alluding, Sir, as you may perceive, to the way she has taken to get a few francs together to help us out.) Well, Sir, and somehow it seems that we are doing better, though how it comes I hardly can say, for by plain and downright calculation of that which comes in, and that which goes out, things are with us much as they were this time last year; still are we better, Sir, that is, more content."

"As a fair landscape is more agreeable when the bright rays of the morning glow thereon, than when dark clouds and mists overshadow it," I replied, ❝ 80 much, my worthy friend, is your last state better than that which has gone before," and I was proceeding, when the chearful tones of young voices reached our ears, and looking from the latticed window, I saw my little favourite Aleine, driving before her two white goats, with several young ones, whom she was bring

ing from a thymy pasture on the hills, and with her a fine dark-eyed boy carrying a kid. There is my bright child, said the old peasant, and with her, Her man I see; he has gone to meet her, to help her to carry the lame kid; he is our neighbours' son, and his mother weaned him when he was a year old, that she might take Aleine, and rear her for my daughterin-law, who was always a very weakly woman, so they are a sort of brother and sister.

There, thought I, is a protection provided for my little girl, in case her grandmother should die, but I kept the thought to myself. All this passed as the children were tying the old goats to the stock of a tree, and coming gaily, and with the steps of little mountaineers, up the wooden stairs, which, as you will see from the following picture, is without the house.

Oh! it was a joyful meeting between me and my little Aleine; but as I have made my story longer than I intended already, I shall not enlarge on this part, which I might very well do, nor say what a beautiful collection of mountain herbs, curiously dried and prepared, and laid in a neat portfolio, tied with blue and yellow twisted worsted, my little Aleine presented to me; and how Herman helped the old lady to set out the supper-table with the best napery, and all the good things the house would afford, and how we all supped together, and united in the song and prayer of thanksgiving after supper, in all of which the fine Swiss boy acted his part as a child of the house; but I shall only say that when I took my leave, I thanked God in my heart, who had put it in my power, an old bachelor as I am, and loving simplicity more than pomp, to put into the hands of the individual who had entertained me, and those who had feasted with me, such a little sum as might add many comforts to a life of humble labour and comparative poverty.

THE

CONVENT OF ST. CLAIR.

PREFACE.

You must get upon your enchanted tapestry with me once again, my gentle reader, and we will wish ourselves once more on the shores of the Mediterranean, where, in a warm and beautiful valley at the feet of