158 GLIMPSE OF A CHRISTIAN HOME

of neighbouring bays and islands, with intervening fields
and groves. The walls were overgrown with vines ;
and honeysuckles and sweet-briars clambered about the
windows. Within, everything bespoke competency,
ease, and comfort, rather than display or novelty. The
chief room was the library, which was surrounded with |
valuable books, on which the eye of Carl rested with
admiration and almost envy.

But that which most affected him was the religious
atmosphere of the place. He had been in Christian
families before, but never in one like this. The father,
the mother, the only daughter, Matilda, and the three
little boys, nay, the very domestics, seemed to be under
the power of a religious training. The Scriptures,
without any violence or any affectation, were evidently
the rule of the house, as they were the topic of daily
but natural remark. Mutual improvement and gentle
affection breathed over all the little society, and all their
words and acts. Doubtless there was much of human
_ imperfection and sin, but it was in a great degree hidden
from the partial eyes of Carl.

The first Saturday evening which he spent at Spring
Hill was long remembered by him. They combined to
rid the diffident stranger of those feelings of restraint
which he could not, all at once, shake off. As they sat
on the broad portico, which overlooked a grassy hill-
side, the younger ones gambolled over the velvet turf,
in sight of the placid father, The mother and daughter