MILLIE;S VICTORY.




 CHAPTER II.

 SPRING dawned brightly on the land. Mrs. La Serre's
 garden was early fragrant with flowers. Primroses
 and violets brightened the country lanes, and the
 young leaves cast a flickering shadow on the ground.
 The grass was worn away beneath the lilac-trees,
 where Millie watched the quickening blossoms, and
 blessed each beam of sunshine that played upon the
 trees, each breath of wind that might have filled the
 vessels sails bearing the dear ones quicker home. No
 letters had come by the last mail; by this time they
 must be far on their way home, Millie and Mrs. La
 Serre decided.
 Bright on bud and blossom shone the soft spring
 sunshine; fresh on bud and blossom fell the soft
 spring rain, till earth was clad in beauty to greet the
 summer queen.
 One morning Millie paid her accustomed visit to
the trees. In the night several of the blossoms had
opened, fragrant, sparkling with dew-fit emblems of
joy. With a glad cry, Millie tenderly broke off one
of the finest, and ran back.
 "Mrs. La Serre, look! The lilacs are in bloom.
Oh, dear! What is the matter? What has hap.
opened ?" she added, startled at her friend's face.
 "I have read my letter. Millie, my child! my
poor darling! how can I tell you?"
 Millie dropped her precious flower.
 "Has anything happened to the ship ?" she asked.
 "They are not in the ship. Your mother will come
home alone. My child, your father is in heaven 1"