EVAS FAIRY STORY.

happier for youi coming, for now, with your help, I can perfect
the rich odors that I am making, and send them forth to
sweeten the air.’

“And even as the lily spoke all her leaves thrilled with a ney,
joy and she breathed sweetness on the air. Just then came by
a zephyr, which caught up some of the odor, and carried it
into the open window of a poor cobbler who sat silent at his
work.

“ Ag he smelt the delicious fragrance, his thoughts went back
to his childhood, when he played knee-deep among flowers in
the meadows; and forgetting the dulness and weariness of life,
his lips answered to the memories of youth, and he sang to
himself a song of other days.

“The voice was feeble and broken, but there were ears to
which it came bearing sweetness and refreshment.

“Tn the room aboye that in which the cobbler worked lay his
sick wife. She had been feeling lonely and discouraged. But
when she heard the good old man singing at his work, tears of
thankfulness came into her eyes, and lifting her heart to God,
she prayed, saying, ‘Kind Father of us all, give him patience
and strength. I am no longer a help but a burden to him.
O my Father, let his faithfulness have the reward of peace.’

“And then she heard the voice, still singing in a low,
pleasant way, coming nearer. Footsteps sounded on the stairs.
Her husband looked into the little chamber, and kindly said,
‘Do you want anything ?”

“* Nothing,’ she answered, in a patient voice.

“ And then he went down to his work again, and for a whole
hour he sang to himself the old songs he had loved in the far-
off times, and his sick wife lay in her bed listening to his voice.
And there were peace and rest in her heart.

“Of all this the dew-drop and the lily knew nothing, but

God knew.”
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