Elmer looked about, astonished to find himself alone and really left behind. He could not believe it possible that the boat would not turn about and take him. Everybody had always waited for him before. But there they were, speeding on their way. It was too much! He was angry, and "so" disappointed. Left behind! And all for those miserable mean marbles! He took them from his pocket and threw them as far as he could. He would have scolded, but there was nobody there to hear. He would have cried, but he thought he was too big. Oh, what a fool he had been! Was there ever such a fool before? He did not want to go home; he did not want to go anywhere or do anything. He sat down on a box and kicked his heels against it. What a mean old world it was! Perhaps his good angel leaned over him just then, for his thoughts took a sudden turn: "It was my fault," he said to himself. "I'm always too late, and everybody's poking at me about it. Why can't I turn about and be like other folks! I declare I 'will!' I'll begin this very day." He got down from his box at once and started towards home. In a little old-fashioned house which he passed lived auntie Simons, an old lady who was auntie to the whole town. She was out brushing off her front steps. The old lady stopped, and leaning on her broom, looked over her spectacles a minute to make sure that it was really Elmer. "Why, my child!" she said, as he came nearer. "What does all this mean? I thought you had gone to a picnic." "I got left," Elmer said, his eyes fastened on the tree trunk near him. "Now you don't say! Too bad! Well, don't look so downhearted. Come in and see me a spell. Come! I'm going to have flapjacks and maple syrup for breakfast, and I know you are half-starved by this time; didn't have time to snatch only a bite, now did you?" What boy could withstand the attractions of flapjacks and maple syrup? Besides, he really was hungry. Excitement had prevented his eating much breakfast, so in he went. While auntie Simons helped him bountifully to smoking hot cakes and golden syrup, he told her all about it—how he came to be left, and how he had resolved to turn over a new leaf. "Yes, it does seem foolish," the old lady said when they sat on the porch after breakfast, "for you to lose a whole day's pleasure just by waiting a little bit too long, when you might have gone as well as not; but what shall we say of one who puts off coming to Christ until it is too late? Don't you, dear boy, say 'Time enough' to that. You can't tell how little time there may be left. You know when the gate down by the wharf was shut on you, you had a chance to sit down and think it all over, and make up your mind that you would be all right the next time, anyhow; but you see when the door is shut at the last—in death—it is shut 'forever.' It is open now. Jesus says, 'Come.' Do not put it off, Elmer dear." A CUP OF COLD WATER.