"I could not complain, for twice over I had been back, telling myself I was strong enough to go on, but each time I had broken down, and on the last occasion had to be sent home in a fly. "The disease, you see, had left me so dreadfully nervous; and directly I had attempted to think and direct, and plunge generally into the regular bustle of business, I had become confused and flurried, ending by sitting down miserably helpless, and obliged to confess myself beaten. "`This is the worst cut of all,' I said with a groan, as I let the envelope and its enclosures fall to the ground; `God help us! what is to become of us?' "`Oh, come, come!' exclaimed my wife--bless her for a dear little woman who always thinks a looking-glass has two bright sides!--`come, come! we shall manage right enough, dear, only wait and grow strong.' "`Seven of us, and no income--nothing to look forward to in this weary, weary world,' I groaned; and I sank back and covered my face with my hands. "`And as I did so I felt my little woman rest her forehead on my hands, and in a whisper she repeated those lines of Longfellow's--' "`Be still, sad heart! and cease repining; Behind the clouds is the sun still shining; Thy fate is the common fate of all: Into each life some rain must fall, Some days must be dark and dreary.' "I knew the truth of the words--very favourite ones of mine, which I had often quoted about other people's sorrows--but now I could only moan in my weakness, and think of the future as a cloudy, rainy time, which no sunshine could ever pierce. "What was to become of our two girls, Hetty and Marie, of whom we had been so proud, and whom we had educated and trained with such care that while domestic in every way, they were ladies in the truest sense of the word--girls of eighteen and twenty? What was to become of the little ones? "For with my large family I had never been able to put much aside, but had trusted to insurance. What little I had saved had been swept away by the expenses of my long illness; and now I had fifty pounds, a few debts, the insurance-money to keep up, my health was shattered, and no prospective income. "I can scarcely think about it all now without a strange swelling coming in my throat, for events followed one another pretty quickly then. Of course, I know that I had no business to repine; but I was in so weak and helpless a state that I did and said things very different to the thoughts and acts of a man in robust health. "The next morning my eldest boy, a lad of fourteen then, sat perfectly still after breakfast, and looked preternaturally solemn. I did not see it then, but there was evidently a conspiracy afloat. "`Time you had gone to school, my boy,' I said. "`Not going to-day, father,' was the answer; and then it came out that the schoolmaster's brother had undertaken to receive the boy into his office, without premium--he was a land agent and surveyor, and the boy was to reside with him.