"Oh, if I had not learned this—learned to love the Lord Jesus, who loved me and gave Himself for me—how miserable I should be now!" exclaimed Isabel. "I should have been unhappy and fretful, and miserable at the thought of dying so young. But now I can trust God, even for dear papa, for I know that the seed is beginning to grow in him, and God will teach and help him to root up all the weeds that hinder its growth." It was the last long talk she was able to have with Mrs. Barker. As the days went on, she grew rapidly weaker. She suffered very little pain, beyond the restlessness at night. During the day she dozed a great deal, or lay with Mabel's hand clasped in hers, occasionally asking for a few verses from the Bible, or a hymn to be read to her. But even this soon wearied her, and she would doze off again before Mabel had read many lines. Mr. Randolph rarely left the house now, except for an hour on the most urgent business, and spent a great deal of his time in Isabel's room, where he could not help learning much that he had never heard of before, and which awoke in him thoughts, and desires, and resolutions that afterwards blossomed into a consistent Christian life. So that when at last the end came, and he had to give back to God the gift intrusted to him for a little while, he could do it with a hope that by and by he should join his beloved daughter in the kingdom where there is no sickness and no partings. As soon as her cousin's funeral was over, Mabel returned home a wiser if a somewhat sadder girl. As she stood in her own little room on the eve of her sixteenth birthday, and thought of the hopes and aspirations she had spoken of to herself the year before, she said half aloud: "Ah, the mistake I made was looking too far ahead, and being too ambitious, and so I failed to see the work that God had already given me—the duties that lay nearest to me. Oh, dear, how much I have missed through this! But, God helping me, Isabel shall not have died in vain, I will strive to be content with the smallest service—the lowest place now." And Mabel kept her word. It cost her many a hard battle before she could quite settle down as her sister's governess and her mother's helpful daughter. But she conquered at last, winning victory from defeat, but never quite forgiving herself for the mistakes she made in that most eventful year of her life. THE END.