"After all," he said to himself, "I needn't have dreaded it so much. I was unnecessarily alarmed. I thought she meant to bring another sledgehammer to bear on my conscience. Yes, I'll go and see our mutual friend. I wonder who it is." He took up the other paper and read,— Dear Friend,— I came across these "words of strength" from our favorite Schiller's poems, and thought of you while reading them. That they may prove real words of strength to you is the earnest prayer of an attached friend. MARION HOWARD. "There are three lessons I would write, Three words as with a burning pen, In tracings of eternal light, Upon the hearts of men. "Have hope. Though clouds environ now, And gladness hides her face in scorn, Put thou the shadow from thy brow, No night but hath its morn. "Have faith. Where'er thy bark is driven— The calm's disport, the tempest's mirth— Know this: God rules the hosts of heaven, The inhabitants of earth. "Have love. Not love alone for one, But man as man thy brother call, And scatter, like the circling sun, Thy charities on all. "Thus 'grave these lessons on thy soul, Hope, Faith, and Love; and thou shalt find Strength when life's surges rudest roll, Light when thou else were blind." Notwithstanding the twisted and gnarled branches of this old oak, there was a time, years back, when it was a straight and vigorous young sapling. It was beautiful to behold, and gave promise of becoming a lofty, stalwart tree, under which many might find refreshing shelter. On this thrifty sapling grew an ugly wart, called by some horticulturists jealousy. At first it might have been removed without injury to the tree, but it was not. It grew and grew, diffusing it: poison through all the cellular tissues, until it became deformed, disfigured, and unsightly. Strange, but true, this process of degeneration had been going on in the character of Mr. Lambert, until, at the time we first knew him, there was only one trait left of his original nature. This was a peculiar, unquenchable tenderness of feeling toward the poor and distressed. Suspicious as he had become of all around him, ever toward the very ones he was trying to save from their own thriftlessness or crime, this one trail urged him on to give relief; and in this way kept alive one of the healthiest avenues to real goodness, even though his charities were often accompanied by a torrent of reproach.