"THOMAS RICE." "I expect a friend, my dear," remarked Aunt Martha on the Saturday preceding the day in question. "Betsey has aired the room, and put it in order, but I want you to see that all is right. A tiny bouquet cut from the flowers below would prove to the guest a pleasant welcome." Without a suspicion of the truth, Helen gladly undertook the task. She ran here and there, singing gayly through the wide halls, carrying small articles of bijouterie, to render the chamber attractive. "I wish it were a gentleman," she exclaimed, rushing into Mrs. Prescott's chamber, "for I have found a handsome travelling-case with razors and all sorts of conveniences for the toilet. If our visitor were a gentleman, I would ask you to let me carry it there." "Except for the shaving apparatus the dressing-case is equally suited for a lady's toilet, my dear." "Shall I put it on the bureau then?" "In the north parlor you will find a small ebony table, you may set the dressing-case on that." "Yes, and my little vase in front of it," and Helen ran off, singing, to finish her pleasant work. Saturday evening about the hour that Helen a fortnight earlier reached Morrisville, there was a ring at the front door. At the old lady's request her niece went down to receive the visitor, and to her surprise and delight found herself face to face with her preserver. After tea Mr. Rice called upon the young clergyman, and gave him a note left by the minister who had gone from town. In consequence of this visit Mr. Knowles was invited to return on the first Sabbath in January to preach as a candidate for settlement, which, having consulted with his father and Mrs. Prescott, he agreed to do. Having been disappointed in their former minister, the church and parish now resolved to proceed with more caution in choosing a pastor. But after listening to Mr. Knowles' earnest representation of the way of salvation through Jesus Christ, his pleas with the unrenewed to lay down the weapons of rebellion and enlist on the side of the great Captain, they were zealous to obtain his services. As it was Mrs. Prescott's wish that Helen's friend should for the present make her house his home, the old lady had frequent opportunities of conversation on the great doctrines of evangelical truth, and discovered in him a richness of Christian experience which greatly delighted her. She found too that he was eminently a working man, and that he had the faculty, so rare, of interesting children in his preaching. "It's so simple," said one, "that my little boy listened spellbound." "And yet," replied another, "it's food. I don't go away hungry, as I used to." Mr. Knowles on the first Sabbath visited the Sunday School. And afterward he was seldom absent during some part of the exercises. He went from class to class listening to the answers, and giving a practical direction to the instructions which waked up both teachers and scholars.