Was the burden lighter to Joanna because the others bore it lightly? All her life had been spent laboriously in providing for and shielding her two beloved ones. Every shilling, for their sakes, had been made to do the duty of thirteenpence. She had diligently practised industry, and thrift, and forethought every hour of every working day; and now she could not enter into the Sabbath rest of Charlotte and Amos. The future loomed very dark and dreary. There would be no immediate distress; for had not she scraped painfully together as much as £50, which was safely deposited in the post-office savings bank? But she always regarded that as a nest-egg for Charlotte, if she should happen to outlive her and Amos. As she sought for some cheap and comfortless lodging in the town, she wondered how she could manage where there was no garden where she could grow vegetables and savoury herbs, and where she could keep a few fowls. Every egg, every potato even, would have to be bought; and the only money coming in would be the small pension due to Amos. She foresaw herself spending, with a constant heart-pang, the nest-egg laid by for Charlotte. Joanna fought hard against distrust of God. She listened, with a ghost of a smile, to Charlotte's consoling and courageous thoughts, but she could not enter into them. It was strange how this new misery made everything about her start into greater vividness. Every object about the cottage, and within it, seemed to be almost alive and thrusting itself into her notice. Even the old cracks in the window-panes impressed themselves upon her mind. Still more keenly did she see and read afresh the familiar faces of her husband and daughter. Perhaps we see least those whom we love most. They live so closely beside us that, though their voices are in our ears, and the sense of their presence is always with us, we hardly look at them, and time leaves traces on their beloved features undetected by us. Joanna was startled to recognise how Amos was looking an old man, and how pallid and worn was Charlotte's face. Oh! If the blessed Lord would only let them all pass away together from this world before the great sorrow came!