And Elsie lifted up her fair face, which had been covered with her hands, and bending down, kissed the dying lips. Then, with a look of unutterable gladness and contentment, Geordie closed his eyes as if he was going to. sleep.
Walter Campbell turned away for a moment, for, as he afterwards told one of his shipmates, "It was more than a fellow could stand, and he didn't mind confessing that he hadn't stood it." Presently he hurriedly joined the little group again, determined that Geordie must yet hear before he went away how his faithful words had, through God's grace burnt themselves into a wayward heart, and set a dead soul on fire. But he found that another Voice was falling on Geordie's ear, which was closed to all earthly sounds now; even that greeting to faithful ones which bids them enter into the joy of their Lord.
And so the poor bruised body did lie in Mistress Gowrie's woodruff-scented best bedroom, and among her snowy linen, that night after all, but Geordie was not there; his home was henceforth in the many mansions of the Father's house.
AN OLD FRIEND WITH A NEW NAME
ow, children, here we are at Kirklands, at last," said a lady with a pleasant voice, to an eager-looking group of boys and girls, who were clustering round her, in a large open travelling carriage, which had just drawn up in front of an old gateway, and waited for admittance.