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"And do you know whether he learned any more," asked the visitor, "of this kind friend?"

"Mrs. Green told me she had tried to give him a notion of the Saviour," said the woman; "but she didn't think he understood her at all. He only knows the name of Jesus Christ, I think; for one day, when the sky was uncommonly clear, he told me that Jesus Christ lived up there with God. Mrs. Green showed him pictures, and took a deal of pains; but I don't think she made any more than that out of her teaching; but she taught him to count and say the days of the week; and altogether he has taken much more notice since she instructed him."

The woman had evidently been so well pleased to have some one to speak to who could sympathize with her, and take a kind interest in her poor charge, that her visitor had stayed much longer than she had at first intended. She now prepared to leave the cottage; and, before doing so, observed that she could not but think, in spite of the boy's deficient sense, that he might be taught to occupy himself in some slight way, such as netting or plaiting straw; and she offered to come and try to teach him. The woman shook her head, and said, --

"I am very much obliged, to you, ma'am, I am sure; but it is not the want of sense that makes me afraid he could not learn, so much as the weakness of his hands; and in cold weather they are so numb that he is far more helpless than you see him now."

Still the visitor said she should like to try, and offered to come the following day and begin; the woman thanked her and consented with gratitude, declaring that, if once the boy could be taught anything, he never forgot it. The visitor then went away, saying, as she passed the poor child, who was now basking idly in the sun, --

"The next time I come to see Matt I shall give him a penny."

She said this partly to test his memory, partly to make him anxious to see her again. His face brightened; and as she walked home over the level sands, the consideration of how great a contrast there was between his powers and her own occupied her mind, and she thought of those words of serious meaning: "To whom much is given, of him shall much be required."

There was a great deal of comfort in his humble home; his grandfather seemed to be a quiet, sober man; his aunts were industrious women; a healthful breeze came in at the open door, and the two little casement windows supplied two such views as are not often to be met with. From the front casement might be seen the grand spectacle of the open sea; some heavy clouds had come up, and their leaden gray hues were reflected on the shifting waves, while vast flocks of sea-birds were wheeling in great circles, at every turn the white of their wings flashing out; the tide was rapidly coming in, and the wind rising, every beat of the breakers on the soft sand sounding like low thunder. The other casement looked inland, for the kitchen occupied all the lower floor of the little cottage; the clouds hanging only over the sea, there was still sunshine over the open fields and wide marsh of the brightest green; church-spires stood up here and there, but the district seemed to be so thinly populated that it was wonderful how they could gather congregations. Behind the cottage was a little garden; its walls sheltered a few rose-trees, a number of scented flowers, and some apple-trees, from the force of the wind; a sweet-brier was trained to climb over one of the trees, and its falling blossoms were wafted on to the ironing-table, and dropped among the delicate laces which the woman was smoothing. But the warmth of that day and its steady sunshine were all that gave pleasure to the idiot boy. The grand sea sweeping in, the wheeling sea-birds, the luxuriant fields and towering cliffs, might all have vanished away like a dream, and taken no part of his enjoyment from him.

The lady walked home; and some things that had been said of poor Matt recurred to her mind, especially his own strange words, "Matt was looking for God." Alas, how few of us are looking for God, "although he be not far from any of us!" In his works how few discern him; but can look on the glorious sun, and only consider its warmth and brightness, and on the green earth, and only count up the harvest it yields, without thinking of him who ordained them.

In the ways of his providence, also, how few look for God! Even among those who desire to serve him, how few "search diligently that they may find him," observing and pondering on the trials and troubles as well as the mercies that he has ordained for them, and considering what effect they were intended to produce on their minds and characters, -- whether they have worked together for good; whether impatience has caused the more painful dispensations to be merely punishments; or whether submission has received them as discipline, and found them to be blessings in the end!

THE autumn sun was bright and hot upon the sand, and Matt was basking in it under the cottage wall, when his new friend appeared before him at noon the next day. Little Becca was seated beside him, singing, and knitting a coarse fisherman's mitten; but the boy was not noticing her. As before, his face, with its strange look of awe, was fixed on the open sky; and it was not till Beeca touched him that he withdrew his eyes, and, seeing the lady, said, with outstretched hands, --