CHAPTER X.

MATCHES WHICH WOULD NOT BURN.

"To serve Him.' 'Tis the angry word,

Check'd ere it well began;

It is to make a stream of bliss
Where once but discord ran !"

HILE Alice was still holding her mamma's hand, nearer and nearer came the sound of horses' feet, and in an instant Alice stood in the brilliantly-lighted hall, waiting to welcome her cousins.

The first to run up the steps was Nell-Nell, with her sweet, childish face, and masses of golden hair, the gentle little cousin, Alice's first and dearest girl friend. Then came Harry, gay, merry Harry, so grown, that as Alice kissed him, she thought he was indeed altered in his appearance, and he, seeing her look of astonishment cried out

"Well, Alice, do you think I am changed?"

"Indeed, I do, the very thing I was thinking." "Ah! Alice, you see what a magician I am. I can tell you something else that you thought and said too this morning" (here Harry took Alice's hands in his, and looked earnestly into her face), "you said, 'How I do wish it would not rain, and I am sure they will not come.' Now, Alice, look at me and say you did not say that."

"But I did say it," replied Alice laughing.

"Then, Alice, you believe I am a magician; do you not ?"

"A magician! oh, no, Harry. The magicians lived when Moses in the Bible did-you are not like them," replied Alice quickly.

"Why not, Alice, may not a magician live now? How cruel you are to them."

"I did not say they might not live, but there are not any now. You know there are not, Harry."

"Are there not really, Alice? How wise you are. What book did you read all this in?" asked Harry laughing.

And Alice laughed too, as she said—

"I shall go upstairs now. Nurse has taken off Nell's muffling, and she is waiting. Let go my hands, Harry," added Alice, struggling to get away.

"Shall for the king, must for his people. You shall not go upstairs, I want you to stay here."

“O Harry! I shall go, Charlie is calling you. Do let go my hands," pleaded Alice.

"Not till you say please—or shall I make you? Do you remember the day you would not say it when I took your book from you, and then I held your hands till you had to kneel down to say it, Alice ?"

"I do, Harry, and mamma said you”— here Alice stopped speaking, and some happy thought entered her head, for looking up at the bright face of her cousin, she said—

"Please, Harry, do let go my hands."

"Yes, Alice, there now, you are free; I will try you a race upstairs." But just as Alice had started, Harry caught her dress, saying, "No, that is not fair, you set off too soon."

"No, I did not-you said three before I started, it is you who are unfair.”

"Ah! you are getting angry, Alice, now; I know you are," replied Harry quickly.

"Getting angry!" The words sounded in Alice's ears with a meaning Harry did not know. Here was one of the battles her mamma had talked of, and was she not to try and win the victory? Would

this be carrying her basket as the boy in the wilderness did his? Oh, no, she would try, and on the impulse of the moment, Alice said

“I—I do not—I do not want to be angry."

"All right, Alice, never mind now-we will have our race to-morrow, and if nurse is angry with you for being so late, tell her it is all my fault," added Harry, for though he did tease Alice, he loved her dearly, and would not willingly get her into trouble.

And Alice went upstairs with strange feelings of joy and sorrow; joyous with the feeling that Nell and Harry had come, but yet fearful of the battles which were before her. But who guided the pilgrim boy? Oh! it was this thought which dispelled her childish fears.

"Miss Alice," said nurse, as Alice came into the nursery, why did you not come up sooner? There, Miss Nell is almost ready to go downstairs, and the bell will ring in a few minutes."

"I am sorry, nurse, but I could not; I will hurry just as fast as I can."

"O nurse! indeed it was not Alice's fault; Harry held her hands for a long time. You know he likes to have fun with Alice," chimed in little Nell.

I suppose, then, Master Harry is just what he always was, with his fun and tricks. I wonder he does not tire of them."

"No, nurse, Harry is changed; mamma says persons always change in two years," replied Alice slowly, remembering the afternoon conversation.

During the remainder of the time upstairs, Alice and Nell talked pleasantly of Christmas, and the many beautiful gifts she and Charlie had received. Nell answered all Alice's questions about the children at home, what they were doing, how they looked, and what messages of love they had sent. She then described how beautiful all the shops in London looked at Christmas, and ended by saying

"O Alice! Harry and I were always wishing you were with us."

"Had you snow, Nell, beautiful, deep, white snow?" asked Alice.

"We had snow, but it was only very white the first day; it soon looked dirty, and was brushed away."

"Then, Nell, I would rather you had been with us. Our snow was white all the time, till the rain came and washed it away. I was so sorry this