"What can I do for you, my darling?" said Mrs. Lincoln, as she bent over a languid form that was extended upon the sofa in front of an open door. The perfume of rare flowers was wafted to them from the cultivated borders without, and the rich foliage cast a soft shade upon the lawn, shutting out the intensity of the summer sun, and making the air bland and grateful. Pet hounds were gamboling about the room, and games and toys of every description were scattered all about in the greatest profusion. A stuffed chair, on rollers, was near the boy, and a garden chair stood upon the steps, ready for immediate use, and every thing around seemed fitted to minister to a diseased body and a capricious will. The lad drew pettishly away from the caress of his fond mother, as he replied,

"It isn't of any use to do any thing at all for me; there's no happiness, anyhow! Why couldn't I have been like other boys, and not so ugly as to have to hive myself up here all the time for fear of ridicule?" and he threw his head back upon the cool hair pillows and murmured something which his mother did not hear, excepting that the last word was die. She had often heard the wicked wish that his life might not be prolonged; but how to lead him from the constant contemplation of his deformity so as to make him resigned, if not cheerful, had, as yet, been an unavailing study.

The pampering the luxurious tastes and propensities of her son had only fostered in him a craving and dissatisfied spirit, and engendered the feeling that every thing was to bend to his demands however foolish or extravagant. It was a pitiable sight! that gentle and fond mother vainly giving every energy to the effort to soothe and interest her son, while he, seemingly unconscious of her unwearied exertions, turned petulantly from all her kindness and love, and buried himself in gloom and fretfulness. "This thing is intolerably hot!" said he, as he threw back the collar of his fine white linen tunic, and bared his throat to the breeze that came faintly through the open windows; "I haven't felt comfortable to-day, and the night promises nothing better." Mrs. Lincoln took a broad fan from the mantle, and, seating herself by the youth, pushed aside the heavy hair from his brow and quietly fanned him, while she tried to draw his thoughts away from himself, and fix them upon something pleasing and instructive; but the mood was perverse, and she was about to despair when two little feet came patting through the hall, and Kittie Fay burst suddenly into the room.

"Oh! Willie," said she, bounding up to the couch, and kissing her cousin twenty times over; "you've no idea what a beautiful home you have, and what a happy boy you are! only think, I've seen somebody, just now, that had just such a thing on his back as you have; but it stuck almost through his ragged coat, and he had old ugly crutches, and a shabby hat, and he says he lives in a small house down by the bay, and Willie, dear, I'm going with mother, some day, to see him, and you shall go too, if you will, maybe it will make you sorry for him, so that you will give him something pretty from this nice room!" and the child's eyes wandered over the beautiful articles that were strewn around, and her little hand lay softly upon the forehead of the boy, who looked upon her with something of pleasure in his usually dissatisfied face. "Auntie Lincoln," continued she, leaving her cousin and leaning upon her aunt's knee; "please take me up to the big window in the study, I believe we can see that little hut from there, for there's an old woman comes out the door sometimes, and I guess that's Archie's grandmother."

"What does the child mean?" asked Mrs. Lincoln of her sister, who that moment entered the room; "she seems quite in earnest about a poor child whom she says she met in the street, and who is afflicted somewhat like our Willie. Is it so, Mary?"

"Ah, yes, and such a sad, sweet face, I shall not soon lose the impression. Such perfect patience and resignation! It made me really forget his crooked frame. Surely, dear Sarah, God makes us all equal, and it is ourselves alone that create a disparity. The calmness and Christian beauty that shone out of that poor boy's face, more than compensates for the distortion of his frame. We will find him out, if you please, some time, and I am sure we shall not repent it;" and Mrs. Fay cast an intelligent glance toward her impatient nephew, which was understood and appreciated by his mother, who gladly acquiesced in the proposal to seek out the strange lad.

Kittie, meantime had glided quietly from the room, and ensconced herself in a deep window in the library, where she stood gazing out upon a small hut that stood just visible in the distance. The night was bright and clear, and by the light of the moon that illumined the vacant space around the hovel, she was able to distinguish perfectly every object. The shabby group still gathered about the stagnant pond pushing out their little crafts, or wading in to guide them with greater skill, and now and then a coarse-looking woman would loiter across the space, and with no gentle hand, pull her struggling offspring homeward. The scene was a revolting one to the child, and she was turning to leave the spot, with one last look at the hut, when she perceived the old woman who had so often before arrested her attention, outside the door, and Archie himself near her, while a shaggy-haired man, with a pipe in his mouth sauntered back and forth in front of the house, occasionally stopping to address himself to one or the other of his companions. Kittie bestowed but a passing glance upon the woman and the man, and bent her fixed and interested gaze upon the boy, who sat upon the low step with his forehead upon his hand, and his sad figure almost doubled together. It was but a moment, however, before the head was raised, and the face turned toward the heavens, with a look so full of reverence and earnestness, that the delicate child shrunk away from her secret observatory, with the feeling that it was a sacrilege to witness the poor lad's sacred emotions, and with suffused eyes and a throbbing heart she left the spot in order to return to her petted cousin.

"I've seen him, Willie," said she, half lying across the heavy pillows and putting her mouth close to the youth's ear, "and he seemed so sad, and yet so happy! You wouldn't like it at all down in that mean place with such a looking man and woman to live with, would you, Willie?"

"I don't like any thing, Kittie, mean or not mean," muttered the boy. "To be sure," he continued, seeing her surprised expression, as her eyes fell upon the many comforts and luxuries with which he was surrounded, "to be sure I live in a great house and have plenty of money and books, and toys, and such things; but Kittie, what if you had this great hump on your back, so that every body would look at you whenever you were out, and pity and loathe you! I don't believe you would be any happier than I. I don't care, I wish I was dead, anyhow!" and Willie buried his head in the pillows while his little cousin tried to soothe and comfort him.

"Perhaps I should think of it too much, Willie," said she, "and then it would make me fretful and wretched; but mamma says if we fix our minds on something pleasant, we shall forget the pains and troubles of life; and only think, Willie, this is all the ill you have, while Archibald Mackie is poor, and ragged, and an orphan besides!"

"Who's Archibald Mackie?" asked her cousin, "and what have I to do with him?—'tis as much as I can do to think of myself!"

"That's the very thing, Willie," replied the little reasoner. "If you would only try to put your mind on some body or something else, may be you wouldn't remember that you are at all unlike other people. I know mamma and Auntie Lincoln talk so about you very often when they are together; but I didn't tell you about Archie. You see, I've found out where he lives—in that hut that you can see from the library window, and he's the boy that we are to visit some day, dear Willie;" and Kittie fondled her deformed cousin, smoothing down the obtrusive hump, as if it were a graceful and comely thing.