I have written nothing of late about Margaret's children. You will remember that Jamie had a wish to preach the gospel. He did not change his purpose. The providence of God helped him wonderfully. Through the divine blessing on his own perseverance, and the kindness of his friends, a way was opened for the fulfilment of his wishes. And who, think you, bides now at the manse? Who, indeed, but the selfsame Jamie, now Rev. James Patterson! But I never cross the doorstone without thinking of our own gentle Mary, whose home it once was. Surely time has brought to us many changes. I am glad that mother lived to hear Jamie preach in our own kirk; no doubt it was like balm to her poor wounded heart.

Margaret's youngest bairn, John, is the schoolmaster; for we aye have a schoolmaster in our family. When he made it known that he wanted his grandfather's place, many voices cried, "Let him have it. Let us have a scion o' the warthy John Patterson, for we havena had his like since the good man's wark was stopped."

The four lassies, as they grew to womanhood, were settled in homes of their own. The oldest one, Christie, married a worthy farmer's son, one John McHardie. She lives in the house so long occupied by Bessie McDougal. It seems natural to me to go there, and I am glad it is Christie's home. Christie is just like my mother, for whom she was named. She puts every pennyworth to its best use; and she and her husband bid fair to do as well on the place as David McDougal and his wife did.

The youngest lass, Maggie, married a good man with plenty of this world's gear, yet I doubt if Margaret was better pleased than she was with Christie's choice. John, Maggie's brother, often told her that her bonnie face would get her a fortune some day. A bonnie face she had, and still has, and a good heart too, which is far better. She has never been puffed up on account of her beauty or her husband's riches; for she was well taught that true beauty is beauty of soul, and true riches the treasure laid up in heaven. It is with Maggie that Margaret now lives, though the other bairns are ever wanting their mother to bide a while with them; and so she often goes from one to another, loved and honored by all.

In Margaret's family we cannot fail to see that God has fulfilled his promise to the widow and the fatherless. True, they were not without their full share of hardships; but by God's grace they bore them submissively and bravely, and God exalted them in his own good time.

I have to record but one other event—the death of my mother. It is just eleven years to-day since she passed away. It was like the falling to sleep of a wee bairn. She went with a smile on her face. I could not but wonder what made her smile. Was it joy that her long pilgrimage of more than ninety years was accomplished at last? Did she see some one on the other shore beckoning to her? We cannot know that she did; but we believe that the Christian, when he goes hence, is often cheered by some vision of God's own granting.

Mother's place by the ingle is left to me. Here I sit. I read the same Bible, and I am waiting for the same call. God grant it may be as gentle. I do not weary to go; for I am an honored inmate of the old home. My nephew is fond of his aunt Effie, and Janet is a sister indeed. Much good has come to me to make me forget the past, could it ever be forgotten. But I look for my purest and highest enjoyment in that world where I shall rejoin those who have passed on before.

It is not meet, it would not be wise, for me to trace all the events connected with our family in the last few years. It might not be amiss to say that Wilson, the man that put the match to Jamie's fingers, when he lay on his death-bed sent for the same Jamie to pray for the salvation of his soul. Truly, God's ways are wonderful.

And now I have done with my story. It has given me a melancholy pleasure to write it. I think I shall not hope too much if I hope that all who read it may learn from it that when God suffers his children to be afflicted, he aye upholds them and gives them grace sufficient for their needs.