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To some it is given to reach the haven of domestic peace and happiness through troubled seas and stormy winds,—to others, is appointed a stern life-work as rich in experience, as susceptible of infinite joys, as keenly alive to the sorrows of the human family, as if they had lasted all the varied emotions of bliss and pain that lie within the charmed circle of home.

To this latter class Amelia was assigned. Nothing had occurred to enliven her lot,—nothing save the constant communings of her spirit with that invisible Presence which was drawing her more and more under the shadow of its own protecting love, silently moulding her for her future destiny.

She had been an uninterested observer of the events here recorded,—uninterested because they were but atoms in the great world of joy and sorrow