have his way; but mind when you come by the Black Linn! It is a very fearful path along there on a dark night."

"As to that, Donald, I do not think either Kenneth or I would fear to pass the Linn on the darkest night in the year; we know every rock and stone so well. We are almost at home when we have got there."

Angus then taking up his thick walkingstaff, and Kenneth slinging over his shoulder the little wallet in which he had carried their simple dinner, they ventured out into the storm, and the hospitable door of Burnieside was reluctantly closed behind them.

For some time they trudged on without `much difficulty, though the wind and rain beat directly in their faces, and were gradually becoming more violent. In the intervals between the gusts, the father and son conversed together, and Kenneth was pouring forth some of the feelings which the day's services had excited in his pious and serious young heart. He was now about fifteen years of age, the pride and delight of his parents, and of his sister Lilias, who was a year or two older than himself. Marion M'Alpine, his mother, had from his infancy cherished the hope, that this

her only son might become a pious and useful minister in the Church; she wished, like Hannah with the youthful Samuel," to give this child, for whom she had prayed, unto the Lord all the days of his life;" and as he increased in stature, his parents' hearts glowed within them as they marked his studious, serious disposition, and the heavenly-mindedness of his simple character. The great object of their desires was to afford him the advantages of a college education, and the toils by which they strove to secure the means of doing so were made sweet both to his father, mother, and sister, by the love with which they regarded him. Lilias, indeed, looked on Kenneth as on some superior being. She was a sweet-tempered, active, industrious girl; and though her mental powers were not fashioned in so fine a mould as her brother's, she had a heart to love and admire him, and would have made any sacrifice of her own ease and comfort to have added to his happiness, or promoted his welfare. His progress in learning, under the care of the good minister of Linn-head, had been very rapid; and as both his age and his acquirements were now such as nearly to fit him for college, it was intended that he should

be entered a student at the University of Glasgow in the following year. "Father,"

said the boy, Mr. Muir's

in trouble!'"

"that was a fine discourse of

The Lord is a very present help

"It was, Kenneth; but one to be better understood by the aged than the young Christian."

"Just what I thought, father. The words went like fire into my heart; yet, to me, they were but words of promise; to you, and others, who have gone through suffering and tribulation, they were words recalling blessed experience. So far in my life, thanks be to God, and, under Him, to you, and my mother, and dear Lily, the lines have fallen unto me in pleasant places: I have a goodly heritage;' but I know that it must needs be that afflictions come, and when they do"-" May you find the truth and the power of the promises!" interrupted his father.

"Amen!" said Kenneth, with fervour.

In these sweet communings they beguiled the weary way. They had proceeded more than three miles of the distance, and had entered a deep defile in the mountains, at the bottom of which ran a rapid stream. This river, at all

times considerable, now swollen by the melting of the snows, roared along its rocky channel. It entered the defile about a mile and a half higher up, over a tremendous precipice, forming one of the wildest and most terrific cataracts in the Highlands, which was known in the country by the name of the Black Linn. The water was precipitated into a deep, dark chasm, where it boiled and wheeled with terrifying impetuosity, and then broke away with fury through rents and channels in the rocks, which the force of the stream had in the lapse of ages worn. This scene of awful sublimity was surrounded by abrupt walls of rock two hundred feet in height, grey and bare, and overshadowing the depths below, so that the rays of the bright sun could never penetrate further than to paint a rainbow on the spray of the fall, about midway of its descent. A narrow and unprotected mountain road led up the defile past the cataract to the village of Linnhead, which, on such a night, would have been far from safe to less experienced travellers than those who were now toiling along it. They were wet, cold, and weary; and the force of the wind pouring down the glen, the cold and sharp rain beating in their faces, and the pitchy

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darkness of the night, began almost to bewilder them. They ceased to speak, but struggled on in silence. At length, by the increased roar of waters, they perceived that they were approaching the Linn. "Courage, my boy, we shall soon reach home now," said Angus. A fresh and more violent gust of wind bringing a heavy hail shower, obliged them to turn from its fury. Again they groped their way forwards. Father," said Kenneth, in a voice whose tremulous tones were almost drowned by the fury of the elements, "we have missed the path-we are on the wrong side of the oak tree -we are on the top of the crag over the Black Boiler, I am sure-stop-take care of yourself-I am trying to find-" A piercing cry of agony, heard above the rushing of the winds and waters, froze the father's heart within him. "Kenneth!" he cried in a voice of horror, "my child-my child! where are you?" There was no answer. The unhappy father called again and again. The torrent rushed on in its resistless might, and the wind howled past him, till his brain was almost maddened by the roar, and the solid rock beneath him seemed to tremble as if an earthquake were shaking the globe to its foundations. He flung himself on