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Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2012 with funding from 
 
 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hil 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/lennyorphanortriOOhosm 
 
Lenny is made an Orphan. 
 
LENNY, THE ORPHAN; 
 
 •OK, 
 
 TRIALS AND TRIUMPHS. 
 
 MARGARET HOSMER, 
 
 Author of "Cherry, the Missionary," "Year in the Sunday- 
 School," "The Voyage of the White Falcon," &c.,&c. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA : 
 PORTER & COATES. 
 
Copyright, 1869, by 
 PORTER & COATES. 
 
Master Iangdon Mitchell, 
 
 THIS LITTLE STORY IS INSCRIBED. 
 
 BY HIS FATHER'S GRATEFUL FRIEND, 
 
 THE AUTHOK. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Chapter I. Lenny is made an Orphan 
 
 " II. Lenny finds Friends . 
 
 " III. Lenny's New Home 
 
 " IV. Lenny's Antipathy 
 
 " V. Lenny's Lessons . 
 
 " VI. Lenny's Visit 
 
 " VII. Lenny's New Acquaintance 
 
 " VIII. Lenny's " Little Johnny" 
 
 " IX. Lenny's Fever 
 
 " X. Lenny's Recovery . 
 
 " XI. Lenny's Visitors . 
 
 PAOE 
 
 7 
 
 17 
 
 29 
 
 40 
 
 58 
 
 72 
 
 94 
 
 104 
 
 116 
 
 134 
 
 14G 
 
 (v) 
 
V1 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAQB 
 
 Chapter XII. Lenny's Visit to Uncue Nep — The 
 
 Sailor's Story . . . .160 
 
 " XIII. Lenny's Drive to Elm Village . 188 
 
 XIV. Lenny's Disappearance . . 201 
 
 XV. Lenny's Prison . . . .217 
 
 XVI. Lenny's Wanderings . . . 233 
 
 ' X"VJI. Lenny's Peace and Joy . . 244 
 
THE 
 
 ADVENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 CHAPTER FIRST. 
 
 LENNY IS MADE AN ORPHAN. 
 
 NE cold November night, when the frost 
 lay thick upon the ground, and the air 
 was chilly with the breath of coming 
 winter; the fire-bells began to strike, 
 and a red flame shot up, and brightened the sky 
 that overspread the southern part of a great 
 city. 
 
 There were few fine dwelling-houses in that 
 neighborhood, for it bordered close upon the 
 river, and, besides stores and warehouses, was 
 
 (7) 
 
« ADVENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 chiefly occupied by hotels and cheap lodgings. 
 It was a tenement in use in this capacity that 
 had taken fire, and was now blazing with mad 
 fury, owing to the wooden outhouses and other in- 
 flammable material connected with it. The value 
 of the building itself was not great, and it was 
 poorly and scantily furnished ; but it was 
 crowded with human beings, who, owing to the 
 sudden and destructive character of the fire, 
 were not alive to their peril, until almost all hope 
 of escape was cut off. Shrieks of fear and 
 anguish rose above the roaring of the flames, and 
 cries of entreaty from the already rescued in 
 behalf of those left in danger, mingled in wild 
 confusion ; while the firemen, running to and fro 
 with their loud shouts, rendered the scene one of 
 terrible excitement. 
 
 Half-clad figures were lowered by ropes and 
 bed-clothes from upper windows, and, shivering 
 and frightened, sought refuge in the adjacent 
 warehouses, which were humanely opened for 
 
LENNY IS MADE AN ORPHAN. 9 
 
 their temporary reception. The street shone as 
 in the light of midday, and the white and terri- 
 fied faces of the poor souls just snatched from 
 danger, looked fearfully up at the tottering 
 flame-wreathed . building, and scarcely in their 
 scattered senses realized their own escape. 
 
 The steady jets of water poured down upon the 
 flames without any apparent effect ; they only 
 seemed to mock such feeble resistance and rage 
 still higher, till by-and-by the half-consumed 
 frame-work fell in with a crash, and burning 
 fragments of the wood were scattered round, 
 glowing for a little while, then yielding to the 
 spashmg streams from the engines, and expiring 
 in black charred logs and burnt splinters. 
 
 Kind people from the hotels came hurrying in 
 to aid the half-clothed beings who had taken 
 shelter in the stores, and many good unselfish 
 actions proved the beauty of human charity and 
 sympathy in trouble. 
 
 Standing in the midst of a group of women 
 
10 ADVENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 and children in the nearest shelter to the burnt 
 building, was a little boy, five or six years old, 
 but small of his age, barefooted and without any 
 clothing except a long nightgown. 
 
 His eyes were wide open, and expressed terror 
 and dismay ; his face was singularly white and 
 rigid for his age, and the fixed look it wore was 
 painfully unnatural. 
 
 " Who is this little soul ?" asked a stout good- 
 humored woman kindly, as she drew him towards 
 some casks that were rolled on their sides against 
 the wall, and lifted him up that she might look 
 in his face. 
 
 " Lord bless the child !" she exclaimed, as she 
 touched his flesh ; " he is stone cold, and white 
 as a ghost ; where's your mother, my pet ?" 
 
 The child's face began to work as if with a 
 spasm, and his breast heaved convulsively, but 
 he made no sound. 
 
 Some of the women came forward and looked 
 at him, but none recognised him as part of their 
 
LENNY IS MADE AN ORPHAN. 11 
 
 families. At last a little girl of twelve or there- 
 abouts said, suddenly remembering his face, 
 " Why, he's that pale lady's child that came in 
 the cars with us to-day ; don't you know him, 
 auntie? Where's your mamma, Lenny?" 
 
 At this question, repeated by one whom he 
 seemed to remember, the boy broke out into a 
 low long cry of desolate misery that went to 
 every listener's heart ; and the woman the girl 
 called Auntie exclaimed, clasping her hands with 
 a countenance of horror : — 
 
 " She was a lame lady, and she was left in the 
 burnt house. She had had a fall that hurt her 
 terribly, and so she could not escape from the 
 flames !" 
 
 In a moment every one joined in the outcry, 
 and most of them, disregarding their appearance 
 and the uselessness of the task, rushed out to make 
 a frantic search in the glowing ruins, but were 
 withheld by the calmer by-standers, who made 
 inquiries on all hands as to when the missing 
 
12 ADVENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 woman had last been seen, and at length con- 
 vinced themselves, beyond a hope to the contrary, 
 that she was indeed lost in the flames. 
 
 Meantime the kind woman who had first 
 noticed the desolate child, held him close in her 
 arms, and tried to still his piteous sobbings, that, 
 though not loud or shrill, shook his little frame 
 with their deep smothered force. 
 
 "Lenny," she said soothingly, "Lenny dear, 
 listen to me. I have a little boy at home that 
 will be glad to play with you, and you shall sleep 
 in his little bed with him, and have breakfast in 
 his high chair." 
 
 " No ! no ! no !" sobbed the child passionately ; 
 " I want mamma — I don't want to play !" 
 
 "How was the child saved?" asked a gentle- 
 man who stood, with a large cloak wrapped round 
 him, in the centre of the warehouse. He was a 
 fine martial-looking man, with a great moustache 
 and sunbrowned complexion, and seemed much 
 more like a soldier than a merchant. His name 
 
LENNY JS MADE AN ORPHAN. 13 
 
 was Brenthurst, and he was the proprietor of the 
 large commission house where the frightned crea 
 tures had taken refuge at his invitation. One of 
 the firemen, who had sprained his ankle jumping 
 from a ladder, and now sat bandaging it on the 
 floor, answered him in a low tone, evidently anx- 
 ious to keep the little boy from hearing his words. 
 " I saw the woman at the back window ; she 
 was waving her hands, but I couldn't hear her 
 voice. I tried to get to her, but the fire was so 
 hot on that side we couldn't climb. We made 
 signs to her to come to the front, and she seemed to 
 understand us, for in a minute she was at the only 
 window left on the river side, holding the little 
 fellow in her arms. I tried to get up the ladder, 
 but lost my foot-hold and came down in a heap. 
 I saw Jim Morris and another fellow there, and 
 called to him to make haste up and save the 
 poor souls, when I came to myself, for I was 
 stunned with the knock on the bricks. I saw this 
 little chap in his night-gown and bare feet, so I 
 

 14 ADVENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 picked him up and hobbled in here with him, not 
 knowing where his mother was.'' 
 
 Mr. Brenthurst hurried out on hearing this, 
 and the woman who had taken the boy still kept 
 hushing him in her arms and waiting for the se- 
 quel, for she felt sure the merchant had gone to 
 find Jim Morris, and hear from him what really 
 was the poor woman's fate. In a few moments 
 he returned, saying sadly and solemnly : — 
 
 "It is too true, young man ; the flooring gave 
 way as your friend caught the child, and the poor 
 woman fell through just as their hands were 
 stretched out to save her, and lies buried in the 
 burning ruins." 
 
 It might have been the tone so full of sorrow 
 and regret, or it might have been their troubled 
 faces, but the bereaved child seemed to realize 
 what had happened as well as they who spoke of 
 it in undertones — for he cried out — 
 
 " Mamma ! mamma ! I want my mamma!" in 
 such heartrending entreaty that no one had the 
 
LENNY IS MADE AN ORPHAN 15 
 
 courage to answer him, or tell him he was moth- 
 erless. 
 
 " I suppose there will be an inquiry, and his 
 relatives will make themselves known," said the 
 woman who held him in her arms, " till then I'll 
 take him home with me. I have a boy of my 
 own, who may be able to comfort him better than 
 an older person could do." 
 
 Mr. Brenthurst knew her very well ; she was 
 the wife of Mr. Burns, the proprietor of the hotel 
 at the corner, known as the " Franklin Ex- 
 change ;" he considered that this was the best dis- 
 position that could be made of the child under 
 the circumstances, and said so, adding that he 
 himself should do all he could to recover the body 
 and trace the connections of the poor woman. 
 
 Mrs. Burns carried the little fellow, now quite 
 exhausted with weeping, to her own home, and 
 Mr. Brenthurst busied himself providing for the 
 immediate necessities of those who had taken 
 shelter with him. He was a warm-hearted gen- 
 
16 ADVENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 crous tempered man, and from his sympathy 
 with suffering, readily learned the best methods 
 of relieving it. He had accustomed himself to 
 the needs of poverty, and studied the ways of 
 benevolence, for he was in all things a follower 
 of the Saviour, whose name he professed before 
 men. 
 
CHAPTER SECONi). 
 
 LENNY FINDS FRIENDS. 
 
 HE little girl and her aunt, who were 
 (sjl^j) fellow-passengers and fellow-lodgers 
 
 with Lenny and his mother, gave the 
 only clue to the sorrowful story of the 
 poor woman that could be obtained by those who 
 endeavored to discover all they could concerning 
 them. 
 
 They were seated in the cars ready to start, 
 when Mrs. Garland and her niece Jenny came 
 in, and took their places near them. The little 
 boy had been so playful and interesting, that 
 a sort of acquaintance sprang up between the 
 children at once ; and his mother, who seemed 
 to be a timid shy person, suffering from the effect 
 2 (17) 
 
18 AD VENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 of a recent injury received from a fall, as she 
 explained to Mrs. Garland, watched his frolics 
 with a sad smile, and seemed to have had a sor- 
 rowful life, from the expression of her face and 
 manner. She had talked to them of Lenny and 
 his childish ways ; but never mentioned herself, 
 nor in any way alluded to the object of her 
 journey, nor where she came from. 
 
 As the cars drew near the place of their desti- 
 nation, they had noticed that the natural timidity 
 and nervousness of her manner increased greatly, 
 and she seemed feverish with excitement and 
 trouble. She held Lenny tightly by the hand, 
 and bit her lips tremblingly, while she seemed 
 to summon all her fortitude for a great eifort. 
 
 Evidently she expected to see some one wait- 
 ing to receive her ; for, when she stood on the 
 platform, and found herself entirely alone — every 
 one else having hurried away to their different 
 places — she looked around her with a bewildered 
 gaze, and seemed utterly unable to collect her 
 
LENNY FINDS FRIENDS. 19 
 
 energies. Then Mrs. Garland and Jenny drew 
 near, and offered to take her with them for the 
 night to the house where they were to stay them- 
 selves. Lenny's mother thankfully caught at 
 the suggestion, saying that it would be easier to 
 find her way in daylight, and that she needed 
 rest very much. 
 
 Jenny asked her if she had looked for a friend 
 to meet her, and she answered, confusedly : — 
 
 "Yes — no — that is — I don't exactly know." 
 
 They had taken tea together, and Mrs. Gar- 
 land was further impressed with the idea of there 
 being some great trouble weighing on the poor 
 woman's mind, from the fact that she could 
 swallow no food, and had to make a great effort 
 to drink a cup of tea. 
 
 Then they went to bed, and were awakened 
 from sleep by the terrible fire that had done such 
 disastrous work in so short a time ; and that was 
 all any one knew, or seemed likely to know, of 
 poor Lenny. 
 
20 ADVENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 Among the ruins, two charred and unrecog- 
 nisable bodies were found, and then it was dis- 
 covered that a poor servant woman had perished 
 also ; she had slept in the wooden part of the 
 building, and it was most probably in her room 
 the fire originated, as she was in the habit of 
 carrying an unprotected candle in her hand, and 
 setting it on a table near the curtains of the win- 
 dow. The supposition was that she had fallen 
 asleep, and the draught had waved the curtain 
 towards the light till it had caught in the flame. 
 The only way by which the bodies could be dis- 
 tinguished was by a metal band the servant wore 
 on her wrist for rheumatism, the remains of 
 which were found on it still. 
 
 Mr. Brenthurst had the mother decently bu- 
 ried, and gathered all the particulars that could 
 be known, until her relatives should appear. 
 Meantime Lenny remained at the hotel. 
 
 Mrs. Burns' s life was a very busy one, for her 
 duties as landlady of a large hotel occupied her 
 
LENNY FINDS FRXENDS. 21 
 
 almost to the exclusion of her own family cares ; 
 therefore, though very kindly treated, Lenny 
 was not much the better for her presence, and 
 her bright, merry, rosy little son Tom was too 
 full of fun and mischief to suit the timid, shrink- 
 ing little orphan, whose terrible experience 
 seemed to hang about him like a dreary cloud, 
 and overshadow him with a sorrow he could not 
 realize, a loss he could not understand. 
 
 Mrs. Garland was a poor woman, coming, with 
 her little niece, to take a situation as housekeeper 
 to a wealthy old gentleman residing a short dis- 
 tance from the city. She and Jenny were step- 
 ping a few days in town to buy some necessary 
 things, and having conceived a great liking for 
 the poor orphan boy, went every day to the 
 Franklin Exchange to see him, and find out if 
 any reply had been received to the advertisement 
 Mr. Brenthurst caused to be published concern- 
 ing him. 
 
 No answer came, and a week went by Mrs. 
 
22 ADVENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 Burns, kind woman, was glad to have the boy 
 under her care, and know that his wants were 
 satisfied ; but it was evident that such a business 
 woman could not wish to increase her domestic 
 care by taking charge of a young boy nearly the 
 age of her own, although she shrunk from send- 
 ing the child to the Foster Home, to take his 
 chances with other little fellows as desolate as 
 himself. 
 
 While she was considering this point, with a 
 good deal of disquiet and uneasiness of mind, 
 Mr. Brenthurst came in one afternoon, with a 
 pale, delicate-looking lady leaning on his arm, 
 and begged to see little Lenny. 
 
 Mrs. Burns went into the family-room, where 
 her own children were playing, and, brushing 
 the short curls that clustered in thick rings 
 around Lenny's head, wiped his face and changed 
 his apron, having a presentiment that a good 
 deal depended on the impression he was about to 
 make. When she returned, Mr. Brenthurst pre- 
 
LENNY FINDS FRIENDS. 23 
 
 sented her to the lady accompanying him as his 
 sister, and said Lenny's appearance did her kind 
 care much credit. 
 
 "He is a dear little fellow, is he not?" he 
 asked, anxiously, of his sister, watching her face 
 with no less interest than did Mrs. Burns. 
 
 Miss Brenthurst spoke in a very sweet voice, 
 and with much natural kindness of manner ; but 
 she was evidently less decided and determined 
 than he, and not quite so easily won by appear- 
 ances. 
 
 " He looks like a dear child," she said, gently. 
 " What is your name, dear ?" 
 
 "Lenny," responded the child, briefly; but he 
 came near and placed his hand on her druss, 
 examining its rich trimming with an easy confi- 
 dence that appeared odd in comparison with his 
 usually timid manner. 
 
 The lady looked down on his little upturned 
 face, and smiled encouragingly. 
 
24 AD VENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 "Should you like to live with me, Lenny?" 
 dhe asked. 
 
 Lenny did not quite understand what was 
 meant by "living with" any one. 
 
 "Are you coming here?" he asked, looking 
 round the room and trying to see what part of 
 it would be likely to be chosen by his new 
 friend. 
 
 " 0, no, my little fellow, I mean in my own 
 house, where I live at home." 
 
 " Is mamma there ?" asked Lenny, with sud- 
 den earnestness — "mamma and little Perry?" 
 
 "There!" exclaimed Mrs. Burns, in an under 
 tone, " that's the first name he has mentioned 
 since he came here. Who is Perry — is that your 
 little brother ?" 
 
 Lenny laughed outright at this, and repeated, 
 " Little Perry, dear little Perry !" and began 
 looking all around the room, as if he expected to 
 see whoever it might be. 
 
 "It is a child he is thinking about," said Mr. 
 
LENNY FINDS FRIENDS. 25 
 
 Brenthurst, who was closely observant of his 
 movements. " See, it is low down towards the 
 carpet he looks. Helen," he continued, turning 
 to his-sister, " this boy's memory has received a 
 shock, and that is why he recalls everything so 
 imperfectly, and seems to find a blank after each 
 eifort. By-and-by, when the effect wears off, he 
 will be calmer, and his mind will strengthen ; 
 then he will be able to tell us all about his home 
 and his mother, and, through that means, his 
 family name and friends may be discovered." 
 
 His sister shook her head doubtfully. 
 
 " Do you think it would be wise to take the 
 child, and become attached to it, just in time to 
 give it up to its rightful claimant ?" 
 
 "You know we considered all that," answered 
 Mr. Brenthurst, persuasively. " The only point 
 to settle was whether you could learn to like him 
 — whether the charge would not be too great for 
 
 you." 
 
 "Yes — " assented the lady, still hesitating; 
 
26 AD VENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 " the boy is a nice boy, I know, and I think 1 
 could manage him too ; but I really feel as if it 
 ' would be well to make a few more inquiries 
 before engaging to take charge of him, and 
 becoming as interested in his favor as I am sure 
 to, when I once have him under my care." 
 
 " That is true," said her brother; "but Mrs. 
 Burns has been untiring in her search, and we 
 have advertised, and done all we could, without 
 making the least discovery beyond what Mrs. 
 Garland had to tell." 
 
 While this conversation went on, Lenny, rest- 
 ing his arm on Miss Brenthurst's lap, looked up 
 from one face to the other, as if conscious that 
 some question nearly affecting his own interests 
 was being discussed. 
 
 "Noav, then," said Mr. Brenthurst, "what is 
 your decision, Helen — shall we take the boy?" 
 
 " Yes," said Miss Brenthurst, slowly, and still 
 hesitating ; " that is — I think we may try — per- 
 haps it may turn out well — I really trust it may." 
 
LENNY FINDS FRIENDS. 27 
 
 Her brother, who evidently had little sympa- 
 thy with her slowness of conclusion, started up 
 at the first reluctant word of assent, saying : — 
 
 " Well, then, that's settled. Mrs. Burns, we 
 take the boy till his rightful guardians present 
 themselves. God grant we may be able to do 
 our duty properly by him, and that he may prove 
 as true a comfort and pleasure to us as he seems 
 to promise now." 
 
 He lifted the child in his arms, and gave him 
 a kind, fatherly embrace, and then placed him 
 on his sister's knee, who, after an instant's un- 
 certainty, put her arm round him and kissed 
 him. 
 
 " Well, I'm thankful," said Mrs. Burns, " truly 
 thankful to see the child in such good hands. I 
 have no time to do my own children justice, and 
 I have felt afraid of undertaking the care of 
 another, particularly such a thoughtful, strange 
 child as this one. Now I know that there will 
 be nothing wanting. I'm sure the boy will get 
 
28 AD VENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 on properly with you, and I say, thank God 
 for it!" 
 
 Lenny settled the point on his own part by 
 putting up his hands and softly feeling the lace 
 of his new protectoress's bonnet. As she smiled 
 tenderly on him, he raised his face too, and gave 
 her a loving kiss, saying, coaxingly : — 
 
 "Bring little Perry to play at your house." 
 
 " That is his brother, depend upon it," said 
 Mrs. Burns, in a whisper. " His mother left 
 another child somewhere, and he misses him." 
 
 "Poor boy!" said Miss Brenthurst, kindly; 
 " poor little pet ! if Perry can be found he shall 
 be brought to play with his little brother." 
 
 This promise made Lenny laugh ; he clasped 
 both arms round the neck of his new friend, as 
 if she had been an old familiar one, and laughed 
 gayly, crying :— 
 
 a p err y' s coming ! little Perry's coming to 
 play!" 
 
CHAPTER THIRD. 
 
 LENNY'S NEW HOME. 
 
 IR. BRENTHURST had been an officer 
 in the army for many years, and only 
 retired from the service when the death 
 of his father, and the necessity of set- 
 tling his rather disarranged business affairs, made 
 his presence at home very important. He was 
 the oldest of his family, and for many years the 
 only son. His brother, who was meant to suc- 
 ceed his father in business, died on reaching man- 
 hood, and his two sisters were left entirely 
 unprotected by their father's death. 
 
 Helen, the elder, was quiet, grave, and pru- 
 dent. Leonore, the younger — and a very beauti- 
 ful, talented girl — was rash and impetuous in 
 
 (29) 
 
30 ADVENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 character, and, having never known a mother's 
 care, had become, unfortunately, rather spoilt 
 by her father's indulgence and the unwise admi- 
 ration of partial friends. She had given the 
 family cause for sorrow in her hasty and disas- 
 trous choice of a husband ; for she had made a 
 secret marriage with a very handsome and very 
 worthless young man, whom she met accidentally 
 at a watering-place. He was poor and reckless, 
 and repaid the elder Mr. Brenthurst's kindness 
 by forging a draft in his name, and bringing 
 trouble and disgrace on the household. 
 
 This unhappy affair occurred just before the 
 death of their father, and was thought by the 
 family to have hastened that sad event. Poor 
 Leonore, conscious too late of her folly, fled with 
 her erring husband when his crime was disco- 
 vered ; they had managed their flight so secretly 
 to avoid being pursued, that no trace of them 
 could be found, although Leonore's brother, full 
 of pi ty for his unfortunate sister, left no clue un- 
 
LENNY'S NEW HOME. ' 31 
 
 sought to gain some knowledge of their place of 
 concealment. 
 
 Three W four years previous to the date of the 
 fire, the anxiety and ceaseless endeavors of the 
 brother and sister were set at rest, by the sorrow- 
 ful tidings of Leon ore's death in foreign lands. 
 A gentleman had seen her husband and recog- 
 nised him, although he made every effort to con- 
 ceal his name and past history. Finding at last 
 that it was useless to deny his real name, he 
 confessed that he was the George Merton who 
 had married Leonore Brenthurst, and afterwards 
 got into trouble with her father. His wife, he 
 said, was lately dead, and he hoped her family 
 would now cease to persecute them from place 
 to place with their inquiries as they had been 
 doing. 
 
 He had promised to see the gentleman again, 
 and give him further particulars concerning the 
 loss of his wife ; but once having got away, he 
 kept away, and George Merton had never been 
 
32 AD VENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 Been again by any of his former acquaint- 
 ances. 
 
 Mr. Brenthurst, finding his father's affairs left 
 in an unsettled state, and seeing that much loss 
 would be occasioned by suddenly closing the busi- 
 ness, felt it to be his duty to leave the service and 
 assume the responsibility of the firm. And thus 
 it happened that he was the proprietor of the 
 large warehouse where the poor frightened people 
 from the burnt lodging-house found refuge, for 
 he had hurried from his bed at night on learning 
 the quarter in which the fire was, and hastened 
 down to open his place and heart and purse in 
 their behalf. 
 
 His nature was warm, generous, and trusting ; 
 he had a horror of deceit, yet never suspected its 
 existence, and was slow to believe in it even 
 when he could find no excuse for doubt. He had 
 given his heart to God on a sick-bed when he 
 thought himself done with the things of this world 
 for ever, but recovering, still retained his reli- 
 
LENNY'S NEW HOME. 33 
 
 gious fervor, and began a new life dedicated to all 
 good things. 
 
 Little Lenny was not old enough to appreciate 
 fully the home into which he had so providen- 
 tially fallen. He looked with pleased wonder 
 around the beautiful rooms, and examined the 
 toys Miss Brenthurst presented to him, with 
 grave curiosity, for he was entirely unused to 
 playing as other children did. 
 
 " Shall you like to live here, Lenny ?" asked 
 she, " and will you be our dear little boy, and 
 love us and try to be good?" 
 
 There appeared to be a great deal involved in 
 so many propositions, and Lenny paused thought- 
 fully before replying. At last he seemed to feel 
 some personal slight was conveyed in the last 
 words, for his lips quivered and his eyes filled 
 with tears. 
 
 " I am good," he sobbed at last ; and added re- 
 proachfully, " You said you would bring little 
 Perry." 
 
34 ADVENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 Miss Brenthurst sighed. 
 
 " Yes, it certainly is his little brother," she 
 thought to herself ; " and I am sure the family 
 will soon search him out and take him away. I 
 really must try not to love him too much, but 
 simply do my duty by him, for we will surely 
 have to part as soon as they find him out." 
 
 But like many other people, Miss Brenthurst 
 came to a conclusion to do one thing and did 
 exactly the opposite. 
 
 Lenny had taken an odd fancy for her, and at 
 times caressed her with so much affection and 
 seemed so thoroughly at home in her society, that 
 it seemed rather the renewal of an old feeling 
 than the beginning of a new one. 
 
 She found him to be, as her brother had said, 
 quite stunned at first from the effect of that terr 
 rible fire, but by-and-by, as he grew familiar with 
 the scenes around him, he showed a bright intel- 
 ligent nature, and proved artless and affectionate 
 in all his ways. 
 
LENNY'S NEW HOME. 35 
 
 Of his home in the past he gave strange and 
 sometimes contradictory accounts. At one time 
 he said he lived in a ship ; at another he told 
 about a beautiful garden, but he named no other 
 persons than " mamma and little Perry ;" and by- 
 and-by, began to forget to say " Miss Brenthurst," 
 and called that lady "mamma" instead. 
 
 " I am not your mamma," she said, tenderly ; 
 " she is gone away ; but when you grow to be a 
 man and learn to be good and love God, He 
 will let you go and see her. You must call me 
 auntie." 
 
 "No, no!" he protested; "I call you mam- 
 ma;" and he seemed so much in earnest about 
 it, that she told her brother she really believed 
 he had found some resemblance in dress or man- 
 ner that deceived him, and that in some way he 
 associated her with his dead mother. 
 
 She was a delicate person, and hitherto having 
 very little to interest or occupy her attention, 
 she had been in the habit of nursing herself, and 
 
36 AD VENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 fancying that she was much more of an invalid 
 than she now found herself to be. The pleasure 
 of the child's presence, his innocent merriment 
 and playful frolics, so interested her, that every 
 hour had its new and pleasant employment ; and 
 after he was tucked away in his little crib com- 
 fortably asleep, she would sit up and tell her 
 brother all his pretty sayings and doings, so that 
 the evening, too, had its share of Lenny. 
 
 As weeks and months went by without any 
 sign of his relatives appearing to identify and 
 claim him, they began to regard the boy as their 
 own, and lay out plans for his education and 
 moral training. 
 
 Mr. Brenthurst's great affection for his sister 
 made him look up to her with deference, and 
 listen to her opinions with respect and attention ; 
 but in reality she was merely a timid copy of 
 himself; less ardent and brave in temperament, 
 but like him affectionate, benevolent, and very 
 kind-hearted. She began to gather courage in 
 
LENNY'S NEW HOME. 37 
 
 her love for Lenny, and the child's warm re- 
 sponse to all her affection made her feel that she 
 had a natural right to him, which he acknow- 
 ledged, though she could not tell on what it was 
 founded. 
 
 Everything she taught him seemed to be 
 learned so readily, that she made up her mind he 
 must have heard it all before, and was only re- 
 calling it now by an effort of memory. 
 
 One day she began to teach him about God, 
 and the dear Saviour, who loves little children. 
 He followed all she said with eager eyes, and 
 agreed to everything she explained with the 
 words, " I know — yes, yes, I know." 
 
 " Who told you, Lenny, dear ?" 
 
 "You told me, that other time — don't you 
 know?" he asked, wistfully looking in her face 
 as if her words suggested a doubt that troubled 
 him. 
 
 "I told you?" she repeated; "when did I 
 tell you, Lenny ?" 
 
38 ADVENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 " 0, one day — don't you know ?" he answered ; 
 and looked worried by the effort he made tc 
 recall the time, yet could not succeed in it. 
 
 " My darling, I never told you, because I did 
 not know whether you were old enough to under- 
 stand me, or that I should be able to make it plain 
 to you. It must have been your own dear mother 
 who taught you, baby that you are, to turn to the 
 Father of the fatherless, the orphan's Friend. 
 0, Lenny ! you must not forget that dear mam- 
 ma, who tried to lead you to the Saviour's love 
 before she left you alone in this great world." 
 
 : ' I love mamma," responded Lenny; "and I 
 love you, too." 
 
 " You must love everybody, because God tells 
 us it is right to do so ; every other little boy and 
 girl who loves God can call Him their Father, 
 and so can every grown person, and that makes 
 us all brothers and sisters in His love. Yes, my 
 boy, we are to love each other as if we all be- 
 longed to one gieat family." 
 
LENNY'S NEW HOME. 39 
 
 " I love mamma, and you, and little Perry," 
 repeated Lenny, gravely ; " and I love uncle, 
 and everybody in the world." 
 
 " That is well — now you must prove that love 
 by kindness ; and I am sure that will be an easy 
 thing, for you are naturally generous and good- 
 tempered." 
 
 These qualities, together with a natural obser- 
 vation and aptitude, made learning an easy task 
 to the boy, and his progress so pleased his kind 
 friends, that his life was almost without a shadow 
 jn its sunny hours. 
 
CHAPTER FOURTH. 
 
 LENNY'S ANTIPATHY. 
 
 m the wisdom and providence of God it has 
 been appointed that no life, however bright, 
 shall pass without its shadows, and that 
 even the young and innocent shall be dis- 
 ciplined by the experience of sorrow and dis- 
 appointment. Little Lenny had become per- 
 fectly happy and contented ; the dark cloud of 
 terror that had gathered about him on the night 
 of his mother's death, was gradually dispelled by 
 the warmth of affection and care, and his troubled 
 little mind came back clearly, its young powers 
 refreshed by the nurture of love. It took him a 
 very little while to adapt himself to his happy 
 circumstances, and bask in the cheerful light of 
 
 (40) 
 
v LENNY'S ANTIPATHY. 41 
 
 his good fortune. "Auntie and Uncle," as lie 
 had learned to call his kind friends, were all the 
 world to him ; the recollection of his mother 
 seemed to blend itself in his growing love for 
 Miss Brenthurst, and even "little Perry" ap- 
 peared forgotten in the enjoyment of playthings 
 and picture-books. The cheerful nursery, which 
 seemed a delightful world to him, was completely 
 filled with evidences of the increasing interest he 
 awakened in good Mr. Brenthurst and his sister. 
 The walks were hung with pictures, whose 
 stories he liked to hear ; his rocking-horse with 
 an arched neck and flowing mane stood in one 
 corner, and quite a little museum of carts and 
 carriages, barrows and wagons, soldiers and 
 Noah's Arks, filled the centre of the floor. 
 
 It was really pleasant to watch the new and 
 cheerful life, so small a member of the household 
 was able to diffuse through its saddened limits ; 
 for their father's death, and the subsequent loss 
 of their sister, had clouded the pleasures and 
 
42 ADVENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 obscured the hopeful interests of the brother and 
 sister for the past few years. 
 
 But the shadow that was to check the perfect 
 delight of this existence for little Lenny crept 
 into his sunshine in a strange form, and, quite 
 inexplicably to Miss Brenthurst, proved to be a 
 young gentleman connected with the family, a 
 distant cousin, it was supposed, but a confidential 
 assistant in the warehouse. His name was 
 Clement Blye; and the reason Lenny had. not 
 seen him before, was, that he had been absent in 
 the West on a business tour. He did not live 
 with his cousins the Brenthursts, for, although 
 Mr. Brenthurst valued him highly in his place, 
 and often said he could not repay such important 
 services as his with a salary, and so intended 
 giving him a partnership in the concern in good 
 time — yet there was something about him per- 
 sonally that neither brother nor sister could love, 
 and his visits, though frequent, were not social 
 or pleasant. The first day he came to dinner 
 
LENNY'S ANTIPATHY. 43 
 
 after Lenny's becoming one of the family, he 
 seemed odder and less at ease with his friends 
 than ever, and yet he made every effort to appear 
 agreeable and well pleased at the addition to the 
 little circle. 
 
 " I must see this little fellow, Cousin Helen," 
 he said ; " what is it you call him — Lennox ?" 
 
 " He called himself Lenny, but now that you 
 mention it, I dare say Lennox may have been 
 the name. I wish I knew, for I do not want to 
 change it when he grows up." 
 
 Mr. Clement Blye had heavy eyebrows that 
 came rather close together for beauty. He had 
 small black eyes that were very sharp and rest- 
 less. Sometimes he would gather these heavy 
 brows so thoughtfully that they quite met over 
 his nose, and then the sharp little eyes would be 
 hidden all but a disagreeable twinkle. When 
 Miss Brenthurst looked up pleasantly after 
 speaking, that was all she saw,* and the impres- 
 sion was so very painful that she could not dispeJ 
 
44 AD VENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 it, although he detected the mistake he had made 
 in allowing her to see his feelings, and fell to 
 smiling blandly, and chatting with great apparent 
 cheerfulness. 
 
 "Here is Lenny, fresh from his nap," said 
 Miss Brenthurst, at last. She had been so dis- 
 composed by the strange look she had caught, 
 that she had not been able to reply unrestrainedly 
 to his questions about him, until the child's 
 appearing seemed to break the uncomfortable 
 spell. 
 
 " Come, Lenny, come speak to Mr. Blye ; this 
 gentleman is our cousin, and he wants to see 
 what a dear little boy we have got to love us, 
 and be our little pet." 
 
 " 0, yes," said Mr. Blye, smiling in a strange 
 uncongenial way ; " come and tell me what your 
 name is, and how old you are." 
 
 To this, Lenny, who stood still just as soon 
 as he caught sight of the visitor's face, only 
 
LENNY'S ANTIPATHY. 45 
 
 responded by a long, astonished stare, but made 
 no effort to move. 
 
 " Come, Lenny," said Miss Brenthurst, evi- 
 dently struck with this proceeding. " Come, 
 dear — why, what is the matter — don't you know 
 it is wrong not to obey auntie when she speaks 
 to you?" 
 
 Lenny breathed hard for a moment, then look- 
 ing from one to the other found his voice, and 
 asked, " Where's mamma ? Where's little 
 Perry?" 
 
 " Why, what in the world does the child 
 mean ?" cried Mr. Blye, in angry confusion ; 
 " he is all right in the head, I suppose ; but 
 really this don't look like it." 
 
 His voice betrayed his disturbance, though he 
 kept on smiling with such an affectation of amia- 
 bility that there was quite a contrast between it 
 and his face. 
 
 " I don't know what the connection in hn mind 
 between you and his old home can be," sai J Miss 
 
46 ADVENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 Brenthurst, gravely ; " but there certainly is 
 something that suggests it as he looks at vou. 
 Lenny, did you ever see this gentleman before?" 
 she asked, drawing the child to her side. 
 
 Lenny nodded vigorously, still keeping his 
 fascinated eyes fixed on the stranger, and whis- 
 pered apprehensively, " I don't like him — send 
 him away." 
 
 Miss Brenthurst was much annoyed at this 
 unpleasant speech, and, begging her young cousin 
 to excuse her, led the child from the room, ex- 
 plaining as they went the impropriety of being 
 so rude and outspoken. 
 
 Lenny was sorry for having offended, but im- 
 movable in his opinions. "I don't like him — I 
 won't be naughty any more — please forgive me, 
 but send the man away," were the terms in which 
 he repented of his too great frankness ; and Miss 
 Brenthurst, leaving him with the girl who took 
 charge of the nursery, was obliged to defer fur- 
 ther reasoning or admonition for the present. 
 
LENNY'S ANTIPATHY. . 47 
 
 She found Clement in high good-humor, laugh' 
 mg merrily at the unfortunate impression he had 
 made. In trying to be pleasant and agreeable 
 he was apt to overdo the effort, and on this occa- 
 sion he had fallen into that error too. 
 
 He said he must have a very common face, 
 that had been taken for other people thousands 
 of times, so that he began to believe he had no 
 identity of his own. He declared " that it was 
 exceedingly amusing, and that he was quite 
 willing to have a general likeness when it led 
 to such funny scenes. Lenny was a fine little 
 fellow, and scarcely looked as if he belonged to 
 the lower classes ; if he had not had an exten- 
 sive experience of that sort of people in travel- 
 ling about as he did, he should have called 
 the child aristocratic-looking ; but, ■ to a prac- 
 tised eye, there were unmistakable points that 
 betrayed base blood." Then, with another covert 
 glance from under his eyebrows, he disco- 
 vered that his words were making an uncom- 
 
48 ADVENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 Portable impression — as he hoped they would — ■ 
 on his cousin's mind; so he laughed, and said 
 it was really very funny and that he enjoyed it 
 greatly. 
 
 He no doubt enjoyed the pain he saw his cun- 
 ning words gave, but he did not seem to have 
 the same pleasure in Lenny's presence. While 
 the child had been in the room he had changed 
 color several times, and been restless and nervous 
 in manner. 
 
 Miss Brenthurst was neither suspicious nor 
 penetrating ; but she could see that there was 
 some feeling at work under the assumed gayety 
 of her young relation, and the only conclusion 
 she could arrive at concerning its origin was that 
 Cousin Clement was perhaps a little jealous of 
 their regard for a stranger, or it might be that 
 he did not like children, and their presence 
 annoyed him. 
 
 With all her other amiable qualities, Miss 
 Brenthurst was remarkable for a self-depreci- 
 
LENNY'S ANTIPATHY. 49 
 
 ating humility that seldom saw in others the 
 faults whose effects disturbed. 
 
 "I am afraid John and I have not shown him 
 sufficient affection," she said to herself, regret- 
 fully. " I wish I had tried to get used to his 
 ways sooner. John is influenced by my foolish 
 repugnance, no doubt. 0, dear ! I really wish I 
 could like the young man." 
 
 So she cogitated as she listened to Clement's 
 conversation about his journey, which would have 
 been very interesting, she thought, if she could 
 have learned to like his way of telling it ; but 
 there was something so studied and artificial in 
 every word and gesture of his, that a pure- 
 minded, trusting person like Miss Brenthurst 
 could take but little pleasure in conversing with 
 him. 
 
 Lenny did not appear in the parlor again, and 
 
 after dinner Mr. Blye went away, leaving his 
 
 Cousin Helen quite worried about the subject of 
 
 his conversation, Avhich had been the inherited 
 4 
 
50 ADVENTURED OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 wickedness of children of the lower classes. He 
 had recounted anecdotes and stories to prove the 
 truth of what he said, and showed plainly through 
 the many instances he cited that it was a dan- 
 gerous thing to take a child of unknown parent- 
 age into your house and heart, for your care and 
 tenderness were sure to act like the heat of 
 the man's bosom in rousing the viper he had 
 sheltered from the cold. He seemed to have 
 a calendar of criminals that had been received 
 in childhood into the homes of benevolent per- 
 sons, and repaid the charity they owed their 
 lives to by robbing and murdering their bene- 
 factors. 
 
 He discoursed at great length about the beau- 
 tiful, trustful goodness of his cousin's nature, and 
 made her feel very much ashamed by praising 
 her for disinterested philanthropy, when she had 
 been giving herself so much pleasure. She had 
 tried to set him right, by saying : — 
 
 " No, Clement ; you are mistaken — really, it 
 
LENNY'S ANTIPATHY. 51 
 
 has been a selfish gratification to me and my 
 brother John to take this innocent, loving child 
 into our quiet home, and he has brightened it 
 and us, I think ; but indeed we have thought of 
 our own pleasure too much ; if anything unselfish 
 appears in the affair, it is all on Lenny's part." 
 
 This avowal seemed to give him less satisfac- 
 tion than all that had gone before ; he appeared 
 to control himself by a strong effort, and tried 
 to laugh, and say they had lived so much alone 
 as to become whimsical. 
 
 He had often hinted about the great house 
 they lived in being so empty and silent — and 
 drawn contrasts between it and a lodging among 
 strangers that was all he could claim ; but his 
 cousin, though blaming herself for it, had never 
 been able to recover her repugnance to his ways 
 sufficiently to ask him to come and live with them, 
 and so she now accepted this allusion as a de- 
 served reproach, and endeavored by redoubled 
 
52 ADVENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 kindness to make up for her foolish prejudice, 
 as she thought it. 
 
 Mr. Brenthurst talked of the business interests 
 of their house, and praised Clement's energy in 
 all he did. In connection with that department, 
 both brother and sister felt the strongest confi- 
 dence in him, and scarcely any other conversa- 
 tion ever passed between them about Clement 
 Blye ; each knew the other disliked his disposi- 
 tion in private affairs, and so avoided the subject. 
 
 "Did Clement see our little boy?" asked Mr. 
 Brenthurst of his sister, after the young man had 
 gone. 
 
 " Yes, Lenny was here for a little while. I 
 sent for him before you came in — and do you 
 know, John, I think Clement does not like child- 
 ren at all, and common children particularly." 
 
 " Common children !" repeated her brother, in 
 a surprised tone. " What kind of children do 
 you mean by those ?" 
 
 " It was the expression he used, and he meant 
 
LENNY'S ANTIPATHY. 53 
 
 the offspring of the poor — little creatures who 
 never see anything but poverty and privation,, 
 who are born into misery, and, according to him, 
 draw in deceit, meanness, envy, and malice with 
 their earliest breath." 
 
 " I do not think he could have been talking in 
 a very good spirit to use such terms," said her 
 brother, gravely. "All poor people are not 
 necessarily deceitful and wicked, and although I 
 believe that poverty is often an excuse for such 
 sins, it never should be made a ground of accusa 
 tion. I have no right to say : ' You are a poor 
 person, and consequently you must be a villa- 
 nously bad one.' " 
 
 " 0, no, indeed ! that would be very unjust — 
 and I can recall many excellent poor men and 
 women whose histories I know ; but while Clem- 
 ent talked he made me feel so uncomfortably that 
 I could not argue the case at all. He tried to 
 convince me that we were doing wrong in receiv- 
 ing an unknown child like Lenny into our affec- 
 
54 ADVENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 tions, and that the probabilities were all in favor 
 of his growing up to give us trouble, or perhaps 
 bring disgrace upon us." 
 
 Mr. Brenthurst ran his fingers through his 
 hair, so that it all stood upright, and looked 
 quite wild. This was a way he had of express- 
 ing annoyance or displeasure, and his sister felt 
 sorry that she had repeated what Clement had 
 said, when she saw how it affected him ; but she 
 had been so desirous of gaining encouragement 
 and advice, that she could not help confiding her 
 perplexities to him. 
 
 "Why should that young man try to make 
 himself and others miserable by indulging such a 
 temper ?" cried Mr. Brenthurst, getting up and 
 walking about impatiently. " Helen," he con- 
 tinued, after a little thought, " I am afraid we 
 are to blame for it, in a measure. He certainly 
 is our relative, and he has always shown himself 
 to be devoted to our business interests ; in that 
 respect, at least, he deserves credit. His better 
 
LENNY'S ANTIPATHY. 55 
 
 feelings have, unfortunately, not been cultivated, 
 and lie is inclined to be jealous and suspicious. 
 These points of character have made him disa- 
 greeable to us in our home, and we have yielded 
 to our own repugnance to such a nature, and 
 kept him at a distance, instead of bringing him 
 here often, and trying to overcome evil with 
 good. In this respect we have failed in our duty 
 as Christians, and we had better try to repair 
 our mistake." 
 
 Miss Brenthurst agreed with her brother, but 
 looked rather despondently about the task of cul- 
 tivating tender and generous feelings in the bosom 
 of Clement Blye. 
 
 " I know it is a duty," she said ; " but it 
 seems a very difficult one." 
 
 They were sitting in the large old-fashioned 
 back parlor, that was part library and part sit- 
 ting-room, and, after arriving at this point in 
 their conversation, remained silent, looking at 
 
56 ADVENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 the cheerful fire that glowed brightly in the wide 
 grate. 
 
 A soft footstep, falling almost noiselessly on 
 the rich carpet, interrupted their thoughts, and 
 little Lenny, stealing close to Miss Brenthurst's 
 side, in his white gown, murmured : — 
 
 " I came to kiss you good-night — Bessie said I 
 might. Is the bad man gone ? 0, don't let 
 him come any more, auntie. I don't like him — 
 he made mamma cry." 
 
 "Made your mamma cry!" repeated his 
 auntie, looking at Mr. Brenthurst, to bespeak 
 his attention — "made your mamma cry, my 
 dear ! Tell me all about it, Lenny." 
 
 With great eagerness, the boy began :— 
 
 " He came in, and little Perry ran to bite 
 him ; then mamma cried, and put her head down 
 
 this way " He laid his head on the arm of 
 
 Miss Brenthurst's chair, and suddenly the deli- 
 cate thread of memory seemed to break, and he 
 
PENNY'S ANTIPATHY. 57 
 
 lost the scene that a moment before had appeared 
 quite fresh in his mind. He looked wistfully 
 from one to the other, and then shook his head, 
 repeating : " I don't like that man — don't let 
 him come here any more." 
 
 "Is it not very strange?" asked Miss Brent- 
 hurst, in a whisper. 
 
 "Yes," returned her brother, appearing to 
 ponder deeply ; " but we must not give it too 
 much importance. You remember he has always 
 associated you with his mother, and there can be 
 no doubt that his recollection is very misty and 
 imperfect, owing to the fright of the fire." 
 
 His sister assented to this ; but still could not 
 get over the singularity of her little charge's 
 very decided repugnance to Clement, since he 
 was the first one he had ever expressed the least 
 objection to since he had been in the family. 
 

 CHAPTER FIFTH 
 
 LENNY'S LESSONS. 
 
 (T^T^O carry out the resolution she had 
 formed the evening of Clement's visit, 
 Miss Brenthurst earnestly endeavored 
 to overcome the shrinking dislike Lenny 
 expressed for him, and at the same time tried to 
 convince herself that there could be no possible 
 foundation for the feeling. 
 
 The brother and sister invited him to be a fre- 
 quent visitor, and meant to make their home 
 pleasant to him ; but, although they were both 
 quite in earnest in the effort, they succeeded very 
 poorly. Lenny still shrunk from Clement, and 
 Miss Brenthurst, though she stifled the voice of 
 
 (58) 
 
LENNY'S LESSONS. 59 
 
 her own heart, could not learn to trust or like 
 him. 
 
 Clement himself seemed very much pleased by 
 the opportunity afforded him, and never failed to 
 come ; but he still kept that hidden manner that 
 made his Cousin Helen uneasy, and, although 
 smiling and attentive to her every word, she 
 would frequently detect him with that cunning, 
 covert look, watching out from under his eye- 
 brows, and regarding Lenny with a glance of but 
 little favor or kindness. 
 
 It seemed strange to Mr. and Miss Brenthurst, 
 when they noticed how readily Lenny learned 
 everything, and how quick he was in understand- 
 ing all he saw, that his memory did not gain the 
 power of going backward beyond the time of his 
 journey to their city. He always seemed glad 
 to see Jenny Garland and her mother, and talked 
 of the day they rode together in the cars ; but 
 of the place they had been in before that time it 
 seemed impossible to speak clearly, or connect 
 
60 ADVENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 any event with any particular place, and give 
 other than confused accounts, like floating frag- 
 ments of recollection. 
 
 After many fruitless efforts, they determined 
 to abandon the subject, and never in anywise 
 allude to the past, hoping that complete rest 
 might help to bring it back more clearly. 
 Neither of them believed in cramming young 
 minds with study — so there was no regular 
 course of teaching laid out for Lenny. He was 
 so fond of books that he learned his letters with- 
 out being taught, simply by asking their names 
 and connecting them with the pretty pictures 
 that illustrated them. In the same way he 
 taught himself to read little words, and, once 
 having learned, he never forgot anything. 
 
 When spring came, and he was, as they sup- 
 posed, about six years old, he could read the 
 Scripture stories accompaning the brilliant pic- 
 tures in his toy books, and repeat all the little 
 verses his auntie had read to him. There was a 
 
LENNY'S LESSONS. 61 
 
 great garden attached to the Brenthurst mansion, 
 and in it, as soon as the weather permitted, his» 
 indulgent uncle set Lenny at work with pretty 
 little gardening tools, and his delighted auntie 
 gave him his first lessons in digging and hoeing. 
 
 An old man called Simmons, who lived with 
 his wife in a little house in a back street near by, 
 had charge of the garden, and laid it out in 
 beautiful beds and borders. Lenny soon became 
 very friendly with him, and enjoyed watching him 
 as he sowed seed or dug up beds, and always 
 imitated his way of working, to Miss Brenthurst's 
 great amusement. 
 
 In a short time Lenny knew the names of 
 plants almost as well as Simmons did, and de- 
 lighted to introduce into his own particular little 
 plot all the bright colored flowers, recommended 
 to him on that account by his friend the gardener. 
 
 One day he ran breathlessly to Miss Brent- 
 hurst, who was sitting with her work on the 
 portico overlooking the garden. 
 
62 AD VENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 " 0, auntie ! what is my other name, please?" 
 he cried, " Simmons is going to write it for me in 
 green, and it will be so pretty." 
 
 His good friend changed color and turned 
 aside for a moment, for she foresaw in this the 
 beginning of much distress of mind to the poor 
 child. What was his name ? Oh ! how she 
 wished she could tell him, and how earnestly she 
 desired that the mystery surrounding him could 
 be cleared. 
 
 Daily and hourly he was growing dearer to 
 her, and the time might come when parting, if 
 they must part, would be an unendurable trial, 
 and yet she could not help sympathizing with the 
 eager little eyes that looked up inquiringly to 
 hers as he repeated : — 
 
 " What is my name beside Lenny, if you please, 
 auntie?" 
 
 " Simmons is very kind, dear, but don't you 
 think that ' Lenny' will be as much as he will 
 
LENNY'S LESSONS. 63 
 
 be able to find room for in that bed ? I think I 
 would not write any other name than 'Lenny.' " 
 
 Quite satisfied with the decision, Lenny ran 
 away, repeating — 
 
 " Auntie says write Lenny, if you please, Sim- 
 mons ;" adding, on his own responsibility, " I 
 guess my name is Lenny Brenthurst, but that is 
 too long, isn't it ?" 
 
 The gardener, who had no thought of the per- 
 plexity his question had occasioned, looked up 
 smiling. 
 
 "It would take a large bed to hold that 
 name," he said; "no, it was the first one I 
 wanted to know. Master Lenny seems like a 
 pet name for a longer one." 
 
 "But it is the only one we call him by," said 
 Miss Brenthurst, leaning over the portico ; 
 " write it Lenny, please." 
 
 " He does not write it, auntie, he only makes 
 little holes, and puts in seed. God writes it by 
 
64 ADVENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 and-by when He makes the green leaves spring 
 up, and grow into letters to spell my name." 
 
 Miss Brenthurst came down the steps leading 
 into the garden, and drew near where they stood. 
 " You say, Lenny, dear, that God will make the 
 leaves grow," she said ; " yet you see it is neces- 
 sary to do something yourself — you understand 
 now, why, when you say your prayers and ask 
 God to make you good, you must try all you can 
 to do right, so that He will help you when He 
 sees you mean to do your own part." 
 
 " Yes, auntie, and I mean to try, because — 
 because you are so good to me." 
 
 "It is God who is good, my boy," said the 
 lady, gently; "you must learn to love and trust 
 Him in all things, for there is much in the future 
 that He only can do for you." 
 
 The gardener looked up from his work, and 
 took off his hat before addressing his mistress , 
 
 "Do you know, Miss Helen," he said, "it is 
 a strange thing to hear the queer names Master 
 
LENNY'S LESSONS. 65 
 
 Lenny calls the plants ; there are very few that 
 he has not some kind of a name for, and I believe 
 he has lived in a garden somewhere, he seems so 
 fond of flowers and so much at home among 
 them." 
 
 " It is a pleasant taste, and a very proper one 
 for him to cultivate just now," she answered. 
 " He learns so readily, that although my brother 
 and I are opposed to children beginning study 
 too young, we cannot very well prevent his learn- 
 ing. He may take as many out-door lessons as 
 he can, without making himself delicate ; but a 
 few months shut up in the nursery with his books 
 might steal my dear little Lenny's rosy cheeks." 
 
 She patted him tenderly on the head, and 
 taking his hand, said she would walk with him 
 round the beds, and hear all he could tell her of 
 Simmons's plans, which he was very ready to dis- 
 cribe, and very enthusiastic about. He explained 
 in a simple but intelligible manner all the good 
 things God was going to do for them ; for Sim- 
 5 
 
66 ADVENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 nions was a very religious old man, who carried 
 his faith into his daily life, and would not dream 
 of assuming any power or responsibility beyond 
 the sowing and planting, and who seemed to 
 renew his trust and love for the Divine Being 
 in watching His tender and beautiful works 
 spring into life and loveliness under his hands. 
 
 This was a very young child to teach the prin- 
 ciples of religion to, and yet there was a half-de- 
 fined foreboding in Miss Brenthurst's heart, that 
 he would need the sustaining grace of God's love 
 beyond every other support in his future life. It 
 may be that she was influenced by the knowledge 
 she had of the painful position of a nameless 
 child, and the uncertainty surrounding his future 
 and his past. The present was all she could 
 secure to him ; and as they walked together, she 
 began to teach him about the best and dearest 
 Friend we mortals, whatever our station or story, 
 can ever know. 
 
 She told him of the goodness and love of God, 
 
LENNY'S LESSONS. 67 
 
 and of His tender mercy and compassion ; how He 
 answered prayer, and gave His guiding Spirit to 
 all who asked aright. 
 
 She had before explained to him the gracious 
 history of the Saviour's life on earth, and His 
 mission to bring sinful men into God's love and 
 communion ; with a timid heart and faltering 
 words she had described the death of agony, by 
 which He had sealed His office and reconciled the 
 children to their offended Father, for she doubted 
 her own power of making it plain to the eager 
 thoughtful eyes that followed every word. Then 
 she related how the loving Jesus had taken 
 children such as he into His tender embrace, 
 and uttered the memorable words, " Suffer little 
 children to come to me, and forbid them not." 
 
 This day she told him that he could go into the 
 Saviour's arms by faith, just as Simmons planted 
 the flower seeds and waited for them to come up 
 in tiny green shoots, and by-and-by, when the 
 
68 ADVENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 summer grew warmer, and the sun brighter, the 
 leaves would be crowned by lovely flowers. 
 
 " If my little Lenny is determined to love God 
 and do His will ; to pray to Him, for Jesus' sake, 
 to take all the evil passions and wicked thoughts 
 that rise in disobedience to Him, out of his heart, 
 and make him indeed a child of grace, then he is 
 already in the Saviour's arms ; the seed is planted 
 and must be watered by prayer and watched, lest 
 naughty thoughts like wicked weeds spring up 
 about it and choke it, as they would Simmons's 
 flowers — if he did not guard them." 
 
 "But," said Lenny, thoughtfully, "I don't see 
 the Saviour's arms — where are they?" 
 
 " My dear boy, Simmons does not see his seed 
 after it falls in the earth, but he knows that it is 
 taking root, and will grow and become flowers in 
 good time. That is faith, you cannot see or un- 
 derstand it clearly now, but by-and-by it will 
 become plainer to you, and you will learn to 
 know and feel the lessons I now repeat to you. 
 
LENNY'S LESSONS. G9 
 
 I hope that their meaning may grow familiar as 
 you grow older." 
 
 " I know now," said Lenny eagerly, " I know 
 now ! I'm agoing to try to be God's little boy, 
 and say my prayers, and mind you and be good 
 — indeed, indeed I am." 
 
 " God bless you, my darling, and hear your 
 prayers ! If He will only keep you in his care, I 
 can rest content with whatever chances or changes 
 await us in the future." 
 
 " Miss Brenthurst, if you please, ma'am, my 
 poor old woman would be glad to see Master 
 Lenny if you would allow me to take him home 
 for an hour or so. She's laid up with the rheu- 
 matics, you know, and has been kept in the house 
 so long that the sight of his young face would do 
 her heart good. And I'll take great care of 
 him," he added, seeing an instant's irresolution 
 on the lady's face. 
 
 " Certainly," she replied, smiling ; "I don't 
 doubt it in the least. Come with me, Lenny, and 
 
70 AD VENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 carry Mrs. Simmons a little basket of something 
 for her rheumatism. I'll send him to you 
 directly, Simmons ; and tell your wife I will come 
 and see her soon, and learn how the medicine 
 I sent has acted;" 
 
 The parcel Miss Brenthurst put in the basket 
 for Lenny was so large that Bessie was sent to 
 help him to carry it to the gardener. There was 
 a good roll of red flannel, and some warm woollen 
 stockings, beside a bottle of liniment to bathe 
 with, and a paper of tea and sugar. 
 
 Simmons was already putting away his rake 
 and spade in the ornamental tool-house at the 
 end of the garden, when Lenny appeared, his face 
 beaming as if he expected a great treat in the 
 visit. 
 
 " Auntie says these things are for Mrs. Sim- 
 mons, and I may stay an hour if I'm a good boy ; 
 and I mean to be a good boy, too." He said this 
 in a breathless way, and put his hand in Sim- 
 mons's, all ready to start. Bessie cautioned him 
 
LENNY'S LESSONS. 71 
 
 to keep his clothes nice, and saw him to the gate, 
 closing it after them as they went. Simmons, who 
 was very fond of children, seemed quite delighted 
 with the pleasure of the little fellow's society, 
 and Lenny himself appeared elated with the pros- 
 pect of the pleasure before him. 
 
CHAPTER SIXTH. 
 
 LENNY'S VISIT. 
 
 IMMONS'S house was so little and snug 
 !/ that this fact alone would have been suffi- 
 cient delight to Lenny. There was a 
 little door with a little porch over it, and 
 one little window at the side of it. The porch, 
 door, and window were all three festooned with 
 delicate vines that made the homely little place 
 quite lovely in its sweet spring-like green. 
 When the little door was opened it ushered them 
 into a tidy room, small but very cleanly, with its 
 four white-washed walls hung with highly colored 
 prints, and its well-scrubbed floor only partly 
 covered with decent home-made carpet. Its 
 articles of furniture were not many in number, 
 
 (72) 
 
LENNY'S VISIT. 73 
 
 but they were substantial and well kept ; and 
 Lenny could see that there was a back shed or 
 kitchen outside, where the coarser articles of the 
 household work were kept. Although the 
 weather was warm and mild, a bright little fire 
 burnt in the grate, and a kettle was singing 
 cheerily on the hob. Beside it, in a basket-arm- 
 chair, sate a woman, wrinkled and bent — more 
 with disease than age it would seem — and around 
 her shoulders were gathered the folds of a warm 
 knitted shawl, while her feet rested on a cush- 
 ioned stool close to the fire. At a first glance 
 she was not a pleasant-looking old lady ; she was 
 too pale and hollow-jawed for that; but when 
 she spoke, and a beaming smile lighted up her 
 withered face, the first impression was lost 
 entirely, and any one who listened to her patient 
 cheerful voice soon learned to love her. 
 
 When she saw Lenny she stretched out her 
 hand kindly. . 
 
 " So this is Miss Brenthurst's young charge ?" 
 
74 AD VENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 she said, smiling. " Will you come and speak to 
 me, my dear young master ? it does my heart 
 good to see a bright little face like yours ; for 
 there are four of ours that God has taken home 
 to live with Him in heaven, that were just as 
 bright and dear while we had them with us." 
 
 Lenny's mind was fresh from his aunt's lesson, 
 and he was a peculiarly frank and artless child. 
 
 "Are they in the Saviour's arms?" he asked, 
 with simple earnestness ; " I mean do they see 
 and feel them around them ? Auntie says all 
 the children that love Jesus are taken into his 
 arms, but when they go to heaven they see his 
 face and know Him." 
 
 " Yes, dear Master Lenny, my little lambs are 
 gathered in the fold of the Good Shepherd. Do 
 you like to look at pictures ?" 
 
 " 0, yes, auntie has a great many pretty ones 
 in my room at home." 
 
 " Well, look at this that hangs beside the win- 
 dow — it is called the Good Shepherd, and that 
 
LENNY'S VISIT. 75 
 
 means the Saviour. See the pure white sheep 
 that he is gathering together under his watchful 
 love ; they are the souls that have been washed 
 in his precious blood. See the wolves peeping 
 out of that dark wood, and the heavy clouds 
 rising beyond — those are the storms and tempta- 
 tions of this life, and the powerful arm of the 
 Lord is our shelter and refuge from them all." 
 
 Lenny's fascinated eyes lingered on the picture 
 with eager curiosity. 
 
 " See the crook in his hand, — auntie says all 
 shepherds have crooks, and that is the gospel- 
 crook what the Good Shepherd holds. Look at 
 the tiny little sheep, — those are the lambs, the 
 little children ; but I don't see any wicked goats. 
 Are all goats wicked ?" 
 
 Finding her little guest's interest excited, Mrs. 
 Simmons, in her simple and unlearned way, pro- 
 ceeded to explain her own knowledge of the 
 subject so as to suit his youthful mind. 
 
 "I am glad it is not wicked to be a goat," he 
 
76 ADVENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 Baid ; " for I saw some pretty little kids one day, 
 and they looked very good." 
 
 There were other pictures on the wall, and 
 while Simmons set out a little table and spread a 
 clean cloth upon it for tea, his wife directed 
 Lenny's attention to them, and asked him if he 
 could tell her what they meant. 
 
 " This one over the mantelpiece is pretty, and 
 I think I know it. That little boy is saying his 
 prayers, and looking up into the bright light. 
 He is little Samuel — 
 
 ' When little Samuel woke, 
 And heard his Maker's voice ;' 
 
 I know that, may I say it to you ?" 
 
 Greatly pleased to hear his reverent little voice 
 repeating this pretty little poem, Mrs. Simmons, 
 who loved children dearly, begged him to tell her 
 all the verses he knew. 
 
 He proved the excellence of his memory by 
 recalling some Scriptural incident in connection 
 
LENNY'S VISIT. 77 
 
 with nearly all the pictures, and related the story 
 Df Cain and Abel in his unvarnished, childish 
 way, to the old lady's great delight. Finding in 
 her a very interested listener, he told her he had 
 learned all about Abraham and Isaac, and 
 Noah's Ark, which he would repeat, if she would 
 like to hear it. 
 
 She said she dearly loved to listen to God's 
 Holy Word, and that when little children like 
 him showed a knowledge of its great truths, it 
 rejoiced her heart to hear them repeat the lessons 
 they had learned. 
 
 So Lenny, finding that she approved of his 
 innocent narrations, and did not laugh when he 
 stammered for a word or found a rather unsuita- 
 ble one, went on, with great enjoyment of the 
 stories he told ; and whenever he could remember 
 any of Dr. Watts's hymns that seemed appropri- 
 ate, he sang them to the pretty, simple tunes his 
 auntie had taught him. 
 
78 ADVENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 Simmons, seeing the pleasure his poor wife 
 found in their young visitor, did not interfere 
 with her enjoyment, but prepared and set before 
 them the best entertainment the house afforded. 
 
 There was a plate and mug for Lenny that in 
 themselves were a complete treat. They were 
 made of pretty blue china, with gold bands, and 
 the plate had a picture in the centre of " Christ 
 Stilling the Tempest." 
 
 A ship had the same charm for Lenny that 
 such things always have for little boys, and he 
 gazed admiringly on the spreading sails and 
 foamy waves. 
 
 "That is the Saviour's face," he said, point- 
 ing to the one that was meant to represent Him. 
 " I always know the Saviour, He looks so mild 
 and loving. And see, here He is again on this 
 pretty cup, with all the children in his arms. I 
 know a nice hymn about it. I don't know it every 
 word yet, but I am going to learn it so as to say 
 
LENNY'S VISIT. 79 
 
 it to auntie." And he began to say those little 
 verses, commencing — 
 
 " I think when I read that sweet story of old." 
 
 "Master Lenny," said Simmons, sadly, "you 
 are going to eat and drink from the plate and 
 cup of our youngest boy, who has been at home 
 with his Heavenly Father all of twenty years. 
 He used to be so good and pleasant in his ways 
 that he filled us with great hope and joy. We 
 thought he would live to be a good man, and 
 may be learn to carry the Gospel to heathen 
 lands, for he often said he wanted to be a mes- 
 senger of Christ's ; but the wise and loving God 
 chose to call him away to himself, and we had to 
 let him go, even though it seemed to tear our 
 hearts up by the roots — the love we had was so 
 deeply planted there. Yes, Master Lenny, 
 that's our Willie's mug arid plate, and when you 
 look at the pictures with such a knowledge of 
 what they show us, it brings him back to my 
 
80 AD VENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 good woman and me very plain. God bless us 
 all, and grant that we may meet him by-and-by." 
 
 Lenny looked from one to the other, quite 
 awed by the solemnity of the scene. 
 
 The twenty years that had passed since the 
 old gardener had laid his last child in the earth 
 seemed but a little while to look back upon, and 
 somehow the trusting little face before them 
 brought back that other face — long, long since 
 turned to dust — that used to sit where Lenny sat 
 now, and fill their hearts with hope and joy. 
 
 But it was only a passing shadow. In a mo- 
 ment or two they looked smiling and happy 
 again. 
 
 " He is gone, dear wife, from sin and sorrow, 
 and he won the crown without fighting the battle. 
 The least we can do is to strive to meet him in 
 glory, through the Redeemer's mercy." 
 
 Then they turned to Lenny, and tried to make 
 him enjoy the nice things set before him. 
 
 " These currant buns are of my own making, 
 
LENNY'S VISIT. 81 
 
 Master Lenny," said Mrs. Simmons. " You 
 must not think that I am as useless as I look, sit- 
 ting here so idle. It is only my knees and ankles 
 that are weak. I can work with my hands and 
 arms, and so my good man has put wheels on my 
 chair, so that I can be moved about easily. 
 Sometimes he rolls me over to the table, and 1 
 make our bread and cakes, which he bakes for 
 me in the outside oven ; then sometimes he rolls 
 me to the window, and I sew and knit. I can 
 even be rolled on the porch when the weather is 
 warm, and then I enjoy seeing all that goes on 
 outside, which is a great treat to an old body like 
 me." 
 
 " I would like to roll your chair," cried Lenny, 
 quite taken with the idea. " I wish I were your 
 little boy, and I would take care of you." 
 
 " Bless his kind little heart !" cried Mrs. Sim 
 mphs, much gratified ; " but, dear young master, 
 you have a better lot where you are. You must 
 not forget to be thankful that you are Miss 
 
8^ ADVENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 Brenthurst's little boy, for she is one of the kind- 
 est and best ladies in the world." 
 
 " My auntie will lend me to you, because your 
 Willie is gone to heaven. I will ask her to let 
 me come here every day, and wheel your chair." 
 
 " That would be asking too much, Master 
 Lenny," said Simmons; "but I will tell you 
 something. My wife has a brother who used to 
 be a sailor, and he lives away in the country a 
 dozen miles or more from here. Miss Brent- 
 hurst has promised to lend me a little carriage 
 that she seldom uses, to drive out there some 
 bright day. If you were to ask leave to go with 
 us, I think you would enioy it, and we would be 
 very glad to take care of you." 
 
 Lenny's eyes sparkled. 
 
 " I know sailors ; I saw them on a great ship, 
 where I lived with mamma. Does your brother 
 live in a ship ?" 
 
 " No, it is not a ship, though it looks like one," 
 answered Mrs. Simmons. " He has shells and 
 
LENNY'S VISIT. 83 
 
 corals, and all kinds of fish in a glass case, and a 
 stuffed seal that, when it was alive, he used to 
 pet it as if it were a little dog or pussy cat." 
 
 " 0, I want to go !" cried Lenny, looking 
 round for the means of starting at once ; " can't 
 you take me there now?" 
 
 "Not to-day; we must start in the morning, 
 and make a day's journey of it ; and first of all, 
 we must get your aunt's consent." 
 
 Perhaps it was a fault of Lenny's to be a little 
 impatient, and for a single moment he seemed in- 
 clined to lose sight of his present enjoyment, in 
 longing for the promised visit ; but Mrs. Simmons 
 recalled his cheerfulness by her kindly advice. 
 " Don't let your good auntie see that you are un- 
 grateful for the pleasures she gives you, Master 
 Lenny," she said ; " it was very kind of her to let 
 you come and make us this nice visit. See ! here 
 is a cup of milk from our old sukey-cow. Your 
 uncle gave her to us for a Christmas present two 
 years ago, and she is one of the best friends we 
 
84 ADVENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 have. She gives us all our butter and cream, and 
 seems to know us both when we call her." 
 
 " May I see her, please ?" 
 
 " Yes, surely, when she is milked you can look 
 at her. Did you ever see any one milk a cow ?" 
 
 "Yes, ma'am, I had a cow in my garden!" 
 cried Lenny quickly ; but after pondering a lit- 
 tle while he seemed to think himself mistaken, 
 for his face grew perplexed, and his little brow 
 contracted. 
 
 " I don't know," he admitted slowly, " I don't 
 know if I had a cow. I thought at first there 
 was one in the garden, but I don't know, now." 
 
 Simmons looked gravely at his wife. 
 
 " Miss Brenthurst often asks him about the 
 garden he speaks of," he said; "and he always 
 becomes confused and worried after they talk of 
 it a little while. He says he lived there, and on 
 « ship, and seems to get them confused to- 
 gether." 
 
 " Perhaps she would rather we did not mention 
 
LENNY'S VISIT. 85 
 
 them at all to him?" returned his wife in a low 
 tone. 
 
 " No, I think she is glad to gather anything 
 she can about his past histoiy ; indeed she told 
 me so." 
 
 Hearing this, Mrs. Simmons turned round with 
 a pleasant smile, and asked Lenny what name he 
 used to call his cow when he went out to see her 
 milked. 
 
 " Babette," he replied quickly ; and then 
 stopped and looked round him with the strange 
 worried gaze that always accompanied his efforts 
 to recall the past. 
 
 " Well, that's a pretty name ; did she come to 
 you when she heard you say, Babette ! Babette !" 
 
 "No, no," said Lenny, looking more and more 
 bewildered, " it was Franz and Babette ; there 
 was no cow, it was a pretty goat ; two pretty white 
 goats." 
 
 " And on» was called Franz and the other 
 Babette — which did you like the best ?" 
 
S6 AD VENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 Lenny laughed heartily. 
 
 "Franz was not a goat," he said, "he had 
 nice music" — he took up a fork and held it like a 
 flageolet at his lips — " this is the way Franz made 
 music;" he snowed the motions quite correctly, 
 and then looked eagerly toward Mrs. Simmons 
 as if expecting her to explain them. 
 
 " Don't look surprised," she said quietly to her 
 husband ; "I believe the reason he has not been 
 able to tell more is that their anxiety confuses 
 him." 
 
 "It is our duty to remember all he says, and 
 repeat it to Miss Brenthurst," returned Simmons, 
 in the same low tone ; but Lenny seemed to 
 think that he had been thoughtful long enough ; 
 he now came back from the past to the present, 
 and declared that there never were such nice 
 cakes as those Mrs. Simmons had made. 
 
 "When you come again, I'll make one with 
 your name on it in currants, and a little pie just 
 large enough for your own dinner." 
 
LENNY'S VISIT. 87 
 
 " And may I carry it home and show it to 
 auntie, and give her a little piece, too ?" 
 
 " Yes, indeed, and you must please to thank 
 her very much for all the good things she sent 
 me to-day, and carry a little basket of eggs 
 freshly laid by our own hens, as a small offering 
 in return." 
 
 " Yes, ma'am ; may I see your hens, Simmons, 
 if you please ?" 
 
 " Now that you are done with your cake and 
 milk, I was just going to propose that we should 
 go out and look at Sukey and the chickens,' 
 said the gardener; "but first I will get you the 
 pan, good woman, to rinse the tea-things in. See, 
 Master Lenny, how handy my wife is ! She can 
 wash up the dishes, and shake the cloth in the 
 grate, without moving out of her chair." 
 
 Mrs. Simmons smiled cheerfully, and set to 
 work as her husband said. First she moved the 
 table-cloth aside to make way for the basin of 
 hot water, then she put all the slops in one bowl. 
 
00 AD VENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 and piled the cups and saucers neatly, shook and 
 folded the cloth, which she put in the table 
 drawer, and with a clean towel began to dry the 
 dishes after rinsing them. 
 
 It seemed such an amusing way to work, that 
 Lenny was quite fascinated by it, particularly 
 when Simmons took down a brightly painted 
 hearth-brush, and a little japanned dust-pan from 
 beside the grate, and whisked up the chance 
 crumbs that had fallen. 
 
 " 0, please let me sweep with that little 
 brush," he cried; "it is so pretty; Babette's 
 was not like that — she took a big bird's wing to 
 sweep with." 
 
 "No, not now, Master Lenny; we will only 
 have time to see Sukey and the chickens before I 
 must take you home," said Simmons, standing 
 with a basket of beautiful large eggs in his hand. 
 "You see, Margery," he added, in an undertone 
 to his wife ; " Babette was neither a cow nor a 
 goat, and Master Lenny must have li\ed in some 
 
LENNY'S VISIT. 89 
 
 other country, for it is not an American name. 
 Come now," lie continued speaking to Lenny, 
 " come out into the hen-house ; I want two more 
 eggs to make the dozen, and you shall find them 
 in the nest, Master Lenny." 
 
 It was a very little yard, and if it had not been 
 kept scrupulously clean and in order would not 
 have been very nice ; but Simmons had learned 
 to be the best of housekeepers out of love for his 
 poor maimed wife, who could not work about, 
 and who would have fretted to see the place dirty 
 and disorderly. 
 
 It was partly paved and partly boarded, and 
 paving and boarding were both as clean as they 
 could be made ; a tiny wooden lattice fence 
 separated this part of the yard from the minia- 
 ture barn and chicken-house beyond. They 
 passed through a little gate which they closed 
 behind them, and then Simmons opened the door 
 of the little building where, by the clucking and 
 fluttering, Lenny knew the chickens were. Sim- 
 
90 AD VENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 mons then began to call them by name : " Come, 
 Speckle, Lily, Brownie, Scratcher, Bunch, Bus- 
 tle, Top-Knot, Mottle, Daisy, Netty, Dame 
 Frump, and Jenny Wren." 
 
 " 0, what funny names !" cried Lenny ; " show 
 me which is Jenny Wren ; I know a pretty story 
 about her." 
 
 " This little gray one with the busy little 
 nutter in her wings — that's Scratcher, she's 
 always digging ; and here's Lilly, as white as 
 snow ; Speckle is all covered with dots, and Top- 
 Knot has a red hood. See Brownie, and round 
 little Bunch, and busy Bustle. Now you can 
 scatter this meal, Master Lenny, and see them 
 hop about and pick it up." 
 
 This was quite a delightful occupation, and 
 Lenny wished that time did not pass so quickly, 
 for Simmons said that they would only have time 
 to get the eggs, and take a look at Sukey before 
 it was time to go back. Lenny found four eggs 
 
LENNY'S VISIT. 91 
 
 with his own little hands in the nest, and in his 
 joyous excitement broke one of them, which 
 Simmons kindly said did not matter, for they 
 could fry it for breakfast. 
 
 Then they saw old Sukey feeding. She turned 
 her head towards them, and looked so large and 
 her horns seemed so great, that Lenny edged his 
 way out towards the door a little timidly. 
 
 " I don't believe I like such very large cows," 
 he faltered ; " she might bite me, and hurt me 
 with her horns." 
 
 "0, no indeed, Master Lenny, she is very 
 gentle," said his friend. "When we first got 
 her she used sometimes to kick over the pail of 
 milk just as it was full, and that was very 
 naughty ; so we had to punish her to teach her 
 better, just as parents are obliged to do with bad 
 children sometimes." 
 
 "Did you put her to bed without her tea?" 
 asked Lenny, deeply interested in Sukey's cor- 
 
92 ADVENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 rection, the more so as he felt a little shy of her, 
 and could scarcely believe in her reformation. 
 
 Simmons laughed. 
 
 " No, Master Lenny, that would not be a suit- 
 able punishment for Sukey. She has no con- 
 science, you know, and when she does wrong, she 
 is not as guilty as a little boy who is taught how 
 to be good would be. We had to whip her with 
 a stick, and make her afraid to be bad." 
 
 A little boy two or three years older than 
 Lenny had been resting his chin on the fence 
 that divided Simmons's yard from the one behind 
 it, and regarding the child's movements with 
 intense interest. He now laughed merrily, and 
 Simmons, looking up, said : " Ah ! there you are, 
 Dick White ! and how are you to-day, my boy ?" 
 
 To which the boy replied : — 
 
 " Quite well, thank you, Mr. Simmons. I was 
 laughing to think how Sukey served me when 
 she first came here." 
 
LENNY'S VISIT. 93 
 
 "Yes, I must tell Master Lenny about that as 
 we go home together. Come in and stay with 
 my good woman, if you please, while I'm gone, 
 and she will tell you about going to Uncle 
 Nep's." 
 
CHAPTER SEVENTH. 
 
 LENNY'S NEW ACQUAINTANCE. 
 
 PFARENTLY this invitation was exceed- 
 ingly well received, for Dick instantly 
 disappeared, after saying, 
 
 "Yes, sir, thank you;" and in a 
 moment more he reappeared in the little porch 
 with his cap in his hand, and his bright blue eyes 
 dancing with pleasure. 
 
 He was quite a great boy compared to Lenny, 
 and he had a pleasant cheerful frankness about 
 him that made his ruddy face seem really hand- 
 some. His head was covered with light crisp 
 curls, and good humor and merriment twinkled 
 in his eyes. 
 
 (94) 
 
LENNY'S NEW ACQUAINTANCE. 05 
 
 His dress was plain but very neat and tidy, 
 and his manners were respectful and pleasant. 
 
 " This is my young friend Dick White, Mas- 
 ter Lenny," said the gardener; "his mother is 
 an excellent person, and has been like a sister to 
 my wife in sickness ; we arc near neighbors, you 
 see, and Dick sometimes stays with my good 
 woman when I am away. But Dick is a busy 
 boy now-a-days, and can't spare me as much time 
 as he used to. He does all the work he can in 
 the daytime, and learns lessons in the evening." 
 
 Lenny looked up at this wonderful boy with 
 great respect ; but Dick himself did nothing but 
 blush and laugh, until Mrs. Simmons said : — 
 
 " I am going to wind yarn for that jacket I 
 am to knit for your mother — will you hold my 
 skeins, Dick?" When he immediately sat down 
 in front of her and stretched out his hands, show- 
 ing that he was well used to the business. 
 
 As they went home together, Simmons told 
 
96 AD VENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 Lenny that Dick's mother was a widow, and he 
 her only son. His father had been a very good 
 gentleman, but he was so unfortunate in business 
 as to die leaving his wife and child in great 
 poverty. 
 
 A kind friend who pitied her desolation gave 
 her the little cottage and piece of ground attached 
 to it, where she had lived for years and worked 
 hard at such employment as lay in her power to 
 perform. She could embroider and do all kinds 
 of elegant sewing, at which she had been so 
 industrious as to injure her health and eyesight. 
 Her noble-hearted boy, with forethought beyond 
 his years, saw that her strength was overtaxed, 
 and manfully determined to do his best to help 
 her. On his own responsibility, he had started 
 out to look for something to do, and finding an 
 old friend of his father's, who was the principal 
 clerk in a large business house, got employment 
 through him as messenger and errand-boy, at a 
 nice little weekly payment. He went quite early 
 
LENNY' S NEW- A CQ UAINTANCE. 97 
 
 every morning, but got through his duties a little 
 after dinner-time, and his mother helped him 
 with his lessons in the evenings, so that he should 
 not entirely lose sight of his education. It had 
 cost poor Mrs. White quite an effort to give up 
 her son's schooling, even for a time ; but she felt 
 that if she could rest for a few months she would 
 be all the better able to attend to her duty in 
 the future, and she thanked God, who had blessed 
 her with such a loving, dutiful child. 
 
 The story Simmons told about Sukey and 
 Dick made Lenny laugh. It happened just 
 after they had received the cow from Mr. Brent- 
 hurst, and before her mischievous qualities had 
 been subdued. 
 
 One day Mrs. Simmons, who was not then 
 confined to her chair through lameness, sent 
 Dick to the hen-house to get some eggs. He 
 remained away so long that she quite forgot 
 about him, until suddenly remembering that she 
 had sent him, and he had not returned, she 
 7 
 
08 ADVENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 opened the door, and went cut to look after 
 him. 
 
 He was quite hoarse with calling, and still 
 kept on. She looked over the little fence that 
 divided the two yards, and soon saw what was 
 the matter. Sukey had slipped her head out of 
 her rope, had left her place in the barn, and 
 stood with her horns bent down and pointing 
 directly at the door of the hen-house, as if she 
 had been appointed guard over a prisoner there. 
 If poor little Dick attempted to peep out, down 
 would come the threatening horns to meet him, 
 and the angry eye would glance terror into his 
 sinking heart. When he shrank back, com- 
 pletely terrified, she would toss her naughty 
 head triumphantly, as to say, " I have got you, 
 my boy, and I mean to keep you too." So all 
 he could do was to call for assistance, which, the 
 doors being closed, Mrs. Simmons did not hear. 
 
 "Did you scold her for being bad?" asked 
 Lenny, much amused at the idea of Dick's im- 
 
LENNY' S NEW A CQ UAINTANCE. 99 
 
 prisonment in the hen-house, and feeling rather 
 pleased that Sukey had frightened another boy 
 as well as himself. 
 
 " 0, yes, we scolded her, and made her under- 
 stand that it was wrong to play such pranks. 
 Now she is a good cow, and Dick milks her 
 sometimes." 
 
 "May I ask auntie to let me milk her too?" 
 exclaimed Lenny, excited at the idea. " I would 
 not be afraid, if you would tie her feet and 
 horns, and hold her tail." 
 
 " By-and-by, when you grow older, we will see 
 about it," said Simmons. " Here comes Bessie 
 down the garden-walk. Carry the basket of 
 eggs to her, and tell your kind aunt the names 
 of the chickens that laid them for her, please." 
 
 "Yes, I will," cried Lenny, starting to run 
 off with his prize ; but, suddenly remembering 
 what a pleasant time he had had, he came back 
 a step or two, and said : " Thank you, Simmons, 
 
100 ADVENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 for taking me to your house ; I want to go again 
 soon." 
 
 But Lenny's plans for seeing Dick White 
 again, and making a visit to Uncle Nep's myste- 
 riously delightful home, were all deferred by the 
 unlooked-for events that followed. 
 
 His aunt listened with great pleasure to his 
 innocent narration of the pleasures he enjoyed, 
 and rejoiced to hear of the comfort of the gar- 
 dener's home, to which she had contributed more 
 than her humble goodness allowed her to remem- 
 ber. When Lenny spoke of going again she 
 promised to go with him, and hear more about 
 Dick White and his kind mother. There was 
 nearly a week of dull wet weather during which 
 Lenny could not play out of doors, and it seemed 
 to his despairing little eyes that all the pretty 
 garden would be spoilt ; but Miss Brenthurst 
 assured him that when the sun shone again he 
 would discover that everything had been growing 
 
LENNY'S NE W A CQ UAINTANOE. 101 
 
 busily under the encouraging rains, and that his 
 own name would be green enough to read. 
 
 To get a glimpse of this, he pressed his face 
 close against the glass of the bay-window over- 
 looking the garden ; but the rain poured so 
 steadily nearly all the time that all he could see 
 was the drops chasing each other, and falling 
 drip, drip, in the little pools in the garden, and 
 patter, on the roof of the portico. 
 
 " I don't like such water-days," he declared, 
 at length. "lam going to say my prayers, and 
 ask God to dry the earth all nice and warm 
 again." 
 
 " Come and read me a pretty story," said his 
 auntie, cheerily ; " come tell me some of those 
 nice hymns you have learned. Don't you know 
 that some poor little boys have to wander out in 
 just such rainy days, and get all wet and miser- 
 able ? My little Lenny should be thankful that 
 he has a nice room to stay in, and should not 
 
102 ADVENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 fret because lie has to wait a day or two before 
 he sees his garden." 
 
 " 0, auntie," returned the child, not properly 
 impressed by this lesson, "I wish I were a poor 
 little boy, I would not mind the water, I would 
 laugh and jump in the puddles, and shake off the 
 drops." 
 
 Bessie tapped at the door before Miss Brent- 
 hurst could reply. 
 
 " If you would please to step down into the 
 hall, miss," she said ; " there's a poor woman 
 with a little girl and a baby. They are beggars, 
 and they seems poorly. Cook says may they 
 go into the kitchen ?" 
 
 " Yes, certainly, take them in where there is a 
 fire at once. A little girl and a baby did you 
 say, Bessie ? Come, Lenny, come down and 
 see them. You were saying you would like to 
 be out in the storm, and you shall judge whether 
 it is as pleasant as it seems." 
 
LENNY' S NEW ACQ UAINTANCE. 103 
 
 " But I would not want to go without my sup- 
 per, though, auntie," he interposed ; " 1 said I 
 would like to paddle like that little boy that 
 walked in the gutter with his pantaloons rolled 
 up, just for fun, you know." 
 
CHAPTER EIGHTH, 
 
 LENNY'S "LITTLE JOHNNY." 
 
 )HE woman and her two children were 
 already in the kitchen when they went 
 down. Cook had given her a seat be- 
 side the range, and hung her dripping 
 shawl and hood where they might dry. She had 
 also spread out a tattered cloak of the child's 
 before the fire, and had taken the baby in her 
 own arms. 
 
 " 0, just look at the pretty dear," she said, 
 
 tenderly ; " it is sickness that's ailing it, for 
 
 you can hear how it moans as it breathes, miss." 
 
 "We have all been sick," said the woman; 
 
 " that is what has brought us so low. I was 
 
 (104) 
 
LENNY'S " LITTLE JOHNNY." 105 
 
 down myself for three weeks, and then Sally was 
 took bad, and now Baby's going." 
 
 "Have you a husband?" asked Miss Brent 
 hurst, kindly. 
 
 " Yes, ma'am, but he left here to get work 
 on the railroad six months ago. He gave me 
 money enough to get along with if I had been 
 able to work a little myself; but I was laid up 
 and had to buy medicine, and it all Went. Now 
 I am too weak to work, and my spirit seems 
 broken. Indeed, ma'am, I feel as if I would 
 rather lie down and die, than strive any longer 
 against poverty and misery." 
 
 Miss Brenthurst looked shocked to hear her 
 speak so despairingly. 
 
 " You must have been very ill and wretched, 
 my poor friend," she said, soothingly; "but 
 still it is not right to talk so. It has pleased God 
 tc afflict you, but trust in his mercy and he will 
 raise you up friends. To begin with, cook, you 
 had better get them something warm and com- 
 
106 ADVENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 fortable to eat, and I will see if I can find some 
 dry clothing for the present." 
 
 Leaving Lenny beside the baby, that Bessie 
 had taken while cook rose to prepare some food, 
 Miss Brenthurst went up to her store closet, 
 where she was in the habit of putting away all 
 sorts of garments for the poor. She was an 
 active Christian in her quiet way, and employed 
 needy seamstresses to sew substantial clothes in 
 the summer season, to be given to the destitute 
 in the hard cold winter. From among them she 
 selected the best suited to the three poor souls 
 below, and carried them down. Already the 
 benevolent cook had prepared a wholesome meal, 
 and the woman and her little girl were just sitting 
 down to partake of it. " That's right," said 
 Miss Brenthurst cheerfully ; " you will feel better 
 able to tell me all about yourself, after you have 
 eaten something and put on these dry things. 
 Bessie, you can bring them up into the nursery 
 then, and we will see how they can be set right." 
 
LENNY'S " LITTLE JOHNNY." 107 
 
 The woman rose, and murmured her thanks in 
 broken words ; apparently she had not been 
 used to so much kindness, for she was completely 
 overcome by it, and burst into tears, unable to 
 express herself clearly. 
 
 Miss Brenthurst made light of what she had 
 done, and called Lenny to come up with her. 
 
 " May I bring the baby, too ?" asked he, still 
 holding its thin little hand in his. 
 
 " Not yet, dear ; its mother will bring it pre- 
 sently," said his aunt. 
 
 " Then please let me stay till she comes," 
 pleaded Lenny ; and Bessie said she would see 
 that he did no harm, and take him up with her. 
 So Miss Brenthurst allowed him to remain, be- 
 cause he seemed so very fond of the sick child. 
 In a little while he came up the stairs heading the 
 small procession, and calling his aunt's attention 
 to the improved appearance of the party, by 
 shouting : — 
 
 " 0, see the baby now ! Bessie put the little 
 
108 ADVENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 gown on it, and a flannel petticoat — isn't it 
 pretty? isn't it pretty ?" 
 
 Indeed they all three looked very much better 
 in every way. The woman had on a good chintz 
 wrapper and a gingham apron, the little girl 
 wore a comfortable calico dress ; and all three 
 were clean, and well combed and brushed. 
 
 Miss Brenthurst smiled approvingly. 
 
 " Now tell me where your husband was when 
 you last wrote to him, and let me see how I can 
 serve you, in bringing you together again." 
 
 The woman blushed. 
 
 " 0, ma'am, we neither of us can read or 
 write," she confessed ; "and that has caused us 
 sore trouble, for he got a man to write to me, 
 that put the wrong name on the letter by mistake, 
 and that was what kept me so long waiting. The 
 woman that rented us a room wrote an answer 
 for me — when I got it at last — and said that I 
 was sick, but would be able to go to him as soon 
 as he sent me the money. It came with a line 
 
LENNY'S "LITTLE JOHNNY." 109 
 
 saying, that he would wait for me on a day he 
 named, and giving me directions how to come ; 
 but little Hattie had been sick, and I had been 
 worse, and we owed most of the money, which the 
 people would not wait for ; so I could not go, 
 and I have never heard a word since." 
 
 " You have got the direction, have you not ?" 
 
 " Yes, ma'am, here it is ;" and she took a brown 
 and soiled bit of paper out of her breast, and 
 laid it before Miss Brenthurst. 
 
 " Why, this is a considerable distance from 
 here, my good friend," said the lady; "it is a 
 day's journey in the cars." 
 
 " Yes, ma'am, he told me so ; but he said he 
 had work there for a whole year to come,' and 
 that he would be paid for it all at the end of six 
 months more. He borrowed the money he sent 
 me, you see ; and that's what worried me, to 
 think after the struggle he made that it should 
 all go, and we not get to him." 
 
 Miss Brenthurst remained thoughtful a mo- 
 
110 ADVENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 ment, and then said, " Should you feci justified 
 in risking the journey to him now, if I wrote to 
 him to meet you at the cars ?" 
 
 The woman clasped her hands in thankfulness. 
 
 " 0, if you would only do that ! He would be 
 glad to pay the car-man, for he could borrow the 
 money again, I suppose, if he has not got it yet." 
 
 " I will buy you the tickets and see you safely 
 started — and now I will attend to it at once. 
 There is a room next Bessie's, on the upper floor, 
 where you and your children can stay until I 
 have made the necessary inquiries." 
 
 While Miss Brenthurst spoke, the poor 
 woman's face testified its joy ; and when the kind 
 lady added, that she could not proceed in the 
 matter, beyond writing to her husband, until she 
 had made herself assured of the correctness of 
 the whole story, by asking the woman with whom 
 she had lodged, she showed such eagerness to 
 have it investigated, that Miss Brenthurst had no 
 doubt of the truth of her narrative. 
 
LENNY'S " LITTLE JOHNNY." Ill 
 
 The letter was written and directed to John 
 Murray, in care of Mr. Price, his employer ; and 
 Bessie went down to the lodging-house, to see the 
 woman, whom Miss Brenthurst felt rather averse 
 to meeting, when she remembered that she had 
 turned out a sick woman with two children, after 
 securing all the little money they had. Bessie 
 came back in an hour and reported, that Mrs. 
 Blaney, as the woman was named, kept a general 
 shop, and let lodgings in the same house ; that 
 she seemed a hard sort of woman, but had no- 
 thing ill to say of poor Mrs. Murray — " she was 
 quiet and decent enough, and would have paid if 
 she could, no doubt, but if she has to let all the 
 poor decent people keep her rooms without pay- 
 ing for them, she would soon be without a house 
 over her own head." 
 
 Lenny had followed the baby up stairs, and 
 clung to it with this newly awakened affection 
 even when it lay asleep. 
 
 " Don't let it go away ; let us keep it, please, 
 
112 ADVENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 dear auntie," lie said earnestly ; " I will play with 
 it, and keep it quiet, and it shall sleep in my 
 pretty bed." 
 
 His aunt explained to him how eager its poor 
 papa must be to see it, and how wrong it would 
 be to keep it from him. Very reluctantly he 
 confessed the propriety of this arrangement, and 
 seemed to feel that he was making a greater 
 sacrifice than was actually necessary in giving 
 up his little favorite. 
 
 Miss Brenthurst allowed him to stay with it a 
 good deal, and heard from Bessie that he seemed 
 perfectly happy when he could hold its little 
 feverish hand in his. 
 
 "I am afraid, miss, that Mrs. Murray don't 
 know how sick the baby is," said the cook, the 
 day that the little family were to start on their 
 journey. " It seems to me that it is very ill, and 
 [ think she ought to have a doctor about it." 
 
 " Then I will send Simmons for one immedi- 
 
LENNY'S "LITTLE JOHNNY." 113 
 
 ately," said her mistress ; " perhaps I had better 
 do so without speaking to her ; she may think it 
 would trouble us, and so refuse." 
 
 Accordingly the family physician was called, 
 and Miss Brenthurst, explaining the poor 
 woman's story, led him into the room where she 
 sate, busily arranging some necessary articles 
 her kind friend had provided for her outfit. 
 
 She was startled when she saw the strange 
 gentleman ; but Miss Brenthurst kindly assured 
 her, saying that it was best to know whether the 
 little one needed any medicine on the way. 
 
 The good doctor looked quite gravely at the 
 poor baby, and asked if there had been nothing 
 done for it. 
 
 " I did give him a little of the bottle Hattie 
 had when she was sick, but he seemed worse 
 after it, and then I did not know what to do," 
 murmured the poor mother ; "he seemed so quiet 
 when we got into this comfortable place, and 
 8 
 
114 ADVENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 wanted to sleep so much, that I thought he would 
 come round nicely without physic." 
 
 The doctor said very little, and wrote a pre- 
 scription, with directions for the child to be kept 
 warm, and not exposed to the air. 
 
 She was so set on going that he did not offer 
 any objection, and when he saw how comfortably 
 Johnny was to be wrapped up and carried, 
 seemed to think it would do no harm. 
 
 While they stood there, Lenny stole in, and 
 took his place by little Johnny ; but the doctor 
 instantly interposed : — 
 
 " Keep your little fellow out of the room, my 
 dear Miss Brenthurst ; there is no necessity for 
 running into danger, you know, and he may 
 catch the fever." 
 
 Miss Brenthurst changed color. 
 
 "What fever, doctor?" she said, nastily. 
 
 " It looks like the scarlet fever — though as 
 there is no rash yet, I can't say positively," 
 
LENNY'S " LITTLE JOHNNY." 115 
 
 said the physician ; " and you know you don't 
 want to risk it for the boy." 
 
 " Certainly not," cried she ; " Bessie, take him 
 away;" and it being a clear day at last, Lenny 
 was sent into the garden to see Simmons for the 
 first time since his visit to the little cottage. 
 
CHAPTER NINTH. 
 
 LENNY'S FEVER. 
 
 IMMONS was busy at the bed where the 
 seed was sown that was to spring up into 
 the word Lenny ; little shoots of green 
 had already begun to break the sod, but 
 nothing like the pretty sight he had expected, so 
 the boy felt disappointed. 
 
 "Where are all the letters, Simmons?" he 
 said, dejectedly ; "I though they would be quite 
 plain ; this isn't a nice garden, it don't grow 
 right." 
 
 The gardener rested on his hoe-handle, and 
 looked at the clouded little face with great 
 interest. 
 
 (116) 
 
LENNY'S FEVER. 117 
 
 " When you planted them you told your aunt 
 that you knew what faith meant : while you wait 
 for them to grow you must learn what patience 
 means, Master Lenny." 
 
 " I don't want to learn patience, Simmons, 
 because patience is not nice. I want the flowers 
 to grow right away, and I want to keep little 
 Johnny always. I will give Mrs. Murray the 
 great big soldier uncle bought me, and the pretty 
 wagon and rocking-horse I got last week, if she 
 will give me her little Johnny. Don't you think 
 she ought to do it?" 
 
 Simmons tried to look serious. 
 
 " I think she loves her baby more than toys," 
 he said ; " and it would make her very sorry to 
 go away without it." 
 
 " It makes me sorry to be sent out here with- 
 out the baby ; but the cross doctor said I must 
 go, and I am very angry about these slow flowers 
 that don't hurry and grow nicely." 
 
 Then Lenny began to tell the story of Mrs. 
 
118 ADVENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 Murray and her children in his childlike way., 
 and ended as he had begun by deploring the 
 necessity that he could not understand. " If she 
 would only leave the baby she could go right 
 away, but I do want her to leave Johnny." 
 
 There was a good deal of work to be done in 
 the garden that day : plenty of little pots were to 
 be carried from the conservatory, and the flowers 
 they held transplanted. This was something 
 Lenny enjoyed ; and to get his mind off the griev- 
 ance of losing the baby, Simmons invented many 
 pleasant little duties for him, that kept him em- 
 ployed till Bessie came to take him in to tea. 
 
 The baby was gone, and Clement Blye, who 
 was conversing with his aunt, seemed to stop 
 his inquiry midway in his throat, for he had run 
 towards her with his lips apart, but stood quite 
 still at sight of him, and uttered not a sound. 
 
 So decided was this dislike on Lenny's part 
 that he could scarcely be persuaded to sit down 
 to tea, and even when he had so far overcome 
 
LENNY'S FEVER. 119 
 
 his repugnance as to take a seat on the other 
 side of the table, he continued to edge his plate 
 and mug further away from the gentleman, and 
 nearer to his aunt. 
 
 Miss Brenthurst took no notice of this beha- 
 vior — she had made up her mind that she was 
 already unjustly prejudiced against the young 
 man, and she would not allow herself to be fur- 
 ther influenced by a child's whim. Clement was 
 to go away on one of his business journeys to 
 the West on the next day, and would not return 
 for a month or two. 
 
 " You must come and see us more frequently 
 when you return, Clement," she said. "I feel 
 that we should try and make our home more 
 agreeable to you, for I am afraid we are a little 
 selfish in our quiet lives — your Cousin John and 
 I. Dear little Lenny here is doing us both 
 good — he is bringing us into sympathy with 
 youth and youthful feelings. You must do your 
 
120 ADVENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 share, too, by letting us have more of your 
 society." 
 
 She smiled kindly, and tried to express the 
 warmth she desired to feel to this unpreposses- 
 sing relative, who in return appeared to be all 
 gratitude. It would give him more pleasure 
 than he could tell to see his dear cousins fre- 
 quently, and indeed he had long wished to con- 
 vince them of his affectionate interest, though he 
 had received so little encouragement as to fear 
 that he might be misunderstood. He should not 
 have that dread in the future, he continued — he 
 should be all confidence now, and trusted to be 
 with them on his return, which he would hasten 
 on that account. 
 
 "Yes, Clement," said Mr. Brenthurst, who 
 had not spoken before, except to Lenny, " come 
 and see us frequently — look on our place as your 
 home, and make it so." 
 
 Clement appeared overcome with gratitude. 
 
 " I don' 1 think I could convince you of what 
 
LENNY'S FEVER. 121 
 
 a cheerless thing a homeless life is. You could 
 not realize what you have never known ; hut 
 when I turn my face towards the city of my 
 birth, there is no one to watch for or welcome me 
 when I reach it ; there is no vacant chair to be 
 prayed over, no familiar form to be missed — I 
 come and go without love or kindness ; so you 
 will excuse my being overcome with your good- 
 ness." 
 
 He turned away, and seemed to yield to emo- 
 tion ; and yet Miss Brenthurst was sorry and 
 ashamed to note, despite all her efforts to believe 
 him and be interested in his protestations, that 
 the same covert look stole out and rested on 
 Lenny — the same stealthy glance, that boded no. 
 good to any one, and betrayed a malicious 
 nature. 
 
 But this evening he no longer talked of low- 
 born children bringing trouble and sorrow on 
 those who befriended them : he praised little 
 Lenny as much as he had before detracted 
 
122 ADVENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 from him, in his sly way, and yet it was for no 
 quality that the boy possessed, apparently, but 
 for dispositions that he chose to bestow on him. 
 
 "Cousin Helen," he said, thoughtfully, "do 
 you observe what a deep eye your little charge 
 has ? He must be a calculating little fellow, 
 very cunning and bright — disposed to be secre- 
 tive too, I should say." 
 
 Lenny seemed to wince under this mention of 
 him, and the attention directed with it. 
 
 " I have never discovered such characteristics," 
 said Mr. Brenthurst, decidedly. 
 
 " No, no, I should suppose not ; if he is the lad 
 I take him for, he will not let his real nature be 
 seen. I think he has an outside case, but under it 
 you will find the true temper that governs him. 
 A bright boy, handsome and well-grown. ! I 
 should say that it would be impossible to under- 
 stand him thoroughly without deep study." 
 
 And so he went on ; whatever else the subject 
 might ll e, Lenny and his depth, of character were 
 
LENNY'S FEVER. 123 
 
 sure to be drawn in ; it did not matter how the 
 brother and sister — who looked on the theme as 
 too prejudiced to be argued fairly — strove to 
 turn the current of the conversation. 
 
 Lenny himself slipped away just as soon as he 
 dared, from the table, and asked Bessie to let 
 him go to bed, where he fell asleep, crying for 
 poor little Johnny. 
 
 The next day was stormy again, and so for 
 many days damp air and cloudy skies made gar- 
 den work impracticable. Lenny sat beside his 
 auntie, and read his lessons, or played with his 
 nine-pins and rocking-horse ; but he seemed 
 weary and dispirited, and often dropped asleep 
 over his work or play. 
 
 Seeing that he appeared depressed and trou 
 bled, the thoughtful Miss Brenthurst supposed 
 that perhaps he might have discovered in Mrs. 
 Murray's baby some likeness to the child he called 
 little Perry, and felt deeply sympathetic for the 
 loss that renewed itself in his heart at the sight of 
 
124 AD VENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 another little child, and, taking him in her arms, 
 tried to console him. To her own mind, there 
 could be no sorrow or trouble that a Saviour's 
 love could not reach and steal the sting from, 
 and she knew no better balm for the wounds of 
 young or old. She whispered to him that the 
 dear Lord, who had cared for him and sent him 
 among friends who loved and cherished him, 
 would some day bring him and his little-brother 
 together. She told him that he must learn to 
 trust and pray to God, through the name of 
 Jesus, and then cloudy or sunshiny weather 
 would seem alike good, as part of the work of the 
 Great Ruler, who orders all things aright. 
 
 Lenny's head lay on her shoulder, and he 
 seemed to listen and assent to all she said, 
 except about his little brother. 
 
 " He was not my brother," he murmured, " he 
 was Mrs. Murray's baby ; but I loved him." 
 
 Seeing that he did not understand her allusion 
 to "little Perry," h s aunt did not refer again to 
 
LENNY'S FEVER. 125 
 
 the subject, but went on to say that she trusted 
 her clear Lenny loved and honored the Saviour, 
 and remembered that He was always ready to 
 take him in His gracious arms and bless him. 
 
 Lenny's head dropped lower, and his voice 
 sounded faint and weak. 
 
 " I think, auntie, I will go home to where 
 Jesus lives ! I feel strangely — my eyes are all 
 full of bright lights, and I can't stand on my 
 feet — it seems as if I were going to fly far 
 away, through a place full of stars !" 
 
 Miss Brenthurst started up and caught the 
 boy as he was falling to the ground. 
 
 His eyes were wide open, but quite fixed ; his 
 mouth quivered convulsively, and his limbs 
 twitched. 
 
 She had some experience among sick children 
 in the homes of poverty, and she knew in a mo- 
 ment that this was a spasm. Naturally timid, 
 and easily alarmed, her great love for the child 
 strengthened her, and filled her with desperate 
 
126 AD VENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 courage to do all she could to save him. When 
 Bessie appeared in answer to her call, she sent 
 for the doctor ; but not waiting for him to come, 
 did for him all that she had learned to be useful 
 in such cases. 
 
 The fit yielded to her remedies, and he was 
 lying still in his own bed when the physician 
 came in. 
 
 " Yes, just as I feared," said he, after a silent 
 examination. " You should have been wiser, 
 Miss Brenthurst, than to have allowed him to 
 cling to that sick child ; he has caught the fever, 
 and now we must do what we can for him, and 
 lose no time." 
 
 As she argued from this and her own observa- 
 tion that poor Lenny was very ill, Miss Brent- 
 hurst devoted herself to nursing him with all 
 her powers. She would not give way to self- 
 reproach, lest it should lessen her abilities to act. 
 Instead of regretting, she prayed ceaselessly, 
 and implored God's aid and direction in what 
 
LENNY'S FEVER. 127 
 
 she did, striving hard to rely implicitly on Him, 
 and say, "Not my will, but thine be done." 
 
 Every one in the household discovered how 
 dear the little boy had become to them, now they 
 saw that he was likely to be lost to their love 
 and tenderness in this world. 
 
 Mr. Brenthurst lingered beside the little bed, 
 and even came up during business hours to see 
 how he fared. 
 
 Simmons brought anxious messages from home, 
 and little Dick White asked Bessie whenever he 
 caught sight of her, " How the nice little gentle- 
 man was now?" 
 
 But for many days Lenny neither knew nor 
 appreciated what was being done to baffle disease 
 and rescue his young life from the jaws of death. 
 He tossed his restless head from side to side, and 
 moaned constantly, as if his scattered senses 
 were still conscious of great pain. Sometimes 
 he shivered, although his head burned in fever, 
 an i sometimes he panted for breath, as if over- 
 
128 ADVENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 come with heat. At last the rash, that for a 
 long time withstood their efforts, was brought 
 out on the surface of his body, and then they 
 began to hope again ; although Lenny gave them 
 but little encouragement, for his mind wandered 
 worse than ever, and he talked unceasingly of 
 things entirely apart from his life at the Brent- 
 hursts. 
 
 He spoke of his mother now, and seemed to 
 see her constantly beside him. 
 
 " Don't cry, mamma !" he would exclaim, with 
 tender sympathy in his tone — "dear mamma, 
 don't cry ! Naughty papa is all gone, and 
 Lenny will bolt the gate to keep him out." 
 
 " You remember, dear John," said Miss Brent- 
 hurst to her brother — "you remember that we 
 remarked to each other the singularity of his 
 having no recollection of his father ; now it 
 comes back to his poor little wandering mind, 
 and you see he must have been a bad, harsh 
 man." 
 
LENNY'S FEVER. 129 
 
 "lam afraid so," said her brother, with inter- 
 est ; and they stood silently watching the eager 
 face and gleaming eyes of the sick boy, that did 
 not show the least glance of recognition for 
 them. 
 
 " You said you would take me home, mamma," 
 he continued, and his voice became pleading, as 
 he went on to entreat : " 0, do take me home, 
 and then you won't -have to cry so much — you 
 won't be afraid of papa, for they won't let him 
 hurt you at home. Hush !" he cried, starting up 
 in bed, " there he comes ; let us run and hide — 
 he kicks the doors and breaks the chairs, and is 
 so angry always." 
 
 " What a dreadful life for my poor dear inno- 
 cent boy !" murmured Miss Brenthurst. " I am 
 really glad now that his memory seemed to refuse 
 to go back to that time." 
 
 " Yes, I trust, if God spares him to recover, 
 he will lose all recollection of that wicked father's 
 
130 ADVENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 harshness with the disordered state of mind that 
 has brought it back to him." 
 
 Both brother and sister were deeply attached 
 to the boy ; the peril in which he had been 
 convinced them of the strong hold he had upon 
 their feelings. Devoutly they prayed that his 
 life might be spared, and that they might have 
 the wisdom given them to make it a useful and 
 good one, by guiding his young steps in the ways 
 of righteousness and peace. 
 
 At length a day came when it seemed that 
 God, in His infinite love, had hearkened to their 
 entreaty. Lenny looked up into their joyous 
 faces with quiet glances of recognition, and, in a 
 very weak tone, called them all by name. The 
 danger was passed, the doctor said, and all he 
 needed now was careful nursing and nourishing 
 food — and every heart in the household rejoiced 
 at the happy tidings. 
 
 It was weeks since he had known any of them, 
 or seemed to be conscious of aught connected 
 
LENNY'S FEVER. 151 
 
 with the present, except its suffering ; but wher- 
 ever his mind had wandered, it came back, with a 
 beautiful realization of God's mercy and a thank- 
 ful sense of his own indebtedness to the love 
 around him, that was delightful to contemplate. 
 
 Affliction has its uses to every mind, and 
 unless its message is received into the chastened 
 heart, a great opportunity will be lost. 
 
 Lenny was a very young scholar at this great 
 school, but he had learned its lesson with wisdom 
 beyond his years. 
 
 His first words were grateful expressions of 
 love : — 
 
 " Dear auntie, how kind you are to such a 
 troublesome boy as I am ! 0, what would be- 
 come of me, if Jesus had not taken me in His 
 loving arms and held me while I was so sick !" 
 
 " And how much you must love Him for spar- 
 ing you, dear Lenny ! We have all been praying 
 that He might restore you, and you must help us 
 to thank Him for hearing our prayers, my love." 
 
132 ADVENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 " Yes, dear auntie, I do thank Him in my 
 thoughts, even when I don't say it in words. 1 
 thank Him all the time. See ! dear Bessie is 
 crying — she is so kind that she cries glad tears 
 for me — and cook, and Mary, and Simmons, and 
 all. I'll have to be very good when I get strong, 
 and I am going to try." 
 
 Miss Brenthurst turned away her head, and 
 could not speak ; it made her heart fill full of 
 love and joy to see the little orphan's thankful 
 piety. 
 
 When Mr. Brenthurst came and stood beside 
 the little bed, Lenny laughed pleasantly. 
 
 " ! uncle, I am going to grow up and be a 
 good man, like you," he said. " God heard 
 auntie pray for me, and He let me live, and 
 when I am old enough I will find some lonely 
 little boy and take care of him, because you are 
 so good to me." 
 
 "My dear boy, if you knew how much we 
 loved you, you would understand how a small act 
 
LENNY'S FEVER. 133 
 
 sometimes brings a great reward ; and I trust that 
 through the grace of God you, may live to do 
 many noble deeds, and use the life He has spared 
 so mercifully, for His glory and honor." 
 
CHAPTER TENTH. 
 
 LENNY'S RECOVERY. 
 
 )T took a very long time for Lenny to be- 
 come strong and robust again. He was 
 soon able to sit up ; but a harassing cough 
 remained, and close attention and nursing 
 were necessary to prevent it spreading into in- 
 flammation. The warm summer had come, and 
 yet the garden's bloom was lost to him, except 
 in the pretty bouquets that Simmons sent in 
 every day to adorn his table with. 
 
 " I do want to see the flowers grow so much, 
 auntie ! Will I not soon be well enough to run 
 out in the air?" he said, anxiously. 
 
 " Have patience a little longer, Lenny, and 
 
 (134) 
 
LENNY'S RECOVERY. 135 
 
 then you shall go into the country and play in 
 the orchards and fish in the brooks. Won't that 
 be delightful?" 
 
 "Yes, ma'am," responded the boy; but he 
 hesitated and looked uncomfortable, changing 
 color and fidgeting in his cushioned chair. 
 
 Miss Brenthurst looked up in surprise, and 
 followed the direction of his eyes, till they rested 
 on Clement Blye in the doorway, and she disco- 
 vered the cause of his uneasiness. 
 
 This young gentleman had returned in the first 
 week of Lenny's recovery, and had done justice 
 to his cousins' invitation by constantly visiting 
 them, and particularly trying to win Lenny's 
 good will. 
 
 He brought him trifling gifts from time to 
 time, and insisted on sitting down and talking to 
 him, in spite of Lenny's undisguised repugnance. 
 
 Miss Brenthurst had tried to reason this odd 
 dislike out of her little boy's mind ; but it seemed 
 to be a fixed sentiment, which he could not ex- 
 
136 ADVENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 plain to himself, but which was stronger than his 
 own will or reason. 
 
 "My dear Lenny," she had said, " it is not a 
 good proof of our love for the Saviour, when we 
 cherish an unreasonable dislike to any of His 
 children. You know we are all members of the 
 one great family, and God is our Father — we 
 must show our tenderness for Him first in our 
 love of those He has made our brothers and 
 sisters." 
 
 " I will try to be good," was Lenny's invaria- 
 ble reply; "but please don't let him come up 
 here. I don't hate him — I would not be so 
 wicked — but I want to get away from him very 
 much: he makes me so frightened — don't let 
 him come, please." 
 
 Left to study her own pleasure alone, she 
 would have yielded to this entreaty, but the con- 
 scientious lady accused her prejudices of aiding 
 tc bring about this unpleasant state of feeling, 
 and she felt it her duty to get over the objections 
 
LENNY'S RECOVERY. 137 
 
 of Lenny and hers in the same way by accustom- 
 ing both to the society of Clement Blye, and 
 making every effort to develop all the good she 
 could discover in him. 
 
 And so it happened that she turned to him 
 with a kindly smile, and gave him a seat at a 
 little distance from the shrinking Lenny. He 
 began to talk about the fine weather, and begged 
 to know when she would let him drive their little 
 sick boy out for the air. Before she could reply, 
 Lenny caught at her dress and whispered, " No, 
 no, please say no !" so she turned the subject, 
 saying that the doctor had not given them per- 
 mission yet ; they must have patience for a little 
 time longer, and then she asked what he thought 
 of their garden, proposing that he should take 
 a turn through it, and give Simmons a little 
 encouragement. 
 
 " For he really has not had the reward of his 
 labors so far ; he had looked forward to Lenny's 
 
138 ADVENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 pleasure so unselfishly that it is a pity to disap- 
 point him." 
 
 " It looks very luxuriant from the portico," 
 said Mr. Blye. " Shall I gather you a nosegay 
 of your favorite flowers, Cousin Helen ?" 
 
 He pointed to the vase standing near her filled 
 with June roses, and some pretty white blossoms 
 that contrasted well with their rich coloring. 
 She smiled, and said they were Lenny's favorites, 
 and Simmons having discovered how much he 
 liked them, had a fresh bunch every morning 
 waiting for him when he awoke. 
 
 Clement Blye might make the effort, but he 
 could not conceal how entirely uncomfortable he 
 felt at every word of praise or love bestowed on 
 the little orphan — the sharp, malignant glance, 
 that flew like an arrow from under his heavy 
 brows, betrayed his evil thoughts, and gave a 
 warning to others to beware of trusting such a 
 nature. But Miss Brenthurst had determined to 
 stifle all suspicion, and although she could not be 
 
LENNY'S RECOVERY. 139 
 
 unconscious of her young relative's stealthy man- 
 ner, she would not allow her thoughts to accuse 
 him. 
 
 When he was gone into the garden, she began 
 to tell Lenny of a sad circumstance that she had 
 known for some time, but which, owing to the 
 weak state of the boy's health, she had hitherto 
 thought it best to conceal from him. 
 
 " Do you remember Mrs. Murray, Lenny ? 
 Ah ! yes, of course you do, and dear little 
 Johnny, too. Well, Lenny, she sent me a long 
 grateful letter written by the daughter of her 
 husband's employer, that has given us at once 
 pain and pleasure. It makes your uncle and me 
 glad to find people who are so anxious to do 
 right, that they are over-thankful for any little 
 aid they receive ; and Mrs. Murray and her hus- 
 band are of this sort. Lenny, you know how 
 sick that dear baby was ; well, my love, it is quite 
 well now, and will never know what illness or 
 pain or sorrow means ; it is one of the blessed 
 
140 ADVENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 babies the Saviour has taken home into his arms. 
 Little Johnny is in heaven." 
 
 Lenny drew a long gasping breath, and the 
 tears gathered in his eyes, but did not fall. 
 
 "Johnny is in heaven," he repeated; "dear 
 little Johnny is a little angel now ; but Johnny's 
 poor mamma is very, very sad;" and as the pic- 
 ture of the sorrowful mother seemed to rise before 
 him, the tears burst forth and fell in showers. 
 
 " Yes, she is very sorry ; her heart is grieved 
 and lonely ; but she trusts in God, who can heal 
 all her afflictions, and wipe away her tears. 
 Little Johnny is blest, and she can only cry over 
 her own loneliness — not for him." 
 
 " Yes, and I am so sorry for her — so sorry for 
 her," he repeated, and seemed lost in thought. 
 
 Miss Brenthurst went on to say, that Mrs. 
 Murray's husband had met her, and taken her to 
 lodgings ; but through the kindness of his em- 
 ployer he was to have a, little place of his own 
 soon, and Hattie was to be sent to school as soon 
 
LENNY' S RECO VER Y. 141 
 
 as she grew strong enough. They had sent back 
 the money that was advanced to them, with their 
 grateful thanks, and Mrs. Murray had said the 
 remembrance of the goodness they had shown her 
 would never forsake her while she lived. She 
 was thankful in the midst of her affliction for 
 God's mercy to them all, and could kiss the rod 
 that smote her, trusting still in the goodness of 
 the Lord. 
 
 Lenny listened to her words, and his thought- 
 ful eyes were downcast ; at last he looked up, 
 and with a heightening color, said, quickly : — 
 
 " Auntie, why did God take Johnny and leave 
 me?" 
 
 " My dear boy, we cannot fathom Divine Wis- 
 dom ; we can only hope that we may prove worthy 
 of the love and mercy we receive." She stooped 
 down and put her arm about the slender little 
 figure he had become through illness, whispering 
 softly : — 
 
 " 0, may his gracious wisdom influence you, 
 
142 ADVENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 my love, to become his true and devoted servant ; 
 to hold the life he has given you wholly devoted 
 to his service in the good of your fellow-crea- 
 tures !" 
 
 Lenny put his little thin arms round her neck 
 and kissed her, saying : — 
 
 " I want to be good, dear auntie, and I am 
 going to try hard. I do not care now if Mr. 
 Clement comes into this room, for I'll think of 
 God and not look at him." 
 
 This was the nearest approach to amicable feel- 
 ing she could hope for between them ; so, fain to 
 be contented, Miss Brenthurst turned to admire 
 the flowers her cousin just then brought in from 
 the garden. They were of many kinds and very 
 beautiful, but there was not one rose among them 
 all. 
 
 The next morning, Miss Brenthurst took an 
 early opportunity of walking in the garden. She 
 wanted to consult Simmons about some plants, 
 and ask after his wife, whom she was kindly in- 
 
LENNY'S RECOVERY. 143 
 
 terested in. She found him standing disconso- 
 lately beside a small bed in the centre of the 
 garden. 
 
 "I'm sorely put out, miss," he said, raising 
 his hat as she approached. " You know Master 
 Lenny had his name written here in the spring, 
 and it had come up so beautiful that I took 
 a great pride in it. Only yesterday I looked 
 at it, thinking how proud he would be when 
 the doctor gave him leave to come out, and I 
 showed it to him. But, miss, would you believe 
 it, Mr. Blye was looking about for flowers yes- 
 terday, and he got in here, where there was 
 really none of the sort he wanted — and I told 
 him so, warning him at the same time that the 
 bed belonged to Master Lenny — and he ground 
 his boot-heels into the roots, tearing it up on all 
 sides, and spoiling the whole name. Just look 
 at it, miss!" 
 
 Indeed it was a scene of devastation on a small 
 scale, and it must have cost the young gentleman 
 
144 AD VENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 some trouble to perform the mischief he had 
 done. Miss Brenthurst was deeply troubled, 
 and for a moment or two did not trust herself 
 to speak. Then she said : — 
 
 " It was getting late when Mr. Blye was out 
 here — he could not see very well, I suppose — it 
 is a pity, a great pity." 
 
 She took a turn round the walks, and, coming 
 back again, with her usual cheerful kindly man- 
 ner gave her directions, sent her messages, re- 
 ported about Lenny's state, and, going into the 
 house, paused a moment to say : — 
 
 " There is a good, frank-faced boy, who says 
 his name is Dick White, and that you are a 
 neighbor of his mother's ; he stopped Bessie often 
 to ask about Lenny during his worst illness, and 
 to-day he gave her a beautiful red apple to take 
 to him, as he passed the hall-door. He must be 
 a kindly lad, and if you have no objection to 
 take a message to his mother, I would like to 
 have him come and see our little boy, if she does 
 
LENNY' S RE CO VER Y. 145 
 
 not fear to trust him near Lenny after his 
 fever." 
 
 Simmons was highly pleased to find that his 
 little friend was likely to gain his mistress's 
 favor. In a few words he related what he knew 
 of Mrs. White, and commended the energy and 
 industry of her dutiful son. 
 
 " I am very glad to have such a pleasant re- 
 commendation with the boy. I was at first dis- 
 posed to like him, and what you tell me makes 
 me respect him sincerely." 
 
 Saying this, Miss Brenthurst left Simmons 
 greatly delighted, for he was a warm-hearted old 
 man, and, in his humble way, did all the good 
 he could, rejoicing with single-mindedness over 
 every good word or kind act bestowed on others. 
 
 10 
 
CHAPTER ELEVENTH. 
 
 LENNY'S VISITORS. 
 
 ^ENNY grew stronger by degrees. To be 
 sure it was slow work ; but he learned to 
 be patient, and, as he was already grate- 
 ful and loving, he proved himself a very 
 noble boy, and hourly became dearer to his 
 adopted relatives, who watched over him with 
 growing affection. During the days of his con- 
 finement to the nursery, he received two visits, 
 full of pleasure to himself and his genial auntie. 
 The first of these came on a lovely, balmy 
 day, when he was able to sit by the window and 
 look out on Simmons in the garden below. He 
 was so busy watching the old man's movements, 
 
 (146) 
 
LENNY'S VISITORS. 147 
 
 and making motions to him to lift up pots from 
 the conservatory for him to see, that he did not 
 hear a cheerful, pleasant voice at his side, re- 
 peating "Lenny, Lenny, dear," till he suddenly 
 glanced round and saw Jenny Garland standing 
 smiling at his side. She was a bright, good- 
 humored amiable girl, with a kind word for 
 everybody, and a ready, obliging manner that 
 was sure to make friends. She had grown a 
 good deal taller, and was quite improved, since 
 he saw her last, for her aunt had got an excellent 
 situation where she was treated with great kind- 
 ness, and Jenny was sent to school and being 
 prepared for teaching, at the good gentleman's 
 expense. 
 
 Lenny's affectionate heart rejoiced to see her, 
 and he had so much to relate about his sickness, 
 and the love and devotion he had received, that 
 Jenny's hearty sympathy with it all made him 
 quite at home and happy in her society. She 
 had come to stay the day with him, and the kind 
 
148 ADVENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 gentleman who had brought her in, would call 
 for her in the evening. 
 
 She must tell him all about her beautiful 
 country home, which she immediately began to 
 do : You had to ride through a pleasant road, 
 that led beside green meadows, and along the 
 banks of a wide river, till you reached a pretty 
 little village, with neat little cottages and a beau- 
 tiful old church, all covered with ivy ; and a great 
 humming factory, that kept up its sharp murmur 
 all the time ; then you came to a long green 
 lane, bordered with tall poplars on either side, 
 and as you went on you saw a great old house, 
 with an arched and carved hall-door, and wings 
 at each end, like an old castle in a picture. 
 There was a beautiful lawn, like smooth green 
 velvet, in front, and a lovely flower-garden at 
 the back, where you could sit in latticed bowers, 
 or walk beside the ornamental beds and gather 
 nosegays. 
 
 Mr. Graham, the gentleman with whom her 
 
LENNY'S VISITORS. 14 l J 
 
 aunt lived, was very old, and sometimes he 
 would have to sit for days in a great chair, with 
 his foot in a rest, because he suffered from gout ; 
 but he was always good and kind, and seemed 
 happiest when he gave others pleasure. 
 
 "I would like to go there, auntie," cried Len- 
 ny; " ! I wish he knew me, and would let me 
 go to see him." 
 
 Miss Brenthurst smiled pleasantly. 
 
 "I am glad to tell you, that you will have 
 your wish, for Mr. Graham kindly begged me to 
 let you go to ' Greenslope,' as he calls his beauti- 
 ful home ; and I have promised that you shall 
 pay him a visit, as soon as you are able to leave 
 home." 
 
 This was delight enough, to fill the whole day 
 with happy anticipations ; and Jenny's society 
 seemed better than medicine, in its effect on the 
 appetite and spirits of the sick boy. She told 
 him about the tame robins, who came and ate 
 from her hand, and about the birds' nests in the 
 
150 ADVENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 great elm tree, that she could almost touch 
 from her bed-room window. 
 
 Old Roman, Mr. Graham's great Newfound- 
 land dog, was another interesting subject of an' 
 ecdote, and when Lenny heard of all the saga- 
 cious things he did, and how noble and trusty he 
 was, he could scarcely wait till the day of his 
 visit came, so anxious was he to become ac- 
 quainted with him. 
 
 Then Jenny, partly addressing herself to Miss 
 Brenthurst, related how much good the benevo- 
 lence of Mr. Graham accomplished in the village 
 near which he lived, and how many of the poor 
 and helpless there, had cause to bless his kindness 
 and generosity. 
 
 There used to be a company carrying on a large 
 factory there, but owing to the track of the rail- 
 road being laid in a town five miles east of it, 
 they took a new building there, and left the old 
 place entirely. A great many new hands were 
 hired in the other town, and the old ones had to 
 
LENNY'S VISITORS. 151 
 
 find new employment. This would have been 
 the cause of great wretchedness and want, as 
 winter was at hand, and the people without mean3 
 of gaining a living if it had not. been for Mr. 
 Graham's goodness. He made himself ac- 
 quainted with the abilities of the principal men 
 thus rendered helpless, and finding out two or 
 three of the most energetic and trustworthy, ad- 
 vanced capital to commence manufacturing in the 
 old place on a small scale, lending additional aid 
 whenever he saw it was required, until the ven- 
 ture became a thriving concern, and they had 
 been able to give up using the heavy wagons that 
 hauled their goods to and from the railroad town, 
 and had laid down rails of their own, and actually 
 ran a freight train. 
 
 " It is one of the most flourishing villages in 
 the state now, every one says, and there is not 
 a tavern in it," said Jenny, triumphantly. "We 
 have a Sunday school in each of the churches, 
 and Mr. Graham has helped the young men to 
 
152 ADVENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 start a library and reading-room. Every quar- 
 terly pay-day he gives them a little festival, and 
 then we have such nice singing and pleasant 
 speeches. 0, I'm sure you would like it, Miss 
 Brenthurst, for my aunt says it is just the kind 
 of good work that you and Mr. Brenthurst 
 enjoy." 
 
 All this interested Lenny more than so young 
 a boy is Supposed to be by such things. Miss 
 Brenthurst watched his eager face with hopeful 
 pride. She knew her brother and herself could 
 not expect to live long enough to spend all their 
 money, and she looked forward to the time when 
 it should fall into wise and pious hands, trained 
 to dispense its uses as a steward of God's bounty ; 
 for she had faith to believe that such a one her 
 favorite boy would become. 
 
 When he dropped asleep that night in his little 
 bed an hour after Jenny's departure, he was still 
 murmuring his plans for pleasure in the coming 
 trip to Greenslope, and mingling his praises of 
 
LENNY'S VISITORS. 153 
 
 Mr. Graham's goodness with his desire to see 
 Roman and feed Jenny's little birds. 
 
 All she had told him gave him ample subjects 
 for conversation during the coming week, and 
 while it was yet fresh in his mind, Dick White 
 presented himself, shyly at first and quite 
 abashed in the presence of Miss Brenthurst, but 
 looking like the nice manly boy he was in his 
 spotless summer suit of gray linen. He brought 
 a little basket of delicious peaches from " Uncle 
 Nep's" orchard, and repeated the old sailor's 
 kind compliments, and an invitation to visit his 
 little " Dry Dock" — as he called his country 
 home. 
 
 " 0, yes ! I want to go there, too," cried 
 Lenny. " I don't know which I would like best, 
 but I think Uncle Nep's house must be a little 
 the nicest, for it looks like a boat, and Mr. Gra- 
 ham's only looks like a castle." 
 
 " Simmons Avas talking to me about it yester- 
 day, Lenny," said his aunt; "and I promised 
 
1M AD VENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 that you should go on Thursday, if the weather 
 was bright, and you continued well." 
 
 "0, won't I keep well!" he cried, enthusias- 
 tically. " I'll be so well that you won't believe 
 that I ever was sick. You are very kind, Dick, 
 to bring me these nice peaches. How is Mrs. 
 Simmons and the chickens and the cow — does she 
 behave well still ? and do you ever roll Mrs. Sim- 
 mons's chair for her out on the porch?" 
 
 Dick by degrees got over his timidity in the 
 presence of strangers, and in such a splendid 
 house, sufficiently to answer all Lenny's ques- 
 tions, and offer some interesting information on 
 his own account concerning a very large Maltese 
 cat that a gentleman had given him two years 
 ago, and whose habits and manners were matters 
 of much pride to her young owner. 
 
 " Mamma and I are all there is left together 
 now, and we would be quite lonely if we did not 
 have Penelope for company. She is such a kind, 
 sensible cat, that when I tell her she must be 
 
LENNY'S VISITORS. 155 
 
 agreeable to mamma while I am gone, she winka 
 and purrs just as good an answer as if she could 
 talk. She meets me every day at the end of 
 Mr. Simmons's garden when I come home, and 
 rubs against me sometimes till I nearly tumble 
 down, for she is very big and strong." 
 
 This favorite theme of Dick's was equally in- 
 teresting to Lenny, who listened to all her pecu- 
 liarities of character with the greatest delight, 
 until Dick was forced to confess that she had 
 done a very wicked act, though he hoped that she 
 was sincerely sorry for it now. When this misde- 
 meanor was narrated, it proved to be of such a 
 flagrant character, that for a little while Lenny 
 withdrew his interest in an animal guilty of such 
 atrocities. She had actually killed and eaten 
 three little yellow chickens belonging to Speckle, 
 Mrs. Simmons's favorite hen, and had received 
 such injuries from the enraged hen-mother that 
 for a time they thought she would go blind, as a 
 reward of her evil deeds. She had never done 
 
156 ADVENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 such an act since — to be sure there were no little 
 chickens now for her to eat, but Dick felt very 
 sure that she had seen the error of her ways and 
 was very sorry, for she sneaked off whenever 
 Speckle flew over into their yard, and seemed to 
 desire to get out of her way, as if she found her 
 accusing glance too much for her tender con- 
 science. 
 
 Miss Brenthurst was sorry to disturb Dick's 
 faith in his favorite, but she warned him not to 
 trust too far to appearance, for she had a proof 
 of a cat's slyness she never could forget. Then 
 she told them the story of a pretty canary which 
 was given her when a child, and sang so sweetly 
 that every one in the house loved to hear it. 
 She also had a kitten, a pretty little white thing, 
 that looked like a ball of snow as it lay rolled up 
 before the fire on a crimson rug. Daisy was her 
 name, and the little yellow bird was called Prim 
 rose. Miss Brenthurst's mamma had told her 
 that it was a cat's nature to kill and eat birds, 
 
LENNY'S VISITORS. 157 
 
 and so warned her to keep them apart ; but some 
 one had said that it was possible to educate that 
 ferocious trait out of them, and she was eager to 
 follow the plan. She began when both bird and 
 cat were very young, and accustomed them to be 
 constantly together. At last the bird grew so 
 fond of Pussy that he would fly out of his cage 
 and perch on her head as she lay dozing before 
 the grate, and she would receive that proof of 
 his confidence and attachment with a wink and a 
 purr. Of course they were always watched, but 
 one unlucky day when the kitten had grown 
 into a cat, and the bird was all confidence and 
 familiarity, their mistress left the room with the 
 cage-door open, and when she returned sometime 
 after, a few scattered feathers were all that was 
 left of Primrose, while Daisy sate before the fire 
 winking and licking her jaws. 
 
 This tragic story greatly impressed Lenny 
 and Dick — both considered Daisy a very wicked 
 creature, and lamented Primrose's untimely fate. 
 
158 AD VENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 Penelope's misdeeds were amiable foibles in com- 
 parison, Dick thought, for she had never been 
 taught to respect the lives of young chickens, 
 and, seeing them wandering about in the ^ard, 
 might have naturally enough mistaken them for 
 mice. 
 
 "Yes," said Lenny, glad to discover any pal- 
 liation for Puss's conduct ; " perhaps that was 
 the reason, and it's quite right for them to catch 
 mice, you know. Cook says she wishes we had 
 a good mouser for the lower store-room." 
 
 This amiable view of Penelope's character 
 being agreed upon, Dick went on to tell about a 
 pretty blue ribbon he was keeping for her birth- 
 day, and a shining little bell that was to be fas- 
 tened to it. He thought it was probable that a 
 piece of chop might please her better than any 
 personal ornament, and she was to have that, too, 
 he said ; but he was sure she would feel proud 
 of her necklace when she got used to it. 
 
 When the subject of pets was exhausted, Miss 
 
LENNY'S VISITORS. 159 
 
 Brenthurst produced a large portfolio full of 
 beautiful pictures, and, spreading them out on 
 the table for them to examine, sate down beside 
 them with her work so as to be able to answer 
 all their questions on the subject; 
 
 Thus the afternoon wore away ver y pleasantly, 
 and tea was brought up for the two young peo- 
 ple, and served on a little table, to their great 
 gratification and enjoyment. 
 
CHAPTEK TWELFTH 
 
 LENNY'S VISIT TO UNCLE NEP— THE SAILOR'S 
 STORY. 
 
 )T seemed to Lenny that Thursday would 
 never arrive, it was so earnestly longed 
 for, and so exultingly counted on by him. 
 Simmons had a holiday, and Miss Brent- 
 hurst had given him the use of a roomy old 
 carriage in which his wife could ride without 
 inconvenience, and in which there would be 
 ample room to stow away half-a-dozen boys 
 like Dick and Lenny beside. 
 
 All day on Wednesday Lenny ran about to 
 try his strength; and, well wrapped up, even 
 went out into the garden, which was in all its 
 
 (160) 
 
LENNY'S VISIT TO UNCLE NEP. 161 
 
 summer luxuriance and glory. It seemed like a 
 new life once more to enjoy the freedom of his 
 limbs, and roam at will in the pleasant summer 
 weather. 
 
 All the household were rejoiced to greet him 
 below stairs ; and cook showed him what nice 
 preparations she was making for the next day's 
 picnic to Uncle Nep's Dry Dock. Miss Brent- 
 hurst was sending out provisions for a garrison 
 it would seem, and Lenny wondered who would 
 eat the great boiled ham and roast fowls, to say 
 nothing of the loaves of cake, and baskets of 
 jumbles and sweetmeats. 
 
 " Do you know the — the Uncle Nep, cook ?" 
 asked Lenny, who felt curious to hear what sort 
 of person he was about to become acquainted 
 with. 
 
 Cook laughed, as she always did when he said 
 anything childlike. 
 
 " His real name is Captain Bird, and he used 
 
 to sail a ship on the ocean for thirty long years. 
 11 
 
162 ADVENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 He used to call himself Old Neptune just because 
 he was fond of the sea, and he told all the child- 
 ren to call him Uncle Nep because he was fond 
 of them, too. He is a nice good-humored old 
 man, but his voice is rather hoarse and loud ; he 
 always calls on Miss Brenthurst when he comes 
 to town, and you can hear him all over the house 
 when he talks." 
 
 "I shall like him very much," said Lenny, 
 decidedly. " I wish to-morrow would come 
 soon." 
 
 It came at last, and strange to say, Bessie had 
 to awaken him ; for, being tired by his unusual 
 exercise of the day before, he slept very soundly 
 as soon as he got to sleep, which was not very 
 early, as he lay awake anticipating the pleasure 
 to come. 
 
 As soon as he was dressed and had break- 
 fasted, Simmons came in to say that the carriage 
 was waiting at the garden-gate. 
 
 Cook brought out the great basket closely 
 
LENNF'S VISIT TO UNCLE NEP. 163 
 
 Dackcd with dainties, and Bessie carried the 
 heavy shawl that Simmons was to wrap round 
 her young charge in the evening. Then Lenny 
 ran out to take a peep, and ran back again to 
 say Dick was there with his mamma and Mrs. 
 Simmons, too, and clapped his hands, and could 
 scarcely wait to kiss his aunty good-bye, he was 
 so eager to join them. 
 
 At last they were all fairly started, and the 
 quiet old horses that jogged on steadily could 
 not keep time to the ardent beating of Dick's and 
 Lenny's hearts. Simmons had put them on the 
 front seat beside him, and Mrs. White and Mrs. 
 Simmons sate behind enjoying the sight of their 
 delight quite as much as the beautiful prospect 
 spread before them, as they began to leave the 
 city behind, and get into the quiet country road. 
 
 Uncle Nep's house was situated on the bend 
 of a broad stream, that might have been a river 
 if the people who gave it its name had been am- 
 bitious of the distinction. It was called the 
 
164 ADVENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 Paw-no-kee, and had an Indian story connected 
 with it, which Simmons told them as they first 
 came in sight of its rippling waters shining in the 
 light of the morning sun. 
 
 An old chief had lived upon its banks, and 
 ruled a portion of a powerful tribe there. His 
 son, who was brave and warlike in his tastes, led 
 the remainder out to battle with his enemies, 
 which class of humanity seemed to be very 
 numerous, since he was ready to look upon any 
 one in that light, from a conflict with whom he 
 could win any renown. While he was away 
 making war, an aged white man came to his 
 father's tent, and, sick and weary, besought 
 shelter and refreshment. The old chieftain 
 gladly offered both, and, listening to the aged 
 wanderer, learned in return the story of a uni- 
 versal Saviour, and received the inestimable 
 riches of gospel grace, he and all his household. 
 Then the waters of the Paw-no-kee reflected a 
 beautiful scene one autumn day at sunset. The 
 
LENNY'S VISIT TO UNCLE NEP. 165 
 
 white-haired missionary stood upon its bank, 
 and, raising his solemn hands to heaven, besought 
 God's blessing and eternal light to shine into the 
 hearts of these children of the forest, who reve- 
 rently bowed in homage before his holy name. 
 He implored the loving Father of all to receive 
 them into the communion and fellowship of 
 Christian grace ; and, dipping up the sparkling 
 waters of the quiet stream, signed and sealed 
 them, in the name of the Holy Trinity, as humble 
 believers in the Christian faith. 
 
 That was more than three hundred years ago, 
 Simmons said, and the missionary and his dis- 
 ciples were mingled with the dust ; but the waters 
 of the Paw-no-kee were bright and dashing as 
 ever, and tumbled over moss-grown rocks that 
 made quite a little cataract, with all the glee of 
 childhood. 
 
 The road wound up a bank, leaving the water 
 in a little glen beneath ; tall trees clustered on 
 the brow of the embankment, and looking down 
 
166 AbVENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 the side seemed steep, and the descent dangerous, 
 while the stream narrowed in the distance till it 
 seemed a broad silver ribbon with edges of erne- 
 raid velvet. 
 
 Green fields full of peaceful cows, and valleys 
 where sheep were grazing, lay beside their way. 
 Sometimes they passed stately country-seats, with 
 grand lawns and ornamental walks, and some- 
 times they came to tiny roadside cottages with 
 children clustered around the door, staring at 
 them with bright inquisitive eyes. At last, after 
 an hour or two's drive, they turned into a little 
 lane very still and shady, and as they rode along 
 they came nearer and nearer to the sound of 
 water rippling over stones. Then they saw a 
 queer little house painted blue and white, and 
 looking more like a canal-boat than a cottage. 
 Around it was a neat white paling, and it seemed 
 to be covered with flags, which were flying gayly 
 in the wind, but in fact, there was only a good- 
 sized American flag, and a blue and white Union 
 
LENNY'S VISIT TO UNCLE NEP. 167 
 
 Jack. Surrounding the door was an exceedingly 
 tasteful and pretty arbor, with seats on either 
 side, and quite large enough to accommodate a 
 good-sized party. It was curiously ornamented 
 inside with corals and shells, so that it seemed 
 partly a grotto, and partly a bower. At the 
 entrance to it stood an old man with a white 
 head, a red face with plenty of smiling welcome 
 in it, and dressed in a suit of sailor's clothes, the 
 glazed hat belonging to which, he carried under 
 his arm and seldom put on. 
 
 " Welcome, little masters, welcome to old 
 Uncle Nep's Dry Dock ! And this is Miss Brent- 
 hurst's handsome little pet, is it ? Well, my boy, 
 grow up to deserve that good lady's kindness, and 
 you can't do better than that. Dick, my man, the 
 ducks are all quacking for joy to see you ; jump 
 out and let me lend a hand to your good mother ; 
 proud to see you, ma'am, and sister Margery, too. 
 You are all just as welcome as I know how to 
 make you. Simmons, you always bring good 
 
163 ADVENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 luck, it seems. What, all those stores from Miss 
 Brenthurst ! It's like her — she's always trying 
 to do some one a kind turn, and we will enjoy 
 her favors by-and-by. The kettle shall go on at 
 once, and we'll have a snack after your ride, and 
 then you shall take a stroll and see how we get 
 on." 
 
 All the while he talked, the rosy-faced old 
 sailor kept smiling cordially and bobbing around 
 from one to another, patting the boys on the 
 head and shaking hands with the grown people, 
 protesting his pleasure in seeing them in a dozen 
 ways besides speaking. Lenny was already so 
 prepossessed in his favor, that when Uncle Nep 
 turned to him a second time, saying : — 
 
 " Well, my young master, I am truly glad to 
 see you for Miss Brenthurst's sake, and I think 
 I won't find it hard to like you for your own, 
 if I know a nice boy's face when I see it;" 
 Lenny answered in his frank and innocent 
 way : — 
 
LENNY'S VISIT TO UNCLE NEP. 169 
 
 " I am going to like you too. You are a very 
 nice gentleman, to have such a beautiful place 
 and invite me to come and see it. I told auntie 
 I would be good, and I mean to try." 
 
 " I have not a doubt of it ; and now, since you 
 have been sick, I understand, it will be better for 
 you to have a little lunch before Dick takes you 
 in town and shows off the place. Just sit down 
 here in the arbor, and we'll have it set out ship- 
 shape in no time." 
 
 So the old sailor bustled into his cottage, and 
 all the party, after taking off their things, sat 
 down in the arbor, and admired the order and 
 cheerful brightness of everything within doors 
 and without. 
 
 A good-humored young woman, whom they all 
 seemed to know, came out and laid the cloth in 
 the arbor. She was the daughter of a neighbor, 
 who always assisted Uncle Nep when he had 
 company. Her name was Sally, and she seemed 
 
170 ADVENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 to enjoy her part of the business as much as any 
 of them. 
 
 When a cup of tea for the ladies and plenty 
 of good sweet milk for the children were served, 
 together with nice white bread and jam and fresh 
 fruit, Dick and Lenny did not take long to 
 satisfy their appetites, but hurried off as soon as 
 they received permission. First, Dick proposed 
 to visit his favorites, the ducks ; and took Lenny 
 away through the garden, where he would gladly 
 have lingered to admire the cabbage-heads and 
 bean-stalks, till they came to a little pond where 
 there was a great squattering and quacking, and 
 a whole colony of ducks were going in to swim. 
 
 " 0, see the tiny little ones !" cried Lenny, in 
 great excitement. " I am afraid they will be 
 drowned — they are too little, Dick, oh ! I know 
 they are too little to swim all alone !" 
 
 But the ducklings soon convinced him that his 
 fears were quite groundless — they tumbled into 
 the water, and shook their little feathers out 
 
LENNY'S VISIT TO UNCLE NEP. 171 
 
 proudly as they sailed consequentially beside 
 their fond duck-mothers. 
 
 When the sunlight shone on the heads and 
 necks of the ducks it made their beautiful colors 
 shine like burnished gold, and- Lenny thought 
 they were quite conscious of the effect of theii 
 appearance from the triumphant way in which 
 they carried their bills, and quacked and shook 
 their heads with affected dignity, seeming to say 
 to each other in their duck tongue : — 
 
 " See those two little boys ! they are quite 
 charmed with the figure we make, and really I 
 don't wonder at it, for there can be no doubt 
 that we are very elegant birds." 
 
 " There are some splendid turkeys up in that 
 little yard there," said Dick, when they had 
 stood admiring the ducks quite a time ; " if you 
 are not afraid of turkeys we will go and see 
 them." 
 
 " Afraid of turkeys !" cried Lenny, laughing ; 
 
172 ADVENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 " who would be afraid of a turkey ! Cook 
 roasts them for dinner, and they taste so good." 
 
 "But these are not roast turkeys," said Dick, 
 warningly ; " you needn't laugh, Lenny, they are 
 really fierce if you are not used to them." 
 
 But Lenny did laugh, and ran up to show his 
 courage, and opened the little gate that closed 
 the poultry yard. 
 
 Out they came strutting and gobbling like tall 
 grenadiers, and so impressive did they look, and 
 so intimidating was their demeanor as they came 
 threateningly towards him, that with a cry of 
 alarm, Lenny turned and fled to his friend for 
 refuge. 
 
 Dick caught up a withered branch in his hand, 
 and with it shoo-ed them back into their own 
 domain ; but not until the gate was closed upon 
 them, and he could stand and contemplate them 
 from a safe distance, did Lenny feel reassured. 
 
 " I do not like raw turkeys," he said, confiden- 
 tially ; " they look worse than eagles. Auntie 
 
LENNY'S VISIT TO UNCLE NEP. 173 
 
 has a stuffed eagle that is not half as wicked or 
 angry as they are." 
 
 To restore his good humor, Dick took him 
 across such a pretty little bridge that Uncle Nep 
 himself had made and ornamented. A tiny 
 creek that carried the rain from the hillside, and 
 in winter fed the streams into which it emptied 
 its clear waters with many little springs from the 
 rocky glens around, grew quite broad at the turn 
 of the path below here, and Dick said Uncle Nep 
 would let them have out his boat by-and-by ; but 
 now they had better go up into the orchard, and 
 so they went. 
 
 It was quite rising ground, and the apples 
 rolled away down into a little glade below when 
 the wind shook the boughs. But it was not 
 quite late enough for all of them to be ripe ; the 
 great hard round winter pippins kept tight hold 
 of the parent stem yet, and turned their full 
 cheeks towards the sun that had already streaked 
 them with ripening crimson — while golden rus- 
 
174 ADVENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 sets seemed to hide coyly behind the leaves, as if 
 pleading to be left to grow more mellow and 
 juicy. 
 
 " 0, what a lovely place !" cried Lenny. 
 
 It was the first time he had ever seen an 
 orchard, and he added thoughtfully : — 
 
 " How rich Uncle Nep must be to own so much 
 fruit ! What can he do with it all if he don't 
 keep a store?" 
 
 Dick told him that he sold some of it to 
 dealers, and gave away to persons who had no 
 fruit of their own a good deal more ; and then he 
 showed Lenny what he considered a great sight 
 himself, a regular Spanish hammock swinging 
 between two low-boughed trees. Lenny was very 
 curious about it, and to satisfy him concerning 
 its uses, Dick pulled off his shoes and tumbled 
 into its netty embrace. Then he set it swinging, 
 and folding his arms and closing his eyes, made 
 Lenny laugh with his luxurious enjoyment of the 
 motion. 
 
LENNY'S VISIT TO UNCLE NEP. 175 
 
 " Uncle Nep had brought it all the way from 
 Mexico," he said ; " and the Spanish people there 
 used them to take afternoon naps in under shady 
 trees in their gardens. They were not like 
 sailor's hammocks, which are made of coarse 
 sailcloth and hung on hooks — these were for 
 pleasure, and the Spanish people were very fond 
 of lying in the shade, and idly dreaming away 
 their time in the heat of the day, he had heard." 
 
 Then Lenny climbed up into it, and had a 
 swing, and enjoyed it so very much that Dick 
 said he must have a little Spanish laziness in 
 him, he was afraid. 
 
 Laughing over the new pleasure he had just 
 discovered, Lenny ran after his guide, who 
 proved himself an excellent one by showing him 
 every nook and corner of Uncle Nep's little 
 estate that would be likely to interest a young 
 visitor, and making him acquainted with all the 
 animals on it, from Uncle Nep's solemn old mare 
 with a long gray face and round figure, down to 
 
176 ADVENTURES OE LFFTLE LENNY. 
 
 a box of pretty white mice in the barn. It took 
 quite a while to make the rounds of all these 
 attractions, and Sally's voice was heard calling 
 them to dinner. It was Uncle Nep's custom to 
 entertain his visitors in the arbor, his house being 
 small and scarcely commodious enough to seat 
 them comfortably. Here, then, they found the 
 table spread, and a nice smoking repast awaiting 
 the good appetites they had found in their morn- 
 ing ramble. Uncle Nep said grace in a solemn, 
 earnest manner, for the good old sailor never did 
 anything without meaning it thoroughly ; and 
 although he was not a very gentle or polished 
 person, he was a sincere and devoted Christian, 
 and never failed to bear his simple testimony to 
 the goodness and mercy of God. 
 
 When they sat enjoying their nice dessert of 
 fruit and cakes, Uncle Nep asked the boys how 
 they had spent their morning, and what they 
 thought of the place, encouraging them t<? talk 
 
LENNY'S VISIT TO UNCLE NEP. 177 
 
 freely ; for, as lie said, lie loved boys, and owed 
 them a great debt which lie could never repay. 
 
 "And I must tell you all about it," he con- 
 tinued ; "I always tell my little friends the story 
 of my Lucky Cruise, as I call it, because I want 
 them to know what good reason I have. to love 
 thorn so much. 
 
 " You know I was a sailor many, many years. 
 When sister Margery and I were children, our 
 parents died. A kind lady took her home, and 
 I was sent to learn the trade of a blacksmith, 
 when I should be old enough, and to help 
 about the forge meantime, and make myself 
 useful. The man who took charge of me was 
 harsh and cruel, and believed in a rope's end 
 instead of reason or kind words. I suppose I 
 was troublesome and thoughtless, and perhaps I 
 did not learn as quickly as I should ; but my 
 master beat and swore at me so that I could not 
 bear my life with him, and at last I ran away 
 and went to sea. I had always thought I should 
 12 
 
178 AD VENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 like to be a sailor, and I had no other choice. I 
 found, as every one must find, that life on board 
 a ship is anything but easy ; still I was prepared 
 for rough times, and being naturally pretty spry 
 in my motions, I soon learned to do my duty, 
 and imitated the manners of those in authority 
 over me. 
 
 " The second mate with whom I sailed was a 
 good-natured young man ; but he drank and 
 swore terribly, and seemed to consider it part of 
 his business to swallow rum and utter frightfully 
 wicked oaths, although at heart he was neither 
 harsh nor cruel. In consequence of this, he 
 became a most dangerous example to me, because 
 I liked him and soon grew used to his ways, 
 though I remember they quite shocked me at 
 first. He took a fancy to me too, and we sailed 
 together for four years. He often grew furious 
 in his drink, and then no one could stand by him 
 without feeling the effects of his intoxicated 
 rage ; but generally we got on well enough, and 
 
LENNY'S VISIT TO UNCLE NEP. 179 
 
 I was an apt pupil, soon learning to swear and 
 drink after his pattern. 
 
 " One dark night it was his watch on deck, 
 and he had been more than usually bad all day. 
 The captain had been talking to him about it, 
 and told him it was their last voyage together, 
 for Sam was getting too hard a case for him. 
 
 " That was his name — Sam Harris — and he 
 had been a Sunday-school boy once, as he told 
 me ; and sometimes, when he would get over a 
 spree, he would be very down-hearted for a few 
 hours, and declare that he had half a mind to 
 turn over a new leaf. ! boys, if I haol only 
 been able to do for him what a boy afterwards 
 did' for me, what would I not give to remember 
 it now ! But I was a poor heathen myself, going 
 the downward road as fast as. I could, and never 
 pausing to think where it led me. All that day 
 he had been drinking, and towards night he grew 
 gloomy and full of horror. He walked up and 
 down, muttering and shuddering, and when I 
 
180 AD VENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 went near hirn to try and cheer him up a bit, he 
 struck at me, with a fearful oath. Poor Sam ! 
 he was reaping as he had sown, and the terrible 
 suffering that clouded his reason was brought on 
 by years of rum-drinking and dissipation of all 
 kinds. 
 
 " Suddenly, while we were going through the 
 water quietly, and everything about us was still 
 and peaceful, the unhappy man made a quick 
 spring, and went overboard down into where the 
 stars were shining in the dark waves — and every 
 man of us stood as if we were turned to stone, 
 and for a moment made no effort to save him. 
 The man at the wheel sung out, and the captain 
 came running on deck — a rope was thrown, and 
 everybody seemed all alive in an instant. I 
 don't know how I came to do it ; but after the 
 first shock I felt I must save him or die in doing 
 it, and I threw myself over too, although they 
 tried to hold me back. 
 
 " It all seems like a dream, a dreadful dream, 
 
LENNY'S VISIT TO UNCLE NEP. 181 
 
 when I look back on it now. I can feel the cold 
 water rising chillingly over me, as I sank to rise 
 quickly, and then I can see what I could not 
 close my eyes upon for many a long day, and 
 that was poor Sam's face, as he rose for the last 
 time, just beside me, and fighting free of the 
 effort I made to save him, went down never to 
 come up any more. 
 
 " They drew me up on deck when I found 
 there was no hope of even finding the body, that 
 was no doubt floating far away in our wake. 
 When I stood upon the deck again, I shook and 
 trembled as if I had the ague, and my heart was 
 sick within me, for I liked poor Sam, and 
 although I could not hear the voice of warning 
 in his dreadful fate, I lamented his loss sincerely. 
 And so I drank more liquor, to keep up my 
 spirits and chase away the blues, until I stood a 
 fair chance of following in the footsteps of the 
 man I mourned. 
 
 " I could not make up my mind to sail again 
 
182 ADVENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 in that ship ; so I changed to a packet that car- 
 ried passengers, and became second mate myself. 
 Here I went on badly enough, for I wanted all 
 the while to get rid of that awful-looking face, 
 that seemed to rise out of the waves and haunt 
 me with poor Sam Harris's last look. 
 
 " On board the ship there was a woman and 
 her son, who were going to join the husband and 
 father in a new country. She was delicate and 
 pale-looking, and the boy told me that they had 
 had a bad fever before they started ; but they were 
 the most patient and grateful creatures I ever 
 saw ; and they used to sit side by side, reading 
 or talking to each other so affectionately, that I, 
 being a rough fellow, not often perfectly sober, 
 used to think I might crack my jokes at their 
 expense, by calling them absurd names and ridi- 
 culing their piety, for the Bible was almost 
 always the book they read, and they certainly 
 were devoted Christians. 
 
 " If either of them had resented this, no doubt 
 
LENNY'S VISIT TO UNCLE NEP. 183 
 
 it would have stopped ; but as they only seemed 
 to shrink from observation, and clung more 
 closely together, the rest of the boys took it up, 
 and made them quite uncomfortable whenever 
 they were on deck. We were short of men, and 
 had some new ones who were pretty hard to 
 teach. 
 
 " I was trying to send one of them aloft, and 
 he gave me a good deal of trouble, misunder- 
 standing what I said ; so at length I got angry 
 and went up myself, quite in a passion. My 
 hold was not a good one, and I went to reach 
 over for a marling-spike, when I lost my balance 
 and fell headlong on the deck below. I was 
 pretty well stunned ; but at first I could not feel 
 my own injuries, the marling-spike dropping 
 from my hand had hit the boy's mother on the 
 head, and they were carrying her into the cabin, 
 insensible. I was heartily sorry, and although 
 I do not believe I was quite sober when I went 
 up, I was perfectly so then — my own hurt was 
 
184 ADVENTURES OF LIT1LE LENNY. 
 
 nothing, I thought, but I was sorely grieved 
 about the poor woman. 
 
 "She was bad enough, and they kept her 
 quiet and did all that could be done ; but a 
 brain fever came on, and for many days she lay 
 between life and death. All the time I never 
 tasted liquor, and I went about with a load of 
 anxiety on my soul I did not know how to re- 
 lieve — for you must know, dear boys, that I 
 never yet had learned to pray. At last the 
 bruises I tried not to feel, became too much for 
 my endurance. I could not walk or stand, my 
 limbs swelled, and I was obliged to lie down and 
 give myself into the doctor's hands. He called 
 it erysipelas, and it was a dreadful disease; for 
 a time I seemed to battle with a double torment — 
 pain of mind and body. I lay struggling with 
 my own sufferings, and listening for any sign of 
 how the poor woman's illness would terminate. 
 I suppose the doctor must have seen the trouble 
 I felt, and may be he mentioned it, for one even- 
 
LENNY'S VISIT TO UNCLE NEP. 185 
 
 ing I saw the boy standing by my berth, with 
 his mild pleasant eyes fixed on me forgivingly 
 and kindly. 
 
 " 'Mother is better, sir,' he said, mildly, ' and 
 she wants to know if you will let me do some- 
 thing for you. I am quite used to nursing, and 
 will not fret or bother you, if you will let me 
 stay with you a little while.' 
 
 " I could only answer him with a gasp of re- 
 lief and thankfulness, and, waiting for no more, 
 he set to work and put my room in neat order, 
 with the tidy cheerfulness of a girl. I can't tell 
 you all he did, dear boys — it seemed as if he 
 brought a new life and spirit with him, and I no 
 longer groped in blind despair. He was a shy 
 and modest boy, but he knew his duty, and did 
 it ; he was a Christian, and had a Christian's 
 hope, which he could not keep to himself like a 
 miser's treasure. The unsearchable riches of 
 God's love grow by division — they are the only 
 treasures that you can increase by giving away. 
 
186 ADVENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 and as he himself had freely received it, he 
 thought it right to impart it as freely. And 
 yet, dear boy?., this lad taught me but little in 
 words — it was his patient, unselfish love, his for- 
 giveness, his faith, his energy and hopeful spirit, 
 raised me up so that I could see and believe. 
 There is no bitterer draught ever brewed than 
 the cup of repentance, and I was loath to receive 
 and drain it to its dregs, dear boys, and yet, 
 unless we repent and believe, we cannot be saved. 
 I had been a great sinner, and this lad, who left 
 his own mother's sick-bed to attend on mine, 
 pointed me to the Lamb of God, who is the only 
 one who can wash away sins, in every act of his 
 life, and led me right to my Saviour's feet. I 
 saw plainly that the wretched feeling I was try- 
 ing to drown by drinking rum was my own con- 
 science pleading with me, and that if I did not 
 listen to its voice, it would soon be silenced, 
 and I lost to grace or mercy. 0, how many 
 times I have thanked God for that sickness, and 
 
LENNY'S VISIT TO UNCLE NEP. 187 
 
 how many times I have blessed His name for 
 giving me the power to humble myself and rise 
 out of that berth on the ocean a penitent, be- 
 lieving sinner, bent on striving to serve and 
 praise God. 
 
 " When I came ashore again, I found my 
 sister Margery. I had been steering clear of 
 her, like an unnatural brother as I was, because 
 I knew she was a pious girl, and would be 
 shocked at my ways. I introduced her to the 
 mother and son who had done so much for me — 
 and when she pays me my quarterly visit here, 
 she always goes to see them too." 
 
 " May I see them, if you please, Uncle Nep ?" 
 asked Lenny, eagerly. 
 
 " Yes, my dear young master, certainly you 
 may." ; 
 
 " 0, I'll like that kind boy !" said Lenny, im- 
 pulsively, but Dick whispered : — 
 
 "He isn't a boy now, you know;" at which 
 Lenny locked quite disappointed. 
 
CHAPTER THIRTEENTH. 
 
 LENNY'S DRIVE TO ELM VILLAGE. 
 
 )NCLE NEP put the whole party into the 
 carriage, and sate himself in amongst 
 them, taking Lenny on his knee, to 
 economize room ; then they took a de- 
 lightful drive of a mile or two out of the way of 
 the stream and through smiling grain-fields, ripe 
 for the harvest, till they came to such a beautiful 
 little church, standing under the shade of some 
 giant elms, and beside it a neat cottage, within a 
 luxuriant flower-garden. 
 
 " 0, I would like to live here all the time !" 
 said Lenny ; " the country is so much prettier 
 than the city, and this is the prettiest country 
 
 of all — is it not?'' 
 
 (188) 
 
LENNY'S DRIVE TO ELM VILLAGE. 189 
 
 The carriage stopped, and they all got out 
 except Mrs. Simmons, who waited till the door 
 should be opened, that she might be lifted into 
 the sitting-room. In answer to the first knock, 
 a pleasant old lady appeared to greet them 
 warmly, and said that her son William was in 
 the church, where the children were singing their 
 anniversary hymns. There was to be a great 
 jubilee in a week or two. A good gentleman 
 had gived them funds to erect a school-house 
 and pay the teacher, and this was the anniver- 
 sary of its foundation they were preparing for. 
 Mr. Thornley was to be present, and they 
 expected a very delightful time. 
 
 She offered to accompany them into the 
 church, where the rehearsal was nearly con- 
 cluded, and then they might see the children 
 and hear them sing a piece, perhaps. 
 
 Lenny kept wondering who this good lady was, 
 and whether one of the children would not turn 
 nit to be Uncle Nep's good boy, for, despite 
 
100 ADVENTURES OF LITTLE LEVNY. 
 
 Dick's words, he clung to the idea of his being a 
 boy still. 
 
 As they went over the fields through a smooth 
 path, edged on all sides with wild rose bushes, 
 Simmons took the carriage round by the road, 
 and waited in front of the church. There they 
 found the village children singing sweetly, and a 
 good kind gentleman came out and welcomed 
 them with much kindness. That was the last 
 piece they were in time to hear ; and the young 
 people being dismissed, Mr. Warren, who was 
 the clergyman, accompanied his mother and their 
 friends out to the porch, where Mrs. Simmons 
 in the carriage was very glad to see them. 
 
 " I have brought our boys according to cus- 
 tom, sir," said Uncle Nep ; "all that come to 
 our little 'Dry Dock,' must come over and look 
 at 'my good boy,' and see how he still continues 
 the work he began so well. Yes, Ma ?ter Len- 
 ny, this gentleman was the little fellow who won 
 me from ruin and despair ; and although you are 
 
LENNY'S DRIVE TO ELM VILLAGE. 191 
 
 very young to learn such an important lesson, I 
 am sure you must see that a good boy can do 
 God's will and grow up to be a noble man." 
 
 " Yes, sir," said Lenny, seriously impressed; 
 for, young as he was, he realized that Mr. War- 
 ren had been desirous of serving his Heavenly 
 Father, and that his work had been blessed by the 
 smile of God's favor. He looked from the be- 
 nevolent old lady to her excellent son, and felt a 
 strong inward drawing towards such a life of faith 
 and love. 
 
 Meantime the good clergyman and his mother 
 begged that they might have the pleasure of en- 
 tertaining the little party in their cottage ; but 
 Uncle Nep, remembering the promised boat-ride, 
 said he would accept the invitation for the child- 
 ren's festival, and endeavour to bring his friends 
 to enjoy it with him ; but Sally and the tea ket- 
 tle would wait for them in the arbor, and they 
 must all have a row in the "Brown Gypsy," his 
 newly painted boat. 
 
192 ADVENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 The prospect consoled the children for leaving 
 the pretty church and parsonage and Elm Vil- 
 lage behind them, for Mr. Warren had warmly 
 and kindly invited them all to come and see the 
 children that day week, and Lenny felt sure his 
 auntie would like to be there too. 
 
 The " Brown Gypsy" was the pink of all boats, 
 and never could be excelled : so Dick believed, 
 and Lenny joined him heartily in the same faith. 
 They talked of its beauties all the ride back, and 
 Lenny, who was by this time quite reconciled to 
 the good boy having grown to be a good man, 
 felt sorry that Mr. Warren could not share their 
 pleasure. At last they reached the Paw-no-kee, 
 and Uncle Nep launched the Gypsy, and all 
 but Mrs. Simmons, who was tired by this time, 
 had a most delightful row. Mrs. White had a 
 sweet voice, and sang such pleasant hymns, that 
 Lenny could never grow tired listening to them. 
 
 As they went down the smooth current Dick 
 and she kept time to the oar-strokes, and Uncle 
 
LENNY'S DRIVE TO ELM VILLAGE. 103 
 
 Nep joined in with his full bass, that had a faint 
 echo of the roar of the sea in its deep tones. 
 
 ! it was a lovely afternoon, but the sun would 
 begin to sink and the treetops to grow ruddy in 
 its glorious light, although Lenny would have 
 been so glad to have had him set more slowly 
 this afternoon than usual. 
 
 " We must keep faith with our kind lady, Miss 
 Brenthurst," said Uncle Nep, pulling for the 
 shore ; " we promised to send our little gentle- 
 man home in the daylight, and there is no time 
 to lose. Sally will be waiting ; and tea must be 
 taken, and good-byes said for this time. God 
 bless us all, and spare us to meet again as hap- 
 pily!" 
 
 As he said, tea was ready in the arbor, and 
 
 peaches and cream to crown the repast. Sally 
 
 waited on the young people, who from the fresh 
 
 air and exercise had no difficulty in finding 
 
 appetites. 
 
 Mrs. Simmons had rested from one journey 
 13 
 
194 ADVENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 and was soon ready for another ; the carriage 
 was packed, not forgetting the basket that had 
 held cook's dainties, which was now returned full 
 of delicious peaches ; all were enthusiastic over 
 their day's enjoyment, and full of thanks to the 
 good old sailor who had received them so hos- 
 pitably. Mounting his quiet old horse he rode 
 beside them for a mile or two, and then stood 
 watching their carriage as it rolled down hill 
 out of the sound of the Paw-no-kee towards the 
 city, that by-and-by began to appear in the 
 distance. 
 
 Miss Brenthurst had felt unaccountably lonely 
 without Lenny, and really had been forced to 
 struggle against an indefinable depression, when 
 she saw how empty the room seemed, that owed 
 its life and brightness to his presence. Both she 
 and her brother were waiting to receive him, and 
 when he sprang rosy and delighted out of Sim- 
 mons's arms, and began his description of the 
 day's events without a word of preface, they 
 
LENNY'S DRIVE TO ELM VILLAGE. 195 
 
 listened with pleased interest to all he said, and 
 scarcely noticed the slightly confused manner in 
 which his eagerness to tell all led him to mix the 
 ducks and turkeys, the boat and children's festi- 
 val, with the dreadful death at sea, and the 
 clergyman and his mother. 
 
 They were still wrapt in the interest of the 
 recital, glancing at each other in silent commen- 
 dation of the correct views the boy took of all he 
 had seen, and perhaps a little partially admiring 
 the intelligence and appreciative faculties of one 
 so young, when Lenny's face changed, and he 
 suddenly became constrained and silent. 
 
 While they looked at him in surprise, the 
 alteration explained itself — the boy's eyes were 
 fixed on the door ; theirs followed the direction, 
 and saw Clement Blye standing smiling and bow- 
 ing there. 
 
 " Why, you're as noiseless as a cat, Clement," 
 cried Mr. Brenthurst, with something like dis- 
 pleasure in his tone. " I don't wonder the child 
 
196 AD VENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 was startled ; I declare it is enough to startle any 
 one to see such a spectre-like appearance." 
 
 " I am sorry I cannot be more boisterous in 
 my way," said Clement, smiling, but contracting 
 his brows, and sending a sharp glance at Lenny 
 for a single instant. " I was told by the servant 
 that I should find you here, and so I came." 
 
 " Quite right, my dear Clement," cried Miss 
 Brenthurst, rising to welcome him, for she feared 
 that her brother's manner might appear harsh. 
 " We were listening to Lenny's account of his 
 visit to the country, and it was so pleasant to 
 watch his enjoyment and enthusiasm that we grew 
 oblivious of everything else. I must ring for 
 Bessie now. He seems to have grown suddenly 
 tired and sleepy. Good-night, my dear boy. 
 We must think about the festival at Elm Vil- 
 lage ; perhaps L r ncle John may be able to go 
 with us." 
 
 "Uncle John!" echoed Clement, in a sharp 
 suppressed tone, and looked from one to the 
 
LENNY'S DRIVE TO ELM VILLAGE. 107 
 
 other with that keen glance that seemed to spring 
 from under his brows like a knife from its 
 sheath. 
 
 Miss Brenthurst did not reply until Bessie 
 appeared, and Lenny, whose manner had lost all 
 its vivacity and brightness, murmured his good- 
 night and withdrew. Then she turned towards 
 him and said, quietly : — 
 
 " You know my brother and I lead lonely 
 lives, or rather we did, before Providence placed 
 Lenny in our way. We both feel that the child 
 has opened new and delightful channels of sym- 
 pathy and interest in our contracted natures ; 
 and we feel that we owe him a place in the hearts 
 and home he has gladdened. He must look up 
 to us in some way, and bejng as it appears with- 
 out relatives, we have adopted him as our 
 nephew." 
 
 "Not legally, you know, Helen," said her 
 brother. " I think it would only be right to do 
 so in a binding way that would be recognised by 
 
198 ADVENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 law. If we wait a year without being able to 
 trace his connections, I think we are justified in 
 doing that." 
 
 " Certainly," said Miss Brenthurst, acquies- 
 cing eagerly ; "let us do anything that will seem 
 to give us a firmer hold on him, for he grows 
 dearer to us daily ; and I am sure I could not 
 love him any more if he were actually related to 
 us both." 
 
 Clement watched their faces narrowly, and 
 yet preserved sufficient control over his features 
 to hide his thoughts — they only betrayed an ab- 
 sorbing interest in the theme ; a curious smile, 
 that it was his habit to assume as a sort of mask, 
 covered all the rest. 
 
 Mr. Brenthurst felt uncomfortable while dis- 
 cussing home topics in his cousin's presence. He 
 did not like to acknowledge to himself the esti- 
 mate he placed on Clement's jealous, sordid 
 nature ; but he could not disguise the uneasiness 
 he endured when the young man put that shallow 
 
LENNY'S DRIVE TO ELM VILLAGE. 199 
 
 smiling face of his into any project where their 
 dear child's happiness was concerned. 
 
 " Helen has been telling me about the origin 
 of that cotton factory you did some business with 
 last week, Clement," he said, to change the 
 theme ; " they are doing thrivingly, I hear, and 
 it was all a benevolent scheme of Mr. Graham's. 
 A noble character, a truly noble character he is ; 
 and his wealth gives him an opportunity of grati- 
 fying his best feelings." 
 
 Miss Brenthurst glanced persuasively at her 
 cousin. 
 
 " Will you make one of our party if we go to 
 his place next week, and from there to Elm Vil- 
 lage, to be present at a children's festival ? You 
 cannot conceive how much pleasure I should feel 
 in your taking an interest in such things. A 
 young man with your talent for business must 
 one day become rich, and then your influence 
 must tell either for good or evil ; it would be 
 very agreeable to me and to your Cousin John, 
 
200 ADVENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 if we could draw you more completely within the 
 circle of our interests and sympathies." 
 
 Still smiling, Clement seemed to take a mo- 
 ment's thought ; then he answered quite readily 
 and with much apparent pleasure, that he would 
 be sure to go ; he was glad that he had the oppor- 
 tunity of improving under their tuition, &c, &c. 
 
 For the rest of the evening he was particularly 
 talkative and entertaining, discussing a great 
 variety of subjects, and never once alluding to 
 Lenny or anything connected with him. It was 
 quite late when he went away, and both his 
 cousins acknowledged with much satisfaction that 
 he was improving, and might yet become as good 
 and amiable as he was useful and reliable in 
 business. 
 
CHAPTER FOURTEENTH. 
 
 LENNY'S DISAPPEARANCE. 
 
 'ENNY did not suffer the least inconve- 
 nience from the fatigue of his day in the 
 country, and the pleasure of looking back 
 occupied his mind till the projected visit 
 to Mr. Graham's drew near. Simmons had done 
 his best to train and restore the plant that had 
 spelt his name so prettily, and although many of 
 its delicate tendrils were (broken and crushed 
 beyond hope of reviving it was yet living, and 
 growing back into something like its former 
 freshness. 
 
 Lenny, who did not know the cruel treatment 
 it had met with from Clement's boots, was busy 
 
 (201) 
 
202 ADVENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 with his gardening under Simmons's direction, the 
 afterncM n before the contemplated trip to the 
 country. Simmons had been rolling the walk, 
 and Lenny, with his little knife, was cutting away 
 the overgrowth of some spreading vines, gather- 
 ing the lopped branches into his little barrow, 
 and trundling it down to the gate that opened 
 into the street where Simmons's house was. 
 
 Standing or loitering about this place, he ob- 
 served a low-set dark-complexioned man, roughly 
 dressed, and altogether unattractive-looking, who 
 seemed very anxious to be agreeable to him not- 
 withstanding, and nodded and grinned every time 
 he appeared at the gate. " There is a man at 
 the corner that seems to know me," he said, com- 
 ing up to Simmons, after a dozen of these silent 
 recognitions. " Would auntie allow me to ask 
 him in here and see what it means ?" Lenny 
 spoke quite seriously ; he was not at all attracted 
 to the man, but thought it his duty to understand 
 the secret of his interest in him. 
 
LENNY'S DISAPPEARANCE. 203 
 
 "I'll go and see him myself," said Simmons; 
 and he went accordingly. 
 
 He came back in a minute, saying there 
 was no one in sight, and that Lenny must 
 have made a mistake. But Lenny was quite 
 confident he had not, and although the man did 
 not reappear, the impression he had made re- 
 mained, so that even in the evening, he repeated 
 to Mr. Brenthurst the odd circumstance of the 
 grinning man, and was so decided about the signs 
 of recognition he gave him, that Miss Brenthurst 
 afterwards suggested to her brother, that he 
 might have some recollection connected with the 
 strange person in his past life, which were too 
 dim to be recalled clearly. 
 
 The next day was bright and sunshiny, and all 
 the household was astir early, preparing for the 
 unusual circumstance of Miss Brenthurst and her 
 brother leaving home together, for a holiday in 
 the country. Lenny had asked permission tc 
 carry Jenny Garland a bouquet of his own peculiar 
 
204 ADVENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 flowers. As he ran through the lower hall, cook, 
 whose temper sometimes became a little ruffled 
 with a bad draught or slow fire, called out 
 sharply, 
 
 " Master Lenny, please go by the side door, and 
 let the back remain closed till my oven gets hot." 
 
 His hand was already on the latch, it was 
 partly opened when she spoke ; but after a sec- 
 ond's irresolution, he closed it again and went by 
 the way she said. As he came back into the 
 house, he took the largest and reddest rose he 
 could select, and stopped to offer it to her. 
 
 " I am sorry you have to stay at home and 
 bake cakes," he said kindly; " I wish you could 
 have a nice time too, cook." 
 
 " Bless your kind heart !" exclaimed cook, smi- 
 ling in restored good humor, " I can get a holiday 
 for the asking, and it does me good to see your 
 bright little face, almost as much as if I was going 
 myself." 
 
 So the party set off for Green slope in high 
 
LENNY'S DISAPPEARANCE. 205 
 
 spirits, and after a delightful drive reached Mr. 
 Graham's grand old house, whose comforts and 
 delights were rather overlooked by Lenny, in 
 his rapture at the kind reception offered by 
 Roman, who extended his paw and his friendship 
 immediately, and showed off all his wonderful 
 accomplishments, to the unspeakable pride of 
 Jenny. 
 
 Mr. Graham was a most hospitable old gentle- 
 man, and nobody could be kinder than his good 
 housekeeper, or more agreeable than Jenny. 
 There was so much to be seen before dinner, 
 and immediately afterwards they were to drive 
 to Elm Village to the Festival, so no time was to 
 be lost. Jenny undertook to show all the sights 
 to Lenny and Roman, and they had already 
 made two or three excursions, while Miss Brent- 
 hurst was enjoying the view of the slope and 
 river from the great drawing-room windows. It 
 seemed impossible to exhaust the list of de- 
 lights, when Mr. Graham introduced another 
 
206 AD VENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 into the foreground, by leading out a little Shet- 
 land pony, which was all ready to give Lenny a 
 first ride, and was so gentle and reliable, that his 
 aunt could have no objection to the treat. 
 
 Mr. Graham drove Mr. Brenthurst and his 
 sister over to the factory at their request, and 
 Jenny and Lenny and Roman, and Thistledown 
 the pony, began to enjoy themselves on the lawn. 
 
 In the midst of laughing gayly, and clapping 
 his hands with excitement and pleasure, Lenny 
 became aware of a figure behind the ornamental 
 trees on the other side of the road, and a pair of 
 sharp bad eyes watching him closely. 
 
 " Who is that ?" he cried quickly, turning sud- 
 denly towards Jenny ; "it must be the man at 
 the garden-gate." 
 
 " There is no one at the garden-gate," repeated 
 Jenny. " What do you mean, dear ?" 
 
 " I mean our garden at home ; but he's gone 
 now, I don't see him anymore;" and slapping 
 the pony lightly with his bridle, he started him 
 
LENNY'S DISAPPEARANCE. 207 
 
 into a gentle trot, which was so delightful as to 
 stop all further conversation except exclamations 
 of pleasure. 
 
 At dinner the party were joined by Clement 
 Blye, who was determined to be pleased with 
 everything, and whom Mr. Graham received 
 kindly as the relative of his guests. 
 
 The factory, the school, the reading-room, and 
 its excellent library, all formed subjects for con- 
 versation, and the carriages were at the door 
 before the pleasant meal was finished. 
 
 " I will put on Lenny's things, Miss Brent- 
 hurst," said Jenny, looking about for him in the 
 hall ; " he was here a moment ago, and ran out 
 with Roman — don't wait — (I'll find him ;" and 
 she hurried off to do so, calling as she went. 
 
 Miss Brenthurst was detained a few moments 
 by Mrs. Garland's finding that the door of the 
 room in which the guests' things were laid had 
 been locked by somebody, and the key gone. 
 Such an unaccountable thing filled her with 
 
208 ADVENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 wonder, and she looked about on all sides for an 
 explanation. Mr. Blye, who. was just descending 
 the stairs, suggested that it might have been the 
 result of accident. He had gone up to find his 
 hat, and now hurried down to say that they 
 would be ready presently. 
 
 When they did find the key — curiously enough 
 it lay on the carpet at their feet — and had opened 
 the door, dressed and gone down, they found one 
 carriage already driven off with Jenny, Lenny, 
 Mr. Graham, and Mr. Brenthurst in it. 
 
 Clement remained, as he said, to drive the 
 ladies ; and when Miss Brenthurst evinced sur- 
 prise that the boy should have gone without his 
 light coat or gloves, he offered quickly to take 
 charge of them, and professed himself to blame 
 in the whole matter since he had urged the gen- 
 tleman not to lose time — knowing as he did that 
 Mr. Graham was the important feature in the 
 festive occasion. 
 
 So they all went off together, and never had 
 
LENNY'S DISAPPEARANCE. 209 
 
 Clement Blye been so agreeably entertaining. 
 " His Cousin Helen's advice would always be 
 sands of gold to him," he said; "and she had 
 opened a new and delightful prospect of future 
 usefulness to him ; he was a poor clerk now, but 
 by-and-by fortune might smile on him, and with 
 her favors he should possess the desire to use his 
 riches wisely and well. And what," he asked, 
 " what was wealth with benevolence without a 
 desire to do good to our fellow-beings?" He 
 looked very seriously, and seemed so deeply im- 
 pressed by his own newly awakened philan- 
 thropy as to regard all mankind and nature with 
 new and awakened interest, which gave his cousin 
 great satisfaction, and some, little remorse for not 
 having done more to arouse this latent good 
 feeling. 
 
 At last, after a pleasant two hours' ride, they 
 
 came in sight of Elm Village, and found the 
 
 beautiful grove around the school-house decorated 
 
 with garlands of flowers and appropriate mottoes. 
 
 14 
 
210 AD VENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 As they drew near they joined Mr. Graham's 
 carriage, and -as soon as both vehicles entered 
 the enclosure, a procession of children in holiday 
 dress drew near singing and strewing flowers in 
 honor of the kindly Christian gentleman, who 
 had done so much in their behalf. Jenny's head 
 looked out of the carriage window. 
 
 "Please let Lenny see it, Miss Brenthurst," 
 she whispered ; " let him stand in front of the 
 carriage." 
 
 Not quite understanding her, the lady turned 
 to her cousin. 
 
 "What does she say, Clement?" she asked. 
 
 He suddenly grew deeply interested in the 
 management of his horses, and made them rear 
 so as to rather alarm the rest. 
 
 " Pray keep them quiet ; had we not better 
 get out here?" said Miss Brenthurst. "I am 
 curious to know what Jenny said of Lenny. Yes, 
 Clement, if you please, we will alight now." 
 
 And they did, but were so surrounded by the 
 
LENNY'S DISAPPEARANCE. 211 
 
 school children and Mr. and Mrs. Warren, the 
 good clergyman and his mother, that Miss Brent- 
 hurst's attention was distracted for a few minutes 
 from the other carriage, and only recalled by 
 Uncle Nep, who was Mr. Warren's guest on the 
 occasion, and now, all smiles and bows, came up 
 to inquire after " the young gentleman, Master 
 Lenny." 
 
 "Where is he, Jenny?" asked Miss Brent- 
 hurst, looking about her on all sides. 
 
 "Where is he?" cried Jenny, echoing her 
 words by way of reply. " I don't see him — he 
 must be in the carriage." 
 
 Miss Brenthurst turned very white, and caught 
 Mrs. Garland's arm quickly.,* 
 
 " He was left behind," she said, in a low 
 voice; "and I do not understand it. Where is 
 my brother?" 
 
 He was called, and came instantly. He looked 
 annoyed and disturbed at the oversight, but not 
 at all frightened. 
 
212 ADVENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 "It was the pony, depend upon it," he said. 
 " I suppose he took the opportunity of your get- 
 ting ready to steal another ride, and found us 
 gone when he got home. I'll drive back for 
 him." 
 
 "No, no!" interposed Clement, eagerly; 
 " allow me to do it, Mr. Graham relies on you to 
 help him through with the addresses, and I will 
 not be in the least missed. I'll start at once." 
 
 And despite Miss Brenthurst's objections, 
 which she could not explain satisfactorily to her- 
 self, although she uttered them, he was off in the 
 lightest carriage, dashing out of sight in great 
 speed, as if bent on serving his cousin whether 
 or no. 
 
 " 0, why did Mr. Clement say I must go with 
 Mr. Graham and Mr. Brenthurst ?" exclaimed 
 Jenny, distressedly. " I begged him to let me 
 wait for Lenny, but he said you would bring him 
 with you." 
 
 " There was a mistake somewhere," said her 
 
LENNY'S DISAPPEARANCE. 213 
 
 aunt ; " for Mr. Blye told us that he was with 
 you, and we never looked for him at all." 
 
 Miss Brenthurst said nothing ; hut her uneasi- 
 ness and an indefinahle dread of something to 
 come oppressed her more and more every mo- 
 ment. 
 
 That was a painful afternoon to her. She was 
 too good and too unselfish to disturb the pleasure 
 of others by her own forebodings and distress, so 
 she strove earnestly to subdue each outward ex- 
 pression of trouble, and tried to listen to all Mrs. 
 Warren and Uncle Nep told her about the pro- 
 gress of the Church, the Sunday school and the 
 Everyday school, both of which institutions owed 
 so much to the benevolence of good Mr. Graham. 
 At last it grew late enough to return, and no 
 sign of Mr. Blye. 
 
 " He has found the boy all right, but does not 
 think it worth while to ride back. Remember it 
 is a two hours' drive," said their considerate host ; 
 but Miss Brenthurst could not command her 
 
214 ADVENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 fears, and when she perceived that her brother 
 begar t share them, she grew more restless and 
 uncomfortable than ever. 
 
 .Heartily glad to be once more on her way, she 
 took leave of the good friend at Elm Village, and, 
 riding back with her brother as driver, urged 
 him to put the horses to their speed. 
 
 When they came in sight of Mr. Graham's 
 house everything was quiet, and old Roman lay 
 asleep on the great porch. It argued well for 
 Lenny, they all said ; but when they alighted 
 and inquired, their worst fears were confirmed. 
 The child had not been seen at all. Mr. Blye 
 had arrived two or three hours before, and made 
 all sorts of inquiries in a breathless way, then 
 driven off again to be seen no more by the house- 
 hold, though the general supposition was that he 
 had gone to the city to set the police to search. 
 
 "Is there any water near?" asked Miss 
 Brenthurst, her voice trembling with horror at 
 the idea she had suggested. 
 
LENNY'S DISAPPEARANCE. 215 
 
 None but the river, and that was not easily 
 accessible ; no, it could not be explained, though 
 the strictest search was instituted. No clue 
 could be discovered ; though they looked in all 
 directions, and sent inquiries out on the faintest 
 "chances, not one single shred of information, 
 however faint, could they glean of the lost 
 Lenny. 
 
 What a gloomy journey back to the city, and 
 what a miserable uncertainty and gloom awaited 
 them! Clement was there, and surprised them 
 by the anxiety and energy he displayed ; he had 
 already made all the preliminary arrangements 
 of a thorough search, and offered a large reward 
 to any one. who could bring any tidings of the 
 child. Distressed and unhappy as Mr. Brent- 
 hurst was, there was nothing to be done that 
 Clement had not attended to. He was forced to 
 acknowledge that he had done the young man 
 great injustice in the past, and desired to repair 
 it by showing him confidence in the future. 
 
216 ADVENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 Yes, Lenny was truly lost ; not a scrap of 
 intelligence in any way relating to him could be 
 gained ; it really seemed as if he had been sud- 
 denly wiped out of existence, and there was no- 
 thing left of the little boy except the great 
 sorrow in the hearts of those his simple loving 
 nature had won to prize and cheiish him. 
 
CHAPTER FIFTEENTH. 
 
 LENNY'S PRISON. 
 
 ND where was little Lenny while all this 
 anxious sorrow and distress were felt on 
 his account ? In a railroad car flying 
 over a Western road at a swift pace, 
 seated side by side with the strange dark -faced 
 man he had already begun to doubt and fear. 
 
 When Miss Brenthurst left him on the portico 
 after dinner he thought he would just run down 
 the lawn to take a look at Thistledown, who was 
 being led away to the stable by the lower road. 
 
 He had passed into the little clump of trees 
 that lay between the lawn and the hedge he 
 meant to peep over, when the man, who said his 
 
 (217) 
 
218 ADVENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 name was Jerry, came towards him, smiling and 
 bowing and making so many motions to attract 
 and please him, that he paused bewildered by 
 them all. 
 
 " I know where Perry is, little master," he 
 said, speaking persuasively, " and I want you to 
 come and get him ; he won't come with me, he 
 don't know me well enough, hut he'd be so glad 
 to see you. Do come, Master Lenny, and get 
 poor little Perry." 
 
 " Where is he ? Let me go and tell my aunt !" 
 said Lenny, divided between eagerness and 
 anxiety. " I want to see him — dear little 
 Perry !" 
 
 " No, don't stop, it will only take a moment, 
 we'll be back in time — come on !" exclaimed the 
 man, and at each word he drew the boy with him 
 farther into the wood. " Let me carry you, 
 then we won't lose time or keep your aunt wait- 
 ing ;" and as he spoke he caught the boy up in 
 spite of his rather indignant remonstrances ; and 
 
LENNY'S PRISON. 219 
 
 covered his mouth with a handkerchief to pre- 
 vent his making any outcry. Lenny soon ceased 
 to struggle ; indeed he only made a motion or 
 two, when his head fell helplessly on the shoulder 
 of the strange man, with his face looking very 
 white, his eyes half open, and his chest heaving 
 laboriously with the effort of breathing under the 
 influence of the drug Jerry had forced him to 
 inhale so as to become unconscious. In this 
 state he carried him through the by-ways till he 
 gained the open highway, where a gig was stand- 
 ing, whose horse's reins were held by a hard- 
 faced woman. 
 
 "Give bim here," she said, sharply; "you've 
 been long enough about it, I'm sure. Now get 
 in, or we won't get away in time for the train." 
 
 On the knee of this unprepossessing female, 
 Lenny half sat and half lay for the next hour, 
 and when they reached the outskirts of a strange 
 town at the end of that time, he recovered his 
 consciousness, but was too faint and sick and 
 
220 ADVENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 giddy to collect his scattered senses clearly, or 
 realize what was occurring round him. 
 
 They drove straight to the station of the 
 Western Railway, and the woman, getting out, 
 bought the necessary tickets, while the man held 
 Lenny, and kept talking to him soothingly about 
 going to see little Perry. 
 
 " I want to go back to my aunt and uncle," 
 Lenny would answer faintly, and with a great 
 effort, for the effect of the powerful drug was 
 still strong on him. He had a sort of half- 
 defined consciousness of something painful occur- 
 ring, and a fear of how it would end ; but be- 
 yond this his weakened powers could not extend, 
 and he lay breathing painfully on the man's 
 shoulder, wishing that somebody would come to 
 his rescue, yet scarcely knowing from what he 
 desired to be delivered. 
 
 The woman looked at him, as she jumped in 
 again with the tickets in her hand. 
 
 "He won't give you any trouble," she said, 
 
LENNY'S PRISON 221 
 
 coolly, " and you wouldn't need me, even if it was 
 safe for me to go. I'll go back with the buggy, 
 and tell my story to the man I hired it from, to 
 prevent suspicion. You needn't be seen at all, 
 for I have kept you out of the way so far, and 
 all you have to do is to keep straight on, accord- 
 ing to directions. I'll stay and settle with 
 Blye." 
 
 Lenny heard and partly understood her words ; 
 lV>at is, a dawning suspicion of evil presented 
 itself to his slowly awakening mind, and a word- 
 less terror of the name he had just heard as 
 being connected with it. He had but little 
 pause given him to consider in — the train came 
 snorting and puffing in sight, the man jumped 
 down, wrapped him in a linen coat, and putting 
 a straw hat of a common sort on his head, left 
 his pretty one with the woman — then carried 
 him quickly across the platform into the cars, 
 and they were steaming and shrieking on their 
 way again. 
 
222 ADVENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 The man had left his handkerchief with hia 
 companion, and taken another, which was highly 
 perfumed with cologne. With it he wiped Len- 
 ny's face and brushed his hair, and, leaving him 
 for a few moments, returned with a glass of 
 lemonade, which he insisted on his swallowing to 
 the last drop. Having done so, Lenny soon fell 
 asleep, and the rest of the journey seemed like a 
 troubled dream to him. 
 
 When he awoke clearly, he was in a small 
 dark room, meanly furnished, and had just 
 raised himself in a cot-bed, which was at the 
 foot of another, wherein the man called Jerry 
 lay sleeping. He was very Aveak, and, looking 
 at his arms, he saw that they were thin and 
 wasted, as if he had been ill. 
 
 There was a little table beside his bed, and on 
 it stood a bottle, a cup and spoon, and a small 
 jug of water. 
 
 Although everything seemed strange and 
 repellent to his feelings, it was not entirely un- 
 
LENNY'S PRISON. 223 
 
 familiar ; he seemed to have seen it before, under 
 the influence of a dream, as well he might, since 
 he had been lying in a fever in that very room 
 for nearly a fortnight. 
 
 But Lenny did not know this ; and so he 
 strove to rise, and, finding that he had no 
 strength, sank back on his pillow, and cried like 
 the poor little desolate creature he was. 
 
 By-and-by the man woke up, and began to 
 yawn and stretch himself, wearily muttering 
 something about it being late and his being lazy. 
 At last he rose, and appeared fully dressed, as if 
 he had tumbled down just as he was the night 
 before. His face looked red and his eyes swollen, 
 and his temper seemed anything but cheerful. 
 
 At first Lenny was so timid that he shut his 
 eyes and tried to appear asleep ; but by-and-by 
 his courage grew stronger, and, struggling up 
 once more, he spoke, with all the feeling his 
 wretchedness could convey : — 
 
 "Please, sir, take me home to my aunt and 
 
'J24 ADVENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 mcle — I don't want to be here. I don't want to 
 stay, and I'll never say I do not like Mr. Clem- 
 ent again, if you only let me go." 
 
 Jerry laughed long and loud. 
 
 " The young one's cute enough to see through 
 a stone wall," he said, half to himself. "Why, 
 who said anything about Mr. Clement, I want to 
 know ? Who is he, I wonder ?" 
 
 Something in his manner of speaking, in the 
 coarse swagger and loud way he had, seemed to 
 kill all hope or trust in the boy's heart ; he fell 
 back on the bed and lay quite still, and it seemed 
 to him that under all the bright sun that now 
 began to shine into the dreary room, there was 
 no such wretched child as he. 
 
 " No one can hear me, no one will help me," 
 he thought — and he put his thin little hands 
 before his face, and cried very bitterly. 
 
 But there seemed to be a soft little voice 
 speaking away down in his own breast. He lis- 
 
LENNY'S PRISON. 225 
 
 tened, and by-and-by it became plainer and more 
 audible, and these were the words it said : — ■ 
 
 " Poor and friendless thot*gh I be, 
 Yet my Saviour cai - es for me. 
 Wretched and forlorn I roam, 
 Still He points to Heaven, my home." 
 
 This was a verse of a little hymn he had been 
 singing to Bessie the day before the journey to 
 Greenslope, and now it came back to him, 
 through what seemed a long distant time, and 
 with a meaning it had never had before. 
 
 It was only the beginning of many better and 
 nobler thoughts that followed. All the teachings 
 of his aunt — all the prayers she had uttered 
 over him — seemed to blossom into fruit in that 
 one hour, as, clasping his hands, he lifted his 
 young heart silently in faith and trust to the 
 All-powerful God, who, even in his desolation, 
 saw and could help him. He had not prayed 
 long before he felt courage, then patience, and 
 15 
 
226 ADVENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 then hope, all waken in his young soul. He 
 would not give up to misery — he would endure, 
 and he would try to get away, with God's help. 
 0, what a long and fervent prayer he uttered, 
 without speaking a single word ! He had disco- 
 vered the power of God, because he found him- 
 self utterly friendless, and with no strength but 
 in Him. 
 
 His happy, happy life with dear Miss Brent- 
 hurst seemed like something too beautiful to be 
 real ; but all she had taught him of the Saviour, 
 awoke in clear, distinct, unalterable belief, and 
 sustained him in his helplessness and sorrow. 
 
 Strangely plain and real now became what had 
 been before a mere confused mass of floating 
 remembrances. He could recall his mother, and 
 separate her quite clearly from Miss Brenthurst ; 
 he could see the journey they had taken together, 
 the last place they had stopped at, and remember 
 all she said, and who had been with her. 0, 
 what a longing possessed him to run to his dear 
 
LENNY'S PRISON 227 
 
 friends with, his newly-found knowledge, and how 
 bitter it was to know they were separated so 
 hopelessly ! But Lenny had prayed for courage, 
 and meant to keep it ; so he nursed it with hope 
 and prayer, and was quiet and unmurmuring, 
 biding his time to escape, for to that end every 
 faculty in his youthful brain centered. 
 
 Jerry was not abusive to him, neither was he 
 kind. Sometimes he would laugh in his coarse, 
 loud way at something suggested by his words, 
 .but generally he was silent, and preoccupied by 
 his own thoughts. They were only stopping 
 there for a little while, Lenny gathered, and 
 would go on again to some more distant point as 
 soon as they received instructions from some one 
 at home. 
 
 Lenny was a prisoner ; he could not leave the 
 little room and another equally small apartment 
 opening from it, which comprised Jerry's lodg- 
 ings. His meals, of plain but sufficient food, 
 were brought there, and when Jerry went out 
 
228 ADVENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 the doors were locked securely on the outside. 
 Here he stayed for hours together, in the light 
 or darkness, utterly alone, and suffering the ter- 
 rors of a highly-imaginative nervous organiza- 
 tion. His experience of fire rendered it horrible 
 to him, and the idea of his room breaking into 
 flames while he was locked in it, was unbearable ; 
 then the voices in some adjacent rooms often 
 grew loud and fierce, and sometimes he heard 
 violent scuffles and blows. But constantly, as 
 soon as nightfall came, and the lamps were 
 lighted outside, he would become conscious of the 
 clinking of money, and certain words that he 
 had once before been accustomed to hear. What 
 were they ? He did not understand them at all ; 
 but he knew his mother would sit and cry, and 
 that it was his father's voice they would hear 
 above the rattling of dice and the cries of 
 chagrin or triumph. 
 
 There was one window in each room, and from 
 it he found out that they were living up staira 
 
LENNY'S PEISON. 229 
 
 in a large dirty-looking house, and that a deep 
 damp yard, fenced in by tall and equally dingy 
 buildings, was the only look-out there was. 
 Jerry's trade and his father's seemed to be the 
 same. Day after day the sounds became more 
 and more familiar, and the calm delights of his 
 dear old home seemed to float away behind the 
 clouds of despairing gloom that rose around the 
 present. 
 
 Yet the child never ceased to pray, and faith 
 kept alive his sinking heart, for he believed that 
 God was near, and remembered the seed he 
 planted in his beautiful garden, that had to wait 
 for the warm air and rain to ripen it into growth 
 and verdure. 
 
 Sometimes it was very late when Jerry tum- 
 bled into bed, and once the day was dawning 
 clear and bright before his -staggering feet were 
 heard outside the door, and his clumsy hand 
 fumbled with the key. Lenny peeped up to look 
 at him as he passed his little cot, and the expres- 
 
230 ADVENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 sion of his face was hideously distorted by drink 
 and passion. Kicking the things around, he 
 swore frightfully about his losses at cards, and 
 tumbled on the bed with curses against the win- 
 ners, half-uttered and choked by heavy snores. 
 Lenny lay trembling, and his heart beat so 
 loudly that he could scarcely breathe ; but it was 
 not with fear. No — hope and joy animated his 
 breast once more, and he almost sobbed out a 
 prayer of thanksgiving, for the drunken wretch 
 had not removed the key from the door, but had 
 only closed it with a bang, and was now in a 
 deep intoxicated slumber, unconscious of any- 
 thing around him. Lenny lay awhile, to be per- 
 fectly sure of it, then noiselessly and tremblingly 
 arose. His own pretty clothes were gone long 
 ago. It was cold weather now, and a good stout 
 coarse suit had been provided by Jerry, for his 
 and a young German, who never spoke to him, 
 were the only two faces he had looked on since 
 he entered the room. As he put his things on, a 
 
LENNY'S PRISON. 231 
 
 sudden and paralyzing fear seized him. Sup- 
 pose he should be seen and brought back ! Sup- 
 pose he could find no other door open, and would 
 have to return of his own accord ! But he had 
 only one Friend, and to Him he- turned in 
 prayer. 
 
 " 0, God, my dear Father in Heaven ! help 
 me to get safe home!" he said, and he said it 
 with all his heart, and found strength in the 
 utterance. Softly he moved the door — like a 
 cat he stole out into the great long entry he had 
 never seen before. He looked about him in 
 bewilderment — a staircase was at the other end, 
 and down it he went without a sound. One, two 
 flights, and he came to an oil-clothed entry, 
 where the same German was beginning to scrub. 
 At sight of him, Lenny darted back and hid him- 
 self under the stairs. A pause occurred, while 
 the man beat the mat outside the door, and 
 Lenny held his breath, lest he should betray 
 himself by a sound. Then the man leisurely 
 
232 ADVENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 passed him with his bucket, and knelt down with 
 '■ his back towards him at the other end of the 
 hall. It was his opportunity, and Lenny seized 
 it as wisely as if he had been a dozen years 
 older. He waited till the noise of the brush on 
 the canvas should drown the sound of his foot- 
 steps, and then, with a silent cry to God for 
 help, he fled away, and was out in the streets of 
 a strange city. 
 
CHAPTER SIXTEENTH. 
 
 LENNY'S WANDERINGS. 
 
 §T was growing dusk when, faint and foot- 
 sore, Lenny knocked at the door of a poor- 
 f looking house in the suburbs of the city 
 where he had been kept in confinement so 
 long. There were flat brick-fields round about 
 it, and pools of stagnant water ; it was ill-built 
 and poorly painted, being one of a partially- 
 finished row erected for the accommodation of 
 laborers and their wives, and having none of the 
 conveniences or adornments of a better class of 
 dwellings ; yet Lenny had picked it out from 
 many a fine one, because of the glimpse of kindly 
 home-life within. 
 
 (233) 
 
234 ADVENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 Misery had made hini cunning, and he was 
 slow to ask aid, lest he might meet with an 
 enemy who would deliver him again to the bond- 
 age from which he had escaped ; so he had wan- 
 dered as far away from that quarter as he could 
 get, and watched about to see some of the 
 inmates of a house before he would trust his fate 
 in their hands. In this one there was only a 
 thin half-curtain on the single front window, and 
 a good sort of woman was revealed, making a 
 slice of toast at the comfortable fire for a sick 
 girl on a settee. She answered Lenny's knock 
 with the bread on her fork, and seemed surprised 
 at his delicate face and refined manner. 
 
 " Are you lost, my boy ?" wore the first words 
 she said ; and when he answered in the affirma- 
 tive, she took him in directly, without another 
 word, and accommodated him with a seat . at the 
 fire. 
 
 " Get warm and take a mouthful before you 
 
LENNY'S WANDERINGS. 235 
 
 go any further — then we'll try and set you 
 right," she said. 
 
 The tears stood in Lenny's eyes at her kind- 
 ness ; and being both tired and hungry, he thank- 
 fully availed himself of it. 
 
 While he ate and drank the wholesome food 
 she set before him, he tried to decide whether he 
 dared to trust her with his story ; but an inex- 
 plicable dread of the one he blamed as the cause 
 of all his misery sealed his lips, and all he could 
 say was that he wanted to go to the next town, 
 which he knew was on his way homeward. 
 
 The woman regarded him with a look of sur- 
 prise, not unmixed with suspicion. 
 
 " What is such a little fellow as you doing so 
 far from home?" she asked. 
 
 " 0, please tell me the way ! I'll let you know 
 all when I get there, please tell me the way, 
 ma'am, if you will be so kind !" 
 
 His distressed manner, and the earnestness of 
 
236 A D VENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 his words, were all in his favor. The woman 
 considered awhile, and then said : — 
 
 " My daughter is going through that way to- 
 morrow ; she's just been married, and going back 
 with her husband to where we used to live. If 
 you really want to go, she'll take you. But I 
 hope, my boy, you are not trying to run away 
 from home?" 
 
 Lenny protested with such earnestness that he 
 only wanted to go home, that after a little more 
 dubious head-shaking the woman seemed satisfied, 
 particularly as the sick girl on the sofa seemed 
 greatly prepossessed in his favor. He seemed so 
 weary, that his kind hostess put a comforter on 
 the carpet near the stove, and told him to lie 
 down, which he was not loath to do, and soon fell 
 sound asleep. When he awoke the young mar- 
 ried person and her husband were there. They 
 looked honest and kind, and belonged to the 
 better part of the working class. They accepted 
 Lenny readily as a companion, although the man 
 
LENNY'S WANDERINGS. 237 
 
 seemed to think he was a "little too close," as he 
 expressed it, and advised him to tell them some- 
 thing about himself, as no doubt they could heir, 
 him. 
 
 " Wait till I get out of this town," said Lenny, 
 mysteriously ; and seeing that he attached so 
 much importance to leaving the city, silently 
 they yielded. 
 
 They were very near the depot, and as the 
 first morning train went through, they all got on 
 the cars and took their places. It was very 
 frosty, and in kindness for the poorly protected 
 child the young woman wrapped him in a spare 
 cloak she had, drawing the hood over his cap. 
 It was a singularly fortunate kindness on her 
 part, for it was scarcely done when Lenny's 
 frightened eyes beheld the terrible Jerry walk 
 through the car looking on all sides, but glanc- 
 ing lightly at the bundled figure beside the 
 young woman, as if taking it for granted that it 
 was her child. The boy neither moved nor 
 
238 AD VENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 stirred, nor could he find power to do so — all his 
 t strength went up in a silent thanksgiving as the 
 car started with a shrill scream and whistle, and 
 he had another glimpse of Jerry standing brood- 
 ing and disappointed on the platform as they 
 passed. The young woman, whose name was 
 Mary, turned round and looked at him to see if 
 he were comfortably fixed. 
 
 Happening to touch his hand, she started back, 
 exclaiming : — 
 
 " Why, Terry, this poor child is like ice ! I — I 
 wish he could have a drop of warm wine or some- 
 thing." 
 
 "No, no, thank you! I am quite well now," 
 cried Lenny, gladly. " 0, I am so happy I am 
 on my way home!" and he burst into a shower 
 of happy joyous hopeful tears that relieved his 
 over-tried spirit, and made his pale little face 
 shine brightly, like the sunlight after a summer 
 shower. 
 
 He now gained courage to speak more freely, 
 
LENNY'S WANDERINGS. 239 
 
 and desired them earnestly to set him on his way 
 to the city where his aunt lived, saying he had 
 been taken away wickedly, though he dare not 
 yet tell them his friends' names. 
 
 ' After a little consultation the husband and 
 wife decided to put the affair in the hands of a 
 brother and sister they called John and Hattie, 
 and so, troubling him no more about his affairs, 
 they took the best care of Lenny, and landed 
 safe and comfortable in their own place before 
 nightfall. 
 
 It was quite a decent house, cleanly and tidy 
 in outward appearance, and larger than houses 
 occupied by people of that class usually are. 
 
 Mary, who had not seen it before, was de- 
 lighted at its superiority. 
 
 "Why, it's a grand house!" she said, looking 
 up admiringly at the outside. " I never thought 
 we could afford such a place." 
 
 " Why, you know, John and Hattie have a 
 lodger on the second floor, and they manage it 
 
240 AD VENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 so that it don't cost any more than a small one 
 would." 
 
 As he spoke he opened the front door, and 
 immediately a sharp querulous little bark was 
 heard, at which Lenny's heart gave a strange 
 joyous bound. 
 
 " That's the lodger's dog, you must not mind 
 him, he's a pretty playful little fellow," explained 
 Terry, and the same moment a very beautiful 
 spaniel appeared at the head of the stairs, while 
 the parlor door was opened, and a clear light 
 shone out into the passage. 
 
 ' Bow, wow, wow !" went the dog, not angrily 
 — just inquiringly — as he looked down with his 
 sharp bright eyes to be sure of who was below. 
 
 Lenny stood an instant gasping for breath; 
 then, uttering a wild cry of joy, he shouted " little 
 Perry — little Perry !" and throwing himself on 
 the stairs, rolled over and over in an ecstasy of 
 joy, with the little dog clasped to his bosom. 
 
 Meantime the astonished Terry and Mary 
 
LENNY'S WANDERINGS. 241 
 
 looked on in silence, until the people within ran 
 out and welcomed them heartily. 
 
 "But what's this !" cried the good woman of 
 the house ; " where did you find this boy ? 
 Come in, my dear. Why, bless us and save us, 
 this is the pretty little gentleman that loved my 
 little Johnny ! Do you know me, dear ? 0, 
 tell me about him, Mary, where did you find him ? 
 John, this is our good lady's little boy ! 0, dear, 
 what a surprise !" 
 
 Yes, Lenny's wondering eyes did not deceive 
 him ; it was Mrs. Murray who held him in her 
 arms, and with all the gratitude of her warm 
 nature embraced him over and over again, while 
 he was trying to find breath to speak. 
 
 At last his tongue was loosened ; he was among 
 friends, and he felt safe; sitting down amidst 
 them all, with every wondering eye upon him, 
 and the caressing dog clasped in his arms, he 
 told his sorrowful story, and, amid sobs that 
 shook his whole frame, gave expression to his 
 16 
 
242 AD VENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 gratitude to God, who had so wonderfully rescued 
 him from his miserable confinement. 
 
 "And the dog !" cried Mrs. Murray, when she 
 could command herself to speak beyond exclama- 
 tions of joy and thankfulness ; " look at him 
 licking the child's face and hands so affec- 
 tionately." 
 
 " He is my old Perry ; mamma brought him 
 in a ship. I know all now ; I was so frightened 
 by that fearful fire that it made me forget ; but 
 now I know, we ran away from my cruel " 
 
 The boy stopped, for his mother's teachings 
 were remembered yet — he was never to accuse 
 his father — he was to strive to forget all that 
 was evil and wicked in him, and pray for him 
 always. While these thoughts pressed on his 
 mind, Mrs. Murray, who had hastily run from 
 the room, returned with a foreign woman in a 
 Swiss cap, with a broad good-humored face, in 
 which only wonder was expressed at present. 
 
LENNY'S WANDERINGS. 243 
 
 'Babette!" screamed Lenny, at the sight of 
 her, and flew into her arms. 
 
 She caught him with a cry of astonished plea- 
 sure, and hugging and dragging him with her, 
 tan to the foot of the stairs, crying, in a mixture 
 of French and English that was almost unin- 
 telligible, 
 
 " Franz, Franz, come quickly, and see our 
 child ! Mademoiselle Leonore's child ! Ah ! 
 Heaven is too good ! too good ! and I am too 
 happy!" 
 
 A Swiss of respectable appearance answered 
 this call, and, falling into a scarcely less excited 
 state than his wife, embraced Lenny with great 
 affection, which the boy as ardently returned. 
 
CHAPTER SEVENTEENTH. 
 
 LENNY'S PEACE AND JOY. 
 
 )B>. and Miss Brenthurst did not allow 
 the sorrow they felt in the loss of the 
 boy so dear to both, to in anywise 
 lessen the full measure of their useful 
 charities, or detract from the loving benevolence 
 of their beautiful characters. 
 
 Always ready to further the interests of the 
 deserving, Miss Brenthurst had done much tc 
 improve the circumstances of Dick and his 
 mother, and found the greatest pleasure her 
 anxious heart could know in fulfilling the wishes 
 of her lost favorite. Everything that could 
 throw the least ray of light on the mysterious 
 
 (244) 
 
LENNY'S PEACE AND JOY. 245 
 
 circumstance of his disappearance was sifted to 
 the last grain. A woman who had once been 
 employed in the family with her husband, whose 
 name was Jerry Burke, and both of whom had 
 been dismissed for dishonesty, had been arrested 
 and examined because she had drrven through 
 Greenslope in a strange way that day, and had 
 been seen lurking in the neighborhood of the 
 house ; but not a syllable to convict her of any 
 part in the business had been elicited ; and al- 
 though her proceedings were strictly watched, 
 nothing connected with them gave the least clue 
 to suspicion. 
 
 Simmons had told the story of Lenny's alarm, 
 so had Jenny ; and although it seemed that this 
 unknown person must be the guilty man, no- 
 thing to lead to his discovery could be found, and 
 so the matter rested. Meantime, Clement's 
 sympathy and anxiety were so great as to make 
 Miss Brenthurst quite forget her former objec- 
 tions to his callous and selfish nature, and en- 
 
246 ADVENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 deavor by every present kindness to make up for 
 past suspicion and neglect. 
 
 And yet it was a sorrowful household. Every 
 servant in it daily recalled the dear boy's gentle 
 traits of kindness ; and cook was never tired of 
 enlarging on the last words he spoke to her. 
 She would bring the great rose he gave her, 
 pressed between the leaves of her hymn-book, 
 and tearfully display it to Miss Brenthurst, as 
 one cherishes and weeps over mementoes of the 
 dead. 
 
 It was a beautiful winter's day, when the sun 
 was lighting up the icicles in the garden into a 
 brilliant set of miniature rainbows, and making 
 the snow-covered beds so very bright that you 
 had to wink as you looked on them. Cook was 
 busy in the kitchen, for there was a more than 
 usual amount of cooking on hand. It was Clem- 
 ent's birthday, and his cousin had asked him 
 to dine with them, although, as her sad face ex 
 
LENNY'S PEACE AND JOY. 247 
 
 pressed, she did not much enjoy the prospect 
 of entertaining company. 
 
 Cook was doing her duty, though he was no 
 favorite with her, as she confessed, but Miss 
 Brenthurst had said, "Prepare a good dinner;" 
 and so it was in progress of preparation, when 
 Bessie ran in breathlessly — crying out : — 
 
 " Cook, there's a whole carriage-load of people 
 in the hall, and I am almost wild, for I think they 
 know something of Master Lenny. Shall I show 
 them into the room, where Miss Brenthurst and 
 Mr. Clement are ?" 
 
 " I would," cried cook, becoming equally ex- 
 cited. " 0, Bessie, do you believe it ? can there 
 be any news ? 0, do run and listen ! I am crazy 
 to hear." 
 
 The drawing-room door was thrown wide open, 
 and with many curtsies Mrs. Murray and her 
 party entered, at Bessie's suggestion. Clement 
 rose, so did Miss Brenthurst, who met her hum- 
 ble friend with characteristic kindness. The 
 
248 ADVENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 Swiss woman and her husband were introduced, 
 and Clement started back with a dismayed and 
 guilty face. Mrs. Murray had her eyes on him, 
 and stepped before the door. 
 
 " Please stay here, sir," she said, quietly ; " we 
 will need you to set Miss Brenthurst's mind at 
 rest. 0, here is her brother;" and she stepped 
 aside, curtsying to Mr. Brenthurst, who had just 
 entered. 
 
 Then she began the story, which, taking into 
 consideration the Swiss's imperfect knowledge of 
 English, it was thought best should be told by her ; 
 but which both husband and wife certified to, by 
 a constant series of energetic nods as it pro- 
 gressed. 
 
 They had been in the service of Mr. and Mrs. 
 Merton, sister and brother-in-law to the lady and 
 gentleman then present, and had travelled and 
 lived with them in various ways almost ever since 
 they had been abroad. Mr. Merton had become 
 a little wild, and left his wife alone the greater 
 
LENNY' S PEA CE AND J 9 Y. 249 
 
 portion of the time, while he went off to some very 
 gay places, where there was a great deal of gam- 
 bling and excitement. The poor lady was a most 
 unhappy and very delicate being, at times so ill 
 that they feared she would die before his return. 
 But once, when he came back and said he was 
 completely ruined, he behaved with such dreadful 
 cruelty to them that she and her child were often 
 in danger of their lives. 
 
 The Swiss and his wife had heard her say 
 that she had relatives in America, and to them, 
 at this juncture, they implored her to appeal, foi 
 her child's sake, if not for her own. But she 
 appeared strangely averse to yield to their en- 
 treaties, although she acknowledged they had 
 always been kind and good to her. 
 
 At length one day, in a fit of drunken fury, 
 he struck her, so as to cause her to fall and 
 receive a serious injury. This last outrage de- 
 cided her, and, gaining courage from despair, she 
 listened to her humble friends' entreaties, and left 
 
250 AD VENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 him secretly, carrying her child with her. They 
 crossed the ocean and came to America, where 
 both the Swiss and his wife had found ready em- 
 ployment in a toy and wicker-work house ; but 
 Mrs. Merton, dreading to meet her family with- 
 out having some clue to their feelings towards 
 her, wrote appealingly to a cousin, Mr. Clement 
 Blye, as they had since learned his name to be. 
 
 Both husband and wife, who were closely and 
 attentively following Mrs. Murray's narration, 
 here pointed towards the conscience-stricken 
 young man, whose white and troubled face bore 
 palpable evidence of his identity with the person 
 they named. 
 
 He came in answer to the letter — the story 
 proceeded — but what passed between them nc 
 one could say, except that his account of her 
 relatives' feelings towards her appeared to plunge 
 the unfortunate lady in the deepest despair, and 
 her grief and dejection, when he left her, were 
 
LENNY'S PEACE AND JOY. 251 
 
 heart-breaking to her humble but devoted friends 
 to witness. 
 
 Some time passed in this way ; he came fre- 
 quently, always seeming to urge delay and dis- 
 courage an appeal to her brother's and sister's 
 forgiveness. The arguments he used were a 
 secret to the Swiss and his wife ; but they saw 
 their effect was to make their poor lady frantic 
 with distress and misery. Sometimes he gave 
 her money — sometimes he would promise to use 
 new efforts to soften her friends ; but after this 
 unbearable delay had lasted for months, Mrs. 
 Merton had suddenly gained courage from 
 despair, and written directly to her family, that 
 she was coming home to die with them, implor- 
 ing them to receive and pity her innocent child. 
 Not waiting for an answer, she had started, beg- 
 ging those she left behind to pray for her suc- 
 cess, and promising that if she were not fortunate 
 enough to win the compassion of her brother and 
 sister, she would return to them. 
 
252 ADVENTURES OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 They never saw or heard of her again ; they 
 knew no English in which to make inquiries, and 
 she had carefully concealed from them her 
 brother's name. They could only hope that she 
 had been welcomed so kindly as to forget all past 
 sorrow and trouble, and found herself and child 
 so comfortably settled as to no longer need their 
 services, and perhaps her people were too proud 
 to allow her to communicate with humble souls 
 like themselves. 
 
 As she listened, Miss Brenthurst had sunk 
 weeping on her knees, and her brother's arms in 
 vain endeavored to raise her from her suppliant 
 attitude. 
 
 " Leonore ! ! my sister, my beloved Leo- 
 nore !" was all she could utter; and her cries 
 of grief and agony, as she recalled that death in 
 the burning lodging-house, must have been a 
 terrible retribution, as they rung in the ears of 
 the wicked author of so much misery. 
 
 But no — a bitterer still awaited him, when 
 
LENNY'S PEACE AND JOY. 253 
 
 Mr. Murray, having stayed without in the car- 
 riage till now, burst in with Lenny in his arms, 
 and gave him to her wounded spirit, like a solace 
 sent from Heaven. 
 
 ' Yes, that was the greatest sting the jealous, 
 sordid Clement Blye could know on earth ! All 
 his plottings and strivings were in vain — all his 
 deceit and sinful scheming went for nothing ; 
 for, safe in his dear aunt's arms, the innocent 
 object of all his foul snares nestled, happy, 
 thankful, and blest, beyond the power of words 
 to convey. 
 
 And thus his wickedness was rewarded. God 
 had overruled evil for good, and used his efforts 
 to inflict misery as the means of producing joy. 
 
 For the sake of becoming the sole heir of his 
 relatives, he had made himself a disgraced man 
 and an outcast ; for while the tears of sorrow 
 were mingling with bursts of gladness in that 
 little household, Mr. Brenthurst, with his eyes 
 averted, as if he could not look on such a family 
 
254 ADVENTURES. OF LITTLE LENNY. 
 
 Judas, had opened the door and motioned his 
 unworthy cousin to leave the house for ever, 
 which he did without a word, too glad to escape 
 the punishment of the law due to such crimes as 
 he had committed, to attempt to justify himself 
 by any new deceit. 
 
 Miss Brenthurst's tears fell fast for the sad, 
 sad fate of her lost sister, and her smiles of hap- 
 piness, as she looked on Leonard — no, always 
 her "little Lenny," — in whose face that darling 
 sister seemed to live again, were a balm to her 
 bowed spirit, and joy triumphed over grief, and 
 peace and thanksgiving lifted every heart above 
 the clouds of past trouble. 
 
 There was a regular jubilee, in which every 
 soul in that household shared. Simmons and his 
 .vife, Dick and his mother, Uncle Nep and Mrs. 
 Garland and Jenny, were all brought together, 
 to share the glad rejoicing, and there was not a 
 
LENNY'S PEACE AND JOY. 255 
 
 heart in all the joyous company that did not join 
 in Lenny's simple prayer : — 
 
 " I love God more than I can tell, because he 
 has made my dear home my real home, and I 
 hope he will teach me to be as good as I am 
 happy ; and so I must begin by forgiving every- 
 body who caused me any trouble, and loving 
 everybody. ! how many they are who give 
 me pleasure, and make me thankful and humble, 
 too !" 
 
 THE END.