present for Rosalind which is intended to surprise you both." Turning to her he said, "Let no unpleasant associations connected with it disturb you, for I want you to cherish it as I do, among the sweetest memories of life. If it shall remind us of suffering let us remember that it is through suffering the soul reveals her noblest gifts."
Walter unveiled the picture, and jumped up with a joyful exclamation of surprise, holding it before the astonished eyes of Rosalind which were soon suffused with tears at this unexpected feature of the programme. Quickly suppressing them, she arose without speaking and approached Ernest, throwing her arms around his neck and kissing him in such a natural, child-like manner as to bring fresh to mind the memory of those happy days when the child and the father walked together in such close and loving companionship, not without their trials, yet blessed in the end.
Walter's buoyant spirit was yet unclouded by trials. Affectionate and deferential as when a child, he exhibited a self-reliance which sought no outside guidance, yet so gentle and submissive in its nature that it sought instinctively the protecting panoply of a mother's blessing. The moral firmness of his character shone conspicuously amid the temptations of his new life, never for a moment swerving from the path of duty. Even the most reckless and unprincipled of his classmates loved and honored him for his genial temper, frankness of manners, and the resolute stand he maintained in opposition to their habits and vices.
