orphan children, — a flock of tender little lambs,
— to be nourished and protected from the cold
and the rain, the snare and the pitfalls, the
tempter and the ravening wolf ever prowling
around the fold. Hugh and Sibyl, Tom and
Grace, and, last of all, wild little Bessie from the
southern hill-country, — this was her charge.
Hugh and Sibyl Warrington were the children
of an elder brother ; Tom and Grace Morris the
children of a sister, and Bessie Darrell the only
child of Aunt Faith's youngest sister, who had
been the pet of all her family. For ten long
years Aunt Faith had watched over this little
band of orphans, and her heart and hands had
been full of care. Children will be children,
and the best mother has her hours of trouble
over her wayward darlings; how much more an
aunt, who, without the delicate maternal instinct
as a guide, feels the responsibility to be doubly heavy!
And now, after years of schooling and training, Aunt Faith and her children were all to-
