But the couple stood at the gate, shading their eyes, and looking yearningly down the road, in the hope of catching sight of the loved forms of the brave children.

When they saw and recognized the figures, they rushed forth to meet them, with swelling hearts.  Father and mother pressed them to their breasts, and the eyes of all were streaming with tears, for of Nick and Nellie might it not be said—­“For these, my children, were dead, and are alive again:  they were lost, and they are found?”

When Nick had told the whole wonderful story, the father took his hand and said in his native tongue: 

“My boy, I have taught you that God helps them that help themselves.  I am glad that at no time, so far as I can gather, did you despair.  You and Nellie have been tried by fire, and have come out as pure gold.  Heaven be praised for its mercies.  The lesson you have learned will go with you through life.  Never despair, but press onward and upward, and the reward shall be yours at last.”

And what did the good man say but that which our own beloved and mourned poet has so beautifully limned in lines that shall be as immortal as his own fragrant deeds and revered memory?

    Footprints, that perhaps another,
      Sailing o’er life’s solemn main,
    A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
      Seeing, shall take heart again. 
    Let us then be up and doing,
      With a heart for any fate,
    Still achieving, still pursuing,
      Learn to labor and to wait.

THE END.

The second volume of the Wild-Woods Series will be “On the Trail of the Moose.”

==THE FAMOUS CASTLEMON BOOKS.==

==BY==

==HARRY CASTLEMON.==

[Illustration:  Specimen Cover of the Gunboat Series.]

No author of the present day has become a greater favorite with boys than “Harry Castlemon:”  every book by him is sure to meet with hearty reception by young readers generally.  His naturalness and vivacity lead his readers from page to page with breathless interest, and when one volume is finished the fascinated reader, like Oliver Twist, asks “for more.”

*** Any volume sold separately.

* * * * *

==GUNBOAT SERIES.== By Harry Castlemon. 6 vols., 12mo.  Fully illustrated.  Cloth, extra, printed in colors.  In box ==$7 50==

==Frank, the Young Naturalist== ==1 25==

==Frank in the Woods== ==1 25==

==Frank on the Prairie== ==1 25==

==Frank on a Gunboat== ==1 25==

==Frank before Vicksburg== ==1 25==

==Frank on the Lower Mississippi== ==1 25==

==GO AHEAD SERIES.== By Harry Castlemon. 3 vols., 12mo.  Fully illustrated.  Cloth, extra, printed in colors.  In box ==$3 75==