A YEAR elapsed before any tidings of the wanderer came.

Then Mrs.
Howland received a few lines from him, dated in a Southern city, where he spoke of having just arrived from South America.

He had little to say of himself, beyond that he was well; and did not speak of visiting home.
After reading this letter, Mrs.Howland placed it in the hands of her husband, who read it also, and then gave it back without a remark.

He checked an involuntary sigh as he did so.

Not the slightest reference was made to him by his son; a fact that he did not overlook, and that he did not observe without a sense of disappointment.