The premier pas in life is the most important of all--did you write to your mother to-day ?--No ?--well, do, before you go, and call and ask Mr.Foker for a frank--They like it--Good night.

God bless you." Pen wrote a droll account of his doings in London, and the play, and the visit to the old Friars, and the brewery, and the party at Mr.Foker's, to his dearest mother, who was saying her prayers at home in the lonely house at Fairoaks, her heart full of love and tenderness unutterable for the boy: and she and Laura read that letter and those which followed, many, many times, and brooded over them as women do.

It was the first step in life that Pen was making--Ah! what a dangerous journey it is, and how the bravest may stumble and the strongest fail.

Brother wayfarer! may you have a kind arm to support yours on the path, and a friendly hand to succour those who fall beside you.

May truth guide, mercy forgive at the end, and love accompany always.