Years of watching, of waiting, of cheerful patience, at first, and at last of resigned sorrow.
Once they heard from James, at the first port where the ship stopped.

It was a letter dear to his mother's heart, manly, resigned and Christian; expressing full purpose to work with God in whatever calling he should labor, and cheerful hopes of the future.

Then came a long, long silence, and then tidings that the _Eastern Star_ had been wrecked on a reef in the Indian ocean! The mother had given back her treasure into the same beloved hands whence she first received him.

"I gave him to God, and God took him," she said.

"I shall have him again in God's time." This was how she settled the whole matter with herself.