THE ANGEL ON EARTH—A TOUCHING SCENE

Come to me, darling; papa’s cross tonight,” said a young mother. as she extended her arms affectionately to a little girl of three years, who had. left her toys and playthings to climb upon her father’s knee. The child hazarded a puzzled look at that dark, stern countenance, and without a glance of reassurance, stole softly to his side. Not a word was spoken, and the gloomy man sat sad arid sullen, his mind wholly absorbed with the busy world’s excitements. Although a husband and a father, he was evidently in no humor to participate in the pleasures of a “home circle.” The child, not at all discouraged by the forbidding look of her parent, crept gently upon his knees, and placing one tiny arm about his neck, the other glided affectionately over the opposite cheek, while her innocent lips pressed gently the troubled brow. In a subdued breath she whispered “.Nellie loves papa so much! ” and she drew her little soft hands caressingly down either side of that care-worn face, until they met beneath the heavily beard ed chin. Observe the effect; ‘twas electrical; the stern features relaxed, the sullen gloom disappeared, and the whole countenance assumed a lively animated expression. The scene was most touching. Words fail to express the exquisite beauty of such a picture. As the transformed parent drew the little girl to his bosom, and pressed a kiss upon that innocent, upturned face, the finer feelings of his manly nature were in his voice as he said, “No, my child, pa could never be cross with such a lovely daughter to calm the heart the world has tortured into despair.”

“Whosoever shall offend one of these little ones that believe in me, it were good for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck and lie cast into the depths of the sea.”