A Mason's Story.

after years as a pleasant place in which to live and die , his face will kindle , and his heart beat more quickly at the thoughts of a long low room , whose windows face towards the rising and setting of that orb of which his friend , the Brahmin , had spoken so enthusiastically , and of what took place thereat on a certain night , when an event transpired which changed the tenour of his whole after existence .

Through the mediumship of my pen I am addressing Masens , and there will be no | need for me to describe in elaborate detail the proceedings of that solemn meeting , when Master , Past Master , Wardens , and officers of the g lorious Craft were assembled in full conclave to welcome into their midst a new brother . I will not linger over the rite , nor the charge , as it was read by the hoary-headed , oldest past master present ; suffice it to say that our friend Falconer , of whose doubts and fears , trouble and joys , we have seen so much during the last few years , was on that occasion received into the august fraternity which this magazine represents . As he finds his way home through the muddy

streets , he has the words of the charge ringing in his ears , and a knowledge of the solemn promises which he has made . He begins to feel that , notwithstanding all that he has heretofore imagined to the contrary , there is a hi gher power than ourselves , to which we are and must be subservient . And the words which the Master had used in closing down the lodge that night— " The Eternal is our God , "—have opened up to him a more real knowledge of what the God iswhom every nation which he has yet seen has worshipped more or less .

, At last the light has come , and he realises the fact that henceforth life is worth living . It is to be made worth living before death can be made worth dying . I do not say Masonry has taught him this . There are other influences at work which are quite capable of performing that task . It may have been that he has been operated upon physcometrically , and that the visit of the Brahmin , with other attendant circumstanceshave been produced by a power ever bhim

, y for good . More probably it is his inner consciousness which has done it , being helped thereto by a chain of circumstances over which he had no control . Be this as it may , however , Penrhyn Falconer has attained to a knowledge of that Great Being in whom dwelleth perfectness and holiness .

Once more it is the glad time of Christmas , and Falconer is again at home . The same peaceful scene greets us as when we first saw the two principal characters of our story . They are strolling under the venerable shadow of the quaint old steeple , and the dear old moon is shedding its refulgent beams o ' er hill and dale . They are restored never more to be parted , for on the morrow they are to be joined indissolubly . There is a quiet partin the old churchand the words of the white-robed

y , priest echo impressively down the dim aisles of the sacred edifice : " Those whom God hath joined together let no man put asunder . " Mr . Morton has given his daughter to the man with whom he could not agree , but whom he was bound to respect . Mrs . Morton stands there , looking more contented than she was wont to do . She has entrusted the happiness of her daughter to one whom she knows will

never abuse it , and she prays that her future home may be as happy as the one she is leaving . Dick is there , in a jovial mood . He is acting as one of the "best men , " but is mentally impatient at the length of the ceremony , and longing to be back at the viands which he inspected before coming to church . His animal Propensities have not yet left him ; nor , indeed , do I think they ever will . Mr . Falconer is there , looking cynical at the ceremony of which he does not believe a word . Mr . Morton says he is improving , however , and I sincerely nope he is .