The Cloud with the Silver Lining.

It was the day of a great Sanitary Fair in the town of Norton, --the Fair for which everyone had been preparing during the last six months. Mrs. Prince had given all her servants leave of absence for the day, and had promised her little daughter Kate that, if the weather proved favorable, she would lock up the house in the afternoon, and they would go to the Fair together. Now it was one of the bluest, blandest days that ever dawned; there was not a cloud to be seen in all the heavens, and the wind was softer than a whisper; you would never have supposed that it meant mischief, and neither did Kate, who had almost decided upon her purchases, and counted her money every five minutes during the morning. She had just learned to write a little, and, pluming herself somewhat upon the fact, had made out a tiny list of the articles in which she intended to invest; but her spelling being somewhat phonetic, it ran something like this:

Watch
Croshayed matt for mother.
For turning the Fat
Grabag.
For seeing the old woman who lives in hershu.
Iscreem.

You see there are not many superfluous letters in this list, but don't laugh at her, because I can remember very distinctly the day when I thought the spelling of ?shoe? quite a feat in scholarship.

As it grew near the time for going, Kate grew more and more impatient, that she put on her nankeen coat and got out her new spring hat, -- a hat magnificent in pink ribbons and blonde lace, -- and sat down by the window to wait, in an agony of suspense; she looked upward where the sunbeams seemed to splinter themselves against the blue sky, and fall in a shower of gold

"O mother, mother!" she cried, "here 's a cloud coming up!"

"Never mind, Kate," she answered, "perhaps it's the cloud with the silver lining."

"Perhaps so," said Kate, ruefully ; but it does rain, I feel it on my hand. I wish it had come up wrong side out." And as she spoke the thunder broke overhead, and the rain fell in rivers. Poor Kate's tears bean to flow in concert, but, suddenly remembering that she was only adding to the flood, she dried them quickly, and tried to solace herself with counting her money, for the thousandth time or less, declaring over and over again that it was only a sun-shower, and vainly urging the rain to go away, "and come again another day"; but it seemed just as though the rain had got mind of the Fair, and came clown in haste, "to see the folks there"; and the more Kate besought it to postpone its visits, the harder and faster and heavier it poured, as much as to say, ?Don't expect me to turn back, after having come ?over the hills and far away,? for this very end; I can't do it."

Kate leaned against the window and sighed; it was so dismal sitting at home alone, when she had expected a holiday abroad; and what a tap, tap, tap, the rain kept up; how it seemed to laugh and clap its invisible hands; how it dripped off the points of the leaves in long gray ribands; how it cut up the street into numberless canals, and overflowed the ditches, and leaped down the water

"O dear! O dear!" cried Kate, "will it never stop? There's all my nice time at the Fair thrown away, because of this spiteful rain!" And her eyes wandered towards her new hat, which her mother had allowed to remain on the piano, because to put it back into its bandbox would have seemed like locking Hope up in Pandora's box again, and leaving all the ills at large.

"I mean to go to the door," said Kate, "and see if it is isn't bright in the west.''

While she stood in the doorway, with her little pink palms held out, and the rain duly filling them, a small, dark, childish figure advanced timidly, and asked, ?Please will you give me something to eat?" She was such a draggled-looking creature, so patched and dripping, so thin and pale, that Kate almost fancied it was some gray rain

?How came you out in such a rain?" asked Kate's mother.

"We were so hungry. Mother goes out all day to work, and she locks us in, and I keep house till nine o'clock; but to

"Poor child ! And where is your father?" asked Kate's mother.

Tears sprang into the eyes of the little housekeeper; she laid down her knife and fork, hesitated, and hid her head, at last, in a corner of her tattered shawl. "Oh! Oh!" she sobbed, behind her shield, "he went away once to the war, and he's never come back, and mother, she says we'll never see him again, -- never, never on earth!" The little creature grew quiet in her grief directly, and added, wiping her eyes, "He wore such a beautiful blue coat when he went, and the buttons were so big and shining, and I liked them so, that he cut one off for me, though mother said, 'No, no, it will spoil it': but now she's glad, for it's all we have!" And she drew an army button from her bosom, that was attached to a string about her neck, and burnished it beneath her shawl before revealing it to Kate.

?Oh! Oh! Oh!? cried Kate, thinking of her own father, and how bitter it would be if she had only an old brass button to remember him by.

The little housekeeper, having despatched her meal, made a movement to go. "The children are a

Kate whispered to her mother : "There's my blue gingham gown you said I had outgrown, can't I give her that? And -- and my old plaid shawl hanging in the garret, is isn't it some better than hers?"

Mrs. Prince nodded permission, and Kate ran up heroically into the great dark garret where she was usually a little chary of going; but you should have seen the amazed and sparkling eyes of the little housekeeper when she found the frock and shawl were her own, and heard her pretty embarrassed thanks.

"And, mother," said Kate, twitching her by the skirt, and beckoning her into the next room, "can't I give her the money I was going to spend at the Fair? And shall you mind not to have the crocheted mat I was going to buy you??

So at length Kate conducted the child to the door, and behold, the sunset painted the west in gold and crimson, and soft pink clouds hovered overhead. and while she gazed into the shadowy cast, a rainbow sprang forth and spanned the gloom; and all the green leaves glowed like clusters of emeralds and shook off the rain

"0," cried the little housekeeper, "the rainbow! the rainbow! Jim is so glad of the rainbow, I must hurry, for maybe he has forgotten to look out -- for the hunger of him." And she trudged away as fast as her small legs could carry her.

Kate went back into the parlor, and her mother opened an eastern window, and just then a robin, that had been keeping himself dry under the leaves, and was as low

"What do you think about the cloud and its silver lining?" asked Kate's mother. "Aren't you glad that it rained, after all?"

Kate thought a moment; she thought of the Fate

And the robin that had first pitched the tune for all the world suddenly lighted on the window

Mary N. Prescott.