The Channings | Page 9

to have been mine; it was mine by full right of justice, though it now seems that the law was against me. It is a great affliction; but it is one of those which may be borne with an open brow."
"What do you mean, papa?"
"Afflictions are of two kinds. The one we bring upon ourselves, through our own misconduct; the other is laid upon us by God for our own advantage. Yes, my boys, we receive many blessings in disguise. Trouble of this sort will only serve to draw out your manly energies, to make you engage vigorously in the business of life, to strengthen your self-dependence and your trust in God. This calamity of the lost lawsuit we must all meet bravely. One mercy, at any rate, the news has brought with it."
"What is that?" asked Mrs. Channing, lifting her sad face.
"When I have glanced to the possibility of the decision being against me, I have wondered how I should pay its long and heavy costs; whether our home must not be broken up to do it, and ourselves turned out upon the world. But the costs are not to fall upon me; all are to be paid out of the estate."
"That's good news!" ejaculated Hamish, his face radiant, as he nodded around.
"My darling boys," resumed Mr. Channing, "you must all work and do your best. I had thought this money would have made things easier for you; but it is not to be. Not that I would have a boy of mine cherish for a moment the sad and vain dream which some do--that of living in idleness. God has sent us all into the world to work; some with their hands, some with their heads; all according to their abilities and their station. You will not be the worse off," Mr. Charming added with a smile, "for working a little harder than you once thought would be necessary."
"Perhaps the money may come to us, after all, by some miracle," suggested Charley.
"No," replied Mr. Channing. "It has wholly gone from us. It is as much lost to us as though we had never possessed a claim to it."
It was even so. This decision of the Lord Chancellor had taken it from the Channing family for ever.
"Never mind!" cried Tom, throwing up his trencher, which he had carelessly carried into the room with him. "As papa says, we have our hands and brains: and they often win the race against money in the long run."
Yes. The boys had active hands and healthy brains--no despicable inheritance, when added to a firm faith in God, and an ardent wish to use, and not misuse, the talents given to them.

CHAPTER III
.
CONSTANCE CHANNING.
How true is the old proverb--"Man proposes but God disposes!" God's ways are not as our ways. His dealings with us are often mysterious. Happy those, who can detect His hand in all the varied chances and changes of the world.
I am not sure that we can quite picture to ourselves the life that had been Mr. Channing's. Of gentle birth, and reared to no profession, the inheritance which ought to have come to him was looked upon as a sufficient independence. That it would come to him, had never been doubted by himself or by others; and it was only at the very moment when he thought he was going to take possession of it, that some enemy set up a claim and threw it into Chancery. You may object to the word "enemy," but it could certainly not be looked upon as the act of a friend. By every right, in all justice, it belonged to James Channing; but he who put in his claim, taking advantage of a quibble of law, was a rich man and a mighty one. I should not like to take possession of another's money in such a manner. The good, old-fashioned, wholesome fear would be upon me, that it would bring no good either to me or mine.
James Channing never supposed but that the money would be his some time. Meanwhile he sought and obtained employment to occupy his days; to bring "grist to the mill," until the patrimony should come. Hoping, hoping, hoping on; hope and disappointment, hope and disappointment--there was nothing else for years and years; and you know who has said, that "Hope deferred maketh the heart sick." There have been many such cases in the world, but I question, I say, if we can quite realize them. However, the end had come--the certainty of disappointment; and Mr. Channing was already beginning to be thankful that suspense, at any rate, was over.
He was the head of an office--or it may be more correct to say the head of the Helstonleigh branch of it, for the establishment was a London one--a