10
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The Children We Keep,
The children kept coining, one by one,
. .. XilL^tul^B yere hie and the girls.
were three,
And the big brown house was alive with
fun __
From the basement floor to the old
roof tree ;
Like garden flowers the little ones grew,
Nurtured and trained with the tenderr
•
4
,
_______
.t
... ...
Warmfed by love’« sunshine, bathed in
its dew,
They bloomed into beauty, like roses
rare.
"
. But ope the bpys grew weary one day.
And leaning bis head on bis mother’s
breast,
He said “ I am tired and can not play ;
Let me sit awhile on your kneo and
frest.”
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She cradled him close in her fond em-
-. ...... brace,...____ __ _ _______ ___
She hushed him to sleep with her
Bweeteet song,
And rapturous love still lightened his
face
When his spirit had joined the heav-
Then the eldest girl, with her thought-
' • fnT Cyes,
Who stood “ where the brook and the
river meet,”
Stole softly away into Paradise
Ere “ the yver had reached her Blen­
der feet.
While the father's eyes on the graves
are bent,
The mother looked upward beyond
the skies ;
“ Onr treasures,” she whispered, “ were
only lent,
Our darlings were aDgels in earth’s
' disguise.”
______ . ,
The years flew by, and the children be­
gan
With longing to think of the world
outside ;
And v each, in his turn, became a man,
The boys proudly went from the
father's side.
The girl? were women so gentle and fair,
That lovers were speedy to woo and
win;
And, with orange blossoms in braided
hair,
The old home was left, new homes
begin
Bo,ope by one, the children have gone—
The boys were five and the girls were
three ; —1
:
And the big brown house is gloomy and
lone,
With but two old folks for its com­
pany.
They talk to each other about the past,
As they sit together at eventide,
And say, “ All the children we keep at
Are the boy and girl who in childhood
died.”
—Rural Home.
Your prayer must spring .from
honest desire, and such desire can
only come as the outgrowth of pure
love.
nwRAtn.
Nation as a power.
On the farm next to (hat which
‘ Nobody has spoken more .justly
his father had owned he saw an old
on the subject of dress than Sidney
man at work, whom he knew at
Smith, who was as wise as he was
once. Many a time he had snared
witty. He laughed at4he abswrdt-
i al •bits in ol<r'"P:-~--Js - woods," or
ty which would tell a girl that
been driven out of the apple orch­
beauty is of no value an I dress of
ard No doubt the grumpy old
no consequence.
fellow reckoned his acquaintance
“ Beauty,” he said,' “ is of value.
with him as a feather in his cap
A girl’s whole prospects and happi­
now.
ness in life may often depend upon
The Dying Daughter.
__ Jle^
a new gown, or a becoming bonnet,
Mr. P----- -did not recognize him,
Dr. Elliott, who was well ac­ and Webster inquired about the old
and if she has a grain of common
sense, she will find this out. The quainted with the celebrated Colo­ inhabitants of the neighborhood, re­
great thing is to teach her their just nel Ethan Allen, visited him at the ceiving short and surly replies.
value, and that there must be some­ time w 1i en his da lighter was sick. “ W ho used tn own that farm
thing better than a pretty face un-' r and near to Meath. He was intro- twenty years ago ?”
der the bonnet, if she would have duced .to the library, when the
“ Folks named Webster.”
colonel read to him some of his
real and lasting happiness.”
“ Yes, I remember. Mr. Webster
. . There is no surer expression of writings, with much self-compla­ had a family of boys, I believe f’
character than dress, It gives evi cency, and asked, “ Is not that well
“ Yes. There was a considerable
4enca -wh.icJa...jif)ne can dispute, of done ?” While they were thus em-
wisdom or fully, of refinement or ployed, a messenger entered and in — “ The oldest boy, now, what be­
the want of it; and since it is an formed Colonel Aden that his came of him 1”
indication of what we aie, its edicts daughter was dying, and desired to
“Oh, he settled down farmin’.
have their place among the minor speak with him. He immediately Married rich. . Man of property he
went to her chamber, accompanied
morals Ta^"^
is. Quite respectable.'*’ '
always signs of frivolity, or even of by Dr. Elliott, who was desirous of
“ And the second son ?” •
an absorbing interest in the fashions. witnessing the interview. The wife
" He was the good lookin’ one.
We have in mind one girl, fair and of Colonel Allen was a pious wom­ Beauty Bill, they called him. Well,
sweet of nature, and of far more an, and had instructed her daughter he turned put fair enough. Sharp
than ordinary intellectual power, in the juinciples of Christianity.
business man, they tell me, down in
As soon as her father appeared at
whose dress is elegant enough for a
York State.” ~
her
bedside,
she
said
to
him,
“
I
am
roya], drawing-room, and yet is so
“ Do you know what became of
simply worn as to seem to belong about to die; shall I believe in the the others ?” said the good-looking
to her, as petal’s belong to a flower, principles you have taught me, or Dan, in a more depressed voice.
and to express her character as shall I believe in what mother has
“ No, I don’t. Gee, there ! Not
taught me ?” He became extreme­ much good, I guess,” cracking his
word« express a thought.
One day, she sat with us in her ly agitated, his chin quivered, his whip over the oxen. Mr. Webster
soft raiment, her dovc-colored robe whole frame shook, and after wait­ strolled along beside him.
falling around her slight figure, her ing a few moments he replied, “ Be­
“ There was orie named Daniel /”
pale blue feathers framing her hair lieve what your mother has taught he ventured at last.
and gentle face. Looking at her, it you.”
“ Danell ? Danell ? Oh I I mind '
A
death-bed
is
a
fearful
tester.
seemed as if she must have found
Dan was the most worthless of the
some special sweetness in life, which Men who while in health and lot! No, I never heerd tell of him,
would make it especially hard to strength loudly bjast of their skep- but I should in—fer he went to the
I tical principles, and ridicule religion, dogs.”
leave it.
“ Do you not dread to die ?” we ate generally the first, on approach
Mr. Webster always enjoyed this
asked' suddenly, giving words to of death J or even sickness, to shud- story as keenly as any of his hear­
the thought which had possessed ■ , der with feat ' Even of Hobbes, the ers.
celebrated infidel, it is recorded that
us.
It was a smile of strange, half-1 he could not bear to be left alone,
Zero.
unearthly loveliness that crossed and used to awaken in great terror
Few of our readers, it may be,
the young face as she answered ;
- * I if his candle went out during the
“Noy-1 dread more lest I should fiigtit. He never couTd endure any" are familiar with the origin, or
live too long, and wear out the body discourse about death I Infidelity hardly with the definition, of the
that clothes my sonl. I dread that has no consolation for its unhappy j term “ ze.ro" which is in constant
just as I should dislike to wear followers in the testing hour.— use upon the Fahrenheit thermom­
these clothes till they were shabby,” Frank Leslies Sunday Magazine. eter.. Coming into our speech from
the Arabic through the Spanish, it
and she touched the dove-colored
perpetuates its original force, which
draperies that Fell about her.
Fame.
is “ nothing,” or “ empty.” There
“ Then you have no fear of enter­
Daniel Webster frequently told is a manifest solecism in the use of
ing into the new, strange life ?”
“ What should I fear ?” she an­ the storv of his coming home after the word - force as thus applied,
swered, “since here or there 1 must twenty years’ absence, to the valley though, in another sense, our read­
be always in my Father’s world; where he had been born, but ip ers have need only -to appeal to
for I love him and 1 believe that he which none of his immediate family their very recent experience to real­
were left. Webster was then in ize that there is a decided fitness in
loves me.”
The glory of hope so strong as to ‘ ' Congress, already recognized by the its practical significance. The in-»
Why Should I Fear ?
Family Circle.
__ __ eat cam;_ ____
cmtsTiAy
l>e certainty, lit up her serene eyes,
and we saw that to her, indeed, was
the life more than the raiment;
and that a girl might blossom like
a llower, and be, as a How’er, Uncon-
sciius of her beauty^ an3 ready for
whatever wind from heaven might
sweep.away the outward adorning
from the loving and waiting soul.—
'Youth's Companion.
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