be very sorry for a short time, and promise that he never would be guilty of such conduct again. But alas! his promises seemed only made to be broken -all because he would not remember his good resolutious.

When the little boys reached the pail of fruit, they each one grasped a handful, and began eating as though they were eager to swallow the whole. But John did not care for the blueberries; he only wanted the fun of seeing aunt Miffin wake up and catch the rogues at their feast. So he stooped down, and crept softly to the pail, and just touched the fruit with his fingers, looking all the time in the face of aunt Miffin, and ready to burst into a laugh the moment she should open her eyes.

She was

But the poor old woman slept soundly. unwell, and very tired, and several times as she came along, trembling under her load of blueberries, she had thought it might be the last time she should go to the village. She intended, after selling her fruit, to buy her some medicine, and a few crackers, and a little tea, (she was very fond of tea)—" and perhaps," said she to herself, "I shall feel better when I have drank my cup of tea. And I will ask John Harris to come home with me and kindle my fire, for he is a good-natured boy; and then I will give him the holy Bible I have laid up for him. It may be that he will read it oftener if I tell him what a blessed book it is, and how its promises have supported me in sickness and sorrow. I will tell him that God never forsakes those who trust in the promises of the Bible. I have walked in the light of the gospel these seventy years, and though my path through the world has appeared to be rough and weary, yet I have been happy, for I could always see that in this way the Saviour

was leading me to heaven. O! that I might meet John Harris in heaven, where I feel sure his pious grandmother is now rejoicing."

Such were the thoughts of this poor but good woman, as she tottered along with her pail of blueberries. How she would have grieved had she known that John Harris, whom she loved so dearly, would be the means of robbing her of the fruit she had taken such pains to gather! And how she would have sorrowed, too, when she reflected that this boy, for whom she had so often heard his pious grandmother pray, should be guilty of the sin of stealing!

I know that some children will not think there could be much harm in such a frolic. They will say, perhaps, that the boys ought to pay aunt Miffin for the berries, and then it would be no matter if they did eat them up while she was asleep.

Would you, my dear children, be willing that any person should do thus by you?-come and steal away the things you owned and had worked for, while you were asleep?

This practice of taking things which are not your own, even though it may be done in sport, is very dangerous and wicked; and it may lead to confirmed habits of pilfering and dishonesty.

This

Well, poor aunt Miffin slept, and while John Harris was watching for her to wake and scream out, and frighten the mischievous urchins, they kept eating and eating, till the berries were all devoured. was a case that John had not expected; he looked up cross and threatening on the children, and especially on great Dan Jones, who, besides eating all he could cram, had stuffed his pockets full and run away. "Stop! stop! Dan, you villain," shouted John, "Stop!"

The noise startled aunt Miffin, but before she could get her eyes fairly opened, the whole troop had run off, and were out of sight; all but Nancy Dame, who could not run away, because she had her baby brother in her arms, and her little blind sister holding by her gown.

"Nancy Dame-O, why did you eat all my blueberries?" said aunt Miffin, shaking her head.

"I did not eat your berries, hardly one of them; only the boys put some into the baby's hand;" replied Nancy, almost crying, for she loved aunt Miffin, who had always been very kind to her.

"My dear child, who has eat them?"

"The boys, all the boys-Sam Draper, and Ezra Bond, and Seth Young, and Dan Jones, and John Harris"

"Who? John Harris, did you say?" screamed out the poor woman. 66 I know he would not touch basket."

a single berry in my

"But, aunt Miffin, he was the first who saw you asleep, and he called the boys, I heard him call them, and say it would be fine fun; and he let them eat the berries all up," said Nancy.

Aunt Miffin's heart was full of sorrow. She did not think much about the loss of the berries, but she grieved that John Harris, her good boy, as she often called him, should have been so unkind, so ungrateful. She wept that aged and feeble woman wept. and sobbed like a little child, as she took up her empty pail, and slowly turned her steps to her lowly and lonely home.

The next morning early John Harris rapped at her door; he had thought of his frolic after he went to bed, and he felt sorry that he had injured aunt Miffin; and he had determined to go early in the

morning, and offer to pick her another pail of blueberries.

He rapped at the door; but she did not bid him come in ; she could not speak. She had been sick, very sick all night; and now felt that she was dying.

John Harris at last opened the door softly, and went in; but when he saw the pale and ghostly countenance of aunt Miffin, he shrinked in horror. He thought she was dead.

"O, John, you have come to comfort me, I know you have," said aunt Miffin, faintly, as she reached out her cold and trembling hand to him. John, I am dying," she continued.

66

John was a courageous boy, but he was frightened now. He had never seen any person die. He snatched his hand away from the feeble woman, and ran like a mad creature, first to his mother, and told her that aunt Miffin was dying, and then he ran, of his own accord, to call the doctor. He sobbed so that the doctor could hardly understand what he wanted; he was beseeching the doctor to cure aunt Miffin. But this was beyond his skill.

The old woman died that day. She forgave John Harris and the other boys, and prayed that God would forgive them also for the sin of stealing her berries; and she gave John the bible she had long intended for him.

"Remember, my dear John," said she, as she placed the bible in his hand, " remember that we are commanded to do to others as we would have them do to us :-think of this command, obey this command, and then you will never injure or insult the unfortunate, the poor, or the aged."

11*

DEVOTION OF LAFAYETTE TO THE CAUSE OF AMERICA.

WHILE we bring our offerings for the mighty of our own land, shall we not remember the chivalrous spirits of other shores, who shared with them the hour of weakness and woe? Pile to the clouds the majestic columns of glory, let the lips of those who can speak well, hallow each spot where the bones of your Bold repose; but forget not those who with your Bold went out to battle.

Among these men of noble daring, there was ONE, a young and gallant stranger, who left the blushing vine-hills of his delightful France. The people whom he came to succour, were not his people; he knew them only in the wicked story of their wrongs. He was no mercenary wretch, striving for the spoil of the vanquished; the palace acknowledged him for its lord, and the valley yielded him its increase. He was no nameless man, staking life for reputation; he ranked among nobles, and looked unawed upon kings. He was no friendless outcast, seeking for a grave to hide his cold heart; he was girdled by the companions of his childhood, his kinsmen were about him, his wife was before him.

Yet from all these he turned away, and came. Like a lofty tree, that shakes down its green glories to battle with the winter storm, he flung aside the trappings of place and pride, to crusade for freedom, in freedom's holy land. He came but not in the day of successful rebellion, not when the new-risen sun of independence had burst the cloud of time, and careered to its place in the heavens. He came when darkness curtained the hills, and the tempest