But he may gaily flutter round,
Within his prison's scanty bound,
And give his soul to song; for he
Ne'er longs to taste sweet liberty.

3. Oh! may I not as happy dwell
Within my unillumined cell?
May I not leap, and sing, and play,
And turn my constant night to day?
I never saw the sky,
the sea;

The earth was never green to me;
Then why, oh why should I repine,
For blessings that were never mine?

4. Think not that blindness makes me saa;
My thoughts, like yours, are often glad.
Parents I have, who love me well;
Their different voices I can tell.
Though far and absent, I can hear,
In dreams, their music meet my ear.
Is there a star so dear above,
As the low voice of one you love?

5. I never saw my father's face,

Yet, on his forehead when I place
My hand, and feel the wrinkles there,
Left less by time than anxious care,
I fear the world has sights of wo,
To knit the brows of manhood so.
I sit upon my father's knee;
He'd love me less, if I could see.

6. I never saw my mother smile;
Her gentle tones my heart beguile;
They fall like distant melody,
They are so mild and sweet to me.
She murmurs not-my mother dear!
Though sometimes I have kissed the tear
From her soft cheek, to tell the joy
One smiling word would give her boy.

7. Right merry was I every day!
Fearless to run about and play
With sisters, brothers, friends, and all,
To answer to their sudden call,

To join the ring, to speed the chase,
To find each playmate's hiding place,
And pass my hand across his brow,
To tell him-I could do it now!

8. Yet, though delightful flew the hours,
So passed in childhood's peaceful bowers,
When all were gone to school but I,
I used to sit at home and sigh;
And though I never longed to view
The earth so green, the sky so blue,
I thought I'd give the world to look
Along the pages of a book.

9. Now, since I've learned to read and write,
My heart is filled with new delight.

And music too; can there be found
A sight so beautiful as sound?

Tell me, kind friends, in one short word,
Am I not like that captive bird?
I live in song, in peace and joy,-
Though blind, a merry-hearted boy!

LESSON XXXIII.

The Safe Side of the Hedge.

1. You have often heard old people talk of "Keeping on the safe side of the Hedge." It is one of the old-fashioned maxims, long known and but little understood or practised in the world. Our good Schoolmaster used sometimes to make use of it; and we very well knew, that by getting on the wrong side, he meant doing what would insure us a sound basting: we of course took especial care to mind which the right side was, in matters that were to come under his scrutiny.

2. But I have often since seen some one or other of my old classmates, groping along on the wrong side of the Hedge, and faring far more miserably than they would have fared in our days of scholarship, by being found there.

3. But I was reminded, the other day, of this old maxim, by a rather whimsical incident. I rode over in the morning to the vendue at the Chestnut-hill place, where all the people round had collected, to purchase bargains, and talk over

the affairs of the neighborhood. When I reached the house, the people had just returned from the meadow where the crier had been selling off some stock; and old Seventysix John, the weaver, from over the creek, had got into a cart, and, with his hat off, was making a speech to the people, after the manner, I suppose, of Poor Richard.

4. He had told them, among other things, it seems, that they should" Keep on the safe side of the Hedge; "and some wag, to lengthen out the scene, had just inquired what that meant, when I came up. "Do you see," said the old veteran, twisting his chew of tobacco three or four times round "Do you see, there's Dick Donothing, who bought a barrel and a half of old whiskey this morning, and gave his note for it, as he hadn't the money to pay; I don't say he's on the safe side of the Hedge. And there's Tom Trustall, who went his security on the note: I don't say he keeps on the safe side. And there's-"

5. "But answer the question," said a dozen voices, not knowing whose turn might come next. "What is keeping on the safe side?"

6. "Why, do you see Sam Steady there," replied John, "driving home two fine milch cows, which he bought low, paid the money for, and will make a nice penny out of? He has kept on the safe side of the Hedge. It means, at vendues, to buy only what you want, what you can get at a reasonable price, and what you can pay for."

7. The people all clapped hands, and the old man kept himself on the safe side, by ending his speech when he had done, and while the current ran in his favor.

8. There appeared to me to be a good deal of pith in what the old man said.-I have often thought of it since, and I believe the maxim might be profitably applied to numberless cases. For instance :-the man who becomes an indorser or surety for another, except under very peculiar circumstances, gets on the wrong side of the Hedge, and on a very dangerous one too, from which, ten chances to one, he does not escape with whole bones.

9. The man who stands waiting, with his hands in his pockets, for a windfall, or the death of a relation; who neglects providing himself with shoes, in hopes of wearing other people's, has got on the wrong side of the Hedge; and he will, in all probability, stand till he sticks fast there.

10. Many people who have sold a good estate in this coun

try, and gone to hunt a better living abroad, have travelled all the way on a slippery side of the Hedge; and four out of five of them fell in the dirt ere they got back.

11. But I have not room to enlarge; nor is it necessary, as every one who reads may make his own additions, inferences, and comments. I close with suggesting to my reader the importance of often inquiring, both in regard to his temporal and eternal concerns-"Am I on the safe side of the Hedge?

LESSON XXXIV.

A Scheme to make a Fortune.

1. CHARLES read, one evening, in the newspaper, of a man in the state of Kentucky, who, with a single ticket, from a truly Fortunate Lottery Office, had drawn a prize of twenty thousand dollars, and that others might do the same, by paying barely twelve dollars for a ticket.

2. This was a capital chance to make a fortune; but the tickets would be two dollars dearer, if he did not buy one that very week. He procured a printed scheme of the lottery, which was said to be the best that had ever been devised. 3. After looking over the plan, with great attention, he concluded there was only one difficulty, and that was, to get the twelve dollars. He had laid up an English guinea, which he had obtained for his work. He sold his best jacket for ten shillings, and some books for two dollars, and the rest of the money he borrowed, among his acquaintance. The lottery was to be drawn in six weeks, and he intended to pay all these debts, and regulate matters to his liking, as soon as he got his money from the lottery managers.

4. Frequently, in his sleep, he thought that he had drawn a rich prize; and three times he dreamed precisely what he did with his money. Sometimes he fancied himself staggering home, with a back-load of dollars, in a leather bag, on his shoulder; and once he waked up frightened, and thought a robber had broken into the house, and stolen his ticket.

5. He told his dreams to his friends, and one of his uncle Jacob's sons contrived to get twelve dollars, unknown to his father, and soon had as fair prospects, and as pleasant dreams, as his cousin.

6. Mrs. Halyard's hired girl, Dorinda, raised all the funds

she could command, and bought a quarter of one; because she heard that Viney Bloom, a servant-girl in a boardinghouse, had drawn five hundred dollars, and laid out half of it for beads, and rings, and fine clothes, in one day.

7. Dorinda said, a quarter of twenty thousand dollars was five thousand, and that was as much as she wanted. A negro boy, who had got some change for brushing boots, went with six-cent pieces enough to buy the eighth part of a ticket; for the managers had divided them down in this manner, to oblige poor people, who could not buy more.

8. This eighth part was expected to draw twenty-five hundred dollars for Suwarrow, the boot-black; and Suwarrow thought he should be a dashing young buck. He intended to smoke the best Spanish segars, and walk up and down Broadway in high style.

9. When Charles brought home his ticket, he wrote down the description of it, in his tablet, and after reading, twenty times over, that this precious scrap of paper would entitle the holder to such sum of money as might be drawn against its number, he put it away, in a snug corner of his mother's bureau drawer.

10. Every day he went to read it over, and see that it was safe in its place. He was now full of calculations about being a man of fortune, and could not keep his mind to any thing else.

11. The six weeks at last passed away. The fortunemakers found that they had lost their money. They all drew blanks! The high prize, it was said, was drawn by a very deserving man in New Orleans; but the boy who carried the account from the Lottery Office to the printer, did not know what the worthy gentleman's name was.

12. Charles had now become so set on getting his little red chest full of money, that he determined to make a fortune some way or other, at a single jump. A young lad told him of a place, where they insured a ticket to draw a prize, and said, by going there, and giving ten dollars, besides the price of his ticket, he would be pretty certain of getting at least four hundred dollars. This appeared much better than drawing a blank. Charles again exerted himself to the utmost, and gave these men the ten dollars to insure his new ticket.

13. When his brother Jack came home from sea, and found what was going on, he began to fear that his brother