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Bedford coffee house, he was brooding over his perplexities.

"Let me see, this is what I'll do," said he at length, drinking off the last glass of a pint of Madeira, “I've fairly escaped the rascal for to-day; I'll go to my lodgings, pack up a few things, start out of town till term ends, and-"

"Come with me, if you please," said a short man in top boots, belcher handkerchief, and with a knotted stick in his hand. It was Fang, the inevitable Fang!

"I am yours!" groaned the debtor, as they entered a hackney coach and drove off over one of the bridges ! OMEGA.

THE PARTING.

WITH a tear on his cheek he came down to the dell,
At the toll of the curfew, to bid me farewell;
As he paced the dark heath, his low, measureless tread
Seemed a sound from the voiceless abodes of the dead.
He came with a smile on his colourless lip,

But his eye like the greyhound's just loosed from the slip;
As he press'd my warm hand, his was trembling and chill,
When grief fell on my heart, like a mist on the hill.

He went to the battle, but came not again;

I look'd for and sigh'd for his presence in vain :
With his front to the foe, to his death-bed he past,
Like a flower in the sunshine cut down by the blast.
He fell in his prime-as his blood stained the sod,
His spirit flew up to the throne of its God;
While I in this valley of tears must remain,
With "

a fire in my heart, and a fire in my brain."

THE DEAD SON RESTORED

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BY THE AUTHOR OF THE INVISIBLE GENTLEMAN."

MANY days and nights had rolled heavily away since the fatal event; but time had brought no "healing on his wings" for the bereaved mother.

Lonely and bowed down she sate in her desolation; and, if she dared not with her lips to upbraid the sovereign arbiter of man's destiny, her heart murmured rebelliously within her. From its deep and secret recesses there arose no echo to the pious ejaculation— "Thy will be done!"

Thick darkness overshadowed her stricken spirit. To her, "weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable were all the uses of this world"-for her beloved and beautiful child was no more a dweller therein: so she wept, and refused to be comforted, because "he was not."

An aged and a holy man (for such he seemed) now approached her, and mildly exhorted her to submission; but, for a while, she heard him as though she heard him not, for her faculties appeared benumbed with excess of grief. "Daughter!" said he, at length, in a severity of tone which roused her attention, "tell me what there is in life so desirable that thou shouldst wish it to be restored to one concerning whose present happiness thou canst entertain no reasonable doubt?"

"Father!-reverend father!" she exclaimed, "ask

me not such questions! Be not angry with me; for you know not, you cannot know a mother's love. Oh, my poor boy!-my beautiful-beautiful boy! He was

so good, so affectionate, so innocent, so full of promise-"

"Aye," said the venerable comforter, "of promise which might never have been fulfilled. Nay, had he lived, perchance thou mightest have found cause to make thee curse the hour of his birth."

"God forgive thee, for thy foul slander, old man!". cried the indignant mother. "Thou torturest me to the uttermost !-prithee, leave me to my tears!"

"Hear me, daughter!" said the aged man: "it is possible yet for Him, in whose hands are the issues of life and death, to restore unto thee thy son! but—”

"Ha! what?" gasped the bereaved one-" What sayst thou? I have had such dreams! Methought it could not be that he was really gone! But no, no-I saw him-I clung to him till they tore me away-and he was-dead!"

The last word was faintly breathed in a hysterical whisper; and, shuddering, she cowered down, and hid her face in her hands.

took away, can also "If it be his will, you

You may yet see him
But, remember!-to

"He who gave and who restore," said the aged visiter. may yet again embrace your boy. grow up to youth and manhood. you he owes his birth: to your disconsolate prayers and the means you will adopt he will owe his return to the world, from which he would otherwise have escaped while innocent-remember that his soul is immortal, and watch and pray' that he enter not into temptation.""

H

When she looked up, her venerable comforter was gone.

Wild and vague were the visions which thence took possession of her mind; and more slowly than ever seemed the hours to creep, while she waited the return of a messenger, whom she had despatched to the distant church where the mortal remains of her beloved boy were deposited. It appeared like hoping against conviction; and yet she felt that the aged man could not have meant to trifle with her feelings.

"Oh, that I had been strong enough to undertake the journey myself!" she exclaimed. "Four days have now elapsed and I have no tidings! Can they be dallying with me? Yes; it must be so. They mock and humour me; and give way to what they deem my fancies. They imagine me delirious, because I choose not to explain the ground of my hope. Wondrous hope it is; and I feel it grow stronger and stronger within me. Ha!-what an extraordinary sensation do I experience at this moment! 'Tis as though a heavy weight were removed from me; and the pure air fans and cools my long burning forehead. Hark! Hush! Hark! Is it possible? Yes, yes! I cannot be mistaken. Those are his little footsteps! Nearer-nearer they come! Why cannot I fly? Oh! mercy! mercy! This is too much! It isit is he! Henry! Love! Bless - bless -blessings! Where-what-where have you been? And do I again, indeed, embrace my own dear-dear boy? Where have you been? What have they been doing to you ?"

Mothers alone can comprehend the full joy of such a meeting. The deep gloom which had shrouded her spirit fled away before that burst of light; for her son had hitherto been to her even as the light of her life.

Pale was his cheek, and his whole frame bore indications of recent illness; but the placid smile and unclouded brow told that all suffering was at an end. The eyes which she had watched and seen gradually and languidly abating in lustre, now gleamed with a sparkling brilliancy which she fancied more than earthly.

"I cannot bear to think of what you have endured," she murmured, seeking as it were for some dark spot to screen her mental vision, for a moment, amid the excess of light.

“Indeed, I have been very-very happy," said the little boy: "happier than ever I was before. It was here," (and he placed his hand on his heart,)" here that I felt happiness. I had no wants, as you know I always used to have. I did not even want to come back to you; and yet, I remember thinking you would come to me."

"Those were dreams, my sweet one," said the mother: "but we are now together again, and will part no more."

"I am very glad to see you again, mamma," said the little fellow, "indeed I am: but I hope you will let me go back again to the place I came from. You must come and see me there. So many other children are there, and all so good, that I am sure you cannot help loving them as much as you do me: and I shan't be at all jealous, for I love them all as well as I love myself."

"Oh! my dear, dear boy!" exclaimed his mother, "indeed, indeed, I cannot part with you. You must remain with me."

Then the child, for the first time since his return, looked sad; but, perceiving his mother in tears, and remembering all her past kindness, he threw his arms round her neck and laid his face on her bosom. And there

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