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ed if there was not some exciting cause for || place early in the morning. The following

her sudden attack, as mental agitation and distress.

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evening, Mr. Woodley returned in low spirits, having failed of obtaining business of any kind. About an hour after his return, some one knocked at the door, which, on being opened, proved to be Mr. Myers. He had, he said, received a letter that morning from a friend in Boston, requesting him to procure a person he could recommend to take the place of his head clerk, who had recently engaged in business on his own account.

'I have made some enquiry,' added Mr. Myers, and find I can recommend you without hesitancy, if you will accept the situation, which will command a salary competent, I think, for the comfortable support of you and your family.'

'There was,' she replied; though when I inform you what it was, I fear that you, and especially the gentleman with you, who is less accustomed to such occurrences, will think me capable of exerting but little fortitude. But you know, Doctor, that my lot, of late, has been a hard one, such as would naturally impair the health, and break down the mental energies. Yesterday, I suffered Mary, against my better judgment,to visit a neighbor's daughter, where she met the children of the rich, who ridiculed her on account of her mean dress, and she came home almost broken hearted. They could not have known how few sources of amusement she has, neither could they imagine that they were crushing a young heart too good and generous to inflict on them a moment's pain. would take too long a time to attempt to describe the feeling of anguish which assailed me when she told me, in a voice half-choked with tears and broken by sobs, of the whispers of ironical praise bestowed on her appearance. It seemed to have the power of concentrating all my sufferings, and had not a temporary oblivion come I believe madness would have been the consequence. The last that I reTen years had passed away, and on a member, hideous faces seemed to be glar-cold, starry evening in mid-winter, a long ing upon me, mocking me with their fiendish laugh, while their hot breath upon my brow appeared to burn my brain.'

over me,

Mr. Woodley, as may be imagined, most gladly and thankfully accepted it, and Mr. Myers wrote an answer to his friend's letItter, informing him of his success before he slept. In a little more than a week from that time, the Woodleys, with renovated health, were situated in a neat and convenient house in the city of Boston. From that time, Mr. Woodley was the favorite of Fortune. He was soon enabled to enter into business for himself, and shortly became one of the most opulent merchants in the city.

As Mr. Myers listened to this relation, he wished that his wife and daughter could be present, the one to see the necessity of checking a too exuberant flow of spirits, when of a nature to wound the feelings of another, the other to see the effects of what she considered her harmless fun. Rest, nourishing food and above all relief from anxiety and whatever might agitate or harrass her spirits, were, the physician said, what she at present required more than medicine. The woman who had come in at Mary's request, promised Mr. Myers to remain all night, he having told her that ho would send some person to take her

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line of carriages might have been seen in one of the fashionable streets of New York, which drew up in succession before a splendid mansion brilliantly illuminated, to permit the occupants to alight. Two young ladies, who were among the first who entered the magnificent drawing-room, were seated somewhat apart,and were engaged in conversation which appeared to be deeply interesting to themselves. Both were fashionably and rather tastefully attired, and a person, who many years before had chanced to look in upon the children's party, might have remembered one of them to be Selina North. Esther Myers, now, as then, was by her side, but so few of the traits exhibited by childhood remained, that no one, who had not seen her siuce that time,

'I suppose,' said Selina, 'that you have heard that Arthur Rives has returned from Europe, and is expected here this evening.' 'No-impossible! He cannot have returned. He would have called, or at least, I should have heard of his return,' said Esther, while she suddenly and involuntarily grasped her companion's hand.

would have been likely to recognize her. || hands with fingers tinged with rose, and Then, her features, though not handsome, her almost diminutive feet were most exwore a bright and vivid bloom, which had quisitely formed. The prevailing and now passed away, leaving a skin of rather harmonizing characteristic of her whole coarse texture, almost sallow. Her spark-person was extreme delicacy, yet pervad ling black eyes alone remained as they had ed and animated with that pure glow of been, except that the boldness of their health which gives to the lily its unsullied original glance was somewhat subdued. whiteness, as well as to the rose its glowing blushes. As Esther Myers gazed on her faultless ensemble, she felt that as far as personal attractions went, there was for herself nothing to hope; and those deep and impassioned sentiments, which, even from childhood, had been springing up in her bosom unchecked with regard to Arthur Rives, she felt resolved so to crush that they would bloom no more.— The moment approached for the exercise of all her self-control. Arthur and his sister and the lady were moving directly towards the spot where she and Selina were seated. She would have made her escape to some other part of the room, but she saw that Frances had observed her; though Arthur, evidently, did not recognize her. This, by calling up her pride, assisted to calm her agitation.

'Perhaps, too, you have not heard that he is engaged to a lady of great beauty, whose father is very rich.'

'No, but I know that he is not engaged, unless to some foreign lady, for Frances told me that he was not the very day he left Now York.'

'He certainly is-not to a foreign, but a Boston lady. You may possibly recollect that he remained in Boston a week or ten days before he sailed. During that time, he became deeply enamored of the lady in question-proposed, and was accepted.'

'Her name?'

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'Arthur,' said Frances, finding that her brother did not recollect her, 'have you forgotten your old playmate, Esther Myers ?'

'I have been unable to learn her name.' So absorbed had they been in the subject of their conversation, they had not heard the last visiters announced, who were just then entering the apartment. 'Look! look!' said Selina, jogging her tive and hasty glance at the lady, whose

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The name seemed to call up some unpleasant association; and he cast a fur

hand rested on his arm. He, however, appeared to immediately recollect himself, and greeted her with politeness, if not warmth.

'And here is an old and well-beloved

playmate of mine,' said Frances. 'You may possibly remember Mary Woodley?"

Utterly confused and disconcerted at this unexpected announcement, Miss Myers stammered forth a few unintelligible Miss words, and mechanically gave Woodley her hand, who had extended her own to receive it.

Mary, although she had not forgotten

200

The Orphan Ballad Singer.-The Bible.

that Esther Myers, when they were children, had once treated her with ridicule and contempt, had not suffered herself to retain any resentment, and immediately seating herself by her side, she enquired respecting her father, whose kindness and generosity, when her parents and herself were suffering deep affliction,she had ever cherished in her heart. Neither had Esther forgotten it; and when, many years afterwards, she sat in the midst of her own family circle, among the lessons which she most earnestly sought to impress on the minds of them all, was, ever to regard with tenderness and consideration the feelings of those who by any means might be placed within the sphere of their influence.

THE ORPHAN BALLAD SINGERS.

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BY L. E. LANDON.

--

O, weary, weary are our feet

And weary, weary is our way,
Thro' many a long and crowded street,
We've wandered mournfully to-day.
My little sister she is pale;

She is too tender and too young
To bear the autumn's sullen gale,

And all day long the child has sung.

She was our mother's favorite child,

Our cottage where the ash tree bends,

The garden we had filled with flowers.
The sounding shells our father brought,
That we might hear the sea at home;
Our bees, that in the summer wrought
The winter's golden honey-comb.

We wandered forth 'mid wind and rain,
No shelter from the open sky;
I only wish to see again

My mother's grave, and rest and die.
Alas, it is a weary thing

To sing our ballads o'er and o'er; The songs we used at home to singAlas, we have a home no more!

The Essayist.

For the Ladies' Pearl.
THE BIBLE.

In purity of style, sublimity of thought and eloquence of expression, nothing surpasses the language of scripture as originally flowing from the pen of inspiration. There is an elevation of thought and precision of diction, which, united with the moral beauty of its precepts and examples, constrains even the infidel to acknowledge, that the Bible has no parallel. Well might Longinus quote the almighty fiat, that spoke light from 'primeval darkness,' as an example of the highest sub

Who loved her for her eyes of blue,lime; well might other writers, whose

And she is delicate and mild,

She cannot do what I can do.
She never met her father's eyes,
Although they were so like her own;
In some far distant sea he lies,

A father to his child unknown.
The first time that she lisped his name,

A little playful thing was she;
How proud we were--yet that night came

The tale how he had sunk at sea.
My mother never raised her head;
How strange,how white, how cold she
grew!

It was a broken heart they said,

I wish our hearts were broken too.

We have no home-we have no friends,
They said our home no more was ours;

minds had been visited by some faint rays of inspiration, conceal their author, and present his truths; and it requires no great extension of the imagination to suppose the few truths we meet in classic authors, as emanations from the Divine nind, for when disengaged from the heterogeneous mass of pagan mythology in which we find them imbedded, they prove their own identity and show themselves to be but straggling beams of the great moral sun which illumined Palestine.Truths in such authors have fitiy been compared to pearls on the ocean's bed; when obtained and confirmed by the light of reason they are invaluable, but the offorts for their acquisition are fraught with

peril. But in the Bible we have "truth || tional prosperity? The past has demonstrated, the present is demonstrating, and analogy infers that the future will not de| ny it.

without mixture of error," which like the pure mathematics conveys irresistible conviction to the mind of the honest reader; truth which argument cannot conclusively answer, nor sophistry satisfactorily evade.

Regarded as a history, the Bible is the oldest and best authenticated, the only one which begins with creation and traces the rise and fall of nations to the end of time.

As a system of Ethics it is replete with wisdom, as well it may be, considering its author is God our Maker. In its delineations of character, its descriptions of the natural heart, its portraiture of the prejudices and passions which influence man, we behold the hand of a Divine Master. From those precepts which we cherish and those examples which we believe, we mark the path of our individual duties and behold the most prominent characteristics of human nature.

As a system of Political economy the Bible should be consulted. Not that it is expedient for mankind to desire a theocratical government, such as the children of Israel enjoyed, but by observing the course of those nations that have flourished, and the fate of those who have fallen, we may mark the causes of their prosperity or destruction. The Bible unfolds the history of their rise and ruin, and marks out a course for future nations. By showing the relation of man to man, and man to God, it consolidates the social compact and leagues men in the strongest union. Human governments, as systems, while their subjects are united in their support, may maintain their independence; but to this union something beside mere human philosophy is requisite. A standard of action, a criterion of belief, a religious faith is necessary. And what source furnishes these in greater purity and excellence than the Bible. Mark its teachings, its doctrines and requisitions and say,are they not indispensable to Na

History records the existence of mighty empires which have long since ceased to be, and while musing over their fate, we naturally enquire the causes of their dissolutions. We consult history and it is dumb; we ask reason and abashed it dares not, it cannot answer; this is a deep which the human intellect can never fathom; it must be referred to a higher source for solution-to the Bible, the fate-book of Nations. D.

SONG.

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BY MRS. HEMANS.

If thou hast crushed a flower,
The root may not be blighted,
If thou hast quenched a lamp,
Once more it may be lighted;
But on the harp or on the lute,

The string which thou hast broken,
Shall never in sweet sound again

Give to the touch a token? If thou hast loosed a bird,

Whose voice of song could cheer thee, Still, still he may be won

From the skies to warble near thee; But if upon the troubled sea

Thou hast thrown a gem unheeded, Hope not that wind or wave shall bring The treasure back when needed. If theu hast bruised a vine,

The summer's breath is healing, As its clusters yet may grow, Thro' the leaves their bloom revealing; But if thou hast a cup o'erthrown

With a bright draught filled-oh,never Shall earth give back that lavish'd wealth To cool thy parched lip's fever! The heart is like that cup,

If thou waste the love it bore thee, And like that jewel gone,

Which the deep will not restore thee; And like that string of harp or lute

Whence the sweet sund is scattered; Gently, oh gently touch the chords Too soon forever shattered!

202

Personal Decorations.—Marriage.-Pilgrim's Way Song.

cumstances with which they surround themselves by a false step. We know many men who have been struggling a whole life against the influence of an unlucky, or rather foolish marriage connection, and yet the world seldom overlooks a folly of this sort, and all the struggling in the world can never enable the subject to rise.

PERSONAL DECORATIONS. In a short || without solid worth or attainments, or time of universal famine, how many jew-joining himself for life to a fool on acels would you give for a single loaf of count of some pecuniary expectations, or bread? In a raging fever, how many forming a connection which can promise diamonds would you sacrifice for a mo- nothing from the nature of the case but ment's ease. In a parched desert, how disappointinent and wretchedness, while many embroidered robes would you ex- we ought to pity him from our heart, we change for a cool draught? That these always set him down somewhat below gaudy trifles should be valued at so high par. We know some men who have sura rate, is certainly no smali disparage-vived such an error, and having afterment to the understanding of mankind, wards shown that they had some energy, and is a sad demonstration of the mean- but men rise or fall within their choice ness into which we have sunk by the fall. of a wife, and it is generally beyond their Compare them with the sublime and love-power to control effectually all the cirly objects that every where meet your eye in creation around you. Can your richest purple excel the violet, or your purest white eclipse the lily of the valley? Can your brightest gems outshine the glory of the sun? Why then should enormous sums be expended in glittering baubles and sparkling dust? Compare them with your books, your Bible, your souls-all neglected for their sake!A sensible writer has remarked that Arise, at once to correct sentiments and it is not the most exquisite beauty, the noble aims, making the Bible your look-most sprightly wit or the largest fortune, ing glass, the grace of the Spirit your jewels. If you must shine, shine here; here you may shine with advantage in the estimation of the wise and good; in the view and approbation of the holy angels and the eternal God; shine in death when the lustre of the fine gold has become dim, and the ray of the diamond extinguished-shine in the celestial hem-sonable man. isphere with saints and seraphs, amid the splendor of the Eternal.

nor all of them together, nor a hundred other accomplishments, if such there were, that will make a man happy in a partner for life, who is not endowed with the two principal accomplishments of GOOD SENSE and GOOD NATURE. If a woman has not common sense, she can be in no respect a fit companion for a rea

On the contrary, the

whole behaviour of a fool must be disgusting and tiresome to every one that knows her, especially to a husband, who is obliged to be more in her company than any one else, who therefore must see more of her folly than any one else, and must suffer more from the shame of it, as being more nearly connected with her than any other person. If a woman has not some small share of sense, what means can a husband use to set her right in an error of conduct, into many of which she will naturally run? Not reason or argu

MARRIAGE. Some marry for convenience, as widowers with families of small children; some marry for beauty in the hope of deriving happiness from a connection with a person who outshines as sociates; some marry for money, apparently regardless whether the heiress is a shrew or a fool; some marry for love love at first sight-no matter whether well founded or not. Now nearly all such marriages are wretched affairs.ment, for a fool is against that. And if Many a man and woman too, have cursshe have not a little good nature, to ated their day,because they rushed thought- || tempt to advise her, will be only arguing lessly into a connection as unfit as poswith a tempest or rousing a fury! sible, without any reflection as to consequences.

Somehow or other we have a habit of forming a sort of mathematical estimate of a man's sense and general character (and the world we believe tacitly does the same) by the choice he makes in matrimony; and when we see a man with his eyes wide open, marrying beauty

Watchtower.

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