any nourishment or suffering her the bridge, or of being crushed by

eyes to be abstracted for a moment from the object of her affection. Death, which she waited for with impatience, came at last, and closed her eyes while she was stretched over the dead body of her husband. 664. Father and Sons.- A father once went to the agents of a tyrant to endeavour to redeem his two sons, military men, who were, with some other captives of war, appointed to die. He offered as a ransom to surrender his own life

and a large sum of money. The soldiers who had it in charge to put them to death, informed him that this equivalent would be accepted for one of his sons, and for one only, because they should be accountable for the execution of two persons; he might therefore choose which he would redeem. Anxious to save even one of them thus at the expense of his own life, he yet was utterly unable to decide which should die, and remained in the agony of his dilemma so long that his sons were both slain.

the falling stones, that no one in
the vast number of spectators had
courage enough to attempt such an
exploit. A peasant passing along
was informed of the circumstance,
and of the promised reward. Im-
mediately jumping into a boat, he,
middle of the river, brought his
by strength of arm, gained the
boat under the pile, and the whole
of a rope.
family safely descended by means
Courage," said he,
now you are safe." By a still
more strenuous effort, and great
boat and family to shore.
strength of arm, he brought the
"Brave
fellow!" exclaimed the Count,

66

66

handing the purse to him, "here is
"I shall never
your recompense."
expose my life for money," an-
swered the peasant; "my labour is
a sufficient livelihood for myself,
my wife, and children. Give the
purse to this poor family, who have

lost all."

666. Going Home." I remember," says Dr. Pierre, "on my return to France, after a long voyage discerned the shores of their native to India, as soon as the sailors had country, they became in a great the duties of the ship; some looked measure incapable of attending to at it wistfully, others dressed themselves in their best clothes; some talked, others wept. As we approached their joy became greater,

and still more intense was it when we came into port and saw on the quay their parents and children;

665. Generous Deed.-A great inundation having taken place in the north of Italy, owing to an excessive fall of snow in the Alps followed by a speedy thaw, the river Adige carried off a bridge near Verona, except the middle part, on which was the house of the toll-gatherer, who thus, with his whole family, remained imprisoned by the waves and in momentary danger of destruction. They were discovered from the bank stretch-so that we had to get, according to ing forth their hands, screaming, and imploring succour, while fragments of the only remaining arch were continually dropping into the water. In this extreme danger, a nobleman who was present, a Count of Pulverini, held out a purse of one hundred sequins as a reward to any adventurer who would take a boat and deliver this unhappy family. But the danger was so great of being borne down by the rapidity of the current, of being dashed against a fragment of

of sailors to bring us into the harthe custom of the port, another set

bour."

667. Indian's Kindness. - At the battle of Freehold, during the first American war, а young English officer, closely pressed by two Abenakis Indians, with upraised hatchets, no longer hoped for life, and only resolved to sell it dearly. At the moment when he expected to sink beneath them, an old Indian armed with a bow approached him, and prepared to aim

an arrow; but having adjusted it, looked on his prisoner with earnestin an instant he dropped his bow, ness, and in a mingled tone of and ran to throw himself between tenderness and sorrow inquired, the young officer and his assailants, "Hast thou a father?" "He was who immediately retired with re- alive," answered the young man, spect. The old man took his pri- " when I left my country." “Oh, soner by the hand, encouraged him how miserable he must be !" cried by caresses, and conducted him to the Indian; and after a moment his cabin. It was winter, and the of silence, he added, "Knowest Indians were retiring home. Here thou that I have been a father? I he kept him for some time, treated am so no more! I saw my child him with undiminished softness, fall in the battle; he was at my and making him less his slave than side. I saw him die like a warrior; his companion. At length he he was covered with wounds, my taught him the Abenakis language, child, when he fell. But I have and the rude arts in use among that avenged him! Yes, I have avenged people. They became perfectly him.” The Indian at pronouncing satisfied with each other, and the these words was much agitated; young officer was comparatively then turning to the east, where the happy, except at times when his sun was just rising, he said to the heart was wrung to perceive the young Englishman, "Seest thou old man intently fix his eyes on that beauteous sun, resplendent of him and shed tears. At the return brightness? Hast thou pleasure in of spring the Indians returned to seeing it?" "Yes," answered he, arms, and prepared for the cam- "I have pleasure in seeing that paign. The old man, yet suffi- beautiful sky." "Ah, well! I ciently strong to support the have it no more," said the Indian, fatigues of war, set out with them, shedding a torrent of tears. A accompanied by his prisoner. The moment after he showed the young Abenakis made a march of more officer a flowering shrub. "Seest than two hundred leagues across thou that fine tree?" said he to the desert, till at length they him, "and hast thou pleasure in arrived within sight of an English looking upon it ?" "Yes, I have," camp. The old Indian pointed it he answered. "I have it no out to the young officer, at the more," returned the Indian, with same time contemplating him precipitation; "but as for thee, wistfully. "Behold thy brothers," go, return to thy country, that thy said he to him; "behold where father may again with pleasure they wait to give us battle! Hear mark the rising sun, and behold me; I have saved thy life, I have the springing flower." taught thee to make a canoe, bows and arrows; to obtain the means to make them from the forest, to manage the hatchet, and to take off the scalp of an enemy. What wert thou when I took thee to my cabin? Thy hands were those of a child; they neither served to nourish nor defend thee; thy soul was in night; thou knewest nothing; thou owest me all! Wilt thou, then, be ungrateful enough to join thy brothers, and raise the hatchet against us?" The young Englishman vowed he would rather lose a thousand lives than spill the blood of one Abenakis. The Indian

668. Joyful Recognition. - M. Labat, a merchant of Bayonne, ill in health, had retired to a country house on the banks of the Adour. One morning, when promenading, in his robe-de-chambre, on a terrace elevated a little above the river, he saw a traveller thrown by a furious horse from the opposite bank into the midst of the torrent. M. Labat was a good swimmer. He did not stop a moment to reflect on the danger of the attempt, but ill as he was, he threw off his robe-dechambre, leaped into the flood, and caught the drowning stranger at

66

the moment when, having lost all muffin, and give a little flour.' sensation, he otherwise must inevit- This is odd,' said my father; ably have perished. Oh, God!" and what does she do with all exclaimed M. Labat, clasping him this flour?' She has asked us in his arms, and recognising with a for a large sack,' replied the miller's transport of joy the individual he wife, and there she puts it: the had saved; "sacred humanity! sack is by her bedside, and it must what do I not owe thee? I have now be almost full.' During this saved my son!" conversation I said nothing; but reflecting upon it, and perfectly knowng Lolotte, I guessed the cause.

669. Knowledge and Love."Father," asked the son of Bishop Berkeley, "what is the meaning of the words cherubim and seraphim, which we meet with in the Holy Scriptures?" "Cherubim," replied

his father, "is a Hebrew word, signifying knowledge; seraphim is another word of the same language, and signifies flame. Whence it is supposed that the cherubim are angels who excel in knowledge ; and that the seraphim are angels likewise who excel in loving God." "I hope, then," said the little boy, "when I die, I shall be a seraph, for I would rather love God than know all things."

I remembered that I had often Madame d'Ermont; that we had come to see her with Monsieur and frequently spoken of France before

her; that Monsieur d'Ermont had mentioned the scarcity of bread, and had said that the counter

revolution would be effected by

famine. I doubted not but Lclotte's store of flour had some connexion with this, but lest I might be deceived, I kept silence. At last Lolotte returned from her walk; after having embraced us, she sat upon the knee of my father, who did not fail to question her with regard to the flour. Lolotte blushed, and evaded answering by saying we would laugh at her; but when she was closely pressed to explain herself, I saw her countenance take that moving expression which it always has when she is going to cry; and then she said, with a broken voice, It is because I knew that very soon there would be no more bread in France, and I want to send a provision of flour to my nurse Caillett."

670. Little One's Kindness.Madame de Genlis relates the following anecdote in her admirable work of the "Little Emigrants:" "One morning, when we came to the mill, we did not find Lolotte, who was in the fields; while we were waiting for her, my father and I conversed with the miller's wife. I had brought several playthings for Lolotte; and the miller's wife, laughing, told me that they would not please her so well as a little Sour. How?' said I. She re- 671. Love One Another.A plied, For three weeks Lolotte Welsh parson, preaching from this has cared for nothing but heaping text, "Love one another," told his up flour; every morning she comes congregation that in kind and reto beg some of my husband, who spectful treatment to our fellow gives her a handful: besides this creatures we were inferior to the she invents a thousand little schemes brute creation. As an illustration to get some from me; and when of the truth of this remark, he she sees me in a good humour, or quoted an instance of two goats in when I caress her, I am sure she is his own parish that once met upon going to say, 'Give me a little a bridge so very narrow, that they flour.' The other day we had could not pass by without one made some muffins, and I carried thrusting the other off into the one to her; her first movement river. "And," continued he, was to take it, and then she con- "how do you think they acted? sidered, and said, 'Keep your Why, I will tell you. One goat

to pick up a fallen apple. Don't site his father's house, the little you weary, Gottlieb,' I asked, boat had come on shore to take him 'stooping so often, and then lying off, and his whole heart was bent all alone by the road-side?' 'No, on going. After his trunk had no, miss,' he answered, smiling. been carried down to the boat, he and offering me a handful of ripe went to bid his mother farewell, pears. 'I don't weary; I'm just and saw the tears bursting from waiting-waiting. I think I'm her eyes. However, he said nothing about ripe now, and I must soon to her, but he saw that his mother fall to the ground; and then, just would be distressed if he went, think, the Lord will pick me up! and perhaps never be happy again. Oh, miss, you are young yet, and He turned round to the servant perhaps just in blossom: turn well and said, "Go and tell them to round to the Sun of Righteous- fetch my trunk back. I will not ness, that you may ripen sweet for go away to break my mother's His service." heart." His mother was struck with his decision, and she said to 677. Washington's Mother. him, her voice full of new-found General George Washington, when joy, "George, God has promised quite young, was about to go to to bless the children that honour sea as a midshipman; everything their parents, and I believe He will was arranged, the vessel lay oppo- bless you."

MARTYRS.

Psalm xxxvii. 32, cxix. 157; Dan. iii. 17; Luke xvii. 33; 2 Tim. ii. 12. 678. Christian Courage. When but previously employed emissaries the executioner went behind Je- to persuade him, by means of rome of Prague to set fire to the flattery and false promises, to repile, "Come here," said the martyr, nounce his faith. The good man "and kindle it before my eyes; for was overcome, and subscribed to if I dreaded such a sight, I should the errors of the Church of Rome. never have come to this place when His conscience smote him; he I had a free opportunity to escape." returned to his former persuasion, The fire was kindled, and he then and, when brought to the stake, he sang a hymn, which was soon stretched forth the hand that had finished by the encircling flames. made the unhappy signature, and Algerius, an Italian martyr, thus held it in the flames till it was wrote from his prison a little before entirely consumed, frequently exhis death: 66 'Who would believe claiming, "That unworthy hand !" that in this dungeon I should find after which he patiently suffered a paradise so pleasant; in a place martyrdom, and ascended to reof sorrow and death, tranquillity, ceive its reward. and hope, and life; where others weep, I rejoice." Wishart, when in the fire which removed him

from the world, exclaimed, "The flame doth torment my body, but no whit abates my spirits."

679. Cranmer's Unworthy Hand. -In the bloody reign of Queen Mary of England, Archbishop Cranmer became obnoxious to her persecuting spirit. She was determined to bring him to the stake,

680. Death's Sting Banished.About two centuries since, one Margaret Wilson, a girl of eighteen, along with an aged widow of sixtythree, was adjudged to die because they refused to acknowledge the supremacy of any other than Christ in the Church. The sentence pronounced against them was, that they should be fastened to stakes driven into the oozy sand that covers the beach, and left to perish