ful child, bending over her, looked like the picture of some bright angel stooping to reclaim a sinner. "Poor Topsy!" said Eva, "don't you know that Jesus loves all alike? He is just as willing to love you as me. He loves you just as I do-only more, because he is better. He will help you to be good; and you can go to heaven at last, and be an angel forever, just as much as if you were white. Only think of it Topsy! you can be one of those spirits bright, Uncle Tom sings about." "O, dear Miss Eva, dear Miss Eva!" said the child; "I will try; I never did care nothin' about it before." St. Clare, at this instant, dropped the curtain. "It puts me in mind of mother," he said to Miss Ophelia. "It is true what she told me; if we want to give sight to the blind, we must be willing to do as Christ did-call them to us, and put our hands on them." "I've always had a prejudice against negroes,” said Miss Ophelia," and it's a fact, I never could bear to have that child touch me; but I didn't think she knew it." "Trust any child to find that out," said St. Clare; "there's no keeping it from them. But I believe that all the trying in the world to benefit a child, and all the substantial favors you can do them, will never excite one emotion of gratitude, while that feeling of repugnance remains in the heart-it's a queer kind of a fact-but so it is." "I don't know how I can help it," said Miss Ophelia; "they are disagreeable to me-this child in particular-how can I help feeling so?" "Eva does, it seems." "Well, she's so loving! After all, though, she's no more. than Christ-like," said Miss Ophelia; "I wish I were like her. She might teach me a lesson." "It wouldn't be the first time a little child has been used to instruct an old disciple, if it were so," said St. Clare. From " Uncle Tom's Cabin." MARY'S DIMINUTIVE SHEEP. Mary possessed a diminutive sheep, Whose external covering was as devoid of color as the con< gealed aqueous fluid which occasionally presents insur mountable barriers to railroad travel on the Sierras ; And everywhere that Mary peregrinated, The 'venile Southdown was certain to get up and get right after her. It tagged her to the alphabet dispensary one day, Which was in contravention of established usage; It caused the other youthful students to cachinnate and skyfungle To perceive an adolescent mutton in an edifice devoted to the dissemination of knowledge. And so the preceptor ejected him from the interior, 'What causes the juvenile sheep to hanker after Mary so?" Queried the inquisitive children of their tutor; "Why, Mary bestows much affection upon the little animal to which the wind is tempered when shorn, you must be aware," The preceptor with alacrity responded. WAITING BY THE GATE.-W. C. BRYANT. Beside a massive gateway built up in years gone by, The tree-tops faintly rustle beneath the breeze's flight, Behold the portals open, and o'er the threshold, now, In sadness then I ponder how quickly fleets the hour I muse while still the wood-thrush sings down the golden day, And as I look and listen the sadness wears away. Again the hinges turn, and a youth, departing, throws Oh glory of our race that so suddenly decays! Oh crimson flush of morning that darkens as we gaze! I grieve for life's bright promise, just shown and then withdrawn ; But still the sun shines round me: the evening bird sings on, Once more the gates are opened; an infant group go out, The sweet smile quenched forever, and stilled the sprightly shout. Oh frail, frail tree of life, that upon the greensward strows So come from every region, so enter, side by side, And some approach the threshold whose looks are blank with fear, And some whose temples brighten with joy in drawing near, I mark the joy, the terror; yet these within my heart, THE BOOTBLACK. Here y'are- -? Black your boots, boss, Shine 'em up in a minute,— That is 'f nothin' prevents. Set your foot right on there, sir; When his coat's a gettin' old. Well, yes-call it coat, sir, Though 'taint much more'n a tear; Can't get myself another Aint got the stamps to spare. Make as much as most on 'em? Him? Why-that little feller, Sunnin' hisself-that's Jack. Used to be round sellin' papers, Yes, the conductor did it Gave him a reg'lar throw— He's never been all right since, sir, Him and me go together, He's what they call cashier. Trouble? I guess not much, sir. Why, boss, you ought to hear him, All done now-how's that, sir? WILLY'S GRAVE.-EDWIN WAUGH. The frosty wind was wailing wild across the wintry wold; The cloudless vault of heaven was bright with studs of gleam ing gold; The weary cotter's heavy lids had closed with closing day, The ancient hamlet seemed asleep beneath the starry sky; Stood, like a mother, waiting till her children came from play. No footstep trod the tiny town; the drowsy street was still, Save where the wandering night-wind sang its requiem wild and shrill, The stainless snow lay thick upon those quaint old cottage eaves, And wreaths of fairy frost-work hung where grew last summer's leaves. Each village home was dark and still, and closed was every door; For gentle sleep had twined her arms around both rich and poor, Save in one little cot, where, by a candle's flickering ray, gray. Her husband and her children all were in the last cold bed, Where, one by one, she'd laid them down, and left them with the dead; Then toiling on towards her rest-a lonely pilgrim, she- Upon the shady window-sill a well-worn Bible lay; The fire was waning in the grate; the spinning-wheel at rest; The cricket's song rang loudly in that lonely woman's nest, As, with her napkin thin and worn, and wet with many a tear, She wiped the little pair of shoon her darling used to wear. Her widowed heart had often leaped to hear his prattle small; He was the last that she had left-the dearest of them all; KKK |