The mother and children began to wail and lament when they saw him approaching the frail, thin-planked vessel, to step into it and trust himself in it on so boundless and perilous an ocean, and the four black oarsmen stand by ready to push off from the shore and launch into the vast deep, whose storms had so often seemed to shake the island to its foundation. He turned to them as he came to the water's edge, and said, "Weep not, my children, I am going to my native land of which I have so often told you, and I will soon send for you, and you shall all come to me and enjoy its delights and richness with me." But after the boat was lost to their sight below the hori zon, and their grief became more calm, they remembered what their father had often told them about the distant country, and asked their mother more of its nature and appearance. The poor island, which had afforded them a temporary shelter and living, seemed no longer a place where they could be contented to spend all their days in, and they often thought of their father's parting words, and the beautiful vessel he was to bring for their voyage over the deep ocean. But it was the same boat that came again, and at this time the black-a-moors said they could take only one, and that must be their mother. Again the children cried and lamented at the departure of their other parent, but she turned to them and said, "Weep not, dear children; in the better land, which is our native country, we shall all meet and be happy again; think of your father and me, and be ready to come together, when we shall send for you." After her departure the children lost all interest in their youthful objects of admiration, and giving only so much of their thoughts to their island home as was necessary to afford them a subsistence, until the boat returned, they conversed with each other constantly on those beautiful things they heard their parents speak of, and held themselves in constant readiness to leave the island and go to their father's land when the black-a-moors came for them. At last the skiff came to take the two children away, and though they willingly went, they shivered and trembled as the four black men took hold of them, and handed them into the boat, for their long voyage over the deep, unknown sea. But their joy was unbounded when they saw their father and mother waiting for them on the far off shore; who, after they had welcomed them, took them by the hands and led them under the shade of a high palm tree, and set honey and delicious fruits on the flowery turf before them. "Oh, how poor and bitter were our roots," said the children to each other, "not frightened, but rejoiced, should we have been when the black men came to take us from that island and to bring us to this better and more beautiful land." "Dear children," said the father, "our deliverance from the poor island to this beautiful land, has yet a higher significance to us than you see. There lies before us a still longer voyage, but also a more beautiful shore. The whole earth upon which we live is but an island also, and the heavenly land to which we are going is typified by this beautiful country. The sea we must cross again is death, but when the hour comes for the four black men and their boat, to take us over it, weep not though your mother and I should go first, and do not tremble when it comes your turn to go, for death is to the righteous but a voyage to a better land." A DOKETOR'S DRUBBLES.-GEO. M. WARREN. I youst to bin a doketor vonce, Vor dwendy milse round vere I leved, Und zo I vound um veekly. Soam vas seek mit vone decease,- Und soam you vooden't doght vood leve Bud pooty soon I vound dot oud My bocket book vas dhry, Und also my oxpensays Vas runing oval high. ` So I vent oud gollecting, Und I vent und seed vone men, So I showed de men hees node, Hees hands vas in each bocked, Und vone sed do me, "Doketor You know dot I'm not aple- Und anoder vailer dold me, "Shoost valk you ride avay; He vas drawing hees lasht breadth. Und I found dish wash de drubbleEen my kase ainy vay— De beeple vot I doketored Heddent cents enoff to bay. You'f hurt dot goot old sayink, Und so it ess mit de doketor Of he eshkt a man to bay, I vent beck to my offus, Veeling dired dru und dru; Und togedder mit dese drubble I vash med and shleeby doo. I lade down on de sofy, Und dried to haive a shnooze; I hurt soam kolling "Doketor!" Und den dot failer holleret, Hees woice vas shdrong und glear, Und dese vords vent de shpout oop, "Dooce Dr. Sholtz leve hier?" Und gwickly beck my an-swear "Now let me eshk you doketor; I doght dot men vas crazy Oar meppy he vas dight. I sed, "Yaas-'tvas Doketor Vriederick Sholt Vat you vant dese dime off nighd?" Und I vas zo oxtonished, Bud de naixt dings vat I hear 'en dot failer dold me " Doketor, How long hey you leefed hier?" U den I vas oxcited, I felt yooust like a row; I sed, "I'fe leefed hier dwendy years. Dot men he vas a villane, Und dot's yoost vat I kin brove; He singed oud to me lowdly, "Vat's de reason you dond moofe!" I run down dru de sdhairvay, I reely dink sooch ekshurs Of I kood kaitch dot failer Py cosh, hees coose vas kooked! Now I vood say doo de doketors, No metter vots de reason, You naifer shood get vexed; DIMES AND DOLLARS.-HENRY MILLS. "Dimes and dollars! dollars and dimes!" "Dimes and dollars! dollars and dimes! A sound on the gong, and the miser rose, He should have wed with dollars and dimes." Thickly the hour of midnight fell; A thousand dollars to-day I've made. Money makes money; these are the times And he fell asleep with the midnight chimes - |