but almost every part was hung with beautiful creepers, red, green, and purple. The ground at the bottom was half choked with weeds and wild flowers; the red briony, or wild vine, had climbed up the rock at the entrance; the coltsfoot had covered the clay;

and the elegant leaf of the great-hound's tongue was seen near the common featherfew, the dock, and the thistle. As I looked around me I saw a spider, that was crawling up the steep side of a projection, fall two or three times, but he succeeded at last. I saw, I saw, too,

an ant busy in carrying along a heavy load, and a beautiful violet peeping out from under its own leaves.

'A violet by a mossy stone
Half hidden from the eye;

Fair as the star, when only one
Is shining in the sky.'

So that, in addition to all my enjoyment, I had three lessons set before me-modesty by the violet, diligence by the ant, and perseverance by the spider."

66

Excellent, excellent! you cannot give me a better picture than that, do what you will."

"Among the four things mentioned in the thirtieth chapter of Proverbs, as 'little upon the earth,' and yet 'exceeding wise,' are the ants, a people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in the summer; and the spider, that 'taketh hold with her hands as in kings' palaces.' You may gather from what I have said of the stone quarry, that we may get wisdom from the most retired spot in the world; for there is no spot, however retired, but God has visited it, and left there proofs of his wisdom and power. He who looks about him in country places will ever be finding new pictures; and he who has a grateful heart will ever find new blessings to be thankful for. It is of the Lord's

mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning,' Lam. iv. 22, 23.

'New mercies, each returning day,
Hover around us while we pray;
New perils past, new sins forgiven,
New thoughts of God, new hopes of heaven.'

The oxen and the drovers-The turnpike gate-keeper-The late coach-The robbers-Billings the exciseman and his brother-The robbers are taken-Winter-Farmer BroomBriggs the butcher and the broad-wheeled wagon-Wombwell's caravans-Midnight-Thunder and lightningFlaxen-headed Mr. Rogers and the poor widow.

"WHAT pictures will you have now, Edwin? Or have you had enough already? If I had drawn what I have told you with a pencil,

instead of my tongue, it would by this time have been worn away. What pictures will you have now?”

"Oh! I have not had half enough yet. If you will let me choose, I should like to have some turnpike road pictures. Perhaps they will puzzle you a little.”

"Well, I must do the best I can with them. Here comes a drove of oxen, hanging down their heads, breathing hard, and limping sadly; for they are weary with travel and foot-sore. How eagerly they snuff up the damp air of the ditch, searching for water. The drovers are touching them continually with the sharp spike at the end of their sticks, and shouting aloud."

"I see them almost as if they were really before me."

"In other countries, corn, instead of being threshed out, used to be trodden out by oxen. In the twenty-fifth chapter of Deuteronomy it is said, 'Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn.' And the apostle Paul says, 'Doth God take care of oxen?' I am afraid that oxen are hardly treated so well now as they were formerly under the law of Moses."

"Another picture, if you please."

"It is night; the cuckoo clock in the turnpike house has struck ten. All is still, and old Adkins the keeper of the gate, with