teach the children, we thought that we should take it very kind

of you."

"Yes," assented Lucy, mechanically, for she was not a whit the nearer waking.

and a

"And if you would think two hundred pounds a year, room of your own, enough, it is yours to-morrow; and that's all about it."

The speaker, in the excitement of having accomplished his errand, clapped his hat on his head, and breathed freely. But he recollected himself, and took his hat off again.

"You wish me to be governess to your children! Do I understand you aright?" said Lucy, only half conscious that the

scene was real.

'Yes, miss, if you please; and if two hundred a year would satisfy you, why-why it's done, and that's just where it is." "I thank God," cried Lucy, bursting into tears. She was wide awake, and understood all now.

It was all true that was the best of it. inherited a large fortune, left him by some

The man had really relative hitherto un

heard of. And was not his early thought about the poor gov

every morning, and

Yes; for he had heard

erness, who gave him a good word inquired after Billy who was scalded? of her mother's death, and the proud consciousness of being able to confer a benefit on an orphan girl, elated his heart as much as the possession of a thousand pounds per annum. Lucy, of course, would not consent to receive the salary he had named. How it was finally settled, this chronicler knows

not; but Lucy dwells with the quondam toll-keeper, and looks happy-very happy.

A small white stone has been erected at her mother's grave. You may see it, if you will walk for the purpose to Abney Park Cemetery, Stoke-Newington.

BIT.

BY N. P. WILLIS.

A USEFUL lesson on the right of self-defence has been imprinted upon Master Tom's fore-finger, and worse things might have happened to him. He has made too free with his new plaything, and the parrot does not like to be the target of a schoolboy's syringe. Little Miss Fanny, who is looking on, has, like all children, a natural sense of justice, and instead of pitying brother Tom, she is highly amused that the parrot should have so cleverly taken his own part. Well, Tom has a long life before him, and he will be tempted, many a time, to repeat this very experiment to invade the rights of another for his own selfish profit or gratification-and it is by the one or two first sharp experiences in the powers of retaliation, that he is to find out the consequences and get the proper warning. Important and indispensable as schools and home-teachings are, it is the experience we stumble on, after all, that is our most forcible preceptor. The infant begins by seizing hold of all it wants, and acting as if it were lord of the world. The cat that scratches the child, the dog that barks, the bee that stings, and the bird that pecks at him, give his fears the first warning that he heeds..

His playfellows, who resent his tyrannies and freedoms, repeat the lesson, and by the time he is a man, he at least knows the consequences of a disregard of the rights of others. The parrot in the picture is but a contributor to Tom's necessary knowledge, after all.

AN EVENING REVERIE.

BY WM. C. BRYANT.

THE summer day has closed-the sun is set
Well have they done their office, those bright hours,
The latest of whose train goes softly out

In the red West. The green blade of the ground
Has risen, and herds have cropped it; the young twig

Has spread its plaited tissues to the sun;

Flowers of the garden and the waste have blown,

And withered: seeds have fallen upon the soil

From bursting cells, and in their

graves await Their resurrection. Insects from the pools Have filled the air awhile with humming wings,

That now are still forever; painted moths
Have wandered the blue sky, and died again;
The mother bird hath broken for her brood
Their prison shells, or shoved them from the nest,
Plumed for their earliest flight. In bright alcoves,
In woodland cottages with barky walls,

In noisome cells of the tumultuous town,

Mothers have clasped with joy the new-born babe.