Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

their bad work as usual, two gentlemen suddenly came upon them. One was dressed in black, with a white cravat on. The other was a short, plump, benevolent looking man. The minister addressed the lads in a kindly, familiar way; told them of the bitter consequences of breaking God's day; that a school was about to be opened, and all the boys and girls, in the neighbourhood, would have books and slates provided, to help them to read and write, and would have teachers to tell them of Jesus Christ and the way to heaven. Some laughed and squirted tobacco juice out of their mouths, one or two looked serious, and after a long parley, twelve of them agreed to wash their hands and faces, in the briny river, wipe them with their jacket sleeves, and go at once to the school the gentlemen spoke of.

Six years had passed away, and the writer of this was passing through the streets of a large town, where we had just been stationed according to Methodistic ministerial custom, when he was accosted, in the most friendly manner, by a young gentlemanly person, who said, stretching out his hand with delight, "How do you do Mr. ?” There was a pause; and then the remark, "I presume that you are one of our people connected with the chapel, but as I have just come to the place, I have not the pleasure of knowing you." The secret was soon out; it was Tommy, who told how his mind had been wrought upon in the school; he had been converted, and had become a teetotaler. The lad had been turned out of his father's house; but when his father and mother forsook him, the Lord opened his way. He now held a position in a large establishment, was junior Secretary to the Temperance Society, a teacher in a Sabbath-school, and he attributed all, under God, to the perseverance of the friends who entered that dark place, in that town, and offered many depraved ones an opportunity of fleeing from the wrath to come. "In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thy hand; for thou knowest not whether shall prosper, either this or that." Ecc. xi. 6. Helstone.

[graphic][ocr errors]

"BE SOBER, BE VIGILANT; BECAUSE YOUR ADVERSARY THE DEVIL, AS A ROARING LION, WALKETH ABOUT SEEKING WHOM HE MAY DEVOUR." 1 PETER V. 8.

THE LION.

IONS are strong, cunning, and voracious beasts of prey. They formerly existed in Europe; at present they are only met with in their natural state in Asia and Africa. The Rev. Robert Moffat, the wellknown missionary, often met with them in Southern Africa, and relates various anecdotes illustrative of their habits and dispositions. If what he has told be true, lions manifest a respect for age, from which boys and girls may learn a lesson. Mr. Moffat says, "Conversing with the party one evening when sitting around the fire, on the conduct of children to their parents, I observed, that they were as bad as lions. They are worse, replied Africaner. This he illustrated from the well known characteristics of the king of beasts; or more properly, king of the beasts of the prey. Much has been written about African lions, but the half has not been told. The following trait in their character may not be intrusive, or partaking of the marvellous with which the tales of some travellers are said to abound. I give it as received from men of God, and men who had been experienced nimrods too. The old lion, when in company with his children, as the natives call them, though they are nearly as big as himself; or, when numbers together happen to come upon game, the oldest or ablest creeps to the object, while the others crouch on the grass; if he be successful, which he generally is, he retires from his victim, and lies down to breathe and rest, for, perhaps, a quarter of an hour; in the meantime, the others draw around, and lie down at a respectful distance. When the chief one has got his rest, he commences at the abdomen and breast, and after making havoc with the tit-tits of the carcase, he will take a second rest, none of the others pre

[graphic]

suming to move. Having made a second gorge, he retires; the others watching his motions, rush on the remainder, and it is soon devoured. At other times, if a young lion seizes the prey, and an old one happens to come up, the younger retires till the elder has dined. This was what Africaner called better manners than these of the Namaquas."

[ocr errors]

HEEDLESS LUCY.

[graphic]

PLACE for every thing, and every thing in its place," was a proverb that Mrs. Henshaw very often repeated to her little daughter Lucy. She had good reason for it; for Lucy was one of those heedless children who never put anything in its place, and was always in a difficulty, of some sort, in consequence.

"If you only would hang up your hat when you come in from play, Lucy, how much trouble and vexation it would save," said her mother one morning, after half-an-hour had been wasted in a vain search for the missing hat, and nine silvery strokes from the clock had proclaimed her already late for school.

"I'm sure I did hang it up," Lucy exclaimed, her first impulse being always to excuse herself. "The children must have taken it down; they are always meddling with my things."

"They never meddle with them when they are put in the proper place," her mother answered; but that is a piece of good fortune that very seldom happens to your things, Lucy. However, it is only wasting time to talk about it. You must go to school, and you have nothing to wear but your best hat. So go up stairs for it quickly."

Lucy needed no second bidding for this, With nimble feet she flew up stairs, and with nimble fingers she drew out the pretty Sunday hat from its box, and buttoned the elastic band under her chin. She was very fond, like many other little girls, of wearing nice clothes; and this hat, with its long ribbon streamers, and its brilliant bunch of poppies and green sprays all spangled with dew drops, was a decided improvement upon the tan-coloured straw, with its plain brown trimmings, that she wore in going to school every day. She surveyed herself with a satisfied glance as she stood before the nursery mirror; and

"How nice I look!" was the complacent reflection. "Anna Stanton won't call me Quaker to day, I guess. I don't believe her Sunday hat is as nice, for all she is so grand every day."

"And if I was your mother, I'd set you up with Sunday hats," grumbled Catharine, the nursery-maid, who had been trotting up and down stairs in search of the lost hat until her feet were tired, and her temper slightly the worse for

wear.

"Much you care about all the trouble you've given people this blessed day! You should wear your old hood if I was your mother, and not be prinking there before the glass with your best things on, I can tell you, miss."

"And I can tell you that you'd better mind your own business, and not be lecturing me," said Lucy pertly. "You're not my mother, nor likely to be, thank goodness."

"Law, an' I can thank goodness for that, too," retorted Catharine; "an' it's a good thing we've got such thankful hearts, the two of us."

"I shall tell Mamma of you," Lucy exclaimed angrily, exasperated by the maid's scornful air. But her mother called imperatively at that moment, from the foot of the stairs,

66

"Lucy, how much longer do you intend to delay ? Come down immediately, and go to school."

« AnteriorContinuar »