from the discharge of its most trifling duties. It is to correct vanity, and repress pretension. It is to teach her to know her place and her functions; to make her content with the one, and willing to fulfil the other. It is to render her more useful, more humble, and more happy. Such a woman will be, of all others, the best satisfied with her lot. She will not seek distinction, and, therefore, will not meet with disappointment. She will not be dependent on the world, and thus she will avoid its vexations. She will be liable to neither restlessness nor ennui; but she will be happy in her own home, and by her own hearth, in the fulfilment of religious and domestic duty, and in the profitable employment of her time. LESSON XII. The Greenwood Shrift. BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE. OUTSTRETCHED beneath the leafy shade A dying woman lay; Three little children round her stood, “O mother!" was the mingled cry, 66 And leave us all alone." My blessed babes!" she tried to say, In a low, sobbing moan. 42577A And then, life struggling hard with death, And fast and strong she drew her breath, she raised her head; And up And peering through the deep wood maze With a long, sharp, unearthly gaze, "Will she not come?" she said. Just then, the parting boughs between, "Mother!" the little maiden cried, But long went wandering up and down, 66 They told me here, they told me there I think they mocked me every where ; And when I found his home, And begged him on my bended knee "I told him how you dying lay, I begged him, for dear Christ, his sake, Mother! he would not stir. "So, though my tears were blinding mc, I ran back, fast as fast could be, To come again to you ; And here close by this squire I met, Who asked (so mild !) what made me fret; And when I told him true, "I will go with you, child,' he said; 'God sends me to this dying bed :' Mother, he's here, hard by." While thus the little maiden spoke, The man, his back against an oak, Looked on with glistening eye. The bridle on his neck hung free, A statelier man, a statelier steed, Than those stood there that day. So, while the little maiden spoke, Looked on with glistening eye But when the dying woman's face Turned towards him with a wishful gaze, He stepped to where she lay; And kneeling down, bent over her, Saying, "I am a minister My sister! let us pray." And well, withouten book or stole, (God's words were printed on his soul,) Into the dying ear He breathed, as 'twere, an angel's strain, The things that unto life pertain, And death's dark shadows clear. And then the orphan's sobs alone Were heard, and they knelt every one Close round on the green grass. Such was the sight their wandering eyes Had wandered from their track. But each man reined his pawing steed, In silence at his side; And there, uncovered all, they stood: For of the noblest of the land Was that deep hushed, bare-headed band; By that dead pauper on the ground, LESSON XIII. The Hebrew Mother. MRS. HEMANS. THE rose was in rich bloom on Sharon's plain, Met her sweet, serious glance, rejoiced to think So passed they on O'er Judah's hills; and wheresoe'er the leaves The royal minister was George the Third. The anecdote is related on the authority of the Rev. George Crabbe. |