Than we, ungrateful, leave thee in that day, Or shun thee, tottering on the grave's cold brink. Banish the thought! where'er our steps may roam, O'er smiling plains, or wastes without a tree, Still with fond memory point our hearts to thee, And paint the pleasures of thy peaceful home; While duty bids us all thy griefs assuage, And smooth the pillow of thy sinking age. KIRKE WHITE. KINDNESS AND SELF-DENIAL A FARMER brought with him from the town five peaches, the finest that one could see. His children had never seen the fruit before, and they were surprised with them, and very much admired their red cheeks and soft down. The father gave one to each of his four boys, and the fifth he gave to their mother. At night, when the children were going into their sleeping rooms, the father said, "Well, how did you like the pretty fruit?" "Gloriously, dear father," said the eldest; "it is a splendid fruit, so juicy, and so mild in flavour. I have taken great care of the stone, and will raise a tree to myself from it." "Well done," said the father; "that is what I call good management, and providing for the future, as a farmer ought to do.” "I ate mine at once," cried the youngest, "and threw away the stone, and my mother gave me the half of hers. O! the taste was so sweet, and it melted so in my mouth." "Well," said the father, "you have not acted very wisely to be sure; still what you have done was natural and just like a child; there is plenty of time yet for your learning to be wise." Then the second son began, "I picked up the stone which my little brother threw away, and broke it open. There was a kernel inside, which tasted as sweet as a nut. But I have sold my own peach, and have got so much for it, that when I go to town I shall be able to buy a dozen peaches." The father shook his head, and said, "That is very prudent indeed, but not childlike or natural. Heaven forbid that you should turn out a miser." "And you, Edmund ?" asked the father. Openly, and without embarrassment, Edmund answered, "I took my peach to poor George, our neighbour's son, who has the fever. He did not wish to take it; but I laid it on his bed, and came away." "Then," said the father, "which of you has made the best use of your peach ?" Then cried all the three, "Our brother Edmund." But Edmund sat still, and his mother embraced him with tears in her eyes. From the German. WE go to church to worship God. And to worship God is, as many of us hear the minister say every day, "to render thanks to Him for the great benefits we have received at His hands; to set forth His most worthy praise; to hear His most holy Word, and to ask those things which are requisite and necessary as well for the body as the soul." If we just try to bear in mind, when we are in church, that God is there too, and sees everything that we do, and knows what we are thinking about, this will keep us from misbehaving when we are there. For we would never speak to our neighbours, or laugh, or make a noise, or sit amusing ourselves, if we remembered that God saw what we were doing. When we ask anything from our teachers, we speak respectfully to them, and should never think of breaking off in the middle of our question to do something else, or to laugh, or to look out of the window at what is passing in the street or the playground. If we were told that a little boy went to thank some great gentleman who had been very kind to him, and that he rushed into the room with his cap on, paid no attention to what the gentleman was saying, burst |