"Glad beyond all that you can fancy: he thanked the Lord for pressing on his mind in the morning the importance of that text-Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with all thy might.'"*

"And I will tell you another text, Papa, that might have gladdened him; 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, or whether they both shall be alike good.' Perhaps, Papa, what you and your friend said to the other poor men, was the means of bringing them to look to Christ before they were taken away."

I hope so, my dear: and my friend afterward wrote, to assure me that the event had been blessed to many of their companions. Among the rest, the man who let us down the shaft seemed much affected by it: and there was a great demand for the Bibles afterward. But I must now go to my books, or I shall not have leisure to accompany you to-morrow.

The children followed their dear father's good counsel; and on the next morning they were very

* Eccles. 9: 10.

Eccles. 11: 6.

early at their tasks, resolved not to make their parent's kindness an excuse for idleness. The hours passed swiftly, which would have seemed very slow, had they been doing nothing. I often think, that when people are looking forward to any particular time, and wishing it to arrive, they seem to forget that the moments which pass before it come, are just as important as any other part of their lives, and as much to be accounted for. I see them fidgetting, and looking at the clock, or from the window, and taking up some idle book, to lay it down again. This is a great evil, which should be guarded against, and care

taken always to find some useful employment to the last. Or, if so it can be managed, we might go and pray that the expected event may be blessed to our own profit, and that of all concerned in it. No Christian will enter into any thing on which he cannot ask God's blessing.

CHAPTER III.

THE time came, and Jane and Edward again found themselves on the way to the museum of curiosities, with the additional pleasure of having their papa of the party. They talked away very merrily, and asked if he would not like to see the first rooms before they went on to the others; but he kindly told them that he would not detain them there. So they passed quickly through, and looked round the apartment where they had met Mr. Peele he was not there, but followed them almost immediately.

:

Jane and her brother hastened to meet him, and he began to say, "My dear young friends, I hope I have not kept you waiting," when seeing their father, he suddenly went forward, and took his hand most cordially, exclaiming, "Cleveland! how rejoiced I am to meet you again!"

"And I, dear Peele, am more rejoiced, since I find my children already under obligations to one who knew not that they belonged to his old friend. I thank you most heartily for your kindness to them."

Some more conversation passed, and then they

proceeded to the farther room, where a great many strange things seemed to be collected. Mr. Peele remarked, "Here are antiquities of Chaldea, Egypt, Greece, and Rome, of Herculaneum, and a few other very remarkable places. The great difficulty here is not to stay too long, or to say too much, for the subjects are most interesting; "and our best guide," taking out his little Bible, "will assist us through all.”

"Where shall we begin?" asked Edward.

"As we find them," answered his friend. "Here are some few relics from Greece, but not of the highest order, according to the general taste. Those two or three busts and small figures were the work of the most celebrated artists that the world ever saw: men who lived long before the Christian era, and who have returned to dust these many hundred years, yet are at this day admired in their works, and as the world calls it, immortalized by them."

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Why, are not all people immortal?" asked Jane.

"Yes; but men's names perish with them, or soon after, unless they do some great thing to keep them in remembrance; and, you see, the sculptors who chiselled out these beautiful forms

are talked of as much at the end of two thousand years as if they had died last week. Is not that a very great matter?"

"Not to them, I should think, Sir," answered Edward: "for if they be in heaven, they do not care what people talk about in this poor world; and if they be in torment, what comfort can they have in the praises of men while the wrath of God upon them ?"

is

"Then you do not think it any honor at all to have done great things upon earth?" said Mr. Cleveland.

"Yes, Papa, I do, when it is done for the glory of God. I think it a great honor to Noah to have built the ark, because he did it in faith and obedience. It was a great thing, too, for the mother of Moses to make that little ark of bulrushes, because she showed her trust in God. And Solomon raising such a noble temple for the worship of the Lord-and”.

Jane went on as her brother paused-"And the people who unroofed the house, to let down the man sick of the palsy, at Jesus' feet! I would rather have had a hand in that work, Papa, than have cut all the stone in the world into figures.”

"My dear children, you judge rightly; and