science, which is the voice of GOD, tell us otherwise." I was shocked. "Ah, dear Helen," said I, "beware of treading on that ground. Our LORD Himself has exposed the wretched fallacy of supposing we could render Him acceptable service while indulging in the breach of a known duty. In vain do ye worship Me,' are the awful words addressed by Him to the teachers of that perilous doctrine. Only on the monstrous supposition of a parent requiring his child to lie, cheat, swear, break the Sabbath-in fact any of GOD's declared commands -" "Of course one knows all that," Helen again broke in with a vivacity of retort which savoured, methought, of the Dragonschool; "I only meant—that is, I did not mean—what I mean is-" "What you mean is, whether you might not read the Churchman's Companion,' its tendencies being so good and beneficial, despite your father's expressed interdict." 66 'No, I did not mean that "--but her ingenuous nature, thank Heaven! prevailed, and she added immediately after, "Yes, I did mean that, too-but then are not parents sometimes unjust, and is not partiality in them as bad as disobedience in children?" Where, thought I, can this dear child have picked up all this evil sophistry? But alas, I remembered, the enemy is ever at hand to scatter the bad seed, and the soil ever ready to receive it. "Perhaps," I said, " you would imply that the forbidden article will still be forwarded to Fred-is that it?" "Well, perhaps it is." This was spoken out of no ill-will to poor Fred, who occupies a high niche in her idol-temple: it was simply that, in character with her papa's comparison of “ & restiff young filly," she was looking about for a post to start at. I reminded her of what my brother had said at breakfast this very day, after quoting one f Fred's quaint sayings, which had made us all laugh-himself as heartily as the rest. "All delightful in its place; but let us keep in mind that this sort of quarter-deck wit, with its raciness of fun and of feeling, would be no better than flippancy in us ashore. Sailors must not be judged of by common rules. Neither in regard to their indulgences should we draw the cord too tight. Perils,' says Lord Bacon, ask to be paid in pleasures,'-lawful ones of course-and when we consider these poor fellows' hazards and privations, cooped up in a floating prison with the chance of being drowned,'-yes, yes- let's have all Fred's good things, and send him all we can of our's." "But what was it papa said about the kitten running after her tail, Aunt Mary ?" inquired Willie, always retentive of the eream of a story. 66 "He said, Willie, that such gambols, pretty enough in a kitten, would ill become an old staid cat; adding, what is very true, that sailors never grow old, and that whatever the young may do without seeming ridiculous, is to be tolerated in a sailor, whose actual life ashore hardly exceeds the term of boyhood." Yes, and if you remember, Aunt Mary," observed Gertrude, papa said it was by reason of this suspension of vulgar commonplaces while the heart and intellect are progressing, that a welldisposed sailor, meaning one who thinks, and reads, and prays, is, without exception, the most charming specimen of our human kind. I thought of dear Fred-how true it all was." 66 "Yes, and poor Mr. Walton in spite of his odd ways; what a youngness of heart there was about him too!" All this while, that dear, naughty one, walked a little behind the others, her head averted from us, while she disdainfully plucked and flung away the obtruding blossoms of the bramble-the poor man's vintage, in the abundant promise of which she would, in a happier frame of mind have rejoiced, as preluding one of the few luxuries of the peasant's board. Meanwhile, poor Gertrude looked sorrowful; and Willie threw furtive glances from time to time, though, with a delicacy I could not too much admire, he forebore to comment on the change he must have been aware of. By the by, it is a tax paid by the habitually merryhearted, that they cannot for an instant look sad or grave without bringing on themselves inquisitive scrutiny-"Are you ill?" Are you tired?" "Are you affronted ?" &c. The cause, however, of Helen's change of brow, I discovered by my divining rod to lie far deeper. She had, poor dear! committed a grave crime, probably the deepest transgression of her young lifeshe had broken a solemn promise given to an indulgent parent, and was in that stage between the commission and the godly sorrow for sin which, from the first criminal inclusive, is ever expressed by a bearing of angry defiance. Suddenly she broke her long silence by this burst of indignant feeling, "I can never believe, I never will believe, whatever they may say, that any one will be sent to perdition for one solitary fault." 66 "GOD forbid that any one should say so-but I suspect that 'one solitary fault' as you call it, is a thorough fallacy-faults, as the poet says of 'woes, love a train. Just recollect yourself, and see if you can produce one example in point." She exultingly cited the case of the aforesaid Silas Tregloan, the poor consumptive miner we had promised to visit on our homeward way, reminding me that he told us he had never been intoxicated but once in his life. I barred, however, any reference to living examples. Those of Scripture were, I said, an open field. In respect to them, motive as well as action stood unveiled. There GOD has been pleased Himself to draw aside the curtain from the human heart, and even to invite us to the scrutiny. "Accordingly we will begin at the beginning," continued I, “with our common mother. Eve first indulged ambition, then gave ear to evil counsel, then transgressed a distinct command, then proceeded to tell tales on her seducer." "Yes, and Adam after he had disobeyed GOD," interposed Gertrude, "told tales on his wife-how he must have fallen from the nobility of his nature to have committed such a meanness as to transfer his own burthen to her feebler shoulders !” “Then, Cain's envy of his brother was followed by a tissue of crimes—hatred, murder, equivocation,”—and so we went on adding example to example of self-producing crime, till we reached the sick man's dwelling. It boasted no rural charm—it was, in fact, one of a way-side row of cottages, but it was newly whitewashed; had been carefully swept about the door; the glass of the windows brightly polished-and these observances if not picturesque beauty, convey the idea of something better, industry and domestic order. The first living creature whom we saw on entering, was of so anomalous a description, that I am tempted to describe it—I say “it,” for the broad, sallow, slightly lined visage, was that of a middle-aged dwarf, while a narrow strip of pinafore tied so tightly round the neck as to give an appearance of strangulation, and filled with large rough stones, the angles of which had pierced the calico, imparted to it a baby-look. The poor creature at sight of us uttered a harsh, wooden laugh, and was proceeding to greater intimacy, when the mother, as if divining the cause of the shrinking we did all we could to disguise, gently put aside the hapless being, at the same time stroking down, as fondly as if they had been glossy ringlets, the wiry locks, which bristling in all directions, aggravated the size of its enormous head. "Beautiful provision of nature!" we arrogantly exclaim, and bless God for inclining a parent's heart towards objects, to us so hideous and revolting,-forgetful that the least wilful transgression, the slightest departure from moral symmetry, is in His view more ugly than the defeatures of the most unsightly idiot. “The doll didn't answer, Susan, I see,” observed Gertrude, pointing to the pinafore full of stones, which the poor thing went on rocking to and fro baby fashion. "For some time, Miss," replied the mother, "it answered brave, and saved a sight of pinners; but all at once her mind changed, and she lashed it out into the road, nobody could tell why, and betook herself back to her old favourites.-Poor lamb! she don't know no better, yet, for all, she is knowing enough in some things, too." "At all events, Susan, 'it is an ill wind that blows nobody good,'-don't I see your little girl dressing the very doll which Miss Helen provided for her poor sister, and which 'she, you say, lashed out into the road?' I really was in hopes that this allusion to her own good deeds would, according to the evident intention of the speaker, have propitiated Helen; but, though she mechanically followed us up stairs, she expressed no interest in anything, by word or look. It was very grievous—she who as Job sweetly says, was heretofore like a tabret' among us. 6 The pale, quick-breathing occupant of the bed turned towards us, as we entered, a pair of hollow but clear bright eyes, which seemed to welcome us; at the same time, as an act of courtesy, he stroked his forehead with a hand as white as the sheet it had rested on-and that is saying a great deal, for all and everything about the poor man was neatness itself-though to hear his wife's excuses you would not think so. "Here you are still, my good friend," said I. "Yes, ma'am, waiting His pleasure-His good pleasure." "I hope you do not suffer great pain?" inquired Gertrude, in a soothing tone. 66 'Surprising little, thank you kindly, Miss-astonishing little, considering. Mine has been a gentle chastisement, a very gentle chastisement-all thanks to Him for the same."-And he reverently inclined his poor head. All this while Willie was twitching my cloak in order that I should ask for the promised story-but I demurred, deeming it too great a demand on the invalid's waning breath. His keen eye, however, penetrated the purport of our dialogue, and he replied with vivacity, "Would the little lad like to hear my story? Then that he shall. Come hither, my pretty one, and may GOD bless it to your soul's health, as He did-I humbly believe-to mine." THE OLD CHURCH. I STOOD within those ancient walls: time's ruthless sway I felt- Before that solemn Altar my young sister knelt a bride- I sported down the sombre aisles while marriage peals were ringing. And again at that old Altar, in the spring time of my youth, Robed in the mystic veil, I heard confirmed my vows of truth: 'Mid bands of young companions, and hand in hand with one, Whose sweetness even then was doomed-whose death-call forth had gone. Within those sacred walls I knelt a newly wedded wife, And now within this noble pile, once, once again I kneel- All is unchanged within the walls-all as in days of yore; C. A. M. W. THE FLOWER BASKET. CHAPTER I. JACOB AND HIS DAUGHTER MARY. MORE than a hundred years ago a very wise and honest man, named Jacob Rode, lived on the estate of a Count, in the small market town of Eichburg. He went as a poor boy to Eichburg in order to learn the art of gardening in the Castle gardens. His excellent talents, his good heart, the dexterity with which he set about everything, and his noble appearance, won him the kindness of his master. Many little occupations were given him in the Castle, and when the Count, who was at that time a young man, travelled, Jacob was amongst his suite. During his travels Jacob had enriched his mind with much information, had acquired a pleasing deportment in manner and speech, and, what was yet still more, brought back from the great world his noble, honest heart uncorrupted. The Count then determined to reward Jacob's faithful services, and procure him a lucrative situation. He might have been steward in the Palace which the Count possessed in the capital, but the good man, ever longing after a quiet country life, begged of his master to allow him to rent a little property in Eichburg, that had been hitherto out on lease, but was now vacant. The noble Count settled it on him for life, and also allowed him yearly as much corn and wood as was necessary for his household. Jacob married in Eichburg and lived upon the produce of the little estate, the cheerful house of which was situated in a large and beautiful garden, one half planted with the finest fruit trees, the other with vegetables. After several years of wedded happiness, Jacob's wife, who was in every respect an excellent woman, was snatched away |