sort. I do wish you and Edgar could get on better. What has been the matter?'

Matter! why, he struck me;' and the boy turned a crimson cheek towards his sister, on which there was the mark of a blow quite plainly to be seen.

Alice looked grieved and her eyes glistened with tears; it was the first time she had ever known Edgar raise his hand against his brother.

You must have done something very provoking, Laurie dear; tell me what it was.'

"I only put in a few caricatures in his drawing; he could rub them out in a couple of seconds. He had gone down to the fruitgarden to pick cherries, and it came into. my head to do it-it was only a lark.'

I quite believe you meant it for "a lark," as you say, Laurie, but it wasn't one to Edgar. You know how he loves his pictures, and works by night and day so as to get on before father sends him abroad to study for an artist. You shouldn't have done it,' said Alice.

6

'Well, I'm sorry, and I'd have told him so if he hadn't struck me. I won't stand it.' Edgar is putting up his pencils-you've upset him for the afternoon,' said Alice, looking from the window; go and tell him you're sorry, Laurie dear; don't let any coldness creep up amongst us. You're so much younger, you ought to make an apology to Edgar.'

"Catch me doing it,' responded Laurie. 'I tell you, I would if he hadn't hit me. He must say he's sorry.'

Alice went out into the garden to her eldest brother, and put her hand on his arm.

'You won't be vexed with Laurie; will you, dear?' she began, but Edgar shook her off angrily.

Ill-behaved, tiresome little monkey!' he exclaimed; that boy's getting a perfect nuisance, Alice, and it's partly your fault

making such a fuss with him as you do. Don't bother me: I'm going for a walk down to the river. I shan't come home till Laurie's in bed.'

Poor Alice! she knew it was useless to plead for her pet then; Edgar was in one of his ill moods; she must wait till it had passed and he was his own kind self again, before she could make peace between the brothers.

Mr. Herbert came home at tea-time, and made a passing inquiry for Edgar—but no more questions were asked, though any one might have guessed, by Laurie's moody! tones, and Alice's pale, sad face, that something was wrong.

When tea was over, Alice went up to her own room, and, leaning from the window, gave herself up for a while to her sad thoughts. There were so many difficulties in her daily path-so many cares which pressed upon her at her early age, that there were times when she could almost cry out, It is more than I can bear.'

And now, if there was not to be peace amongst themselves, what could she do?how could she keep the promise she had made to her dying mother, to try and comfort all, and help the boys so to live that they might all meet her in Heaven one day?

Alice longed for a wiser head and a stronger heart than her own to guide her, but she knew there was always God to help and teach her, and in His strength she must strive to do her daily duty.

So she grew braver and calmer, and there was a trustful look in her eyes as she raised them to watch the sun sinking low in the west, and the sky turning from crimson to gray; then she put on a hat, and wrapped a shawl round her, and went out at the garden-gate and over the fields to look for Edgar.

She found him leaning against a stile on his way home, looking downcast and vexed still, as he asked her almost angrily 'what she wanted.'

It was dull at home, and so I came to meet you,' she said gently; and Laurie has gone to bed with a head-ache.'

"I wish it may keep him there then,' said Edgar; 'troublesome, mischievous little monkey, spoiling the picture I had slaved

at so hard!'

Not spoiled, was it, Edgar?'

Well-no, I can put it right. But wasn't it enough to provoke a fellow, Alice?' Alice smiled-she saw Edgar was returning to his old self.

Quite, but there surely was more than enough to control "a fellow.""

How, what do you mean, Alice? You would have been vexed yourself."

Just think, he's so young, and he was mother's darling, and she trusted so to you, Edgar. She knew you were good and steady, and so much older, that she felt quite sure you would be kind and patient with Laurie.'

Edgar flushed, and then his eyes wandered the same way Alice's were turning-towards the churchyard some little way off, where their mother's grave was-the mother who had loved her three children so tenderly.

I was wrong, Alice; it shall never, by God's help, be so again. I will try and curb my hasty temper; poor little Laurie!'

And then the brother and sister went silently home.

'Laurie is awake; come up and see him,' whispered Alice to her brother, when she found him a little later by himself in the parlour. And Edgar rose up at once and followed her.

Edgar,' began Laurie, sitting upright in bed, 'I've been lying awake hoping you'd come home. I want to tell you I'm sorry.

I don't wonder you hit me, I deserved it, and But the elder lad stopped him.

Say no more, Laurie; I was cross, and I'm ashamed of myself. I should ask you to forgive me.'

And then the two boys exchanged a hearty kiss just as they had done years before, until they began to think it silly and girlish and leaving Laurie to sleep with a lightened heart, Edgar followed his sister downstairs again; but before she opened the parlour door, he said, 'Alice; if our mother could speak to you to-night, I think she would say to you, "Blessed are the peace-makers."

GOOD FOR EVIL.

MATHEW MOLE, President of the

Parliament of Paris, was a magistrate, who was admired for his courage and firmness. At the head of the Parliament he once proceeded to the palace of the Queen Regent to ask her to set at liberty two men who had been unlawfully arrested. A crowd collected, not knowing the cause of the proceeding; one of the most furious stopped the carriage, and addressed him with atrocious threats.

The next morning a man came to him and said, "I know who it was who treated you with so much insolence. He is a chemist who is my neighbour.'

Molé sent at once for this man; he arrived very much terrified.

'I see that I am recognised; I implore your indulgence.'

Molé was unwilling to amuse himself with his fright.

'I sent for you,' he said to him, 'to warn you that you have a very malicious neighbour. Beware of him! Farewell.'

C. S. C.

TALES ON TEXTS.

THE HEDGE OF THORNS.

The way of the slothful . . . is as an hedge of thorns.' Prov. xv. 19.

ting-paper.

CHAPTER I.

T is quite impossible, I cannot write such an exercise; it is a great deal too difficult for me,' grumbled Clement Harley, pushing his book from him in disgust, and lazily scribbling over a sheet of blotGradually even this profitless employment became too fatiguing for him; and, resting his elbows on the table and his chin upon his hands, he stared vacantly out of the window. If he had been asked at the end of a quarter of an hour what he had been thinking of all this time, he would probably have answered-'Nothing.' And though that perhaps was impossible, if we may dignify with the name of thinking the mere suffrance of ideas as they float idly through the brain, still it is certain that no idea was retained, and that Clement, if questioned, could have given no rational account of his musings.

The entrance of his mother into the room roused him.

'What are you doing, Clement?' she inquired. Learning your lessons, I hope?' I've got my exercise ready to begin, mother; but it's too hard, I can't manage it.' "Have you tried?"

'I've been looking at it, but I can't make it out at all.'

'But I suppose you will have to write it, so you had better set about it at once. Dr. Green or Mr. Jones-whoever gave you the exercise-must know pretty well by this what you are capable of. You ought to have written a good deal by the look of your fingers, they are covered with ink.'

'Oh, the pen dipped in too far; see, the holder is all over, too.'

And couldn't you have wiped it?here's the pen-wiper close at your elbow. What a sad lazy boy you are, Clement! Your idleness will lead you into all kinds of faults, if you don't mind. It is already beginning to make a sloven of you: why, you haven't washed your face, I'm sure, since you came in from school.'

'I thought I'd do that just before tea, and get on with my exercise first.'

And you haven't even begun it. Oh, Clement! Clement! you will never do any good all your life if you go on like this."' 'But it's so hard, mother.'

Everything is hard to an indolent person. Solomon says that " the way of the slothful is as an hedge of thorns." Energy and trying soon get over difficulties; dawdling never yet did anything. If the exercise is hard, all the more reason for working steadily at it. You have quite as good abilities as Harry, and see how much better he gets on than you.'

Clement drew his books towards him once more, and read over carefully the rule he had to write upon: really it seemed pretty easy after all; and he took up his pen and wrote a word or two, but no more. At this early stage of the proceedings, 'Tartar,' a favourite dog, came bounding in at the open window, and this was a temptation Clement had no force to resist. Soon the two were playing on the floor together, and the exercise was altogether forgotten. Presently it suited Tartar to gallop off into the garden; so off Clement galloped after him, only coming in again when the tea-bell rang.

'Still not washed!' said his mother at the first sight of him, and he was dismissed to make himself neat before sitting down to table.