The flattered, who topples aloft but to fall; The wronger and wronged-oh, be kindly to all!

PEAR-BLOSSOMS.

'Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.'-Phil. ii. 4. OTHER'S birthday! The

young folk had prepared their presents, and carefully spread them among the cups on the breakfasttable, ready for Mrs. Simpson when she came down into the morning-room. But Fanny, the eldest girl,

had just suggested a further mark of welcome and affection. Surely a fresh-gathered nosegay would be the very thing to place beside their mother's plate as a smiling birthday greeting!

'Only there are so few flowers in the garden,' said Florence; the crocuses and snowdrops are all over, and nothing else has come up in their place.'

'Because nothing else has been planted, you silly!' called out Tom. Don't you know we are leaving at Midsummer? what would be the use of putting in things for other people, I should like to know?'

'It wouldn't have been for other people, you rude boy!' retorted Florence; if the things were flowering now, it would have been for ourselves.'

Oh! oh! how clever we are!' sneered Tom; but he felt that Florence had the better of him.

The poor, while to Him Who gives all things thou prayest,

The weak or the lost, 'neath the load of his

sorrow

And thine own cup of joy shall o'erflow ere the morrow!

us go out, and see if there is nothing we can get. Come, Floy.'

So the little girls went; and Tom, having nothing better to do, followed at his leisure, and watched them as they searched among the borders of evergreens for any stray flower that was in bloom. But the work

went on slowly; the sisters compared their nosegays, and shook their heads over them.

'I say,' cried Tom, who was not really an ill-natured boy, some of those pearblossoms, up on the coach-house wall will be the very thing. I'll climb up in a twinkling and get you a handful.'

But the little girls were dismayed at the plan. Oh! but, Tom, you know we mustn't gather fruit-blossoms: that would never do; where would the pears be in the summer?'

"What does it matter? we shan't be here then,' returned Tom. 'Stay, I must take off my jacket before I climb the wall.'

You mustn't go at all, Tom, indeed; it wouldn't be right to take them,' said Fanny; and yet she looked longingly towards the pear-tree, and then at the flowers she held in her hand, which sadly wanted the relief of some white, besides some addition to their number.

"Fiddlesticks!' shouted Tom. And, oh! won't they look gay!'

Fanny felt her sense of right yielding before this appeal; and yet conscience whispered that, if the family had not been going to leave in the summer, such an act of spoliation would never have been thought of for a minute.

Florence spoke now:- Yes, Tom, they would look very gay, only——no, we ought not, I am sure.'

She, too, felt the temptation strongly, and her feeble protest was easily thrust aside.

'Nonsense! who'll miss half-a-dozen pears when there will be baskets full? No one will be any the wiser; and mother will be so pleased.'

This last argument was not to be resisted, and the two girls ran forward with Tom towards the coach-house, and watched him mount the garden wall at the side and

pluck the blossoms with no further uneasiness.

Yes, once listen to the voice of the Tempter, and the voice of Conscience is soon silenced. Recklessly obey the Tempter's demands, and even the echo of the still small voice' will speedily be lost to the ear.

CHAPTER II.

THE nosegay looked very pretty when made up and tied together with a piece of crimson ribbon. And it caught Mrs. Simpson's eye at once as she entered the breakfast-room, and her first exclamation was one of delight. But when she took up the flowers and noticed them closely her countenance changed, and she said, with a glance of surprise towards her children :-

'But, my dears, what can you have been thinking of? Are not these pear-blossoms?' The little girls looked down, and Florence answered timidly:

But, mother, there were so few flowers, and we thought they would look so pretty.'

'But you know as well as I do,' answered her mother, that it is wrong to pluck fruitblossoms just because they are pretty. You know that each of these flowers represents a pear! Just think of the waste! I am sorry to appear ungrateful, but really I cannot pass over such wanton and wilful waste. I never knew any of you do a thing of the kind before.'

'We never did, mother,' said Fanny. 'But you see,' explained Tom, anxious to defend his sisters from blame in what he felt to be chiefly his fault, we shall be gone before the time for the pears comes.'

"What!' exclaimed Mrs. Simpson, and so you will wish to rob others of what you would guard carefully for yourselves? I

could scarcely have believed any child of mine could be so selfish. If this is your excuse, I am quite ashamed of you all.'

And the young people looked a good deal ashamed too, and kept silence because they felt no defence of themselves was possible.

Mrs. Simpson continued:-'I thought at first you had done it from mere thoughtlessness but I find that you had a motive for what you did; and such a motive makes the matter ten times worse. You seem quite to have forgotten the golden rule of doing to others as we would wish others to do to us. It is a shameful act wilfully to destroy anything likely to be of use to others, simply because it will not be of any use to ourselves-to gratify a selfish wish by wronging another. What will you do on greater occasions if you behave like this in small affairs? Don't you remember what our Lord said in His parable:-" He that is faithful in that which is least, is faithful also in much; and he that is unjust in the least, is unjust also in much."

The little girls still hung their heads in shame and silence; but Tom broke out here:

'It was all my doing, mother: they wouldn't have thought of it if it hadn't been for me; and it was I who reminded them that the pears wouldn't be ours, and so that we needn't mind.'

'But we knew we were doing wrong, the same,' said Fanny.

6

all

'Only,' went on Florence, we never thought of it just in the way mother puts it, I am sure.'

'Perhaps not quite in the strong light in which I have put it, Florence; still, it is

tured, nevertheless, to urge "They wanted to please you, mother.'

'I could never be pleased with such a gift, Tom. It seems to me almost like a theft. The pears will not be ours, therefore the blossoms of the pears can hardly be ours either. At any rate, we ought strictly to guard a trust of this kind. For my own

part, though I might think it wrong and wasteful to gather fruit-blossoms at all, I should have a right to take my own if I chose to sacrifice my pears or plums. But to defraud another person of his! don't you see, children, how mean it is?'

'Yes, to be sure,' agreed Tom, heartily; 'it is mean. But I'll take care and never do such a thing again.'

'And so will I!' cried both his sisters.

6

"I trust not, my dears,' said Mrs. Simpson; and I don't think you will if you will bear in mind the precepts of the Bible, that we should love our neighbour as ourselves, that we should "look not every man on his own things" only, "but every man also on the things of others." And now, dears, I must examine your other pretty presents. We mustn't let the whole day be spoiled because I have had to begin it with a little fault-finding. There is not often, I fear, a day in which some wrong is not done; and it is best to look to it at once, and try to get rid of its evil consequences as quickly as we can. A little serious talk doesn't do any of us any harm now and then. And now for the presents, with a kiss for each of you!' EMMA RHODES.

'I CAN'T PRAY.'

HEN Prayer delights thee least, then learn to say

Soul, now is greatest need that thou should'st ABP. TRENCH.

pray.