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I saw them lead a man

To prison for his crime,

Where solitude, and punishment,

And toil divide the time;

And as they forced him through the gate

Unwillingly along,

They told me 'twas the maddening drink That made him do the wrong.

I saw a woman weep,

As if her heart would break; They said her husband drank too much Of what he should not take.

I saw an unfrequented mound,

Where weeds and brambles wave; They said no tear had fallen thereIt was a drunkard's grave.

They said these were not all

The risks that drunkards run, For there was danger lest the soul

Be evermore undone.

Water is very pure and sweet,

And beautiful to see,

And since it cannot do us harm
It is the drink for me.

Chambers' Educational Tracts.

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old maid you are getting, to be sure!' said Edith, pettishly. All but, indeed! You are so nervous about lights and fires, and everything else; you seem to be haunted by the fear of being burned in your bed some night.'

A knock at the door interrupted the conversation, and the elder sister was called downstairs to receive a visitor, leaving Edith to finish arranging her dress and to smooth her hair before presenting herself.

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Now do be careful,' were Harriet's parting words, to which Edith replied by a muttered Bother!' and an inward feeling that a sister twelve years older than herself might sometimes be very tiresome.

Harriet and Edith Gray had neither father nor mother-only each other to care for; being well off they lived very happily together in their pleasant home, and if Edith sometimes chafed under her sister's nervous fears and particular notions, she loved her deeply; whilst Harriet doted on Edith almost with a mother's fondness: and indeed she had been a mother to her ever since the day when she had taken the little baby in her arms, and resolved in her young heart to be to her in the place of the parent they had lost.

For a few moments after her sister had gone down, Edith Gray remained admiring her pretty figure in the glass, and then suddenly remembering that the visitor was one she wished to see, she fluttered off, forgetting all her sister's warnings, and leaving the candle dangerously near the muslin curtain.

Time passed, the visitor lingered, and it was late in the evening before Edith Gray ran back to her room for something she had left there; but as she opened the door the smoke which issued from it nearly choked her, and with the sudden draught the flames burst out, and at a glance she saw that the room was on fire; and the frightened

girl turning fled downstairs and out upon the lawn in front of the house, leaving doors open, and only screaming to her sister to 'save herself, the house was on fire.'

With all her nervous fears, in the time of danger Harriet Gray was not bewildered or afraid; so, creeping along through the blinding smoke, she found out the extent of the danger, and began putting together those things which there was yet time to

save.

The alarm was quickly spread and assistance came, and while the fire-engines played upon the house, Harriet Gray went to and fro securing many a little treasure which had been her parents', many a thing which Edith prized-while Edith herself stood wringing her hands in the garden, useless, terrified, and lamenting over the accident and loss that she had caused.

But in spite of the efforts of the firemen the flames spread and could not be got under, and Harriet Gray was so eager to save some books and pictures which had been her mother's, and which she greatly valued, that she ventured to climb a ladder which had been reared against the one side of the house which the flames had not yet reached-but as she was doing so the fire burst out from below, the ladder slipped, and Harriet fell to the ground half suffocated, scorched, and fainting.

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Then, for the first time, Edith forgot herself, as she saw her sister lying seemingly lifeless. Oh, you are not much hurt!-are you?' she cried-for in that moment she felt the extent of her misery, if anything should take Harriet from her --she felt too that to her latest day she could never know peace of mind again.

For hours the miserable girl sat by the side of the bed in a neighbour's house to which her sister had been removed-she was still alive, but whether she would rally

from the shock, or how she would be, the doctor could not tell.

As she watched there, Edith went over in her mind the events of the evening-there was no need for her to wonder how the fire began, she remembered how she had left her room, and there was no doubt but that the candle carelessly placed by the curtains had set the house on fire. Oh, dear,' sobbed Edith, Harriet warned me, but I never thought of it, and now perhaps I have killed her; and our home is burnt down, and there is nothing but sorrow! I have got a lesson now, but it has come too late! Oh, if Harriet were only spared to me, how I would try and be thoughtful, and not worry her by my tiresome ways!' Then Edith went back in memory to the past, the many times in her childhood when her excuse, I never thought of it!' had been called out by her sister's gentle remonstrance-it seemed as

if every fault and every trouble had sprung from this one habit of carelessness, and this was the end; but what a terrible one!—and the weeping girl flung herself on her knees by the bedside, and, with choking sobs, she entreated God to spare her sister's life.

How long she stayed there Edith did not know, but a faint voice roused her-the voice she had feared she might not hear again-yes, Harriet lived and knew her, and was aware of her grief, and begged her not to cry so bitterly.

It was long before Harriet Gray recovered health and strength, for the fall and the fright and shock had greatly injured her; but in due time she was herself once more. But their home was gone, and that was a great sorrow; yet Harriet always says that it was worth all she suffered to see Edith so changed, so thoughtful, so unselfish, since the time when I never thought of it' nearly cost a life. H. A. F.

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