THE

seen.

to go

shut up,

A TWELFTH-NIGHT TALE.

To this, which once had been her parents' (Concluded from p. 35.)

home,

For help and shelter in her native place. HE sun shone brightly, and the frost and snow

And here she found but one relation left Were melting fast away, but still my tears

To take her in and help her in her need. Would flow for those poor children I had

And soon she drooped and died. In Christ

mas week For weeks their faces haunted me; and still

Her little ones, with her who sheltered

them,I often think, on some cold, wintry night, That I can see the hungry, wistful eyes,

Herself a widow,-followed to the grave The features wan, of those two little ones.

Their mother. They, poor children were But was that all, dear mother ? did you hear Into the workhouse after some days more, No more about them?

For she who took them was too poor

to Yes; I did hear more;

keep them. But not until another

year
had
gone;-

But this they shrank from, though they
They would not tell me sooner, for my grief. scarce knew why.
They told me then, that although on that And soon a scheme dawned on their child-
night

ish minds, The search was vain, next morning at the A way to earn their bread, and so escape hour

That dreaded house where they would be For morning prayer in church the sexton went

Perhaps not play together, and perhaps To open

the church door and chimetle bell, Never go out to see their mother's grave. When in the porch outside the entrance door

So on the Epiphany, that snowy day, He saw two children, sleeping as he thought, They wandered off, regardless of the cold, Locked very tightly in each other's arms. To sing the carols they had learnt at school He went to rouse them, but they did not In happier days for happy Christmas times.

But who would heed them in the driving He touched them—they were cold; and then snow? he knew

Who but would say “Go home' to them, They never more would feel the cold, or die: Go home?' Knew them to be past waking, till the day Thus it was thought they came at erentide When they and all of us shall wake again.

To sing before this house; but not a sound

Of feeble voices such as theirs could pierce Before they laid them in their grave they Through shutter and through curtain to the

learnt Their little history,—and how they came Of those so full of merriment within. To this quick ending of their childish days. And whether through some door they found Their father had been dead some months ajar before,

They crept in for the warmth, in bope, perLeaving their mother all alone with them: haps, And she, poor soul, had sadly wandered That in the hall they might have leave to

sing,

move:

a

ears

Or what it was that scared them, none can was to be an example to all mankind must tell.

obey the Father in all points.* It may have been the sound upon the staias God is a good and loving Father, yet Of all those feet and voices; or the dog He sometimes requires us to do things which Bounding along before the approaching seem hard and painful. But we may learn guests,

of Jesus Christ to do them cheerfully, and And barking at such strange intruders there. the time will come when we shall be amply The rest was all too plain: they must have rewarded. gone

Children can, perhaps, best learn obeAlong the pathway leading to the church, dience to God by first obeying their earthly Led by some instinct to their mother's parents. Jesus was ó subject, or obedient, grave;

to the Virgin Mary and Joseph.t What And there they crept inside the old church- a noble pattern to follow ! Should not all porch

children give a ready obedience to their To find some shelter from the cold, and parents, their teachers, and all who are set found it :

over them?

If they did, homes would be Found rest, foï, clasping each the other happier and schools brighter. Parents, and round,

teachers, and guardians would rejoice, and They sank into their last, long, painless the children would be light-hearted and sleep,

joyful. No more to hunger, and no more to die. Let every one who reads these lines

honour his father and mother, and all who So now you know the tale I had to tell.

are placed over him in the Lord. E. L. You know the reason why, for many years, Twelfth-night has been in this dear house

THE NEW YEAR'S PRESENT. of ours.

NCE, on the first day of the year,

a shopkeeper sent for his four THE CIRCUMCISION.

assistants, and said to them, “I wish to

make each of you a New-year's present, which Jewish infants were brought and I will give you the choice,–Will you into covenant with God, as baptism is the

have a Bible or five dollars ? If

you

take Christian rite by which children under the my advice, you will choose the Word of Gospel dispensation are brought into cove

God.' nant with Him. The first-born son in

The oldest of the four said, “Very gladly, every family was to be circumcised at the good sir, would I accept the Bible; but, you age of eight days. It was a painful rite, see, I must confess to my shame that I yet Jesus Christ submitted to it. Why?

cannot read: so if it is the same to you, I Not because He needed to enter into

would rather have the five dollars.' The covenant with God. He was already one

master answered him,- Well, you have with God, and was God. He did it because

free choice--here they are;' and he handed He would obey the law in all things. He

him the bright silver pieces. Whose death could save the world must

The second and third apprentices also practise perfect obedience; and He who

ONCE,

CIRCUMCISION was a religious rite, by