will sleep on the floor; and there are potatoes in the field, and clear water in the spring. We need fear nothing, want nothing: blessed be God for all his mercies!" 12. Gilbert went into the sick-room, and got the letter from his wife, who was sitting at the head of the bed, watching, with a heart blessed beyond all bliss, the calm and regular breathings of her child. "This letter," said he, mildly, "is not from a hard creditor. Come with me, while I read it aloud to our children." The letter was read aloud, and it was well fitted to diffuse pleasure and satisfaction through the dwelling of poverty. It was from an executor to the will of a distant relative, who had left Gilbert Ainslie fifteen hundred pounds. 13. "This sum," said Gilbert, "is a large one to folks like us, but not, I hope, large enough to turn our heads, or make us think ourselves all lords and ladies. It will do more, far more than put me fairly above the world at last. I believe that, with it, I may buy this very farm, on which my forefathers have toiled. But God, whose providence has sent this temporal blessing, may he send us wisdom and prudence how to use it, and humble and grateful hearts to us all!" 14. "You will be able to send me to school all the year round now, father," said the youngest boy. "And you may leave the flail to your sons now, father," said the eldest. "You may hold the plough still, for you draw a straighter furrow than any of us; but hard work for young sinews; and you may sit now oftener in your arm-chair by the ingle. You will not need to rise now in the dark, cold, and snowy winter mornings, and keep thrashing corn in the barn for hours by candlelight, before the late dawning. 15. There was silence, gladness, and sorrow, and but little sleep, in Moss-Side, between the rising and the setting of the stars, that were now out in thousands, clear, bright, and sparkling over the unclouded sky. Those who had lain down for an hour or two in bed could scarcely be said to have slept; and when, about morning, little Margaret awoke, an altered creature, pale, languid, and unable to turn herself on her lowly bed, but with meaning in her eyes, memory in her mind, affection in her heart, and coolness in all her veins, a happy group were watching the first faint smile that broke over her features; and never did one who stood there forget that Sabbath morning, on which she seemed to look round upon them all with a gaze of fair and sweet bewilderment, like one half conscious of having been rescued from the power of the grave. LESSON CLXXXVII. THE PROUD MISS MAC BRIDE. BY J. G. SAXE. 1. О, terribly proud was Miss Mac Bride, That her stately bosom was fretting. 2. Oh, terribly proud was Miss Mac Bride, Proud of her beauty, and proud of her pride, And proud of fifty matters beside That wouldn't have borne dissection; 3. Proud abroad, and proud at home, Over the door of a tippling-shop! 4. Her birth, indeed, was uncommonly high, And, in talking about her wealth and worth, 5. But Miss Mac Bride had something beside And he lived "up town," in a splendid square, And feathers enough to plume her! 6. An honest mechanic was John Mac Bride, As ever an honest calling plied Or graced an honest ditty; For John had work'd, in his early day, 7. A young attorney of winning grace For the lawyer was poor, and "seedy" to boot, 8. The last of those who came to court 9. A courtly fellow was Dapper Jim, 10. Now, Dapper Jim his courtship plied With an eye to the purse of the old Mac Bride, 11. And the very magnificent Miss Mac Bride, Half in love and half in pride, Quite graciously relented; And tossing her head, and turning her back, 12. Old John Mac Bride, one fatal day, Of fortune's undertakers; And staking his all on a single die, 13. At his trade again, in the very shop 14. But, alas for the haughty Miss Mac Bride! 'Twas a dreadful change in human affairs, From a place "up town" to a nook "up stairs, From an avenue down to an alley! 15 And, to make her cup of woe run over, Was the very first to forsake her; To quiet the butcher and baker!" 16. And now the unhappy Miss Mac Bride, MORAL. 17. Because you flourish in worldly affairs, Don't be proud, and turn up your nose LESSON CLXXXVIII. A MONUMENT TO WASHINGTON. BY R. C. WINTHROP. 1. FELLOW-CITIZENS, let us seize this occasion to renew to each other our vows of allegiance and devotion to the American Union; and let us recognise in our common title to the name and the fame of Washington, and in our common veneration for his example and his advice, the all-sufficient centripetal power which shall hold the thick-clustering stars of our confederacy in one glorious constellation forever! Let the column, which we are about to construct, be at once a pledge and an emblem of perpetual union! Let the foundations be laid, let the superstructure be built up and cemented, let each stone be raised and riveted, in a spirit of national brotherhood! And may the earliest ray of the rising sun, till that sun shall set to rise no more, draw forth from it daily, as from the fabled statue of antiquity, a strain of national harmony, which shall strike a responsive chord in every heart throughout the republic! 2. Proceed, then, fellow-citizens, with the work for which you have assembled. Lay the corner-stone of a monument which shall adequately bespeak the gratitude of the whole American people to the illustrious Father of his country! Build it to the skies; you cannot outreach the loftiness of his principles! Found it upon the massive eternal rock; you cannot make it more enduring than his fame! Construct it of the peerless Parian marble; you cannot make it purer than his life! Exhaust upon it the rules and principles of ancient and of modern art; you cannot make it more proportionate than his character. 3. But let not your homage to his memory end here. Think |