selfish motive in coming to pick the currants. She never would receive a penny as wages, though often offered to her. "No, Mrs. Jones, no! Nelly wont have any money, only a cup of tea, Mrs. Jones, only a cup of tea," was her uniform answer; and truly Nelly seemed to enjoy her cup of tea, which my mother took care to provide good, and set out on a tray for Nelly alone.

into

My mother knew also how to draw Nelly out into conversation, and without seeming to wish to pry her secrets. From what I heard now and then, I believe she knew more than any other person the history of Nelly's life, her disappointments, and the causes for her singular and eccentric conduct.

Now my little girls, for it is for your sakes I pen down these thoughts and remembrances, do not you on any account despise any aged woman whose ways may appear to you to be odd or singular. Many things may have united to bring them into such a state, and you cannot tell but some such causes may operate to make one of you in fifty or sixty years time a singular old lady, whom the little girls of that day may regard as a curiosity or an oddity.

Rather let me persuade you if you know any singular old lady who lives alone by herself, to try, by your respectful behaviour towards her to get into her good graces. Depend upon it if you treat the aged with respect they will be good-natured and kind towards you, and receive with thankfulness any little services you may offer to render them. It is because some little girls behave rudely to aged women that aged women seem cross and reprove them. Aged women know what is right in children, and what is wrong. They have lived longer in the world ten times over than you have, and know ten times more, perhaps twenty times more, than you do; and they do not like therefore to be treated by little girls as if they knew nothing-they dont like to hear children

WHO IS MY NEIGHBOUR?

say in a disrespectful manner, “Oh, it is only an old woman."

On the other hand, as I said before, if you behave respectfully to them they will behave kindly to you. Let any little girl who reads this try, by taking her bible or testament, or some good little tract or book, and go to the cottage of some aged woman who lives alone, and in a modest and respectful manner, offer to read a chapter, or a piece, by her fireside with her; and I think she will soon find that aged women can be very agreeable and pleasant, and can, by things they can tell you, and by advice they can give you, make you a rich repayment for your trouble, and cause you to feel that instead of despising an aged woman you will always esteem it a privilege to be admitted into her company.

WHO IS MY NEIGHBOUR?

THY neighbour? It is she whom thou
Hast power to aid and bless,

Whose aching heart or burning brow
Thy soothing hand may press.

Thy neighbour? 'Tis the fainting poor,
Whose eye with want is dim,

Whom hunger sends from door to door,—
Go thou and succour him.

Thy neighbour? "Tis that weary man,
Whose years are at their brim,

Bent low with sickness, cares, and pain:—
Go thou and comfort him.

Thy neighbour? 'Tis the heart bereft

Of every earthly gem;

Widow and orphan, helpless left:-
Go thou and shelter them.

Oh, pass not, pass not heedless by;
Perhaps thou canst restore

Her breaking heart from misery :—
Go thou and comfort her.

THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK.

TALES have been written by poets, and other fanciful writers, about what they called the days of pastoral simplicity, when men and women were shepherds and shepherdesses, feeding their flocks in an Arcadian paradise, reclining on mossy banks, beneath shady bowers, by purling brooks, and playing their lutes to soft and melodious tunes. But all this was nonsense, and worse than nonsense, it was deceitful, it was not true. It might be true, and it may be now true, that the life of a shepherd may be one of simplicity and innocence, when compared with that of the inhabitant of a large city where vice and wickedness prevail. But it is not perfectly innocent. A man is not a good man because he is a shepherd, and there have been shepherds who have been bad men as well as shepherds who have been good men-just as there have been good and bad men who have been tillers of the ground, or artificers of brass and iron.

Neither is the life of a shepherd one of ease or sloth. True they are sometimes unemployed and have time to sit and think, or play the tuneful reed. And some shepherds, like David, have been both good poets and good musicians; and many when watching the heavens above them, on a fine clear evening, have gained

THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK.

much knowledge of the stars and suns which stud the azure firmament; and Chaldæn shepherds are said to have led the way in the sublime science of astronomy. Hence David said, "When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers; the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man that thou visitest him ?"

And yet if we notice what Jacob, who was a shepherd, says of his labours and hardships, we shall find that it was no easy task to discharge its duties. Reminding his father-in-law of what he had done, he says: "This twenty years have I been with thee; thy ewes and thy she goats have not cast their young, and the rams of thy flock have I not eaten. That which was torn of beusts I brought not unto thee; I bare the loss of it; of my hand didst thou require it, whether stolen by day, or stolen by night. Thus I was, in the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night; and my sleep departed from mine eyes. Thus have I been twenty years in thy house: I served thee fourteen years for thy two daughters, and six years for thy cattle and thou hast changed my wages ten times. Except the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac, had been with me, surely thou hadst sent me away now empty. God hath seen mine affliction, and the labour of my hands, and rebuked thee yesternight."

And when engaging to go forth and meet the proud giant Goliath we find the young shepherd of Bethlehem thus describing the perils of his former life"And David said to Saul, Let no man's heart fail because of him; thy servant will go and fight with this Philistine. And Saul said to David, Thou art not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him: for thou art but a youth, and he a man of war from his youth. And David said unto Saul, Thy servant kept his father's sheep, and there came a lion, and a

bear, and took a lamb out of the flock: And I went out after him, and smote him, and delivered it out of his mouth and when he arose against me, I caught him by his beard, and smote him, and slew him. Thy servant slew both the lion and the bear: and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them, seeing he hath defied the armies of the living God. David said moreover, The LORD that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine. And Saul said unto David, Go, and the Lord be with thee."

And so it is all nonsense you see to talk of the shepherd's life being one that is made up of nothing but ease and happiness—they too have their troubles and hardships as well as other men.

But I ought to remind you of One who has had more good names given to him than any other, and who deserves them all; but none of the good names given unto him, describe him better than that which he took unto himself. Long before he was born it was said of him, "He shall feed his flock like a shepherd he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young"-and so when he came he said, "I am the good shepherd." Ah! you know who I mean-I think you do-I hope you do I hope you know so much about him already that although I have said little about him, yet you know who I mean. However if you will turn to the 10th chapter of the Gospel by John, you will there read about the only "Good Shepherd." May you, my young reader, be one of his little lambs now, and protected by his care and power through life, be gathered at last into his heavenly fold!