POLLY, THE SHEPHERD'S DAUGHTER. the marks on his own sheep, and that was about all he knew of marks. Well there he was, set fast; and, after waiting half an hour or more, a gentleman and a lady came cantering down one of the lanes on horseback. He ventured to try to stop the gentleman to ask him for the road, but the gentleman only reined in his horse a little to hear what the man had to say, and then, without waiting to give a word in reply, pointed Richard to the guide post, and galloped on after his lady companion. It was some time before Richard could meet with any one to give the information he wanted. But after waiting for a full hour by Salisbury clock, he saw, coming down one of the lanes, another shepherd with a flock of sheep going to the same place, and glad was he to join his company for the rest of the way. 99 And so Richard thought "well my children shall not be put about in this way, if I can help it anyhow;' and so he sent all his children as soon as ever they they were old enough to the Sabbath school in the next village, and he encouraged his wife to spare as much time as ever she could on the week day, to hear them say their lessons. And in this way little Polly had become a very good reader of the bible. She could not read all the hard parts, but she could get on very well in the New Testament, and that was what her father loved to hear best, especially the 10th chapter of John; for Richard was pleased to think that the Son of God had called himself a shepherd. And so on a fine afternoon sometimes her mother would say to Polly, "Now we have got the child to sleep, and you have done as much knitting as I set you to do, you may take your school testament and go out on the downs and seek your father, and read a few chapters to him. I think you will find him under the little old oak tree near the spring." Right glad was little Polly to hear her mother say so, and she always set off with a light step and a light heart too, for she knew that her father would be glad to see her, and give her one of his best kisses, and tell her to sit down on the bank and read, and speak to her kindly, and listen so quietly, and look so happy, that she was always glad to go. At last, one afternoon, Richard thought he would try if he could not learn some of these wonderful things called letters himself; and so he got little Polly to tell him the names of the big letters first-those at the beginning of the chapters and on the title page; and as he brought with him to the task two things which are always needful-plenty of time and plenty of patience, it was not very long before he knew all the big letters well, and then he was not so long in learning the little ones, and you would have smiled if you had seen how delighted the poor shepherd was, and how he tittered for joy, when, with a little help from Polly, one afternoon under the tree, he made the good book speak to him by reading through this favorite Psalm of king David, which he loved all the better because that great king had once been a shepherd. "THE LORD is my shepherd: I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of my enemies: thou anointest my head with oil: my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever." OUR TRUE GUIDE. WHAT is the world? a wildering maze, All broad, and winding, and aslope, Millions of pilgrims throng these roads, Down to eternal night; One only path that never bends, Is there no guide to show that path? The Bible need not stray; But he who hath, and will not give That light of life to all that live, THE TWO MOTHERS. Montgomery. In looking over an American newspaper the other day, I found in a report of a collision between two vessels, the following singular circumstance: "After our vessel was struck, and while sinking, two mothers snatched what they supposed to be their own infants, and rushed upon deck, and in their fright threw themselves into the water. One of the devoted parents held the child to her bosom, and both were saved; while the other sustained hers until it breathed its last, yet still holding on to its body until she was rescued. The surprise of the mothers may be imagined, when they discovered that in the confusion attending their escape, they had each taken the other's child. And while the poor woman who had supposed that her little one was lost, pressed to her bosom her own babe, the other was frantic with grief to find too late, that she had preserved another's child and lost her own." THE FORDS OF THE JORDAN. ABOUT ten miles to the north of that arm of the Dead Sea into which the Jordan falls, and about eight miles to the west of Jericho, is a part of the river which has been, from the earliest times, the usual passage between the south of Palestine and what was formerly the land of Moab. Its comparative shallowness and easiness of access have always rendered it, in peace, a place of frequent resort, and in war, a post of great importance. When the spies sent by Joshua were secreted in the house of Rahab, the inhabitants of the city "pursued after them," we are told, "the way to Jordan unto the fords." In the account given of the victory of Ehud, it is said of the Israelites who engaged in the conflict, that they went down after him, and took the fords of Jordan toward Moab, and suffered not a man to pass over." In like manner, when the Ephraimites from the west had attacked the men of Gilead who lived on the eastern side of the river, and had been defeated, "the Gileadites took the passages of Jordan before the Ephraimites," here it was that the fugitives were intercepted; and when any one in spite of his denial, was proved to be an Ephraimite by his provincial pronunciation of the word Shibboleth, "they took him and slew him at the passages of Jordan." 66 It was probably for the accommodation of travellers that a building or buildings were erected in the immediate vicinity of the fords, which obtained the name of Bethabara, or the House of Passage. This name appears to have been as ancient as the Judges, for when the panic-stricken Midianites were fleeing before Gideon, "he sent messengers throughout Mount Ephraim, saying, Come down after the Midianites, and take before them the waters unto Bethbarah, and Jordan. Then all the men of Ephraim gathered themselves together, and took the waters |