"Is it so!" thought I, still following on; "have they scented the gold and bank-notes! but they would have spared themselves the trouble, no doubt, had they known that the birds are flown." The door of this room was unlatched; I opened it softly, and behold, though it was not yet broad day, I saw that the chest was open, and, as I expected, the yellow bag was gone clean off. A precious prize, to be sure, and one worth risking a man's life for indeed! But nothing else was disturbed in the box. I am almost ashamed to say how this discovery affected me; for I set to and laughed till my very sides ached; but the feeling I think was a sort of nervous one, and I was, as it were, quite thrown off my balance by the idea of the narrow escape which I had had, of losing that very thirty-six pounds which were, under Providence, to be the making of me; and I should as surely have lost them as I lost the thirty-six penny pieces, if my wife had not urged me as she did to do the honest thing. But, as I say, there I stood and laughed, and laughed again, till I wakened my wife, who presently came to me, with her clothes thrown hastily on, inquiring with no small alarm what ailed me? "Do you see that, Aly?" I said, pointing to the open chest; "the rogues were in here last night; they got through the pantry window; they have picked the lock, and have carried away the thirty-six pieces." "Oh Joseph," she exclaimed, "have you deceived me? Did you not pay the bills, and bring back the receipts?" and the poor woman looked ready to faint. I soothed and assured her as speedily as possible, for she was as pale as death; and then the warm blood mounted to her cheeks and to her very brow, and down she fell on her knees, thanking her heavenly Father for this new token of his tender care. "Can you doubt now, Joseph," she said, "can you doubt now of the paternal care of God? Where should we be now, had we not been guided to do the right thing on Saturday night, for the bag is gone past recovery? And it little matters; the wicked men will have their punishment in their disappointment, when they find the heavy purse to contain only a few pence; and may God bless the disappointment to them; but I fear much," she added, "that Anna Rouse is at the bottom of this; she was listening, no doubt, on the stairfoot when we were speaking together on the Saturday evening; but I greatly dread lest it was by her instigation that this villany was contrived. I hope I do not wrong her, but my suspicions are strong." My wife and I then busied ourselves to ascertain that nothing else but the bag had been taken; and when we had got the blacksmith to put strong bars to the pantry window, things fell into their usual course with us, although we never could forget the merciful providence by which we had been preserved, as it were, from temporal ruin. For years from that time passed before we could raise as much as would have set us free from debt, had we not preserved that thirty-six pounds; but we shifted to live, and to live comfortably, and to bring up our children, and settle them in the world, since which we have been able to put a little by against old age, which is now coming on with rapid pace. And I can say, and say with thankfulness, that although I am one of the smallest in the kingdom of God, one of the least worthy among the children of men of the Divine favour, and I do not say this from a mere fashion of speaking, but perhaps because I can see more of the workings of my own corrupt heart than I can possibly do of those of any other, yet that ever since that period of my life of which I have given a particular account, I have had such continued proofs of the Divine favour, such assurances that all things work together for good to those who are brought, through the influence of God the Spirit, to desire to be made one with God the Son, that I would rather see the wife of my bosom, and every child of whom she has made me the happy father, laid low in their graves, than see one of them impiously desiring to separate himself from that God in the union with whom all created beings alone can find that happiness for which Divine mercy originally prepared them, and which (this happiness being lost to them through the malice of the evil one) every Divine attribute has since been exercised to render back to them. END OF THE BASKET-MAKER. THE BUTTERFLY. It was on a fine morning in the lovely month of May, that Mr. Feild walked out with his children in a beautiful park which bordered on his pleasant garden, and afforded a delightful prospect from the windows of his house. It was one of Mr. Feild's greatest pleasures to walk in an afternoon with his children, when their daily tasks were performed; and it was in these their walking hours that he gave them some of their most valuable lessons, taking his subjects from the many lovely and curious objects of nature which were spread before him, among the valleys and uplands, the lawns, groves, and waterfalls, which were enclosed within the paling of the park. Sometimes he sat down with them under the shade of a tree, or by the side of a brook, and sometimes he gave them leave to wander about in any direction whither their fancies might lead them, yet always insisting that they should not go beyond the reach of his voice. On the day of which we are writing, the park was more delightful than usual. There was a most pleasant odour of hawthorn in the breeze, and the tender leaves were of a bright and fresh green,-millions of insects were playing in the sunbeams, rejoicing in their new being, and displaying their tiny wings of gold and purple, amethyst and sapphire. 66 Papa," said William, Mr. Feild's eldest son, 66 I remember coming to this place one very cold day last winter, and I did not then see one of these insects. Where were they at that time?" 66 Perhaps God has made them since," remarked little Mary. "God made the world in six days, and it would take him very little time to make all these insects,they only look like so many small grains of sand with wings put to them." |