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ANDREW'S STORY.

THE winter had been cold and wet, and my trade, as a gardener, had exposed me much to the weather; for, though cold, there had been little frost, so that I had been constantly able to work at something or another; but the damp, joined to my walks into Edinburgh in the evenings to attend the School of Arts, had, though I am in general very robust, brought on a kind of feverish cold, which continued to hang about me in the spring. I had also met with a disappointment which lay heavy on my spirits, and my friends began to notice that I did not look like myself. They spoke in this way to my mother, who keeps my house for me, and after refusing till I was ashamed, at last, just to please her, I consented to consult a doctor. gentleman, after seeing me two or three times, advised me to give up working for a few weeks, -and go to the country, away from the east coast during the season that the sharp winds prevailed from that quarter. I only told my mother that the doctor had advised idleness and

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the country; for his bidding me avoid the cold east winds let me see that he thought worse of my complaints than I had done myself. This made me very thoughtful; for death, though perhaps not very near, yet, if we know that it may be in the cup we have begun to drink, has something wonderfully alarming in it—at least it had so to me. I kept up a good heart, however, in presence of my mother, and all she thought of was to prepare for my departure.

My mother had a younger sister of whom she very often spoke. This sister had, many years before, married an Irishman. He had come into Galloway in search of work, when she was servant to a lady who lived near Port-Patrick. This marriage had sorely grieved my mother; for, though she had heard a good enough report of the young man, yet such a marriage was not expected to turn out well, just because the Irish took no more pains then than they do now to make their country be respected among strangers. My mother mourned over her sister as one who had been led away, by fine speeches and a handsome outside, to unite her lot for life with a wild uneducated Irishman, perhaps a Papist. Since that time my mother and her sister had never met, but letters had often passed between them; and my aunt's account of her husband and his friends had continued far better than my mother looked for. My aunt's husband was the

oldest of his family; and, when his father died, my aunt wrote that he had got the farm, and mentioned him always as the kindest of husbands and she had sons and daughters, and cows, and land, and potatoes in plenty-and she wearied much to see my mother's children, and my mother wearied to see hers. As yet, however, none of us had ever met; and I now proposed to my mother that I should spend the time I was to be idle in visiting this aunt and her family. My mother was, at first, unwilling to consent to this, for she knew that the part of Ireland in which my aunt lived was considered very unsettled; yet she would have liked to hear of her sister, and she was sure I would be well taken care of if I was once with her. But then the country I had to pass through! What might not happen to me on my journey? I would not listen to my mother when she spoke in this way; so she went to ask advice from a gentleman who was an elder in our church, and who, she knew, had been in Ireland. He assured her that I might travel from one end of that country to another without the smallest danger; for, though some parts of it might be in a disturbed state, it was never a stranger, but some of their own countrymen the people wished to harm. My mother, after this, made no objection-I only found her, the Saturday evening before I came away, directing one of the gardener lads to write

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on a bit of paper these words-“ The prayers the congregation are requested for a young man, setting out on a long and dangerous journey." I put out the words, "long and dangerous." My mother intended to take this next morning to church with her, for the precentor to read aloud; and, after putting out the words I have mentioned, I let her do as she liked, for I was well pleased to have the prayers of the people, thinking, as I then did, that I perhaps had a journey before me that my mother little dreamt of.

I set out on the Monday after. It was early in the month of May, and the day was as fine as it was possible to be. After walking for a mile or two, thinking little of any thing but the home I had left, and feeling somewhat sad and lonely, my attention was at last quite taken away from all other subjects by the extreme beauty of every thing around me. My road, hitherto, had been through the suburbs of the town which were between my home and the road to Glasgow; but now I had got into the country, and, being a gardener, I could not move on half a dozen paces without seeing something or other to keep me standing or leaning over some wall to look and wonder at its beauty; and to think of Him who made the things of this earth, where men continually forget and dishonour Him,—so full of loveliness, so pleasant to the sight, and so winning on the heart. When I stood looking at the coun

try around me—the fields so beautifully green— the fine tall trees with their fresh young leavesthe fruit trees covered with blossoms, some white, hanging so delicately on them-others as if they were clustering roses to the end of every branch -and near these the purple lilacs, and the white so pure among its pale green leaves-and the flowers and the bushes,-every thing so rich, and fresh, and green-as I stood looking at all these, I forgot how time passed; and it was far on in the day when I arrived at the friend's house where I intended to spend the night, though it was only about six miles from Edinburgh. This friend was gardener to a gentleman, at whose beautiful place he lived, and my evening was spent in walking about with him through the gardens and pleasure-grounds, which were, if possible, more lovely than any thing I had seen during the day. My friend was a true servant of God; and, after a day spent so pleasantly as I had done, it was delightful to kneel down with him and his young family to return thanks to God.

Next morning I really thought I felt better in health, and again set out on my journey, sauntering on as I had done the day before, stopping to look at whatever took my fancy, either in the glorious works of God, or in the works of man; and in this way one may learn much; but it was four days before I got to Glasgow. I stopped there a day to see some of the wonders of that great

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