fronting to him? When you read of him in the Bible, did you not feel that you were reading of one, who, though he was in the form of man, could be no other than the Son of God? Do you remember what Thomas said when Jesus appeared to him, after his declaring that he would not believe unless he saw the prints of the nails in his Lord's hands and feet?"

"Yes, I remember;" replied Richard," he said, My Lord and my God.""

"And did you not feel, Richard, that you could say the same as Thomas ?"

"I did say it," answered Richard; "I said in my heart, He is my Lord and my God;' and I loved to think that he was so."

6

"And do you remember what Christ said to unbelieving Thomas? He said, Thomas, because thou hast seen me thou hast believed. Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.'" (John xx.)

"Yes, I remember," replied Richard; " and I thought how this blessing is perhaps for me, for I have not seen him, yet I believe; and then I thought it was very presumptuous in me to think I might understand what I was reading, just as I would any common book."

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Well, we shall not enter on that point tonight," said I; because I did not wish to take his attention from what he had read in the Bible, to begin a dispute about what his priest

taught him: "But, Richard," continued I, "have you not learnt a great many things by just once reading a small portion of the word of God?"

"Yes, yes, and it has gone more to my heart than all I ever knew before."

"Well, then, Richard, I lent you my Bible this morning, will you lend me this little image. to-night; and, instead of placing it before you and repeating prayers you do not understand, will you try to believe the truth-that you really are in the presence of that same Lord and Sa-viour of whom you read this morning,—that he sees and knows your inmost thoughts,-that he is the hearer of prayer, and the only Mediator between God and our souls: and pray to him for such help, and guidance, and pardon, and light, and grace, as you need. Remember how you loved him as you read of him,-remember that you felt joy in believing that he was your Lord and your God,-remember too that he has himself said, Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out."" (John vi. 37.)

Richard looked very grave, and turned away without answering me. I did not wish to make him speak, so I took my Bible and began to read. I, however, kept the little image, and when Richard went to prayer, he did not ask me for it. Neither did I hear him that night, and I trusted that his heart was praying rather than his lips.

"I take your land, Jemmy! Do you believe I could do such a thing?"

"No, no," said they all; "but do not ye be speaking that way, Andrew, for it might put it in somebody's head."

He

A day or two after I arrived at my uncle's, we were invited to a wedding. It was a nephew of my uncle Arthur's who was to be married. was a tall, thin, newly grown-up lad, of about nineteen. The bride was a bit slender lassie of about seventeen. All was joy, and carousing, and joking, and laughing, as usual. We met at the bride's house. It was a cabin, like the others at Ballinagh. I asked my cousin Richard,-for somehow he and I always got together,-where the young couple were to live? "With Pat's father, (that was the bridegroom,) till he gets a cabin built," answered Richard.

I knew that Pat's father had just such a cabin as the one we were in. He seemed, too, to have a numerous family besides Pat. In my country, a young wife would seldom think of coming into a situation where she would be so likely to find herself one too many. "How will Pat support his wife when they get a cabin of their own?" asked I.

"He will get a bit o' the land," answered Richard," as much as will grow their potatoes." "And has that young lad made something with which to furnish his house already?"

"He

"Furnish!" repeated Richard, laughing, "They'll not need much furniture at first." "But they'll need some," answered I. must be a clever young fellow to have been able to make what is needed to begin a married life with, at his age."

Richard laughed again; "You Scotch are the clever fellows," said he. "You can hinder yourselves, I suppose, from liking any girl till you have made all you want for furniture and such like. Now, we Irish boys cannot help liking the girl who takes our fancy; and we can think of nothing else till we have her home with us some where or other; and then the cabin and the furniture may come after as they best can. As for my cousin Pat, I do not believe he has half-a-dozen tenpennies in the world: and the bride, I know, had to borrow her wedding-gown from Kate Cooney, for never a one had she. That's our way, Andrew."

"And that's what you call liking a girl, in this country," said I.

"And what is your way of liking a girl, in your country, Andrew ?" asked Richard.

"What would you think of waiting and working for her five or six years ?" asked I.

"And will she wait for you?"

"There's no fear of that, if it is a real liking. But, Richard, would you really take the girl you loved better than all the world besides, to an

empty cabin, with nothing to give her but potatoes, sick or well ?"

"Indeed, Andrew, and I mean to do it very

We could say no more at the time, but when I looked at the young slender thing of a bride, so thoughtless-like, and the boy bridegroom, and saw all the elder friends pleased and satisfied to let two such creatures begin the cares of this world, without either house, or clothes, or money provided for their earthly wants, and apparently without a thought but for the present moment, I said within myself,-" Well, we are always hearing a mournful talk in our country about the poor Irish-and what a pity of the Irish-and one season we hear of their potatoe crop failing, and then they are all dying of want—and the next we hear of murders and burnings, and soldiers obliged to keep them down by force. But what else is to be expected if they go on in this way? What will happen if the potatoe crop fails next year in this corner? half the people must starve,—and that young couple among the rest, or else they must beg from their neighbours, -and all these wild half-naked boys growing up to get their will in the same way,-and the land divided and divided, how can it support them all? and then, when want and discontent get among them, what will they not do?" This thoughtless way of marrying was the thing that appeared