with all its circumstantials of dark-colored horses, mourningcoaches, plumed-hearse, hired mutes, and floating scarfs; no regular conversation was carried on till after tea, when our rector and his curate being with us, the subject of death, and its general effect on human beings, was again referred to; and many among the party declared, that if the unbelieving world actually did live in the fear of death, yet they were very little influenced in their conduct by this fear, and for the most part, acted like persons who were sure of this life for ever. Most of the clergymen then present brought forward examples from their several parishes, and the conduct of their own people; and one young man confessed that he had himself, after laboring in every way he could devise with sermons, schools, and private admonitions, almost felt inclined to give the matter up as hopeless, determining to attend merely to what was absolutely required of him, and leave all extra labors unperformed.

There were others who confessed the same feelings, some with sorrow, and others in bitterness of spirit, and the tide of the discourse was running this way, almost without opposition, when our aged friend addressed them thus--“What is it you expect, my sons? Do you expect to reform the world, or even any district of it? What does our Lord say 'When the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?' But though our villages lie in sin, and our cottages are scenes of rebellion against the Divine Law, who amongst us will dare to assert that his poor endeavors have never been made useful, through Divine grace, to some one or more individuals?

"Some time since," he added, "I met with a little volume, which, though exceedingly simple in its construction, and dealing in common and every day matters, set me upon the enquiry, how the case stood in my own humble experience, as to any happy results produced under my ministry, but not by my power. In this little book, the parson compares those who have departed this life in faith in his small district, to jewels treasured up to shine hereafter, and for ever, in the crown of their Redeemer; and in enumerating such of these as he thinks were made meet for the Master's use, his faith is strengthened to look upon the actual state of his parish without dismay, and to go working on with confidence, and in that spirit of love, wherewith

the child of God should ever look upon his brethren of the flesh.

"Come, now," he continued,

66 what can we do better when

we meet, than for such of us as may recollect some instances of mercy of this kind to relate them to each other, for our mutual encouragement; ever bearing in mind this precept at the same time, that although Paul may plant, and Apollos water, it is always God who gives the increase?'

In reply to this proposition, several of the company said, they feared that they should have few examples of the kind to bring forward, though they would listen with real interest to the recital of what the others could tell; and it was agreed by all, that Paternus should be the first to act upon his own proposition. Accordingly he thus began his narrative :

"It is now many years ago since I first established a Sunday school in my parish; unfortunately a clergyman cannot give the time he wishes to a school on this day, and he must devolve it principally on other persons. I did, however, manage to give a short scripture-instruction before the evening service; but I had so little encouragement from the improvement of the children, and heard so much of their misbehaviour, that I almost wished I had never attempted any thing of the kind."

"As we have often done," murmured one or two of the younger men present.

"But," resumed Paternus, "there are many reasons for not giving up a thing of this kind when once undertaken, so I went on grumbling and despairing for a few more years, till one summer, about hay-making season, there came a party of trampers—a questionable kind of gypsies-with their donkeys, tents, and picturesque appurtenances, and settled themselves for a short time in a lane not very far from my house. The party consisted of men, women, and children, and they professed to support themselves by tinkering, grinding, and mending rushbottomed chairs; whilst the children, of whom they had many, went begging about, and, as some said, stealing; for many articles of dress were taken from the hedges. On one occasion one of the boys was discovered in the fact, and very severely beaten, with many a threat that if caught again he should be sent to the House of Correction. The cottage from which the

boys had attempted to steal the linen was not in my parish; for these vagrants do not often commit their thefts very near to their temporary settlement.

"Soon after this attempt to steal the clothes, the vagrants were missing, and a report went through the village of some depredations, attributed to them, on the hen-roost of a farmer who resided just at the edge of the parish. It was about a week after this that I rode out one morning to call on an old woman who lived alone in a solitary cottage, and from lameness was not often able to come to church. At her gate I met a boy who had the year before been one of my Sunday school pupils; but being the son of parents utterly without religion, he had for some reason or another, for some weeks absented himself both from school and church. I had taken some steps to recover him, but without success, and had not had the opportunity of speaking to him for a long time.

"On my approach, he would have slunk away, but calling him by his name, Harry Bean, I asked him to hold my horse, whilst I went in to the widow Morris. When I came out again I gave him a penny, and took occasion to say something about his neglect of church. He received the penny with singular glee, but made no answer.

"Just below the widow's was a meadow which dipped down to a brook of some magnitude, the banks of which were shaded on each side by wych elms, and alders, and high aquatic plants, and the place was very solitary. I had observed for some minutes that there was an appearance of a thunder storm in the horizon to windward, and being impatient to reach home, I opened a gate, knowing that there was another at the end of the meadow by which I could get into a lane leading to my house.

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'I was making the best of my way, when I was met by a pelting shower of rain and hail. There was an old barn, often used for a cattle shed, among the trees at the edge of the brook, and towards this I turned, and having brought my horse under shelter, just at the entrance, I walked further in, and was looking about me for a corner which might be perfectly dry, when I was struck with the utmost amazement at a sight which presented itself, in almost the only completely protected corner of the wide old place. I might have gone in and gone out, indeed, many

times without seeing this, had I not been so curious in discovering this perfect shelter.

"On a bed of new hay, most conveniently arranged as if by some tender hand, lay a boy, certainly under ten years of age, or probably some years younger; his dress was ragged, and forlorn in the extreme; his face attenuated, and extremely pale, excepting where two bright hectic spots glowed on each cheek, but he was sleeping soundly with one hand under his head, and over his feet lay an empty sack, as if placed there by some poor but careful hand, whilst near to where he lay, was a black and mutilated pitcher, containing water. As I drew near, I perceived that the solitary child fetched his breath as from the bottom of the chest, and that from time to time a slight spasm passed over his features. That he was ill, I could plainly see; but I could not account for his being there.

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Hearing an approaching step, I drew somewhat behind one of the wooden supports of the roof, so that I was not seen immediately by the person whose step I had heard. The next instant he came in, and it was Harry Bean; he brought in his hand a small can of milk. At the sound of his entrance, the boy opened his eyes, and cried, 'Is it you, Harry; is it you, good Harry; O! I thought it so very, very long.'

66 6 'Yes;' replied the other, ‘and I have got some milk, with a penny God sent me; is not God good to us, Jem?' It was indeed an affecting sight, to see the elder boy then seat himself on the hay, and raise the head of the younger, whilst he held the can to his mouth.

"I stepped forward-I saw no reason why I should not do so-but I was sorry when I found that my sudden appearance startled both the boys, and caused the younger to exhibit symptoms of excessive terror.

"Don't be frightened, Jem;' said Harry, looking towards me; ́he is very kind: he wont tell of you. Will you, Sir?' he added, addressing me, will you tell of poor Jem? He is very sorry now, indeed he is; but he did not know then, any thing about our Lord Jesus Christ, and his goodness; and how we ought to try to please him; did you, Jem?'

"No!' said the little boy, with all the pathos which only an infant voice in distress can express: 'no, Sir; I did not; indeed

I did not; till Harry Bean told me, kind Harry Bean; he has been so good to me; he found me here, and he made me this bed, and he brought water to me, and his own bread which he had for his dinner, but I could not eat it; and then he saved his milk and brought it to me, and I could drink it, and it was so good, and now he has brought me more.'

"But Harry,' I said, 'kind as you seem to have been, why have you kept this poor sick child in this wild place; why did you not make his case known; you well know that if you had told it to me, I should have seen that he had relief?'

“The poor little fellow almost shrieked at the proposal of his case being made known; and was so violently agitated, that it was some time before his friend could calm him. For some time I could get no other answer to any question I put, but from Harry, who repeated again and again he is afraid of being hanged, Sir; he is sure to be hanged, Sir, if we tell of him.' But at last the poor child himself, said, 'Yes, Sir, I shall be hanged-indeed I shall - I shall be sure of being hanged.'

"I was utterly mystified; I stood looking from one boy.to another in a state of the strangest perplexity, and it was not till after a considerable time that I could obtain any explanation of the real state of the case. It seems that little Jem, for by no other appellation did we ever know him, remembered nothing further back than travelling about with the trampers, who had been in the village, and having been initiated by them in the arts of lying, begging, and stealing, never having suffered any chastisements from them but when he had failed as a beggar, or been detected as a thief. He was not a child of any of these people, he knew; and had often thought himself particularly unlucky because he was not. He had received a severe beating for suffering himself to be detected in robbing the hedge; and had afterwards been kept out from the shelter of their tent in a pouring rain before he was forgiven. He had been ill ever since; and when he complained, harsh language had been used to him, such as ungodly and low people use in their anger.

It appears that poor Jem had confessed to some person he had robbed, that he belonged to this gang of trampers, and had brought such a reproach upon the party, that they deemed it best to decamp suddenly. Jem had been getting worse and