To woo kind words from him, nor laid her head
Upraised upon his knee, with fondling whine.
How could it be but thus! Arithmetic
Was the sole science he was ever taught.
The multiplication-table was his creed,
His pater-noster, and his decalogue.

When yet he was a boy, and should have breathed
The open air and sunshine of the fields,

To give his blood its natural spring and play,
He, in a close and dusky counting-house,
Smoke-dried, and seared and shrivelled up his heart.
So, from the way in which he was trained up,
His feet departed not; he toiled and moiled,

Poor muck-worm! through his three-score years and ten
And when the earth shall now be shoveled on him,

If that which served him for a soul were still

Within its husk, 't would still be dirt to dirt.

S. Yet your next newspapers will blazon him,
For industry and honorable wealth,

A bright example.

T. Even half a million

Gets him no other praise. But come this way

Some twelve-months hence, and you will find his virtues

Trimly set forth in lapidary lines,

Faith, with her torch beside, and little Cupids

Dropping upon his urn their marble tears.

LESSON CVIII.

The Sleigh-ride; or, Two Ways of Telling a Story.H. K. OLIVER.

YOUNG people commit more faults from thoughtlessness, than from intent to do wrong; and want of reflection leads children astray, much oftener than want of principle. Indif

ference to the feelings of the aged, a proneness to make light of peculiarities, are, however, occasionally indulged in by the young, and, in the excitement of the momentary gratification, which such merriment may produce, all thought of the wrong and all sense of the right, are equally forgotten. The proverb of the wisest man saith, "The glory of young men is their strength; and the beauty of old men is the gray head." The strength of the young should protect and defend the beauty of the old. The hoary head should ever be respected, whatever may be the outward condition of its possessor; and neither sport nor ridicule should be thrown upon him, whose enfeebled strength scarce suffices to bear the weight of the many years, with which time has burdened him.

The following narrative, which is strictly true, illustrates what has been observed; and proves, that the just recompense of a thoughtless fault may be much more speedily repaid to those who commit it, than may be either expected or desired by them. The common saying of "waking up the wrong passenger," is peculiarly applicable to the case.

In one of the most populous cities of New England, a few years since, a party of lads, all members of the same school, got up a grand sleigh-ride. There were about twenty-five or thirty boys engaged in the frolic. The sleigh was a very large and splendid establishment, drawn by six gray horses. The afternoon was as beautiful as anybody could desire, and the merry group enjoyed themselves in the highest degree. It was a common custom of the school, to which they belonged, and on previous occasions their teacher had accompanied them. Some engagement upon important business, however, occupying him, he was not at this time with them. It is quite likely had it been otherwise, that the restraining influence of his presence would have prevented the scene, which is the main feature of the present story.

On the day following the ride, as he entered the school-room, he found his pupils grouped about the stove, and in high mer

riment, as they chatted about the fun and frolic of their excursion. He stopped a while and listened, and in answer to some inquiries which he made about the matter, one of the lads, a fine, frank and manly boy, whose heart was in the right place, though his love of sport sometimes led him astray, volunteered to give a narrative of their trip and its various incidents. As he drew near the end of his story, he exclaimed, "O, sir! there was one little circumstance which I had almost forgotten to tell you. Toward the latter part of the afternoon, as we were returning home, we saw, at some distance ahead of us, a queer-looking affair in the road. We could not exactly make out what it was. It seemed to be a sort of halfand-half monstrosity. As we approached it, it proved to be a rusty old sleigh, fastened behind a covered wagon, proceeding at a very slow rate, and taking up the whole road. Finding that the owner was not disposed to turn out, we determined upon a volley of snow-balls and a good hurra. These we gave with a relish, and they produced the right effect, and a little more, for the crazy machine turned out into the deep snow, by the side of the road, and the skinny old pony started on a full trot. As we passed, some one who had the whip gave the old jilt of a horse a good crack, which made him run faster than he ever did before, I'll warrant. And so, with another volley of snow-balls, pitched into the front of the wagon, and three times three cheers, we rushed by. With that, an old fellow in the wagon, who was buried up under an old hat and beneath a rusty cloak, and who had dropped the reins, bawled out, Why do you frighten my horse?'- -'Why don't you turn out then?' says the driver. So we gave him three rousing cheers more; his horse was frightened again, and ran up against a loaded team, and, I believe, almost capsized the old - and so we left him."

creature

dent.

Well, boys," replied the instructor, "that is quite an inci-
But take your seats, and after our morning service is

ended, I will take my turn and tell you a story, and all about a sleigh-ride too."

Having finished the reading of a chapter in the Bible, and after all had joined in the Lord's prayer, he commenced as follows: :

66

Yesterday afternoon, a very venerable and respectable old man, and a clergyman by profession, was on his way from Boston to Salem, to pass the residue of the winter at the house of his son. That he might be prepared for journeying, as he proposed to do in the spring, he took with him his light wagon, and for the winter, his sleigh, which he fastened behind the wagon. He was, just as I have told you, very old and infirm; his temples were covered with thinned locks, which the frosts of eighty years had whitened; his sight and hearing too, were somewhat blunted by age, as yours will be, should you live to be as old. He was proceeding very slowly and quietly, for his horse was old and feeble, like his owner. His thoughts reverted to the scenes of his youth, when he had periled his life, in fighting for the liberties of his country; to the scenes of his manhood, when he had preached the Gospel of his divine Master to the heathen of the remote wilderness; and to the scenes of riper years, when the hard hand of penury had been laid heavily upon him. While thus occupied, almost forgetting himself in the multitude of his thoughts, he was suddenly disturbed, and even terrified, by loud hurras from behind, and by a furious pelting and clattering of balls of

snow and ice upon the top of his wagon. In his trepidation,

he dropped his reins, and, as his aged and feeble hands were quite benumbed with cold, he found it impossible to gather +hem up, and his horse began to run away.

"In the midst of the old man's trouble, there rushed by him, with loud shouts, a large party of boys, in a sleigh drawn by six horses. Turn out, turn out, old fellow,' Give us the road, old boy,'- 'What'll you take for your pony, old dad

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driver.

Pray do not frighten my horse,' exclaimed the infirin

"Turn out, then; turn out,' was the answer, which was followed by repeated cracks and blows from the long whip of the grand sleigh,' with showers of snow-balls, and three tremendous huzzas from the boys who were in it.

"The terror of the old man and his horse was increased, and the latter ran away with him, to the imminent danger of his life. He contrived, however, after some exertion, to secure his reins, which had been out of his hands during the whole of the affray, and to stop his horse just in season to prevent his being dashed against a loaded team.

"As he approached Salem, he overtook a young man who was walking toward the same place, and whom he invited to ride. The young man alluded to the 'grand sleigh' which had just passed, which induced the old gentleman to inquire if he knew who the boys were. He replied that he didthat they all belonged to one school, and were a set of wild fellows.

"Aha!' exclaimed the former with a hearty laugh (for his constant good nature had not been disturbed), 'do they, indeed! Why, their master is very well known to me. I am now going to his house, and I rather think I shall give him the benefit of this whole story.'

"A short distance brought him to his journey's end, the house of his son. His old horse was comfortably housed and fed, and he himself abundantly provided for.

"That son, boys, is your instructor; and that aged and infirm old man, that 'old fellow' and 'old boy' (who did not turn out for you, but who would have gladly given you the whole road, had he heard your approach), that old boy,' and 'old daddy,' and 'old frozen nose,' was your master's father! '

It is not easy to describe, nor to imagine, the effect producea