"But have you not a parlour to show us, little dames?" said Lucy: "where is your parlour ?"

The little girls immediately moved hand-in-hand to a door on the left side of the kitchen, and opening it, we walked into a considerably large sitting-room, on the northern side of the cottage, in which a window at one end commanded a view of the park, where the deer were feeding in various groups. This parlour was hung with a green paper representing a thick foliage, and set round with chairs so painted and constructed as to resemble roots of trees; in each corner was an old-fashioned cupboard, painted with some curiously whimsical devices; and in the centre of the room was a table covered with a green cloth, on which lay several books, a flute, and some needlework. There was one thing, however, which surprised us much-there was an inner door in this parlour, and the outer door was scarcely opened, before my dog rushed in, and flew to the inner door, whining, scratching, and seeming as if he would have torn up the very floor. The children were frightened at this, and I was surprised; but my nephew drove him out, and shut the door of the house against him.

When the dog was out we began talking again to the little girls. "I do like to hear these children talk," said Lucy, "and to set them a courtesying, and saying, 'ma'am ;' I must set them going again." And she turned to them, and said, "Are these your chairs, my dears?"

"They are our chairs, ma'am," was the answer she received; the little speaker courtesying low at the same time.

"Ladies come here and drink tea, ma'am, sometimes," said the other little blushing one.

"And sit on these chairs, ma'am," said the first. "Well then," said my brother, smiling, "I suppose we may do as the ladies do. Suppose we were to

seat ourselves, and then we might talk more at our ease. Come, tell me," he added, drawing the little girls towards him, each by one hand; "what do the ladies do when they come ?"

They do drink tea, sir," said one.

"They do eat bread and butter, sir," said the other. "And we have the best china, sir, when they come," added the first.

"The china with strawberries on it, sir," said the second.

“Do the ladies love you ?" asked Miss Howard.

"When we are good they do love us," they both answered.

"But you are never naughty, are you?" asked Miss Howard.

They both blushed at this question, and one answered, "Nobody is quite good."

66

Why, what do you do that is naughty ?" asked Lucy.

66

we

"That is not a fair question," said my brother; have no right to bring them to confession. See how the little things blush: their very necks are red. This is not a polite return for their hospitality."

:

"But they are such delightful creatures," said Miss Howard: "I never saw any thing like them do let me talk to them. Please to tell me," she then added, "which of you two is the better girl. I must know."

66 Mary is the best," replied one of them.

"No, I am not, Ellen is the best," replied the other; "but the ladies say we are neither of us good; and they showed it us in the Bible, and they made us learn

it."

"What did you learn?" asked Lucy; "please to repeat it."

They both answered together," "Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child, but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him."" Prov. xxii. 15.

"But nobody uses a rod to you, I am sure," said Lucy; "you never saw a rod, I am certain."

The two little creatures reddened violently on hearing this question, and tears came into their eyes; and we all felt that Lucy was making too free with them, and had hurt their feelings; and she felt it herself; for she got up and kissed them both, and said she would not talk of such things any more. But," she added, "now tell me, do you live here by yourselves? Is there nobody here to take care of you?"

"We must not talk about that," they answered. "About what?" she asked.

"About our mother," they replied.

"Not about your mother! how strange!" said Miss Howard. "Why must not you?"

"Because she told us we must not," they answered.

"When she sent us to open th "But you may tell now about sister-in-law. And, as quick as and, taking the little girls each to me, and, directing them to "Join your little hands, my darl grandpapa, see and forgive you daughter. Please, grandpapa, f child, our dear, dear mother!"

O my reader! conceive, if you I beheld these two lovely babes obedience to their aunt, and liftin hands, their baby hands, while te their infant features-for they c understand the affair. Conceive feelings of my wife were, whose mine on the occasion, as she ha picion of what was to be the res this cottage. I fell back in my ch unable to decide. I looked at th were strongly drawn towards ther less.

"They have only one parent," s father has long, long forsaken the daughter before these babes saw have no part either in your anger neither do we ask you to restore y place from which she has thrown ask you to pronounce your forgiv your blessing; and to tell her that with hope to a happy reunion with place where all tears shall be wiped

As my sister proceeded, I burst int ing forwards, drew up the two little my arms. This action was interpret petition; and when I lifted up my e charged with tears, I saw the inner standing open, and in the doorway tw of a female and the other of a middle retired in the background.

In the foremost of these I recognis at once; but, probably, more because see her than from any other circumstan the least recollection of the person w

her, and should, no doubt, have supposed him to be her husband, had I not been just informed that he had long left her. I however did not bestow more than a single glance upon this second person, for my eyes were riveted on my daughter. But O, how entirely changed, how altered was my child! how suddenly passed away, as I looked upon her, the hope I had before entertained, in spite, as it were, of my reason, of seeing her blooming and lovely in person as I remembered her to be formerly! for Bessy once was a very pretty girl. But she who now appeared to me was sallow and broken down; and dressed, though neatly indeed, in a very humble style, with no pretensions to any thing of the lady in her manners; her person, too, was much sunk; and she looked some years older than she ought to have done. She stood trembling with her eyes fixed upon me, with that sort of imploring look which a criminal uses towards a severe judge; while all the rest of the party had gathered behind me, leaving the space clear between me and the offender, with the exception only of my wife, who had sunk upon a chair by my side, and was weeping audibly.

A minute or perhaps more elapsed before I could speak. At length I pronounced the name of Bessy; and at the same instant being admonished by a sign from my brother (as I afterward learned), she came trembling forwards, and with her the man before mentioned. And then, agitated as I was, I first discovered that this poor man had lost a limb, and was halting on a stump affixed to the knee. But they both advanced and knelt at some short distance from me, as if they dared not come nearer; and I heard some broken words, amid which I distinguished, "Father-father-pardon-pity -forgiveness-we have offended." I arose, and in rising pushed away the little twins, but stood fixed to the spot; my eyes being riveted on the man who knelt by my daughter. A poor, low person, I thought him. He was clad in very coarse garments, though he was perfectly clean. He had a sort of shabby military air, and wore a stiff black stock upon his neck; his features elongated and emaciated; his mouth was disfigured by a broad gash, which had probably been made by a sabre; while his complexion was sunburnt and weather-beaten, like one who had been long exposed to every variety of intemperate climate.

arms;

Such was the person who knelt by Bessy, and he seemed as deeply concerned as she could be in the result of the next word which I should utter; for his eyes were brim-full of tears, and some drops had already strayed down his rough cheek. Yet, intently as I looked upon him, I had not the smallest recognition of his person, and was ready to ask, "Who are you, who thus dare to intrude upon our retirement?" when my brother whispered the name of William; and the next moment I had fallen forward into the arms of my two children, weeping on their bosoms more like an infant than a man who had weathered so many storms of life. I can recollect nothing from the time when, stooping to embrace my children, I had fallen forward into their neither could I define my feelings, or say what they were, when, recovering my recollection and composure, I was enabled to look again upon my altered Bessy, and still more altered William. O what a conflict then took place within my breast, of tenderness, remorse, pity, and shame! Where was the once selfsufficient, handsome youth, who used to grace my shop? where was my once blooming, sparkling, gay, and saucy Bessy? Till that very day, nay, till that very hour, I had always thought of them as they were when I last saw them. O what a revulsion; what a violent and sudden change, was there now in my ideas and views respecting them! There was a degree of humility, contriteness, and tenderness in their aspects which was touching in the extreme. Bessy was no longer in appearance more than a sort of decent cottager; and poor William was completely fallen, in manners and deportment, into the rank of those with whom he had associated for the last eight or nine years; namely, the private soldiers, or, at best, the sergeants, of a marching regiment. For, as I was afterward informed, when he left me, he had hastened to the nearest seaport town, where, having soon spent all his money in riot and dissipation, he had enlisted into a regiment just embarking for foreign service, and had endured inconceivable hardships, until he lost a leg in the field of battle, and also received a severe wound upon the lip.

In looking upon my son especially, I felt that, much as I loved him, it would be totally impossible for me to restore him to the rank from which he had fallen; and, no doubt, the perplexed state of my feelings was ob