not properly her own; but she had, in addition to this, told a guilty falsehood; if not in the direct words of a falsehood, she had done what too many children deceive themselves by doing -she had allowed her brother to make a wrong guess, without setting him right: and she had done this to make herself appear better than she really was.

Now until this fault was repented of, confessed, and all cleared up, was it possible that she should feel any right disposition never to do the same again? No. The surest proof of our sincerity when we say we wish to do well, is to set about repairing, as far as possible, the evil that is past; and if we will not confess when we have deceived, it is not likely that God will give us strength to determine never to deceive again.

Thus Phebe sate in sullen silence; and when her father had finished his supper, and called his children to him, as he always did, and laid his hand upon her curling hair, and looked into her face, and was about to ask that a blessing might rest upon her for the night, she neither raised her eyes to meet the kind look of his eye, nor leaned her head upon his shoulder,

but stood aloof, and turned away her head, as if she would rather have gone to bed without her father's blessing that night.

"My poor girl," said he, in his most affectionate tone; "you have worked too hard today. I am sorry; but I cannot help it; for labour weighs heavily upon the spirits of youth. Little did your poor mother think, when she rocked you to sleep on her bosom, that you would so soon have to act the part of a mother to us all. But never mind, dear child; God's blessing is with those who do his will; and who knows but your mother sees you all the day long?-sweet and sainted spirit though she be, who knows but she still watches over you with a mother's love?

By this time Phebe's heart was melted. "Not over me;" she said, in broken accents. "Oh, not over me ;" and then she knelt beside her father's knees, and, looking up into his face once more, she told him all that she had done; and she told it with tears of true repentance.

Her father did not tell her not to mind, again. He only used that expression when he was the one to suffer for their faults, or when he thought they had done wrong without knowing that

they did so, and were sufficiently sorry for the consequences. He did not tell her not to mind now; but he talked to her a long while very kindly, and very seriously, and then he prayed for her, that she might be forgiven this sin, and preserved in the right path for the future.

It is sufficient to say, that both Phebe and David retired to rest that night, determined, that whatever they might suffer in days to come, they would neither rob their father of his needful refreshment, nor, if possible, destroy his peace of mind.

THE SKYLARK.

WHEN day's bright banner, first unfurled, From darkness frees the shrouded world, The skylark, singing as he soars,

On the fresh air his carol pours.

But though to heaven he wings his flight,
As if he loved those realms of light,
He still returns with weary wing

On earth to end his wandering.

M.

ON A CHILD SLEEPING.

I.

I GAZED upon its laughing eyes,
That mocked the sapphire's blue,
Its cheek rich red as ruby-dyes,
Its lip of coral hue;

And saw its brow more fair than snow
Ere it hath caught a taint below.

II.

I viewed it pillowed in repose,
Its sweet drawn-breath as soft
As airs that sigh at daylight's close;
And, from its features, oft

Glanced the sweet brightness of a dream,
Like sunshine from a summer stream.

III.

It woke, and stretched its rosy arms,

As wooing a caress,

Toward her who watched its slumbering

charms;

Oh, task of blessedness!

E'en like an angel, or a dove,
To watch o'er all we prize and love.

IV.

The mother raised it on her knee,
And danced her cherub boy:
How then burst forth its artless glee,
All trembling as with joy!
Lips open, dimples on each cheek,

And eyes that, sparkling, more than speak.

V.

"Sweet thing of innocence !" I sighed,
"What beauty now is thine!
A pearl just risen from being's tide,

A diamond from its mine:

Alas! that time should dim thy ray!
That infancy should pass away!"