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comely raiment. Thou shalt forget thy present sorrow. Sadness shall be swallowed up in joy. Now, my beloved Tree, fare thee well for a season!"

9. The Angel was gone. The muttering winter drew near. The wild blast whistled for the storm. The storm came and howled around the Tree. But the word of the Angel was hidden in her heart; it soothed her amid the threatenings of the tempest. The ice-cakes rattled upon her limbs; they loaded and weighed them down.

10. "My slender branches," said she, "let not this burden overcome you. Break not beneath this heavy affliction; break not, but bend, till you can spring back to your places. Let not a twig of you be lost. Hope must prop you for a while, and the Angel will reward your patience. You will move upon a softer air. Grace shall be again in your motion, and beauty hang around you."

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11. The scowling face of winter began to lose its featThe raging storm grew faint, and breathed its last. The restless clouds fretted themselves to atoms; they scattered upon the sky, and were brushed away. The sun threw down a bundle of golden arrows. They fell upon the tree; the ice-cakes glittered as they came. Every one was shattered by a shaft, and unlocked itself upon the limb. They were melted and gone.

12. The reign of Spring had come. Her blessed ministers were abroad in the earth; they hovered in the air; they blended their beautiful tints, and cast a new-created glory on the face of the heavens.

13. The Tree was rewarded for her trust. The Angel was true to the object of his love. He returned; he bestowed on her another robe. It was bright, glossy, and unsullied. The dust of summer had never lit upon it; the scorching heat had not faded it; the moth had not profaned it.

14. The Tree stood again in loveliness; she was dressed in more than her former beauty; she was very fair; joy smiled around her on every side. The birds flew back to her bosom. They sang on every branch a hymn to the Angel of the Leaves.

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LESSON XXXII.

THE WORLD OF CHANCE.

JOHN TODD.

T the foot of a noble mountain in Asia stood a beauti

ful cottage. Around it were walks, and shades, and fruits, such as were nowhere else to be found. The sun shone upon no spot more beautiful or luxuriant. It was the home of Hafed, the aged and prosperous. He reared the cottage; he adorned the spot; and here, for more than fourscore years, he had lived and studied.

2. During all this time, the sun had never forgotten to visit him daily; the harvest had never failed, the pestilence had never destroyed, and the mountain stream had never dried up. The wife of his youth still lived to cheer him ; and his son and daughter were such as were not to be found in all that province.

3. But who can insure earthly happiness? In one short week, Hafed was stripped of all his joys. His wife took cold, and a quick fever followed; and Hafed saw that sho must die. His son and daughter both returned from the burial of their mother, fatigued and sick. The nurse gave In a few hours,

them, as she thought, a simple medicine. it was found to be poison. Hafed saw that they must die; for the laws of nature are fixed, and poison kills.

4. He buried them in one wide, deep grave; and it

seemed as if in that grave he buried his reason and religion. He tore his gray hair; he cursed the light of day, and wished the moon turned into blood. He arraigned the wisdom of God in His government over this world, declaring that the laws which He had established were all wrong, useless, and worse than none. He wished the world were governed by Chance, or, at least, that, at his death, he might go to a world where there was no God to fix unalterable laws.

5. In the center of Hafed's garden stood a beautiful palm-tree. Under this Hafed was sitting, the second evening after he had closed the grave over his children. Before him lay the beautiful country, and above him the glorious heavens, and the bright moon just pushing up her modest face. But Hafed looked upon all this, and grief swelled in his throat; his tongue murmured; his heart was full of blasphemous thoughts of God.

6. As the night deepened, Hafed, as he thought, fell asleep with a heavy heart. When he supposed he awoke, it was in a new spot. All around him was new. As he stood wondering where he was, he saw a creature approach him, which appeared like a baboon; but, on its coming nearer, he saw that it was a creature somewhat resembling a man, but every way ill-shaped and monstrous.

7. He came up, and walked around Hafed, as if he were a superior being, exclaiming,-"Beautiful, beautiful creature!" "Shame, shame on thee!" said Hafed; "dost thou treat a stranger thus with insults? Leave off thy jests, and tell me where I am, and how I came here!" "I do not know how you came here; but here you are, our world, which we call Chance World, because every thing happens here by chance."

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8. "Ah! is it so? This must be delightful! This is

just the world for me. Oh, had I always lived here, my beautiful children would not have died under a foolish and inex'orable law! Come, show me this world; for I long to see it. But have ye really no God, nor any one to make laws and govern you as he sees fit' ?"

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9. "I do not know what you mean by the word God. We have nothing of that kind here, nothing but chance. But go with me, and you will understand all about it." As they proceeded, Hafed noticed that every thing looked queer and odd. Some of the grass was green, some red, some white, some new, and some dying; some grew with the top downward; all kinds were mingled together; and, on the whole, the sight was very painful.

10. He stopped to examine an orchard: here Chance had been at work. On a fine-looking apple-tree he saw no fruit but large, coarse cucumbers. A small peach-tree was breaking down under its load of gourds. Some of the trees were growing with their tops downward, and the roots branching out into the air. Here and there were great holes dug, by which somebody had tried to get down twenty or thirty feet, in order to get the fruit.

11. The guide told Hafed that there was no certainty about these trees, and that you could never tell what fruit a tree would happen to bear. The tree which this year bears cucumbers, may bear potatoes next year, and perhaps you would have to dig twenty feet for every potato you obtained.

12. They soon met another of the "chance men." His legs were very unequal in length: one had no knee, and the other no ankle. His ears were set upon his shoulders, and around his head was a thick, black bandage. He came groping his way, and Hafed asked him how long since he had lost his sight.

13. "I have not lost it," said he; "but when I was born, my eyeballs happened to turn in instead of out; and the back parts, being outward, are very painful in the light, and so I put on a covering. Yet I am as well off as others. My brother has one good eye on the top of his head; but it looks directly upward, and the sun almost puts it out."

14. They stopped to look at some "chance cattle" in a vard. Some had but three legs; some were covered with wool, under which they were sweltering in a climate always tropical. Some were half horse and half ox. Cows had young camels following them instead of calves. Young elephants were there with flocks of sheep, horses with claws like a lion, and geese clamping round the yard with hoofs like horses. It was all a work of Chance.

15. "This," said the guide, "is a choice collection of cattle. You never saw the like before." "That is truetruth itself," cried Hafed. "Ah! but the owner has been at great pains and expense to collect them. I do not believe there is another such collection anywhere in all this 'Chance World.'' "I hope not," said Hafed.

LESSON XXXIII.

THE WORLD OF CHANCE.

(CONTINUED.)

UST as they were leaving the premises, the owner came

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out to admire, and show, and talk over his treasures. He wanted to gaze at Hafed; but his head happened to be near the ground, between his feet, so that he had to mount upon a wall before he could get a fair view of the stranger.

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