- and not Saturday night. The two little girls had discovered an encampment of tall ferns, and under their feathery shade, had read alond four pages from The History of the Minor Prophets," the only book, except the Bible, which could be extracted from the crowded packing boxes. At this juncture they were enticed away by a "good smell" near at hand which proved to be pennyroyal, and ‘pulled up easy' they too, returned at noon, with green stains on their dresses, but otherwise in a high state of exultation.

And the gentle, patient, wife and mother -Milly Glenn, - how had she passed the time?

Sitting upon a low bank, cushioned more restfully than ever chair was cushioned in her New England home, her head pllowed upon a fallen tree, made soft by the same kindly covering. Her little boy slept at her feet, but with her, busy thought crowded out sleep. Very precious memories were astir in her soul; of her girlhood, her marriage, of the two little graves in the briery churchyard at home. She looked around at the waving wall of living green, and upward at the all-embracing sky.

"No church! No Sabbath privileges ! What building made with hands, could be consecrated like this?" The wide, sweet scented wood grew voiceful to her ears. Bird and brook, bee and flitting insect, became mediums through which a myriad of sweet and comforting voices reached her waiting soul. What did the voices say?

Here are a few of the things they said: "Oh, tarry thou the Lord's leisure; be strong and he shall comfort thy heart; and put thou thy trust in the Lord."

"For the Lord God is a light and defence; the Lord shall give grace and worship; and no good thing shall he withhold from them that live a godly life."

"In the world ye shall have tribulation, but in me ye might have peace."

II.

"ROMANTIC NOTIONS."

Abel Glenn and Milly his wife, had been married twenty years, and during this whole period had resided upon a small farm which had descended to him from his father and grandfather. It was situated in one of the most rocky and sterile districts of New England, remote at that time from any railroad, and offering few attractions to a a strrnger, unless perchance he were a tourist, in search of bold and rugged scenery.

Seven children had been born to them, and over the eldest two-twin girls - the blackberry bushes of the neglected graveyard in Wattstown had been growing rankly for fifteen years. Many times had the grieving mother urged her husband to clear the weeds from her darlings' resting-place; but no convenient season came, and after

time, as cares accumulated, she ceased to strive with them herself, and the white roses and grass pinks, that, while her grief was new, she had planted with such tender care, and watered with many tears, dwindled and died.

Abel Glenn was an industrious, but not a managing man. Without being precisely what New England people term “ shiftless," even his best friends admitted that his enterprises, either from incautious planning, or unskilful execution, were oftener unsuccessful than otherwise; and the leaks in his little patrimony grew more frequent and more serious in spite of his diligent toil, and his wife's prudent care. There had been losses that no human foresight could have prevented, and of doctor's bills not a few; the third child now living had been a sickly infant, and caused them much anxiety and many watchful nights.

The few hilly acres would barely afford them respectable maintenance and where was the provision for the future to be made? Abel Glenn was a man of cold temperament and few words. He intended to consult his wife

had been for some years maturing in his not

"He shall give his angels charge concerning thee, to keep thee in in all thy ways." "The Kingdom of God is within you."

he did so. But what he actually did was to inform her that the boys were growing up with nothing to do, and no prospect ahead; that he had received such an offer for his

years; that Luther Ward's son had returned from the west, and brought news of a great tract of land for sale in his neighborhood numbering thrice as many acres as the homestead, a location too, that was fertile, healthful no" fever n'agur" ever known there and withal so low in price as to make any delay in securing it dangerous. "There were meetin'-houses and school-houses, good as any here, and neighbors seldom over two miles apart. The wagon was hitched up, and if she would jest get on her bonnet and ride over to Luther Ward's, she might ask him any questions she'd a mind to.

Mrs. Glenn gave consent to all her husband's propositions. She would never have thought of opposing him, and it is probable that her judgment in this case coincided with his. Yet she knew there must come a sundering of tender ties, which to her would bring keen pain. She shrank from the ordeal of parting with scenes and friends of a life-time; she dreaded the loneliness of a life among strangers. And so dreading this loneliness, she was impelled this timid

Dear heart! She was forty-five years old now; her life-path had rounded its summit, and was stealing softly into the shadows of the down-hill side, and there was no daughters hand to strew it with flowers. No little head with long ringlets to be smoothed every day, coming up year by year nearer her own, and with its shifting sunshine calling back to her the radience of her own lost youth. She had so longed for a girl-baby! When little Nathan was born, she had cried secretly for days, believing all the while, that in so doing she was committing a heinous sin.

They do a great many things, all that boys can do well; and they are willing, but of course they have not the faculty that girls have. And a girl can be taught sewing very

young.

My mother has often told me that at ten years old I earned all the clothing I wore; and at twelve made it myself. Think, with all the making and mending for my half-dozen wearers and tearers, how much even a small girl could assist."

Equivocating words! Hypocritical little woman! Was she not cogitating, that very instant, how the little maiden who was to lighten and bless her home, should never be bowed down with burdens as she had been? Should never be experimented upon to see how much work could be 'got of her' young unhardened sinews. No! though the child must wear home-spun, and eat plain food and have her proper tasks, she should find

good times" in Milly Glenn's house! And strangely mingling with the home-spunvisions of pink ruffled sun-bonnets, and tiny embroidered aprons with blue shoulder-knots, to be procured by great ingenuity and selfsacrifice, danced before her eyes.

"More hinder than help, you'll find. Wait till we are fixed out West, and then pick a

gal from among the settlers," was Mr. Glenn's suggestion, in a tone that was far from enthusiastic.

"But the parents might be constantly troubling us. What we want is a girl who will not be taken from us as soon as she is of any use, or else harrassed by unwelcome relations. I would like best of all. a child who had not a relation in the world. 'Twould seem then like our own."

After a pause, "I sometimes think," resumed this persistent little woman, who in spite of her courage and her cunning, was beginning to gather a hungry, longing look about the lips, and feel a frosty coil about the heart, so fearful of the failure of its scheme, "I sometimes think that I have not many years to live. My mother was but young, you know, only forty; and none of her family lived to be fifty years old. And think if it were so, husband, what could be so great a blessing to the family, as a girl trained up among us — loving us, - a daughter and a sister, knowing just what to do for your comfort, and the boys."

She broke quite down here, and sobbed a moment. She bad not intended to use this argument, except as a last resort. But then, ashamed of her weakness she renewed the attack. "See how it is at Deacon Wilds'. No head, no calculation, no accounting for anything; everything left to a wasteful, slovenly hired girl." Poor Milly's charitable heart reproached her for these hard words, but she must make an impression; and then, - they were strictly true!

"Did you really mean it, husband? she asked when they were alone.

"I considered the whole thing one of your romantic notions, Milly; and I consider that you'll be the first one to find out the unprofitable natur' of the job you've undertook. But if you'll agree to select out a gal not less than eight or nine years old, and one that's been learnt to sweep and scour, and keep things in order; and one that's healthy and kind o' stubbed-looking; not a white faced pimping thing, thongh that jest the kind you'll take to, I s'pose, I'll give my consent, and not on any other conditions." The stipulated age was a disappointment to Mrs. Glenn. She wanted a little girl who should be eight or nine years by and by, but not just yet. It was cutting off two or three years of dearest happiness with the child. But it would be worse than vain, she well knew, to press this matter. After yielding the main point, men generally feel privileged to be obstinate in details. "I wish you were going with me, Abel," she said.

"It would cost just twice as much, and be no use as I see. Besides, Mr. Marsh is to come to-morrow to look at them three-yearolds. I expect to make a noble bargain on " Mr. Glenn had reference to some cows. His noble bargains were very apt to fail of consummation. If he had a cow to be sold, and a man having but few moments to spare, came to inspect the animal, it generally happened that she had gone ruralizing that afternoon in the woods, or perhaps got mired in a swamp. On the other hand if he desired to make a purchase himself, prices almost invariably "went up," before he could take advantage of the market. Or if he actually made the purchase, they declined immediately afterward. We are all familiar with people of this class; unlucky people, victims of a slight mental disorder, affecting only the judgment; a kind of looseness and flabbiness, so to speak, of the weighing and halancing

A CHRISTIAN MOTHER'S INFLUENCE.

BY REV. T. H. TABOR.

O the mothers of our denomination pray

Christian mothers of former generations did? When we see sons and daughters in Universalist households, growing up with irreverent, worldly hearts, and swerving from the faith. of their parents, we always fear that their mother's hearts have not been impressed with the importance of praying with and for their children, and of teaching them to pray for themselves.

Rev. Dr. McCrie, the celebrated biographer of Knox, relates with filial love and reverence the fidelity of his mother, in training him to a Christian life. One incident related by him is of rare beauty.

In his sixteenth year he left home to attend the classes of Edinburgh University, and his beloved mother, apprehensive of the temptations to which he would be exposed in eity life, walked with him a part of the way, to give him her last words of counsel. She parted from him in Coldingham Moor. Before bidding him farewell, she led him to a rock at a little distance from the road, and kneeling behind it, with her hands upon his head, implored, in a fervent prayer, that God would shield him from danger, and make him an intelligent and zealous Christian, useful to the church and the world in his day and generation.

Such a mother's faith could not fail to secure a blessing. In a year from that time the mother was a saint in heaven, but her son over whom she had yearned and prayed, was not forgotten of God, but became one of the most eminent ministers of Scotland, and the biographer of some of her greatest worthies.

the dream as a warning that his earthly work was nearly done. In a few weeks he was called up higher, and the mother and son were united forever in the better world.

But we fear that many mothers are not aware what a mighty power for good or ill they may exert over their children; a power more decisive far than syllogisms in argument or courts of last appeal in authority. Nay, in many cases, where there has been no fear of God before the eyes of the young; where his love has been unfelt, and his law out raged, a mother's affection has held the trans gressor by the heart-strings, and been the means of leading him back to virtue and God.

Napoleon Bonaparte once asked a woman what France required for the right education of its youth; and the answer was as profound as it was laconic, "Mothers." And when I am asked how the earnest and growing want for more faithful ministers of our faith is to be supplied, I likewise answer, by the labor and influence of Christian mothers who feel the importance of Christian truth, and know its worth to the human soul.

Such mothers will not allow their children to go from their arms without some knowledge of the principles of our most holy faith, and some deep, earnest love for the important duties it requires of us. They have the power to impart that knowledge if they will, and they can nurse that love into vigorous activity.

The secret of their influence is, that their reign is pre-eminently one of love

"Here woman reigns; the mother, daughter, wife,
Strew with fresh flowers the narrow vale of life.
In the calm heaven of her delightful eye

An angel guard of loves and graces lie." With such power for their sceptre, they can sway and mould; they can repress and encourage; they can build up or destroy; next to Omnipotence theirs is the strongest moral influence known on earth. By their quick intuition they are

"Ready to detect