NE of the first things that I remember is the circumstance of travelling through a dark wood in Gloucestershire, with a dear papa and mamma, and a little brother, and our nurse. I remember a wide path amongst the trees, by the side of which the carriage stopped; and to my astonishment, and to the despair of my little brother, our nurse kissed us, took her basket, curtsied to her master and mistress, and disappeared quickly amongst the brushwood. She was gone to the cottage on the common, where her parents lived, and her basket con

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tained comforts for them, which it was one of the sweetest objects of her life to gather together; for every affectionate child delights to say, as Joseph did to Jacob, "I will nourish thee."

Peggy was a rosy-cheeked country lass, who had been brought up by her father and mother to be industrious, honest, and faithful. They had not the opportunity of schooling their eldest children; for sixty years ago there were few country schools for the children of labourers so they sent little Peggy to work, and a better bird-keeper was not to be found. She wore a round black hat, and jacket, and in the summer she knit her stockings as she went merrily to her work and walked round and round the fields; and in the cold weather she made a fire of the dead sticks and leaves, and danced round it till her blood

was warm.

When she was old enough, she left out-door work, and went to service, and soon rose from being an under-servant to the charge of a nursery.

Peggy's warm heart was divided between

the children committed to her care and her father and mother; and Hugh and Betty Proverbs were well deserving of their child's tender regard. They were respected by high and low; and the secret of the respect they gained was this:-they honoured the Lord, and obeyed His voice; and God has said in His Word, "Them that honour me I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed."

Thirty years ago, Hugh Proverbs was threescore years and ten, and Betty was three score. He had reached the age of man, for the Psalmist says, "The days of our years. are threescore years and ten;" and yet his eye was not dim, nor his hair grey, nor was his natural strength abated, except that like the patriarch, Jacob, he halted on his thigh, and consequently could only do little jobs of work for his good friends the neighbouring farmers. Yet they were so thrifty, so clean, so afraid of debt, and so beloved and helped by their children, that they lived comfortably in their honeysuckle-covered cottage. God gave them more than the bread and water

which He has promised to those who are in covenant with Him (Isa. xxxiii.).

I remember that cottage; our kind mother took us when we were on a journey to spend a day there. The scent of honeysuckle now reminds me of that joyful day, when we ran wildly about the common, and into the wood, and partook of the eggs and bacon fried so well by old Betty.

I said that thirty years ago old Hugh was threescore years and ten; he lived till the primroses had passed in the spring of 1845, and was laid in his grave, aged one hundred years. I believe he will bless God for ever, that he was spared to see that great age; for every year, as it passed by, showed him more of the loving-kindness of the Lord; his soul did magnify the Lord, and his spirit rejoiced in God his Saviour. When he could no longer go forth to his labour, it was his daily habit to walk to the churchyard, where he used to sit for hours. He read there the books and tracts which were given and lent to him, and on his favourite tombstone he meditated upon death, judgment, heaven, and hell. The

grassy mounds at his feet covered many whom, in his long life, he had seen borne first to the font, and then to the grave; and the old man would say, "All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass; the grass withereth, the flower fadeth, but the word of the Lord endureth for ever." And then he would lift his bright eye to the sky, and meditate upon the Redeemer, who had overcome death for him, and opened for him the gate of everlasting life.

Sometimes he remained in the churchyard till evening time, for he loved to "consider the heavens, the work of God's fingers, the moon and the stars which He had ordained;" and there was one bright peculiar star, which he called his star, and which he delighted to gaze upon. It was a planet, and moved in its orbit, which puzzled the old man, for he saw hundreds of other twinkling bodies that did not move, and he sometimes feared that his star was going to move quite away. constant was he to his studying place, as he called the churchyard, that the passers-by looked out as naturally for old Hugh Pro

So