12. "So my father said," replied Mary, gravely; "but poor Ben was so tired, sir, and James was very weak. He did the work of two, and it was James's night, not his. But James was too tired; and Ben never thought about himself, that he also was too tired."

13. "What is this you say, my child? Come here, I don t understand." And the kind man caught eagerly as ever at what seemed to be a justification of an offence.

14. Mary went to him; he put his hand tenderly on her shoulder, and turned up the pale, serious face toward his. How tall he seemed! and he was President of the United States, too. A dim thought of this kind passed for a moment through Mary's mind; but she told her story in a simple and straightforward manner, and handed Mr. Lincoln her brother's letter to read.

15. He read it carefully; then, taking up his pen, wrote a few hasty lines, and rang the bell. Mary heard this order given: "Send this dispatch at once!"

16. "The President then turned to the little girl and said: "Go home, my child, and tell that father of yours who could approve his country's sentence, even when it took the life of a child like that, that Abraham Lincoln thinks the life far too precious to be lost. Go back, or wait until to-morrow. Your brother will need change after he has so bravely faced death. Wait, and he shall go with you."

17. "God bless you, sir!" said Mary; and who shall doubt that God heard and registered her prayer?

18. Two days after this interview the young soldier came to the White House with his sister. He was called into the President's private room. Mr. Lincoln took him by the hand, and, with all the tenderness of his great, kind heart, he said, "My boy, you have done well. You

must now take a few days to visit your good father; but before you go, I will fasten a strap upon the shoulder of a lad so noble as to carry a sick comrade's baggage, and be ready to die for the good act without a murmur."

19. Then the brother and sister took their way to their Green Mountain home, and a crowd gathered at the Mill Depot to welcome them back. Farmer Owen's head towered above them all as his hand grasped that of his boy, and Mr. Allen heard him say, fervently, "Just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints !”

Ο

UT in the woods stood a nice little fir-tree. The

place he had was a very good one: the sun shone on him; as to fresh air, there was enough of that; and round him grew many large-sized comrades, pines as well But the little fir wanted very much to be a

as firs.

grown-up tree.

2. He did not think of the warm sun and of the fresh air; he did not care for the little cottage-children who ran

about and prattled when they were in the woods looking for wild strawberries: this was what the tree could not bear to hear.

3. At the end of a year he had shot up a good deal, and after another year he was again much taller; for with fir-trees one can always tell by the shoots how many years old they are.

4. "O, were I but such a high tree as the others are!" sighed he. "Then I should be able to spread out my branches, and with the tops to look into the wide world! Then would the birds build nests among my branches; and when there was a breeze, I could bend with as much stateliness as the others!"

5. Neither the sunbeams, nor the birds, nor the red clouds which, morning and evening, sailed above him, gave the little tree any pleasure.

6. In autumn the wood-cutters always came and felled some of the largest trees. This happened every year; and the young fir-tree, that had now grown to a very comely size, trembled at the sight; for the magnificent great trees fell to the earth with noise and cracking, the branches were lopped off, and the trees looked long and bare: they were hardly to be recognized; and then they were laid in carts, and the horses dragged them out of the wood.

7. Where did they go to? What became of them? 8. When Christmas came, quite young trees were cut down, trees which often were not even so large or of the same age as this fir-tree, who could never rest, but always wanted to be off. These young trees and they were always the finest-looking — retained their branches; they were laid on carts, and the horses drew them out of the wood.

Where are they going to?" asked the fir.

"They

are not taller than I; there was one, indeed, that was considerably shorter; and why do they retain all their branches? Whither are they taken ?"

10. "We know! we know!" chirped the sparrows. "We have peeped in at the windows in the town below! We know whither they are taken! The greatest splendor and the greatest magnificence one can imagine await them. We peeped through the windows, and saw them planted in the middle of the warm room, and ornamented with the most splendid things, with gilded apples, with gingerbread, with toys, and many hundred lights!"

11. “And then?" asked the fir-tree, trembling in every bough. "And then? What happened then?"

12. "We did not see anything more; it was very beautiful."

13. "I would fain know if I am destined for so glorious a career!" cried the tree, rejoicing.

14. "How I wish Christmas were but come! I am not tall, and my branches spread like the others that were carried off last year. Oh! were I but already on the cart! Were I in the warm room with all the splendor and magnificence! Yes; then something better, something still grander, will surely follow; or wherefore should they thus ornament me? Something better, something still grander, must follow, but what? Oh! how I long, how I suffer! I do not myself know what is the matter with me!"

15. "Rejoice in our presence!" said the Air and the Sunlight; "rejoice in thy own fresh youth!"

16. But the tree did not rejoice at all; he grew and grew, and was green both winter and summer. People who saw him said, "What a fine tree!" and towards Christmas he was one of the first to be cut down. The axe struck deep into the very pith; the tree fell to the

earth with a sigh; he felt a pang,

it was like a swoon;

he could not think of happiness, for he was sorrowful at being separated from his home, - from the place where he had sprung up. He well knew that he should never see his dear old comrades, the little bushes and flowers around him, any more; perhaps not even the birds!

17. The tree came to himself only when he was unloaded in a court-yard with the other trees, and heard a man say, "That one is splendid! we don't want the others." Then two servants in rich livery came and carried the firtree into a large and splendid drawing-room.

18. What was to happen? The servants, as well as the young ladies, decorated it. On one branch there hung little nets cut out of colored paper, and each net was filled with sugar-plums; and among the other boughs gilded apples and walnuts were suspended, looking as though they had grown there; and little blue tapers and white ones were placed among the leaves.

19. Dolls, that looked for all the world like men, - the tree had never beheld such before, were seen among the foliage; and at the very top a large star of gold tinsel was fixed. It was really splendid beyond description.

20. “This evening!" said they all, "how it will shine this evening!"

21. "Oh!" thought the tree, "if the evening were but come! If the tapers were but lighted! And then I wonder what will happen! Perhaps the other trees from the forest will come to look at me; perhaps the sparrows will beat against the window-panes! I wonder if I shall take root here, and, winter and summer, stand covered with ornaments!"

22. The candles were now lighted. What brightness! What splendor! The tree trembled so in every bough