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lour, Edwin went and sat down by Mr. Wallace, and entreated very earnestly that he would leave Emma with them for a week or two, at least. Mr. H. had previously presented the same request; and Edwin learnt, with much joy, that this was almost a settled point. Emma was about two years older than Edwin, and of a most amiable disposition. Every one who knew her, loved her.

Mr. Howard soon returned, and the two gentlemen entered on some conversation relative to their private concerns. Edwin and Emma, therefore, went into the garden, and walked till dinner-time.

"It was very kind of you," said Emma, "to send me those lines on my group of flowers; and it was also very kind of your papa to write them. We were all greatly pleased with them. Mamma, you know, keeps a book, in which any little piece which particularly pleases her is copied. 'The Artificial Nosegay,' I need not inform you, has a prominent place in those select pages.'

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"I thought this would be the case. I told papa you would all thank him very much." "Mamma says, I ought to feel especially obliged; and so I do."

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it pleased you. It is a great amusement to him to write a few lines, when a thought strikes him. But I much fear he does not take any care of his pieces. I found a little poem on the death of my dear mamma, the other day, among some loose papers of no consequence."

"Of course, you took care of it."

"I did. Here it is. I have the original; and I copied this for you, if you will accept of it." "I shall be much obliged to you for it."

LINES

On the Departure of a beloved Mother.

"Can it be, that so sudden and soon,
Our dear Susan has drawn her last breath?

And is her sun gone down at noon?

And is she the victim of death?

Oh yes; with her kindred she sleeps,

No more shall her form meet our eye;
At the thought, fond affection still weeps,
And speaks her lov'd name with a sigh.

"No more, or by night or by day,
Shall her little one still be her care;
No more in the walk with him stray,
Nor shall he her tenderness share.
She listens not, whilst we complain,
And each of the family mourns;
Nor attends, whilst her prattler in vain

Seeks the mother, who never returns.

"Yet Hope smiles, and enlivens the gloom,
Which encircles the gates of the grave;
She points us beyond the dark tomb,

To Him, who is mighty to save.
See! far from these regions of woe,
She lives on a happier shore;
And exults she has left all below,
To die, and to suffer no more.

“How, then, should the father review,
And her boy, too, the way that she trod;
And follow, till they also too,

Awake in the presence of God:

How should each seek the Saviour's face,
By sincere and importunate pray'r;
Then on earth they shall taste of his grace,
And in heaven her glory shall share!"

"Oh!" said Emma, "how cheering is the hope which the gospel of Christ inspires!"

“Oh yes, it is,” replied Edwin. “When I think of my dear mamma, I should be quite unhappy, if it were not for the assurance that she is still living, and in a state of unspeakable felicity. Papa has drawn up a delightful account of the state of her mind when she was ill, and died: he has promised to give it me."

"I should like to see it," said Emma: "it would do one good to read it. I have heard my mamma say, that she died very happily; and you know she was with her almost throughout her whole illness."

"But, Emma, how long have you been so poorly?"

"I took cold in the last excursion I had with my brothers, just before they returned to school. I was wet when I came home, and I neglected to change my clothes immediately." "How very wrong that was."

"It was a momentary want of thought; but I hope it will be a lesson to me."

"Papa is often saying, that if our minds are properly attentive, we may learn something from all that occurs to us, or around us."

"I am sure we may; but I lament that I am so dull a scholar. I have heard your papa say in the pulpit, that this was one reason why God permitted affliction to fall on us; for our good, and to teach us lessons of the greatest importance. In prosperity we are too apt to forget God; but, in adversity and affliction, we feel that we cannot do without his favour.”

"I suppose this was the reason why David says, in the Psalms, it was good for him that he had been afflicted. But I hope, Emma, you will soon be well. If you stay with us, and walk out with papa and me, I think you will. Now do stay as long as you can. And you shall teach me French, and we will draw together, and read travels and voyages; and you

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shall see papa's curiosities, and we will do all we can to make you happy."

"I shall be glad to stay a little while; but mamma cannot spare me long. She says I begin to be of use to her in the family. And papa often tells us, that this is the great end of life, to be of use. People who are of no use, he says, might as well have been made stocks or stones. But see, yonder is John coming to call us to dinner."

Immediately as they had sat down to dinner the gate bell rang, and the servant announced Mr. George Blunt. He was a nephew of Mr. Howard's, who had just come of age, and taken possession of a considerable estate, which had been left him, some years before, by his uncle. He had unfortunately become acquainted with some dissipated young men in his neighbourhood: they had brought him to contemn the counsels of his pious father, and of his uncle, who was appointed one of his guardians. To the great grief of his widowed mother, and of his friends, he had become as dissipated and unprincipled as his companions.

After much general conversation, in reference to the affairs of the neighbourhood in which he resided, Mr. Howard enquired more particularly after his mother and family.

"I have not seen my mother lately, uncle,"

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