On last Thanksgiving day, Nov. 27, 1851, seventeen of the hotels in the city provided a dinner of roast beef and turkeys, for the Five Points Mission, which was partaken of first by the Sunday-scholars, after by the day-scholars, and finally the remnants were sufficient to satisfy a band of "outsiders," who are not regular attendants at the school. The whole numbered 225. They were waited on by their teachers and other gentlemen. They sung "the Happy Land," that never-failing song of children, and afterwards, by way of returning thanks for their food, "From all that dwell below the skies."

It goes right to the heart to see, hear, and feel, the unity of pursuit of our two countries. The same plans the same motives-the same Bible-nay, even the same hymns lisped by the infants. Is there not much more to unite Great Britain and America than there ever ought to be to divide them?

In America, as in Britain, Christian exertion is ever engaged in a race against ignorance and misery —and ignorance and misery are ever keeping ahead of Christian exertion.

But the runners, though beaten, follow on-"faint, yet pursuing." And though not accomplishing all they hope for, nor the hundredth part of what they see is needed, yet they gain victories, and their hearts are cheered-for when a wreath is plucked from the thronging and flying squadrons, it is a wreath of amaranth—it will bloom in eternity.

CHAPTER VI.

ADOPTED CHILDREN.

OBSERVING how easily and frankly children are adopted in the United States, how pleasantly the scheme goes on, and how little of the wormwood of domestic jealousies, or the fretting prickle of neighbour criticisms, seems to interfere with it, one is led to inquire why the benevolent practice is so common there, and so rare in England; and also so pleasant there, and so difficult here. The first

reason that presents itself is, that in England we have not an abundance of food and of unoccupied room; but in America it is different, for, according to the burden of a song sung by the coloured orphans, in their Asylum at New York

"Uncle Sam is rich enough

To give us all a farm."

The facility with which enough, and more than enough, is found to satisfy every hungry mouth on a farm, gives wonderful scope to the benevolent sentiment. Compassion needs but to well up at its

* A quaint name for the United States.

spring in the heart, and there is no counter-current of prudence to sweep it away. The wish can be accomplished without a sense of privation, and if the adopted turn out well, it becomes all pure gain -gain in the exercise of the affections, in the pleasure which always arises from doing a kind thing, and in a fresh hand growing up to aid in their industry. This latter reason, however, is only of weight among the sons of labour, who are quite as ready to adopt a child as the wealthy. In Britain, probably, the second impediment is our remnant of feudalism-the right of primogeniture, or the law of inheritance. The "heir at law," be he son, nephew, or cousin ten times removed, feels that the owner holds his property only in trust for himself, and looks with a jealous eye on the emotion of pity that might introduce an interloper to be provided for from the family funds. It is marvellous to observe how many are fettered by the law, and how very many more adopt the fetter of custom produced by the law, and fancy they act in the line of duty, when they pass by an opportunity of kindness which they might have gladly embraced, but that the expectant kindred may be displeased.

Even when children are adopted in England, instances are to be seen of reserve among common acquaintances to admit them, and receive them as they would the children of the family-a piece of injustice, and want of sympathy with a benevolent deed, which seems without motive or excuse.

The first examples I saw of this practice of adoption made my heart as full of glad surprise as might be that of the mother in the tribe of Levi, when the princess of Egypt gathered her babe from the bulrushes, and ordered him to be nursed. To look on a nice curly-headed little thing, whose parents had died of fever, or in crossing the ocean from a far country, tended and cared for, and nestling under a kind arm, unconscious that it was not a mother's, is very charming.-To hear of a childless pair agreeing to go among the orphans, and select one from the asylum, and begin their charge by having it baptized; and to learn that their brother and his wife, who live near, are so taken with this little one's winning ways, that they are resolved to have their childless home also enlivened, and have taken that orphan's own brother, and are now each and all enjoying their prize, is quite delightful.

The novelty of the plan led me to inquire very carefully as to its results, and the statement was, that if one in a hundred tired or failed to do by the adopted, as they would have done by their own, it was but one in the hundred.

In the city of Boston we found two excellent sisters, who, not being able to gratify their benevolence by assuming the charge of little ones, had ingeniously discovered a mode of help still more extended. Carlyle found it an unsolvable problem how to bring the quantity of ready-made shirts and

the shirtless together, but these dear ladies have found out a way by which they introduce the friendless to the friendly, and the fatherless to the childless.

Their monthly publication, called The Orphan's Advocate, is interesting, simple, and truth-like. They publish the age and sex of the children in one column, and the places where children are wanted in another. For example:

66 HOMES FOR CHILDREN.

"In Curtisville, a boy will be adopted ten years old.

"In Leominster, a girl will be adopted eight years old.

"In Great Barrington, a girl will be adopted about twelve years old."

The list extends to twenty-six; then comes

66 CHILDREN NEEDING HOMES.

"A girl five years old.

"A boy eleven years old.

"A girl two years old.

"A boy two years old.

"An infant girl four months old; also an infant girl eight months old."

The list extends to twenty-eight.

A paragraph, unique in its simplicity and peculiarity, we quote as a perfect curiosity in Great Britain; it and the above lists are found in The