what it was; but it is before my eyes as vividly as if at this moment I were there. I see the beech hedge round his garden: how neatly cut it always was. I see the little wicket gate, and the two gean trees that used to bear so plentifully. I see the strawberry beds that we used often to look at so wistfully; and I think I see him yet, kind old man, stooping down to search for a ripe one. Little did we think then, in our heedless healthfulness, what a labour that stooping was to him. I can see his bush of moss roses the favourite bush it was in all his garden; often I fain would have taken one, but I would not steal from grandfather-not that he would have been angry, but he would have been vexed; and vexed I could not bear to see him.

The first time that I went to my grandfather's cottage was early in summer. My two brothers and I had been ill with hooping cough for some months, and the doctor said it would not go quite away till we had change of air. When George heard this, he at once asked to be allowed to go to grandfather's, for he had been there before, and liked it so much. Our father agreed that he should go, and said that he thought Johnnie too might go, and perhaps I. But my mother said that would not do; it might be very well for the boys, but that I, being a girl, could not go to stay at a place where there was no one to look after me. I thought that having no one to look after me would be the very delight of it, and I was sadly disappointed when I heard my mother say that she could not allow me to go. Yet I did not say anything

to her then; I took a private opportunity of entreating George to speak for me, for I knew that our mother paid more regard to his requests than to mine. It was he who had told me how nice it was to stay at grandfather's, and had made me wish to go there. He did speak for me, and effectually too ;-leave was granted. Never can I forget the joy I felt when George bounded into the nursery where Johnnie and I were playing, and cried"You're to go, Marianne."

Often when we expect much happiness from anything, it disappoints us when we get it; but it was not so with my visit to grandfather. I expected much; but not in the least was I disappointed. It was pleasant to weed in his garden, and to help him to tie up his flowers. It was pleasant to play in the fields with Johnnie, and gather gowans to make necklaces. It was pleasant to climb the fir trees with George, and to swing upon their branches. But what I think were pleasanter to me even then, and are far pleasanter to look back upon now, were the times when we sat in the evenings on the grass before the door, while grandfather, seated in his garden chair, talked to us so seriously, so earnestly, and so kindly; there never was any one who could talk like grandfather.

I well remember, it was the first Saturday night after we went, we were seated thus, and grandfather was telling us that when we went to bed that night we must remember that the next day was the Sabbath; that our first thoughts in the morning might rise in

prayer to God, asking him to enable us to spend it well; and the first book, he said, that we opened on that day should be the Bible.

"The Bible, grandfather," said George; "that is a very tiresome book to read; I do not like it at all." "That is not right, George," said grandfather very gravely.

"But I cannot help it, grandfather. I am made to read a chapter every day at home; but I would not think of reading it to myself. It is tiresome to go over the same thing so often."

I never before had seen grandfather look so serious as he did then. I was almost frightened; even George seemed to think that he ought not to have said it, when he looked up in grandfather's face after the words were spoken.

"Do you not weary," he said to George, "of seeing the sun shine day after day? do you not weary of seeing the green fields? and is it not tiresome to take your dinner every day?"

John and I gazed at grandfather when he said this; George looked down confused. Grandfather went on"You do not tire of partaking in the bounties of Providence day after day, although every day of your life you partake of the same; is it not then wicked to tire of that Book which tells of Him by whom these bounties are lavished so freely on you, and that Book, too, which in itself is the greatest of all the blessings he has bestowed on you."

George did not seem to know very well what to say. I was sorry for him; so I said to grandfather that because he was to be a soldier, he did not care about reading anything except battles and sieges."

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"Yes," George said, "that is it ; and though there are some battles in the Bible, I know all about them, so I need not read them again."

"I do not think you have read the accounts of them carefully, George, or you would wish to read them again. Can you tell who fought the first battle mentioned in the Bible?" "Was it Cain and Abel, grandfather?" I asked.

"Nonsense," said George, "that was not a battle; it was David and the Philistines who fought the first." "No," said grandfather, "we are told of more than one battle long before David was born."

"Surely not long before," said George; "I do not remember anything about it."

"Attend then," said grandfather, "and you shall hear about it."

"But grandfather," I said, "does it do us any good to hear about battles? for I do not like to hear of people killing one another."

"Listen to the story of a battle that I am to tell, Marianne, and see if you can learn anything from it.

"It was two thousand and eighty-three years after the creation, and one thousand nine hundred and twentyone years before the Christian era, that Abram entered Canaan. He had left his native country, obedient to the command of God; he went out not knowing where, for

is

little could have been known then by any one of any country except the one they lived in. We know much even of the countries most distant from our own, and there easy communication now between all parts of the world; but it was not so then. Abram's wife went with him, and his nephew Lot; they all lived together in a country where they were strangers, called the land of Canaan.

"Now Abram and Lot were both rich; they had many cattle and servants, and although they could agree together, their herdsmen could not, so they saw that it would be better to separate. Abram was the elder, and the chief, for he was the head of the family, and he had been specially chosen by God, so he had a right to choose where he would go; but he left the choice to Lot, for those who are really pious consider the pleasure of others more than their own.

"The land is before thee,' he said, 'choose: if you go to the right hand, then I will go to the left; if you go to the left hand, I will go to the right.'

"Lot looked abroad, and saw that the plain of Sodom was very fertile and well watered. He might have preferred that his kinsman should have the richest pasture, but Lot did what most men would have done, consulted what seemed to him his own interest. He went to live in Sodom, and the consequences shew what a short way we can see before us, and how little we know what is for our good even in worldly things.

"For twelve years the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah had been tributary to a king of Elam or Persia, called in