"I will not pray," said Cain, whose face and forehead were "I will pray no more: the

now flushed with passion;

Almighty regards me not."

Nay," entreated Abel, thy haughtiness, my brother, has been the cause of this rejection. Pray here, at my altar; and if thy words be sincere in penitence, thou wilt still find favour."

"It is vain to urge me," replied Cain; "I will no longer be mocked and outraged. No longer toil, and sweat, and bend in lowly homage to Him who has doomed me to such servitude."

"Cain, this is blasphemy!"

"Do not anger me with reproaches," resumed the elder brother; "I am in no mood to bear these longer."

"I meant not to anger or reproach thee," resumed Abel; "but I beseech thee to think on the anger of the Lord, which thy obstinate pride has called down upon thy offering. Seek to avert it, then, by penitence and atonement."

"I have said that I will pray no more."

"I will pray for thee."

Nay, thou hadst better not: I seek no mediator."

"I cannot listen to thee, Cain, thy words are terrible!" My deeds shall be like them," said the now enfuriated Cain; and grasping the spade which he held in his hand, he

approached the altar of Abel to scatter that also upon the ground, as his own had been scattered. Abel, who saw him, and guessed his intention, rushed towards him, and withheld him from his purpose; but this, by increasiug his brother's anger, made him more desperate and determined. After several ineffectual struggles to free himself from the arms of his brother, in a moment of maddened rage he struck Abel upon the forehead with the implement with which he had designed to insult the altar; and, reeling with the savage blow, his brother fell upon the green earth, which was soon stained with a pool of blood-the first that had gushed from human veins.

The revulsion of Cain's feelings was instantaneous: horror and remorse took possession of his breast, and anger fled. The strong passions which had led to the dreadful deed, now made his regret the more poignant. Abel, stunned and bleed ing, lay at his feet. "My brother," he faintly said, as he recovered from the first stupor, 66 come near me. I feel that the death we have all dreaded is about to make me its first victim; that in a few moments I shall have ceased to live."

66

Oh, no, my brother; it was but a momentary fit of anger,

and has passed now. Thou wilt, thou must revive."

Nay, Cain; faintness and darkness are stealing over me. Be kind to my mother, my sisters; tell them I have forgiven

thee: with prayer God will forgive thee too. My father, thou hast now but one son. My sister—”

Abel breathed a heavy, stifled sigh, and became silent; and though Cain knelt over and entreated him to speak, to look once more upon him, he could obtain neither word nor token, He rose from the earth, and gazed around in agony. He felt that he had brought death in its most terrible form into the world; that he was a murderer; the slayer of his own, his only brother. He thought of his father's sorrow, of his mother's anguish, of the tears of his innocent and tender sisters; and when his eyes lighted upon the lifeless form before him, and the clotted blood upon his brother's brow, he felt that the curse had been deserved; and feared that it would light on him with tenfold vengeance.

Mid-day came, and still Cain had stirred not from beside the cold and stiffening body of his victim. A stupor had overcome all his faculties. He was afraid to remain where he was, yet dared not leave the spot. At length his sister— his youngest sister, the bride of Abel, sought her brothers. She had prepared their noon-tide meal. She could not at first comprehend what she saw; and when she at last knew that her brother Abel was dead, she suspected not that he had been slain by him who should have been his protector. Adam, Eve, their eldest daughter, gathered round the spot,