forward at the same moment, exclaiming, Oh! do not punish Ellen. We are the agressors! Overcome by her feelings, Ellen sobbed aloud, and Eliza threw her arm round her and led her to her seat, where she wept on her shoulder. We were all concerned in this frolic, excepting Eliza and Ellen, who refused to have anything to do with it, said Marian. And I was the proposer of it, said Arthur, and am most to blame. No, no! cried Alfred, Henry and I were as much to blame as yourself. We had rather submit to any punishment, and had rather be blamed a dozen times than have Rose punished. I can well remember the smile of approval which lit up the stern features of Mr. Young as he warmly commended the firmness of principle which Eliza and Ellen had shown; but to others he gave good advice, and as a punishment, they were not allowed to go to the playground for a month, and were obliged to repair the damage done to the school-room. That evening many of us were seated in Mrs. Raby's arbour, afterwards she joined us, and laying one hand fondly on the clustering ringlets that shaded the brow of Ellen, whilst her other arm was round Eliza's waist. she said; "You have made me very happy, my dear girls, by the firmness with which you have resisted temptation; and I am proud of my daughter and niece. But, my son," turning to Alfred, "you have given a pang to a mother's heart, and deprived her of a gift which she would have valued much, a painting of Neptune, saving the life of your little brother; done by your sister. It was destroyed in your frolic. Remember my dear boys, that if you expect to make any figure in life, you must guard against this liability of being easily led into temptation; for if you are led, so young, to indulge in amusements that are wrong, you will need great caution to guard you against the ten thousand allurements of the world. Recollect in future years, that what may be sport to you, may ultimately lead to mortification and disgrace, as you have seen this day." M. M. Early Life of John Bunyan. The eminent christian this engraving represents, was born in the village of Elstowe, in Bedfordshire; he was initiated to the business of a brazier by his father, who followed that avocation; respecting his birth he writes, "of a low inconsiderable generation-my father's house." Most young people, we think, have heard of the Pilgrim's Progress," John Bunyan is its author,but previous to his writing this popular little book, of which so many hundreds of thousands have been printed, he underwent many vicissitudes of mind and circumstances, a few of which it is our intention to set before our young readers in this brief memoir. 66 His father though in humble and narrow circumstances was able to give him some education, and he learnt both to read and to write,-no small accomplishment in those days, but such was the value he attached to it, that he soon lost all he had been taught, "even" he says, "almost utterly." His father was a man of profane character,-an habitual swearer,-and his son early imbibed that sinful and pernicious habit; once when he stood thus playing the madman, at a neighbour's shop window, the woman of the house, who he speaks of as a loose and wicked Ingenious dreamer, in whose well told tale Whose humorous vein, strong sense, and simple style, May teach the gayest, make the gravest smile; COWPER. |