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"MOTHER SAID,

When we had been a week or two in London, I began to think of looking up Miss West; and my pupils were just beginning to return to town, and I was thankful, for I was anxious about our future in a money point of view. Then it was that I fell ill. I think the worry and excitement had been too much for me, or it was a sort of climax after years of health and toil, for I had never been really ill before. No matter what it was, fever came creeping on, and for weeks and weeks I could not move hand or foot. Nellie roused herself from the apathetic fit into which she had fallen, and nursed me with tender, loving care, ever at my side night and day, anticipating my every want and thought, and yet she was different, even in that, from what she would have been formerly. She was the most devoted nurse possible, still she did not cry over me and cling caressingly to me as she would have done once; she was reserved even in the care she took of me. A new trouble too came on us in those days-a trouble I did not know of till afterwards-dire poverty. The little stock of money in hand was exhausted, and though Nellie managed to take two or three of my pupils, still she could not leave me long enough to do more, and she was not successful with the sketches she did at home, and there was the doctor to pay, besides all the expenses attendant upon a long illness. So while I was laid up she had not only anxiety on my account, and that secret trouble gnawing at her heart, but she had to rack her brain for the money which she could not earn, and we had no friends. I did not know it till long afterwards-not till autumn had sighed itself tearfully away, and Christmas passed by in winter's icy arms; then, when I was well enough to sit up by the fire, I found it all out. My darling had sold every trifling trinket she possessed, and even some of her dresses, to keep the wolf from the door. Her face had grown thin and pinched, and her eyes were no longer soft and misty, but large and bright and cold. I grew better gradually, but it was difficult to regain the lost time, and everything was in arrears; even the rent for the two tiny rooms was unpaid, and the people in the house were scarcely civil in consequence, so it was up-hill work to get a little straight. Nellie did zot

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teach when I was able to do so again, she was not strong enough, and so she stayed at home, working on with the one hope of being famous. No, not the one hope, for there was another which spurred her on more still.

"Nellie," I said one day, for I thought it would be better to speak about what I knew was still the mainspring of her life," why are you so silent about the past? I know you have not forgotten it." "No, I have not forgotten," she said; " and, Mary, I think I was a little harsh to him. Do you know," and she looked up with that strange bright light in her eyes, which had lately come into them, "I think sometimes too that he will come back again yet." Nellie," I answered, "for Heaven's sake do not build your hopes upon that. Besides, you heard his own words."

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"Yes, I did," she said, in a tone that was rather scornful. "When I think of them I despise him a little. I cannot care for him, Mary, when I despise him, can I?"

Yet, as time went on, she did care for him again, and idealised him, and glorified even his faults into virtues, or blotted them out of her memory to remember only that which it was happiness to remember— forgot all his falsehood and treachery, his meanness and deceit; forgot all, save that she had loved him heart and soul, and that the happiest days of her life were those in which she had thought him all he seemed. It was a love which, from its very vagueness, soothed and lulled all other fears to sleep. She lived on with all her thoughts concentrated on him; with every stroke of her pencil made for him; with every action of her life dictated by the one thought of how he would view it; with a wild longing for the fame she had no longer the strength to achieve, only that he might be proud of the love he had valued so little. Lived on in this one dream, which covered and wrapped round all her thoughts and perceptions, till she did not know that her face was growing thinner still, and her hand uncertain, and that her eye no longer perceived its defects; and she did not heed the weariness which would come creeping over her little by little, until at last she was obliged to throw aside her pencil, and close the tired eyes. (To be continued.)

"MOTHER SAID, 'NO.""

"We ought

OME, now-this is what I call jolly!" | proceeded to pull off his shoes and stockings, and cried Alfred Watson, as, on his return tuck his trousers up above his ankles. “ from school one half-holiday in August, he joined a party of children collected together by the bank of the river which bounded his father's property on one side. “This is what I call jolly!" he repeated, as taking off his jacket he threw it on the bank, and further

to have a famous regatta, the yachts are in grand order, the wind is critically in the right direction, the sun is a trifle hot, perhaps, for comfort, but never mind that, it is nothing when you are accustomed to it—so come along, boys, and let us begin."

The "boys" thus addressed immediately crowded

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come, because we cannot get on without him; and as to mother's saying, 'No' to it, that's all—”,

The sentence was not finished, Alfred conveying his meaning by a wink, as he turned away from the river, and began to run across the lawn and up the steep incline, at the summit of which stood the house.

These had been the pleasantest holidays Alfred could ever remember to have spent, the long, long cloudless days, the company of his cousins, the fish

round the speaker, holding carefully in their hands their gaily-painted white-sailed boats. There were Harry and Willy, Alfred's brothers; Duncan and Jamie Ford, his cousins, who were spending the summer holidays at his father's house; and Archie Noble, his chum and particular friend. Beside them stood Ella, Alfred's sister, who, though to her own sorrow only a girl," was as deeply versed in nautical matters as Alfred himself. She could calculate the time to be allowed for tonnage to a fraction; she could cut out the most perfectly-shaped sails, and fixing, the cricket, the bathing—all had been pleasant, them rightly in their places, without appealing to him for assistance, and by diligence at her lessons she earned more money, to be spent in prizes for the winners of the yacht-races, than all the others put together. In fact, she was quite mad upon the subject, and it was with no small degree of envy that she watched the boys pulling off their shoes and stockings, and paddling into the stream, which at this point was very shallow, whilst she mourned that her mother's wishes and the laws of propriety forbade her following their example.

Now, Ella, look here," said Alfred, interrupting her meditations, "you must take care of the prizes, and here is my watch too, in case anything might happen to it. The first race is only to be a trial one, just to see that we're all square, and the sooner we begin the better."

"I think so too," replied Archie, "for I am greatly afraid of the breeze going down, and our having a dead calm, as we had yesterday; but I say, Alfred, how shall we manage the start? The mooring-place here is so small that six boats could never get off at the same moment, without running each other down."

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"You are right as usual, Archie-quite right. Well, suppose," continued Alfred, that you go round by the bridge to the other side of the river, with Harry and Duncan, and take Ella with you to help you, and I will stay here, with Willie and Jem, and get Ned down from the nursery to fag for me, he's a capital hand at it, though he's such a little chap."

Archie scarcely waited to hear the conclusion of this sentence, as, regardless of the suggestion about the bridge, he proceeded to wade across the kneedeep water to the opposite shore. In this his example was quickly followed by Harry and Duncan, whilst poor Ella with a sigh, set off in the hot sun, to reach the same destination by the longer route.

"Why did you let Ella go with them, Alfred?" asked Willy as soon as the others were out of hearing; "she's twice as useful as Ned, she's so sharp, and besides I don't think you will be able to get himfor I wanted him to come down here with me, some time ago, and he wouldn't, because he said mother had told him not-and once he takes a notion like that into his head, he is as obstinate as a mule."

but the sailing of their tiny yachts had been the pleasantest of all. Hours and hours of each day had been spent over this amusement-the result of each regatta was carefully entered in a book, the capabilities of the various boats formed the only topic of conversation at meal-times, and frequently Mr. and Mrs. Watson were obliged to yield to the petitions of the children, and come down to watch the sport.

But in connection with this amusement, Alfred had more than once got into trouble during the holidays, and the remembrance of this trouble was in his mind even now as he approached the house, though he tried with all his might not to think of it.

The great fault in his character was the impatience with which he bore any interference with his own wishes. If once a thing seemed right and good in his eyes, he thought that was sufficient, and he often betrayed much ill-temper, and caused much sorrow, by rebelling against the opinions of those older and wiser than himself, when they were contrary to his own desires.

Long after Ella had yielded obediently to her mother's wishes, and had ceased to sail her own boat or paddle about in the river with the boys, Alfred had fought for her to be allowed to do so, because, without hers, he said there were not enough boats to make it any fun sailing. He begged and pleaded and worried, and finally showed so much temper, that Mrs. Watson had almost forbidden the yachting altogether, when, to Alfred's delight, Archie Noble came to the neighbourhood, and with his boat filled up the gap caused by Ella's absence.

Now something of the same sort was going on, as regarded Ned's being allowed to join with them in their play, Mrs. Watson having more than once expressed her wish that he should not make one of the party at the river-side, unless she were there herself to watch over him.

It was quite true, as Alfred said in arguing the point with his mother, that where they sailed their boats the river was too shallow for him to get more than a slight wetting, even were he to fall in ; but it was also true that the current even there, was very strong, and that a little further down the stream came what the children called "the rapids," when the water, after bubbling and frothing over the rocks, fell into the deep pool, near which even Alfred him

"Oh, never fear," laughed Alfred, "I'll make himself had been forbidden to play.

"THE QUIVER " BIBLE CLASS.

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"So mother had said Neddy might not come," he spoke, and his voice sounding strange and husky thought Alfred to himself as he went along; that to his own ears, "for I met her on the road as I was too bad. This was to be the regatta of the was coming back from school, and she stopped the season, and his services were very badly wanted-in phaeton, on purpose to tell me you were all down by fact, the whole thing would be spoilt without him; the river's side." besides, this would probably be the last day's sport they would have, and it would be a shame for him to miss seeing the fun. Duncan and Jem were to return home next week, and if the weather should change after to-day, there would at once be an end to their amusement. At all costs, for this one day, Neddy must be secured; and with this resolve Alfred walked up to the bank opposite the front door, where the little fellow was seated.

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Waiting for mother to come home," replied Ned, in rather a melancholy voice; "she said when she came back, I might drive round to the yard in the phaeton."

"Do you know, Ned, all the others are down at the river, Willy, Jem, Duncan, Harry, Archie and Ella-would not you like to come down there too and help us?"

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Ned looked at his brother with wide-open eyes, "Did she say me too-did she say me, Alfred?" he asked, his joy somehow a little damped by the look in his brother's face.

"Why, what a muff you are! if she said all, of course she meant you, as well as the others; she said she knew she could trust you all with me.” “But are you sure, Alfred-quite sure, she won't be vexed?" and Ned's large earnest eyes were raised inquiringly, while he waited for an answer.

"Yes, of course, quite sure," and Alfred turned quickly on his heel, and took the path leading to the river, whilst Ned, waiting only to grasp his flowers securely in his hand, followed him quickly.

(To be concluded.)

"THE QUIVER" BIBLE CLASS. 132, " All power is given unto me in heaven and earth" (Matt. xxviii. 18). That this should be so

Oh yes," replied Ned; promptly adding, how. was prophesied. Where? ever, with a sigh, "but mother said, 'No.'"

"We're going to have the best races to-day we have ever had; we've got lots of prizes, and I want you to help me to sail my boat."

That Ned felt the implied compliment was shown by his rising colour, but he only sighed again and made no further sign of consenting.

"The first prize,” continued Alfred, "is to be a box full of chocolate creams; and look here, Ned, I

am pretty sure to win it, and I will give it to you when I do, if you will only come."

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"But, Alfred-mother said, 'No,'" persisted Ned, though his eyes were now turned longingly towards the river, where, through the opening in the trees, he could see the figures of the children moving backwards and forwards in the sunshine. Mother said, 'No,' and I couldn't do it, because she'd be very angry; besides, I'm waiting here to give her these lovely white roses to put in her hair, when she comes in from driving, Clinchy brought them up from the garden himself, and gave them to me for her," and Ned held up two beautiful blossoms for Alfred to admire.

But Alfred did not notice them, he was listening to the tempter, who was whispering in his ear how to win Ned from his obedience.

"When did mother say you might not come with us?" he said at last, as the determination to gain his point grew in his mind.

"To-day, after luncheon, I heard Ella begging for me, but mother would say nothing but no." "Then she changed her mind after that, I can tell you," answered Alfred, his cheeks growing hot as

133. Our Lord on one occasion during his public ministry declared that he came to die for man's transgressions. Quote the text.

134. "Daniel the prophet" is referred to as such in the New Testament. Give the passages.

135. That crucifixion was known among the ancient Jews may be inferred from certain passages in the Old Testament. Give them.

136. Amongst the Jews capital punishment was usually inflicted in some prominent place. Where? 137. Quote any passage, in which the Messiah is designated in Scripture by David's name.

ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS ON PAGE 319. 122. Isa. ix. 2 compared with Matt. iv. 16; Mal. iv. 2. 123. (1) It stood still at the command of Joshua (Josh. x. 12, 13); (2) it returned back in the time of Hezekiah (2 Kings xxi. 11); (3) it was involved in darkness at the time of the Saviour's crucifixion (Luke xxiii. 45).

124. Ps. lxxx. 17.-"Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand, and upon the Son of man whom thou madest strong for thyself."

125. St. Stephen (Acts vii. 56); St. John (Rev. i. 17 and xiv. 14).

126. Zechariah said, "The Lord look upon it, and require it" (2 Chron. xxiv. 20-22). Stephen said, "Lord, lay not this sin to their charge" (Acts vii. 60).

127. (1) Contempt for religion; (2) oppression of the poor; (3) shameless profligacy; and (4) a violation of the rights of conscience (Amos ii. 6—8, 12; v. 11).

BIBLE

THE TARES OF THE FIELD

HIS parable gives us, perhaps, the fullest account we have in the Bible of the existence of evil in the world and in the Church; and as if to help us in so difficult a subject, it is explained by our Lord himself, who uttered it.

"The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field." There can be no question who is the Sower of the good seed; Christ himself has told us. "He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man." He speaks of that seed which grows up in the hearts of many members of his visible Church, and ought to grow up in all, unto everlasting life.

"The good seed are the children of the kingdom." These are what He who sows desires to rear; these are such as he would have cover the whole field. These are they who are sown on good ground, and bring forth fruit to perfection-some in a greater degree, others in a less.

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'While men slept, the enemy came and sowed tares." It was at night, when deep sleep had fallen upon men, when all eyes were closed in slumber, that this enemy seized his opportunity, and wrought the mischief on which he was intent, and then, having satisfied his malice, withdrew unobserved into the darkness from which he had emerged, and so the work did not evidently and at once appear to be his. The time he selects wherein to inflict injury on his neighbours marks his cowardice.

"An enemy hath done this." This is what the householder said to his servants when, in perplexity and surprise, they asked him whence the field had tares, for they well knew that he had not sown them. The tares, our Lord tells us, are "the children of the wicked one," and the enemy that sowed them is the devil. This, therefore, is the utmost that we can know of the origin of evil; we can trace it back to Satan, and no further, for no further does Scripture go. How there came to be such an enemy we know not; nor do we know how it came to pass that God suffered him to have access to the souls of men. Here we learn that Satan is Christ's enemy, and that while Christ sows the good seed of his word, Satan is also sowing evil seed, and that thence arise the children of the evil one.

"When the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also." There must have been a strong resemblance between the two while growing up, for it was not till the wheat brought forth fruit that the tares showed themselves, for the first time, in their true nature. The sense conveyed by the word "tares" is not that of weeds, but of a plant that is poisonous in its effects on man.

NOTES.

(Matt. xiii. 24-30 and 36-43.)

"Let both grow together until the harvest; and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers." The harvest is the end of the world; the reapers are the angels of God. Here we have the sentence of the spiritual Husbandman, and his reply to the impatient servants who would go and gather them out before the time. This is the illustration which ought to satisfy us that God has reasons, though unknown to us, for allowing Satan to work evil at the first, and for suffering him still to work disobedience in the children of men. There is to be a mixture of good and bad in Christ's Church, as well as in the world; till the end of time they are to grow together, side by side, without any distinction, till they are both ripe-one for destruction, the other for salvation. It is good for the wheat that the tares should for the present be let alone. The wickedness of the wicked, if at once extinguished, would not help as it now does to the confirmation of the faith. How could want and misery be relieved, if there had been no sin to bring want and misery into the world? How could we forgive injuries, if there were no one to do us any wrong? How could we practise gentleness and peace towards those who behave to us with violence and scorn, if all were peaceable and gentle ? This, then, is one of the practical uses of evil while God allows it to exist. God suffers evil-he is not the author of it. He makes it redound to his glory, but it is all the while abomination in his sight; and that it is so is most fearfully declared in what is set down as the end of the tares at the time of the harvest.

"The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather," &c. It is but for a short time that the tares flourish; only for a single harvest. They may grow luxuriant, and exceed the wheat in strength and fruitfulness-they may seem to have obtained possession of the field; but the Husbandman is at hand; his eye discerns the plants of his own sowing; his voice gives the command to the ministers of his will. It is Christ himself, by his agents who shall accompany him, that shall separate the good and evil; the tares perish; the wheat endures for ever.

"Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father." At the time that punishment is inflicted on the wicked, the fire that consumes them will cast a gleam of light upon the righteous. The righteous may be, for a few brief years, overrun by the growth of wickedness in the world; but the word has been spoken-they shall shine forth; in the kingdom of their Father they shall be bright for ever. The Son of man has sown the seed, but he is also the Son of God. The Son of God has planted them, and they shall grow for ever and ever.

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HIS BY RIGHT.

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BY ALTON CLYDE, AUTHOR OF UNDER FOOT," JOIN HESKETH'S CHARGE," ETC. ETC.

CHAPTER LXVII.-A FRIENDLY ACT.

YYRIL CHADBURN had kept his word, telling that he watched the fair girl's changing colour as she

his

not forgiven Bessie for rejecting his proffered love, and it was with something akin to gratified revenge

VOL. VII.

stance of Gerald's visit to Chadburn in company with Sylvia Ward. The chances of the day had been

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