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as she plucked the lilies white she sang her household melodies-those strains that bear the hearer back to Eden.

2. Surely ne'er a brighter vision blest my dreams. "Whose child art thou," I said, "sweet girl?" In accent mild she answered, "Mother's." When I questioned "where her dwelling was?"-again she answered, "Home."

3. "Mother!" and "Home!" Oh, blessèd ignorance! or, rather, blessed knowledge! What advance farther than this shall all the years to come, with all their lore, effect? There are but given two names of higher note, "Father," and "Heaven."

THE MEETING OF THE WATERS.

ex-quis-ite, extremely pleas ing.

A-vo-ca, a beautiful valley in the County Wicklow, Ireland.

1. There is not in the wide world a valley so sweet

As that vale in whose bosom the bright waters meet;

Oh the last rays of feeling and life must depart,

Ere the bloom of that valley shall fade from my heart.

2. Yet it was not that Nature had shed o'er the scene

Her purest of crystal and brightest of green;

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'Twas not her soft magic of streamlet or hill,

Oh no-it was something more exquisite still.

3. 'Twas that friends, the beloved of my bosom, were near,

Who made every scene of enchantment. more dear,

And who felt how the blest charms of
Nature improve,

When we see them reflected from looks
that we love.

4. Sweet vale of Avoca! how calm could I rest

In thy bosom of shade, with the friends I love best;

Where the storms that we feel in this cold world should cease,

And our hearts, like thy waters, be mingled in peace.

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1. On the deck of a foundering vessel stood a negro slave-the last man on board; he was about to step into the life-boat at her last trip. She was already loaded almost to the gunwale to the water-edge.

2. Observed to bear in his arms what seemed a heavy bundle, the boat's crew, who had difficulty to keep her afloat in such a roaring sea, refused to receive him unless he came unladen and alone. He pressed to his bosom what he carried in his arms, and seemed loth to part with it. They insisted. He had his choice-either to leap in and leave that behind him, or throw it in and stay to perish.

3. He opened its folds, and there, warmly wrapt round, lay two children, whom their father, his master, had committed to his care. He kissed them; bade the sailors carry his affectionate farewell to his master, and tell how he had faithfully fulfilled his charge.

4. Then, lowering the children into the boat, which pushed off, the dark man stood alone on that sinking deck, and bravely went down with the foundering ship. Such arms slavery binds!-such kind hearts it crushes! A noble and touching example that, of the love that seeketh not her own!

II.

5. In the middle of the river St. Lawrence there is, nearly opposite to Montreal, an island called St. Helen's, between which and the shore, a space about three-quarters of a mile broad, the river runs with great rapidity; yet so cold is the weather in winter that then the river is always frozen over.

6. But in the spring the melting of the snow in the interior creates such a body of water as rapidly breaks up the ice, and sends it tumbling, crashing, thundering, onward to the sea. There is always danger in crossing just before this takes place, as there is no knowing the exact time at which the ice will break up.

7. On St Helen's island a small detachment of soldiers was stationed; and many of the soldiers, well wrapt up, were employed in attending to the road across it to Montreal. Suddenly a thundering noise announced to them that the breaking-up had begun.

8. The ice before them writhed, heaved up, burst into fragments, and the whole mass gradually moved downward, except a small portion which remained riveted to the shore of St. Helen's, like an artificial pier.

9. Just at that moment a little girl was seen on the ice in the middle of the river. She had attempted to cross over to Montreal, and was hardly half-way when the ice all around her gave way. The child's fate seemed inevitable; but a young sergeant distinctly uttered to himself, "Quick march!" and in obedience to the self-given command, he steadily struggled on toward her.

10. Sometimes just before him, sometimes just behind him, an immense piece of ice would pause, rear up on end, and roll over, so as now and again to hide him altogether from

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