17. As the child beheld his brother's angel in her arms, he cried, "O sister, I am here! Take me!" And she turned and smiled upon him, and the star was shining. 18. He grew to be a young man, and was busy at his books, when an old servant came to him, and said, "Thy mother is no more. I bring her blessing" on her darling son." 19. Again at night he saw the star, and all that former company. Said his sister's angel to the leader, "Is my brother come?" 20. And he said, "Thy mother!" 21. A mighty cry of joy went forth through all the star, because the mother was reunited to her two children. And he stretched out his arms, and cried, "O mother, sister, and brother, I am here! Take me!" And they answered him, "Not yet." And the star was shining. 22. He grew to be a man whose hair was turning gray, and he was sitting in his chair by the fireside, heavy with grief, and with his face bedewed 10 with tears, when the star opened once again. 23. Said his sister's angel to the leader, "Is my brother come?" 24. And he said, "Nay, but his maiden daughter." 25. And the man who had been the child saw his daughter, newly lost to him, a celestial" creature among those three, and he said, "My daughter's head is on my sister's bosom, and her arm is round my mother's neck, and at her feet there is the baby of old time, and I can bear the parting from her, God be praised!" And the star was shining. 26. Thus the child came to be an old man, and his once smooth face was wrinkled, and his steps were slow and feeble, and his back was bent. And one night, as he lay upon his bed, his children standing round, he cried, as he had cried so long ago, “I see the star!" 27. They whispered one another, “He is dying.” 28. And he said, "I am. My age is falling from me like a garment, and I move towards the star as a child. And O, my Father, now I thank thee that it has so often opened to receive those dear ones who await me!" 29. And the star was shining; and it shines upon his grave. 1 STROLLED. Wandered; strayed. 3 TRAIN. A number of objects in a 6 BEAM'ING. Shining; emitting rays 7 GLŌ'RI-FIED. Made glorious. 4 SPÄRK'LING. Glittering; bright, as 10 BE-DEWED (bẹ-dūd'). Wet with heavenly. III. ONE BY ONE. MISS PROCTER. 1. ONE by one the sands are flowing, 2. One by one thy duties wait thee; Let thy whole strength go to each; Learn thou first what these can teach, 3. One by one (bright gifts from heaven) 4. One by one thy griefs shall meet thee; One will fade as others greet thee, Shadows passing through the land. 5. Do not look at life's long sorrow; See how small each moment's pain: 6. Every hour, that fleets so slowly, 3 Luminous the crown', and holy, If thou set each gem with care. 7. Hours are golden links-God's token 1 E-LATE'. Elevate as with success; puff up. FLEETS. Passes away. LU'MI-NOUS. Emitting light; bright. 4 CROWN. Reward; recompense. 5 PILGRIM-AGE. A long journey, particularly, a journey to a place deemed sacred; journey of life. IV. HOW SLEEP THE BRAVE. COLLINS. [William Collins was an English poet, born in 1720, and died in 1756. These lines were written in honor of the men who fell at the battle of Culloden, April 16, 1746, in which the Scottish rebels, under Prince Charles, were defeated by the English, under the Duke of Cumberland.] 1. How sleep the Brave, who sink to rest, 2. By fairy' hands their knell is rung; 1 HAL LOWED. Holy; sacred. 2 FAIR'Y. A fabled small being in human form. * DIRĢE. A funeral song. 4 PIL'GRIM. One who leaves his home or country on account of religion. 5 HER MIT. One who retires from so ciety and lives in solitude. V. THE FORGIVEN DEBT. L. M. SARGENT. [Lucius Manlius Sargent was born June 25, 1786, and died June 2, 1867. He was a frequent contributor to the newspaper press of Boston, and was the author of a well-known series of temperance tales, which are of marked merit, and have been widely read.] 1. ABOUT the beginning of the present century', a Boston merchant, who had been extensively engaged in commerce, died at a good old age, without leaving any will. He had been for many years largely interested in the fishing business, and his name was familiar to all the hardy fishermen of Cape Cod. His eldest son administered upon the estate. 3 2. Among his papers, a package of considerable size was found, after his death, carefully tied up, and labelled as follows: "Notes, due bills, and accounts against sundry persons down along-shore. Some of these may be got by a suit or severe dunning. But the people are poor; most of them have had fisherman's luck. My children will do as they think best. Perhaps they will think, with me, that it is best to burn this package entire." 3. "About a month," said my informant, "after our father died, the sons met together, and, after some general remarks, our eldest brother, the administrator, produced this package, of whose existence we were already apprised, read the superscription, and asked what course should be taken in regard to it. Another brother, a few years younger than the eldest, a man of strong, impulsive temperament, unable at the moment to express his feeling by words, while he brushed the tears from his eyes with one hand, by a spasmodic jerk of the other towards the fireplace, indicated his desire to have the paper put into the flames. 4. "It was suggested by another of our number, that it might be well first to make a list of the debtors' names, and of the dates and accounts, that we might be enabled, as the intended discharge was for all, to inform such as might offer payment, that their debts were forgiven. On the following day we again assembled; the list had been prepared, and all the notes, due bills, and accounts, whose amount, including interest, exceeded thirty-two thousand dollars, were committed to the flames. 5. "It was in the month of June, about four months after our father's death, that, as I was sitting in my eldest brother's counting-room, waiting for an opportunity to speak to him, there came in a hard-favored', little old man, who looked as if time and rough weather had been to the windward of him for seventy years. He asked if my brother was not the executor. He replied that he was administrator, as our father died intestate. 'Well,' said the stranger, 'I have come up from the Cape to pay a debt I owed the old gentleman.' My brother," continued my imformant, "requested him to be seated, being at the moment engaged. 6. "The old man sat down, and, putting on his glasses, drew out a very ancient leather wallet. When he had done this and sat, with quite a parcel of notes, waiting his turn, slowly twirling his thumbs, with his old, gray, medi |