"You have no business to ask any thing about it," said Margaret; "it is something mother has given me to take to James: so go along with you, Ned, and leave me alone."

Something for James, Madge? what a lucky fellow I am! why, it is his dinner, I dare say, and that is just what I want now; for I must have that, or none at all, perhaps, all day."

"Keep off," said Margaret; "you know the constable is after you. As I came along the village just now, he was asking every body about you."

"Yes, yes, I have given him the slip," said Ned; " and so I shall again, if he comes this way, easily enough. I am not like to be here for many a day: and so, Madge, you may as well give me your basket at once; for, depend upon it, I will take it if you don't, and that will be all the worse for you."

"You know very well, Ned, it is not mine to give you; and you know as well as I know, that it will be stealing if you take it from me.”

"Well-but that is what I mean to do, Madge, if you don't give it up at once."

All this while Margaret kept herself quiet, and did not give way to fear, but looked very determined and unyielding: yet, as she spoke, she kept trying to raise her voice as high as she well could, both to shew Ned that she was not frightened, and also to draw the attention of any one who happened to be coming that way. And very well it was for her that she did so. For her manner and behaviour did make Ned for a time a little ashamed of himself, so that he had to work himself up before he could really do what he threatened; and just as he was getting hardened enough to do almost any thing, there was a rustling heard close by, and in a moment the constable, who had heard something of what had been passing, jumped over the stile, and another man with him, running down the lane further on, they had Ned between them; so he was seized and

made fast, and carried off at once to the nearest magistrate.

It was a startling thing for Margaret; and she could not help looking pale, and being a good deal alarmed, much as there was to make her very thankful: and she was quite overjoyed when, a few minutes afterwards, she saw James at the end of the field nearest the lane, already looking out as if he expected her, and as if he were thinking that his mother's promise was sadly long in coming.

"Well, Margaret," said James, as soon as she had told him all, "I do think it was very good of you; but I wonder you were not a great deal more frightened."

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Why, I was a great deal frightened in my own mind," said Margaret; "but I determined he should not see that I was if I could help it. And then it came into my mind all at once, that it was the very time when I myself should do what I love so much to hear Mr. Saxham say we should all of us do as often as ever there is need."

"What is it you mean?" said James.

"Why, Mr. Saxham so very often says in his sermon, that the reason why so few trust in the Lord with all their hearts is, that people never try to do it at the right time, but quite forget to do so when they should remember it most. It was only last Sunday that he said, children ought to be taught this as soon as ever they could learn any thing; and that if they began then by remembering that God was near them in the dark as well as in the light, and when they were by themselves as much as when they were with ever so many people, they would not mind so much for real troubles afterwards."

"I understand that well enough," said James, "now you tell me of it; but I did not know Mr. Saxham ever said so. Somehow I never know any thing that is said in the sermon; I wonder how you do, Margaret?"

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Why, there are a great many things I do not

understand, James: but when there comes something that I do understand, I try very hard to remember that, and then I try to do something as soon as ever I can that it bids me do; and so I am sure never to forget it afterwards."

"You are a dear good girl, Maggy, as mother often says. You have brought me such a nice dinner, though Ned Grime did force you to bring it rather cold; and then, while I have been eating it, you talked to me so nicely, that I wish we could sit here and talk a whole hour longer."

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Why, then, I should make you a bad boy, instead of doing you good, for you have had your half-hour for eating your dinner; and by this time father is almost home, and ready for his. So be after your birds, James; for I do declare those rooks keep flying round, just as if they had smelt out your pudding. So

'Crows with coats so black and bright,

Woe to you if here you light!""

screamed out the lively girl, and clapping her hands at them, she ran fast away.

She could scarcely have got home, when the day, which had been so bright and pleasant before, began to be clouded over. Margaret, however, did not very soon observe it; for, as she had been used from a baby to tell her mother every thing, and never to feel comfortable till she had done so, she no sooner had shut the door and found herself with her alone, than she flew into her mother's arms, and giving her many kisses, told her, with more agitation than she had felt before, what a fright she had had. And to say truth, the mother felt thoroughly frightened too, and could not help shewing it, or rather, she did not mind shewing it, because she was not one of those weak people who never can feel any thing without making themselves foolish, and doing more harm by their want of self-command than can be done good by ever so much tenderness and affection.

Mary Haycock said little to her daughter; and yet no words could have told Margaret how secretly pleased her mother was with her conduct at all like the faint smile which passed for a moment over her face, and the few tears which dropped upon the brick floor, as she turned away her head and busied herself quietly about something else.

"Oh, mother!" exclaimed Margaret just then, "what a flash!" And in a moment, with a loud, sharp, cracking sound, there burst such a peal of thunder seemingly just over the house, as, while it lasted, made it quite impossible that they should hear one another if they had tried. "What will James do, mother?" said his sister; "I am sure he never was out in a thunder-storm by himself before."

"Why, Margaret, I hope he will do very well," said her mother. "No doubt he will get very wet, but we must not mind that; and I am sure that he, dear good boy, will not. Do not you think, Margaret, that God will take care of him?"

"Why, mother, I think He will; and I should not mind at all if I were but there in his stead."

"You must not say so, my child," said her mother. "You were in trouble this morning, and, thank God, got through it very well; and now James is in a little, you should not doubt that he, please God, will get through very well too. We should try not to be frightened about one another any more than we are about ourselves. God is so good, my child, that He cares for our feelings as well as for our safety; and this may well quiet us."

But indeed the storm was a very awful one; and out of doors, especially in that direction where James was, it looked dismally dark; and as the zigzag flames burst bright and blue out of that thick depth of black clouds that hung quite low down, almost over his head, they would have frightened many an older boy than he was, and some grown people too. It is no wonder, then, that James had been alarmed a

good deal altogether, not so much by a sense of danger, as from the sudden darkness, the very loud noise, the violent wind and rain, and, above all, from finding that he had never thought what it was to be alone before. Well, what did he do? Why, the first thing he did was to run with all his might to a very large wide-spreading oak-tree that stood in the hedge-row, exactly at the spot where Ned Grime had crept through the hedge and found him before. Here James stood for a little while; and almost the first thing that came into his mind was to think how thankful he was that he had not done any of the wrong things Ned wanted him to do; and he said within himself, "How frightened I should have been now if I had!" While this thought was passing through his mind, he heard all of a sudden another voice, in spite of the wild wind and uproar, coming from the same hole in the hedge-bottom, and bidding him not stand there, but creep through immediately, and come to another place. This was old Jacob Crookly, Mr. Blunt's shepherd, and a great friend of little James's father.

“Why, Jemmy," said the old man, as he took him by the hand and pulled him through the hedge, "never do you stand in a storm of thunder and lightning under a tree again; and such a big one as that is a very dangerous place. In my time I have known many a man and boy too killed under great trees; and very seldom any body out of doors killed any where else. Look you here, my little man, here is a deal better place, under this high bank, where the wind does not come so strong, or behind the hedge would do pretty well, if there was not this comfortable hole for us to crouch and sit in. There, I see you don't like to have these big drops come tumbling splash upon your face, or just down your neck; I do not know who does, my lad, as for that; but we must do the best we can, and never mind for the rest. To be sure," continued the old man, "6 we ought not to think ourselves over safe any where;