The boy did so, and smiled, for he thought to himself, "What will my father do with the stone ?"

But the father took the stone and skillfully cut it into regular facets, and polished the diamond, which then sparkled very brightly.

Behold," said the father, "here is the stone which you gave me Then was the boy amazed at the brilliancy of the stone, and said, "0, father! how did you work this won derful change?"

"I knew," said the father, "the virtue and hidden properties of the crude stone, and so I cleared it from the crust in which it was imbedded, and now it shines with all its natural splendor."

When the boy had grown up to be a man, his father gave him the precious stone, as an emblem of the heart that is freed from the base and wicked passions, and refined by vir tue and holiness.

THE BOY THAT DREAMED HE WAS A SHEPHERD.

A small boy named Leopold, came down one morning from his bedchamber, and wept bitterly, so that the bright tears ran over his cheeks.

And the father and mother came to him and said, "Dear child, what is the matter? who has hurt you?" For they thought he had met with some fearful accident, or else that he was sick.

Then the boy answered and said, "O, I had a little while ago twelve, delicate, white lambs, and they capered round me, and licked my hands, and I sat among them with a shepherd's staff, but now they are all gone, I do not know where they are!"

When he said this, he began again

to weep. Then the parents knew what was the matter with the child, and that he had awaked from a dream, and they turned around and secretly smiled.

But the father said to the mother, "We smile, it is true, and yet our sighs and gloom are often the tears of a child, and do not our wishes and desires frequently appear like Leopold's dream?"

But Leopold still grieved about his twelve lambs. Then his father arose and said, "Leopold, I will go and look for your lambs."

And he went and bought a lamb, and brought it home, and placed it where the boy could see it.

Then the boy was greatly rejoiced, and ran towards the lamb and embraced it, saying, "Yes, this is it! this is it! It looked just so!" And he was very joyful, but of the other eleven lambs he said nothing; nor did he desire them..

Then the father smiled again, and said to the mother, "We are like young Leopold in dreams and in tears. May we also resemble him in deriving, from small and few bless ings, contentment and moderate joy!"

As I was passing along a lonely part of the road, on my return from a visit to the country a few days since, a little girl about nine years old beckoned me to stop.

"Pray, sir, be so kind as to come and look at this poor lamb, that has just been run over."

I got out of my chaise and went with the child to a tree, at a little distance from the road side.

There was a fine lamb stretched on the ground; it made a faint noise like a feeble groaning, and seemed to be dying.

A lonely sheep kept close to the spot, and seemed to watch all my motions.

"Poor thing!" said the little girl, "he will never skip and play any more."

'My dear," said I, "how did it happen ?"

"It was sleeping in the path," she replied, "close by where its mother was feeding, and the two cruel gentlemen, that went along just how in the wagon, never minded the lamb, but drove straight over it.

"So I brought it away from the hot sun, and laid it here in the shade; but it won't get well;" and again with her apron, she wiped away