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people; she is what I call an odd girl; and so shut up in herself, that there is no such thing as drawing her out.”

"And how can you expect it, ma'am?" returned Miss Loveday, with the ease of one who was, as parlour boarder, more a companion than a pupil to the lady she addressed-" I was about to say, that there seems to be a general accordance in the school room to throw contempt on, and to check the little girl, beginning with Mademoiselle and her persiflage, and finishing with those intolerable Lushingtons, with their pride and irony. Surely this is not a mode of treatment likely to draw out a modest little girl's affections."

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“Excuse me, Miss Loveday," said Mrs. St. Leger, excuse me you have had little experience in the management of youth, or you would not reject that amazingly powerful agent, in promoting the civilization of the human race-ridicule in all its forms; and though I, as the head of this institution, should not like to exercise it upon any individual, yet I make a point of never checking the use of it in a lady-like way in others. It is a maxim of mine that those only need fear it, who need its discipline: when any one ceases to want it, he will no longer incur it." Miss Loveday was not convinced, but she was silenced for the time being.

The next morning as she was leaving the little sleeping room which she had to herself, she met Barbara, and saw she had been weeping. On enquiring what was the matter, she was told that Mademoiselle had found her with her Bible, instead of her French Grammar, and had taken it from her.

"Poor young thing!" said the elder, stooping and kissing her, "I will get your Bible back for you;" and there they parted.

Since Barbara had parted from her nurse, she had never received a kind salutation, such as she felt that kiss to be; and yet the day went heavily with her, for Miss Loveday never appeared in the school room, and her Bible was not restored. She was going up that night, with the teachers and her companions, at the usual hour to their sleeping rooms, the elders jesting and tittering in their usual way, and the younger ones laughing and whispering about such trifling things as unhappily they were only familiar with; when, at the head of the stairs she was met by Emmeline, who having merely said significantly to th French

lady, "You know! Mademoiselle;" took the hand of the little girl and led her away to her own room, which was at the end of

the gallery.

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Barbara thought no other than that the young lady was going to restore her Bible to her she was, therefore, by no means prepared for what was to follow. On entering the small room she saw a little bed, placed against the inner wall, leaving indeed but a small space between itself and the larger bed on the other side; with a small chest of drawers and all things needful for making a proper toilet at its feet, with certain of her possessions ranged on the top of the drawers. But most surprising of all, was the sight of her Bible laid upon the pillow of the little bed, which last was turned down and arranged for the due reception of the person who was to sleep in it. Whilst standing scarcely within the door in speechless surprise, she felt herself suddenly caught in the arms of Miss Loveday, and heard herself thus addressed: "I have always been sorry for you, my dear child, and thought it hard that you might not read your Bible when you wished to do so, since you seem to have such delight in it; and I have made interest for you to sleep in my room, and have had all your goods and chattels brought here, and here you may do what you like, and read what you like, without the fear of being laughed at."

For a moment or more, Barbara was evidently too much overpowered to speak, or even to move; but suddenly, as if she had only that instant comprehended the kindness, she threw her arms round the young lady's neck, and burst into an agony of tears. Indeed the poor little girl seemed to be so much excited, that Emmeline thought it best to urge her, at once, to lay her head by the side of the Bible, and solicit sleep as soon as possible.

"And this,” thought Miss Loveday, as she descended to the supper room, "this is the child to whom dulness and insensibility, and incapacity are attributed by all the sapient directors of this establishment! This is the child without heart and affections, who was not to be protected even by those who have undertaken her guardianship from the sharp cold blasts of irony, contempt, and high-bred insolence? But I shall say no more about her to any of them. What must the poor child have suffered, to be so

exceedingly thankful for the refuge with which I thought of supplying her!"

When Miss Loveday returned to her room, she found her little friend in a deep sleep, with one arm out from the bed clothes, for it was a hot night, and one hand laid on the little Bible. "Oh! that precious Bible," she thought, as she quietly lifted it from under the hand; some dear friend's gift, no doubt— perhaps that of her uncle Jocelyn, the simple youth, of whom Mrs. St. Leger told me-whose death threw all the property into the sister's family?"

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Having set down the candle on her dressing table, she carried the book to it, and opening it at the fly-leaf, she read the name of Horace Langford, dated "Rock Cottage," 1781; and some years afterwards, that of Jocelyn Barwell, to which was added, "Horace gave me this, before he fell asleep," the whole of this last entry being made in a very scrawling irregular hand. The name of Barbara Rokeby came next, in a fair but stiff autograph, with these words "Alas! dear Uncle Jocelyn!

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'Yes, I see," thought the young lady, as she replaced the book under the hand, "I see how it is. The Bible was this precious Uncle Jocelyn's. Well! it was cruel to take it from her; per» and haps she possesses no other tangible memorial of him; having thus accounted to herself for the value put by the little girl on the object, she laid down to rest, under the sweet impression of having that day done a kind thing, yet scarcely less ignorant of the real value of a copy of the Holy Scriptures, than one of the infidels at that period committing their horrible atrocities in Paris, might have been.

As we have already remarked above, there never had been a time, since England was a nation in which any thing like vital religion was less esteemed than in or about the period of which this narrative now treats. It is very certain that even the most pious teachers are utterly unable to inspire the mind of those under their influence with spiritual views of Christianity, without God's blessing on their labors; but there is much which they may do, even with those not endowed from above with the new and spiritual nature-they may give head-knowledge, compelling attention to scripture, and, as it were, forcing respect to things accounted sacred. But no process of this kind, ever had gone

on with Emmeline Loveday, and therefore her kindness to Barbara may not be attributed, in its first operations, to any thing more than a natural sense of justice, and something of that maternal tenderness which is found oftentimes in the young female heart, though these kindly feelings are like the drops of dew in a summer's morning, liable to be speedily scorched up by exposure to the sun, so soon does their freshness pass away in the atmosphere of the world.

The Almighty, however, in his infinite goodness, was now about to give a substance to this shadowy feeling of affection which had fallen from Emmeline upon little Barbara, and through the instrumentality of that unconscious little one, in the words of Holy Scripture, to cause the blessings of her father, the Almighty One, to prevail above the blessings of her progenitors, unto the utmost boundaries of the everlasting hills.

There was some little similitude in the respective experiences, at school, of Jocelyn and Barbara. Both were protected and patronized by elders; but in the first case, the blessing which was not merely temporary had descended from the elder to the younger, following as it were the course of time; in the second, it was appointed to go upwards; reversing the order of natural descent, for as our Blessed Saviour says, "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth; so is every one that is born of the Spirit." The divine Spirit is not restricted in its operations to the laws of created things; and though that small branch of the Living Rill which seemed to arise as by the divine touch, and without other ministry but that of the word of truth, with the lone widow at Craddock Court, had hitherto flowed as it were downwards, it was now directed to reverse its operations: and having for a little while pursued a secret and hidden channel, to break forth and throw its waters upwards, even on the parched land above it-a desert spot, in which thorns and briers had only hitherto taken root. In other words, it was the elder now that was to receive the truth from the younger; and it was the elder, who was ordained by Providence to convey that which came to her from the younger, to those who were afterwards appointed to receive it.

If it had been possible to have concluded the history of little

Barbara in the present number, the narrator would have gladly done so; but it could not be, without omitting much in which the young and pious reader may take pleasure-a few more lines, and the continuation must be referred to another month.

The morning was bright, and the window of the chamber partially open, when Emmeline awoke, and looking across her small chamber, saw that Barbara was already up and completely dressed, and was sitting by the side of her bed, with her beloved book open on her knees. There was a sweetness and peacefulness in the whole appearance of the little girl, which caused Emmeline to think again, and again to ask herself"Can there be so much contentment to a child in reading the Bible?" And then added she, "She has risen early to have the opportunity of reading this book, and has dressed herself without disturbing me. Did I ever give myself such trouble about the Bible? Have I ever employed myself in private, in reading it? What can that young thing find in it to give her such delight? At least she is a happy child to be so easily pleased; I will not disturb her, but I will take occasion to tempt her to tell me what it is in that well worn little book which so delights her. I thought that only old and dying people studied the Bible." M. M. S.

(To be continued.}

THE THREE WORDS.

"THE Lindens," as we have already said, was a sweet place. Situate in a quiet country lane at the extremity of the village already mentioned, and backed by a range of gentle slopes, partly open and partly wooded, it had many of the advantages of a town residence, combined with the fresh air and sweet associations of the country. Of course it was in the cottage ornée style, with a thatched roof, twisted chimneys, and a regular net-work of trellis all over the front, covered with a profusion of climbers and creepers, some of which entwined themselves around the very chimneys, and waved over the pinnacles that graced every gable, like giant eyeleteers on guard. The young ladies who lived there could tell you the classical terms for all these towering herbs and shrubs, from the fuchsia to the common nasturtium, but for our

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