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unfortunate faithful Morley's own account, she had allowed herself to be made the tool of the curiosity of Caroline and Clara. She spoke severely, and Miss Morley had displeasure to endure, which was considerably more disagreeable than all Clara's importunities could have been.

However the next morning, it appeared as if the whole affair was forgotten by all parties; Marian was just as usual, and so were her cousins; but, in secret, Caroline felt guilty towards her; she held her in higher estimation since she had seen the contents of the letter, which, as she could perceive, Marian might well be doubly unwilling to show; she wished that Marian would but be as open to her as she was to Agnes, but this unfortuate business seemed like another great bar to their ever being really intimate, and she did not know how to surmount it.

These considerations were shortly after driven out of Caroline's head by a severe fit of tooth ache, which for three days made her unfit for anything but to sit by the fire reading idle books. Mrs. Lyddell proposed to take her to Salisbury to consult a dentist, and Lionel was supposed likewise to require inspection. Then turning to Marian, Mrs. Lyddell said, "This is not the pleasantest kind of expedition, but perhaps you may like to see Salisbury, and I think your bonnet wants renewing."

"Thank you," said Marian, pleased with the invitation, " I shall be very glad to go; I believe my teeth ought to be looked at. The dentist at Exeter said last winter that they were crowded and ought to be watched."

"Very well," said Mrs. Lyddell, "we will see what Mr. Polkinghorn says."

"Polkinghorn," said Marian, as Mrs. Lyddell left the room; "that is a Devonshire name."

"You are very welcome to him, I am sure," said Caroline; "I wish the trade was abolished."

"What cowards girls are!" said Lionel.

"Let us see how boys behave before we say anything against girls," was Marian's answer.

66 Shan't you scream?" said Lionel.

"Of course she will not," said Caroline, “unless with joy at meeting a Devonshire man.

Marian laughed, and Lionel began an exhilarating story about an unfortunate who was strapped to the dentist's chair, dragged nine times round the room, and finally had his jaw broken.

Marian enjoyed her drive to Salisbury, though it added to her contempt for Wiltshire scenery, by showing her more and more of desolate down. She watched the tall Cathedral spire from far in the distance, peering up among the hills like a picture more than a reality, and she admired the green meadows and quiet vale where

the town stands. Poor Caroline was taken up with dreadful anticipations of Mr. Poking-tooth, as Lionel called him, and when arrived at his chamber of torture, hung back, so as to allow Marian to be the first victim. The result of the examination was that it would be better, though not absolutely necessary, that a certain double tooth should be extracted, and Mr. Polkinghorn left the room in search of an instrument.

"So you think it ought to go," sighed Marian.

"I should say so," said Mrs. Lyddell, "but you may decide for yourself."

Marian covered her face with her hands, and considered. The dentist returned, she laid back her head and opened her mouth, and the tooth was drawn. Caroline and Lionel escaped more easily, and they left the dentist's; Mrs. Lyddell said something in commendation of Marian's courage, and asked if she would like to see the Cathedral, an offer which she gladly accepted, expecting to go to the service, as the bells now began to ring; but she was disappointed, for Mrs. Lyddell said, "Ah! I had forgotten the hour. We must do our commissions first, and be at the Cathedral before the doors are shut." Marian did not venture to express her wishes, but she thought of the days when attending the Cathedral service had been the crowning pleasure of a drive to Exeter, and in dwelling on the recollection, she spent the attention which Mrs. Lyddell expected her to bestow on her new bonnet.

Their business did not occupy them very long, and they entered the Cathedral before the anthem was over; but Marian felt that it was not fitting to loiter about the nave while worship was going on within the choir, and the uncomfortable feeling occupied her so much that she could hardly look at the fair clustered columns and graceful arches, and seemed scarcely to know or care for the gallant William Longsword, when led to the side of his mail clad, crosslegged effigy. The deep notes of the organ which delighted Caroline gave her a sense of shame; and even when the service was over, and they entered the choir, these thoughts had not so passed away as to enable her to give full admiration to the exquisite leafy capitals and taper arcades of the Lady Chapel. Perhaps, too, there was a little perverseness in her inability to think that this Cathedral surpassed that of Exeter.

She thanked Mrs. Lyddell rather stiffly, as she thought to herself, "I did not reckon upon this !" and they set out on their homeward drive. Caroline looked_thoughtful, and did not say much, Lionel fell asleep, and Mrs. Lyddell, after a few not very successful attempts at talking to Marian, took out her bills, and began to look over them and to reckon. Marian sat looking out of the window, and lost in a vision of the hills, woods, and streams of Fern Torr, which lasted till they had reached home.

Such an expedition was so uncommon an event in the lives of the

inhabitants of the schoolroom, that those who stayed at home were as excited about it as those who went, and a full and particular account was expected of all they had seen and all they had done. Caroline and Lionel both seemed to think Marian a perfect miracle of courage in voluntarily consenting to loose a tooth.

"And I am sure," said Caroline as they sat at tea, "I cannot now understand what made you have it done."

"To oblige a countryman,” said Marian laughing.

"Well, but what was your real reason?" persisted Caroline. "Mrs. Lyddell thought it best, and so did the dentist," said Marian.

"O," said Caroline, "he only said so because it was his trade." "Then how could Mrs. Lyddell depend on him?" said Marian, gravely.

"Dentists never are to be depended on," said Caroline; "they only try to fill their own pockets like other people."

"You forget," said Lionel," Devonshire men are not like other people."

"O yes, I beg their pardon," said Caroline, while everyone laughed except Gerald, who thought the praise only their due. "But why did you have it done," said Clara, returning to the charge; "I am sure I never would."

66

"Yes, but Marian is not you," said Lionel.

"You would have disobeyed no one," said Caroline.

"I do not know," said Marian, thinking of one whom she would have disobeyed by showing weakness.

"Then did you think it wrong not to have that tooth drawn?" said Caroline.

"I do not know."

"Did you think it right to have it done?"

"I do not know, unless that I did not like it."

"Do you mean to say that not liking a thing makes it right," exclaimed Clara.

"Very often," said Marian.

"Miss Morley, now is not that Popish ?" cried Clara.

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Perhaps your cousin can explain herself," said Miss Morley. "Yes, do," said Caroline; "you must tell us what you mean.' "I don't know," was Marian's first answer; but while uttering the reply, the real reason arranged itself in words; and finding she must speak clearly, she said, "Self-denial is always best, and in a doubtful case, the most disagreeable is always the safest."

Miss Morley said that Marian was right in many instances, but that this was not a universal rule, and so the conversation ended.

THE TALISMAN.*

I.

AWAY with gems and ornaments, and braidings of the hair,
Bright roses and the rainbow tints are for the young and fair
The sombre folding of my robe no glittering clasp confines,
Yet hidden, resting on my breast, a golden emblem shines;
I clasp it close, this talisman, that ne'er was clasp'd in vain,
To calm the heart's tumultuous throbs of anguish and of pain.

II.

My pilgrimage on earth may be perchance through devious ways,
Where joy and sunshine scattereth but dim and transient rays;
And wearied with the journey, in impatience or in pride,

I often wish the pathway was a choice one and a wide,
And lightly clasp the talisman, that ne'er was clasp'd in vain,
To calm the heart's tumultuous throbs of anguish and of pain.

III.

I shield my precious treasure well from foolish scoffers' eyes;
Its costliness they fathom not, its purity despise;

Yet it hath wondrous healing power, to warm, and soothe, and bless,
When chilling blasts strike cold and drear amid the wilderness :
Then clasp it close, this talisman, that ne'er was clasp'd in vain,
To calm the heart's tumultuous throbs of anguish and of pain.

IV.

With supplicative, lowly plaints, each day at morn and even,
When guardian angels hover nigh to waft each sigh to heaven;
Oh, raise this hallow'd emblem high, which, fragile as it seems,
Mysteriously o'ershadoweth with bright and awful gleams.
Say, need I name the talisman? 'tis known from shore to shore-
Close, closer clasp the priceless Cross-the Crucified adore !

C. A. M. W.

SELF-DENIAL; OR, EASTER OFFERINGS.

THE Rector of had taken his family for a long day to a neighbouring town, that they might obtain the various necessaries which their rural village did not afford; and as the journey was seldom undertaken, owing to the distance and expense, it may be believed the two little children who accompanied their parents, were not the less pleased, because the pleasure was so rare.

The sight of shops, from the highest to the lowest description, always has a charm for children who seldom see them, and when they do, have but little to spend in them. So it was this day, the small bits of silver, and the still less sum in heavy copper, had been counted, and recounted, during the tedious drive, till the long dull town was entered, and the carriage stopped at the principal

[*The MS. of this beautiful poem has been in our possession some time. In Chambers' Edinburgh Journal, of September 7, we see it is printed.]

linendraper's of the place. Everything is beautiful to a child whom custom has not taught to distinguish degrees and comparisons, so that the town they were now visiting, was to them the London of their imagination, if not of England! You must be introduced to the age and general character of these children. The eldest was a tall, thoughtful girl of eight, the other a fine merry boy of six and a half; each shop he passed unsettled his easily pleased mind, and something new or before unthought of, was fixed upon as his present for the little ones at home (for he was by no means a selfish boy,) or as a remembrance to himself of his visit

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It must not here be omitted, that these children had only brought with them money that was really their own, for they did not consider all they had given them as theirs; for they had been taught that everybody who receives gifts from the Great Giver of all good things, (as all His creatures do,) owe Him a portion of their wealth, even though they possessed no more than the poor widow who cast her two mites into the LORD's treasury, so it was with these dear children: out of the little they had, the abundance of the heart gave, for they spent but a small part on themselves, as all would testify who knew them, feeling it was "better to give than to receive." The poor in their village, and the heathen through their missionary boxes, all shared in the small riches they possessed; besides this, they had been told whenever they received a new blessing, or an unexpected mercy from the hand of their Heavenly FATHER, they ought not only to offer the thanks of a grateful heart, but also to deny themselves by giving an additional mite to their usual donations as "a free will offering to the LORD." Thus, if these little ones had any money left, they failed not unnoticed to offer it.

But to return to the country town where we left them. Many things were bought by the Rector and his wife, both for the household and the poor, whose commissions they generally executed; the little boy had also found at last something to his taste; but when the eldest child was asked why she did not spend her money, and whether this and that pretty thing were not exactly what she had described as wanting, her cheeks became like the crimson rose, whilst her eye brightened as she replied, "No thank you, I wish to keep my money for something else." It was seen from her deep blush that she was anxious nothing more should be asked, all were therefore silent; but as they left the tempting shops the child who had never kept a thought from her mother, came gently to her side, and begging she would stoop to hear the secret she had to tell, whispered, "it is, dearest mamma, for papa I wish to keep my money; I have often heard him say lately that his gown was worn out, and how he should like to have a new set of Church robes, but felt sure he should never be able to afford to get them; now I want to save my money to buy them!" The mother smiled

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