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MAY, 1856.

THE DAISY.

THERE is a flower, a little flower,
With silver crest and golden eye,.
That welcomes every changing hour,
And weathers every sky.

The prouder beauties of the field

In gay but quick succession shine;
Race after race their honours yield,
They flourish and decline.

But this small flower, to nature dear,

While moon and stars their courses run,
Wreathes the whole circle of the year,
Companion of the sun.

It smiles upon the lap of May;

To sultry August spreads its charms;
Lights pale October on his way:
And twines December's arms.

GREENSTEAD CHURCH.

GREENSTEAD is near Ongar, in Essex. Its church, with wooden walls, is supposed to be one of the oldest in Britain. Few of our little readers will think it handsome, but it is, at least, a very curious

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edifice. There is reason to believe it was built as a sort of shrine for lodging the body of Edmund, King of East Anglia, when it was taken back from London to Bury St. Edmund's, more than eight hundred years ago; and that it was afterwards enlarged to serve as a parish-church. The nave (that is, the middle or body of the church) is wholly composed of trunks of large chestnut-trees (or oaks) split or sawn asunder, and set upright close to one another. They are let into a wooden sill at the bottom, and into a plate at the top, and secured with wooden pins two vacancies are filled up with plaster. There is a boarded tower at the west end, and a wooden porch on the south side. Some parts of the building are strengthened by brick buttresses. The length of the original or wooden part of the church is twenty-nine feet; the breadth, fourteen feet; the height, to the spring of the roof, five and a half.

"In one of the early incursions of the Danes into England,” says a writer on this subject, "Edmund, King of East Anglia, was taken prisoner by them, (A. D. 870,) and, refusing to abjure the Christian religion, put to a cruel death. He was a favourite of the people, but especially of the Priests; and came naturally, therefore, to be spoken of as a martyr, and his remains to be held in estimation as those of a saint. In the reign of Ethelred the Unready, the Danes ravaged the country in all directions, till at length, in the year 1010, that dismal period,' as Sharon Turner calls it, their triumph was completed in the surrender of sixteen counties of England and the payment of £48,000. In this year the bones of Edmund were removed from Ailwin to London, to prevent their falling into the hands of the Danes. They appear to have remained in London about three years, when they were carried back to Bury."

CHAPTERS FOR CHILDREN.

CHAPTER LXXVIII.

THE LITTLE GIRL WHO SAVED A GOOD MAN FROM JAIL.

Some were

Ar this time in our happy land no man dares to ill-treat people because, instead of going to church, they worship God in a chapel or in a private house; but many years ago they were in various parts of England covered with mud, hurt by stones, and even put into prison. Let us be thankful that we live in better days. Sir Richard Craddock, a Justice of the Peace, hated these Dissenters, and, above all, good Mr. Rogers, who was a Preacher among them; and he greatly desired to have proof of his having preached, that he might send him to jail. One day, hearing he was expected to preach at a place a few miles off, he hired two men to go as spies, and take down the names of all the hearers whom they knew. These wicked men brought the names of several persons who were present at the meeting to Justice Craddock, who ordered those he disliked the most among them to appear with Mr. Rogers before him. While they were waiting in the great hall ready to be called, Sir Richard's grandaughter, then about six or seven years old, came into the room, and looking at Mr. Rogers, was much pleased with him. Being fond of children, he took her on his knee, and caressed her. When the child had been with him some time, Sir Richard sent to say that one of the witnesses had been taken ill, and was

unable to

attend, therefore they must come again another day. At the appointed time the good people appeared, and so did the spies, who witnessed that Mr. Rogers had preached, and that the others had listened to him, which was not permitted by the law then in force. The Justice condemned them all to be imprisoned; and while the mittimus, or order for sending them to jail, was being written, they were again seen by the little girl, who immediately ran to Mr. Rogers. Thinking they might meet, he had brought some sweetmeats for her. While sitting

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on his knee, and eating the sweetmeats, she looked earnestly at him, and asked, "What are you here for, Sir?" He answered, "Your grandfather is going to send me and my friends to jail.” "To jail!" said the child: "why, what have you done?" "Why, I did nothing but preach; and they did nothing but hear me." "He shall not send you to jail," she replied. But, my dear, he is now making out our mittimus to send us all there." Upon this she ran up to the room where Sir Richard was, knocked with her head and heels till she got in, and said to him, "What are you going to do with my good gentleman in the hall?" "That is nothing to you: get about your business!" was his polite answer. "But I won't! He tells me you are going to send him and his friends to jail; and if you send them, I will drown myself in the pond as soon as they are gone: I will indeed!"

You will easily see, my young readers, that "this was a spoilt child, or she would not have spoken so improperly to her grandfather. By nature she had

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