HI. THE MOTHER.

CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION.

SUMMER had passed away, and autumn had verged on towards winter. Instead of a brief, sultry twilight, there were long evenings and pleasant meetings of the family circle. Care looked more cheerful; there was a light on the wan cheek of Sickness; and Labour sung merrily as she turned her wheel.

His daily labours ended, James Hartley returned home on such an evening, his step light, his mind clear, and his spirits buoyant. Scarcely a year had passed since the wreck of his worldly prospects; but in that time the reacting strength of a manly character had lifted his bowed head, and fixed with confidence his steady eye. But this result would have taken place slowly and imperfectly under other circumstances and different influences from those with which he was surrounded. He owed much to the cheerful temper and hopeful spirit of his wife. So far from murmuring at the change in their prospects, or permitting her husband to murmur, every allusion to this change was accompanied by Mrs Hartley with expres

sions of thankfulness that all the real blessings the world had to give were left them.

"We have more than enough for all our wants," she would say—“ And besides, we have each other, and our dear little Marien. Do you think we have reason to complain? No-you cannot. Our cup is not empty-it is

full to the brim."

As was ever the case, a smile of welcome greeted Hartley on entering his pleasant home. But it seemed to him, after the smile had died away, that there was a thoughtful expression upon Anna's brow. This grew distinct to his eye, as he observed her face more carefully.

"Is Marien asleep?" he asked, soon after he came in. "Yes. She was tired, and went to sleep early. I tried to keep her awake until you came home, but she was so drowsy and fretful, that I thought it best to put her to bed."

"Dear little creature!"

"She is a sweet child."

"A sweeter one cannot be found. As she grows older, how much delight we shall take in seeing her mind expand and become filled with images of all that is lovely and innocent. As the twig is bent, so is the tree inclined. Anna, all we have to do is to bend this twig aright. Heaven's rain and sunshine will do the rest." "To bend it aright may not be so easy a task as you suppose, James."

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Perhaps not. And yet it seems to me that a wise course of government, carefully pursued, must produce the desired result."

"To determine wisely is not always in our power.

Ah, James! It is that thing of determining wisely that gives me the greatest concern. I believe that I could faithfully carry out any system of government, were I only well satisfied of its being the true one. But so conscious am I, that, if in the system I adopt there be a vital error, the effect will be lastingly injurious to our child, that I hesitate and tremble at every step. The twig that shoots forth, unwarped by nature, pliant and graceful, may be trained to grow in almost any direction. But our child is born with an evil and perverse will—a will thoroughly depraved."

"That the human heart is by nature, not only deceitful, but desperately wicked, we know from God's own

word."

"Alas! it is but too true, James. It needs not Revelation to tell us this. Already the moral deformity we have entailed upon our child is shewing itself every day. How shall we correct it? How shall we change it into beauty? I think of this almost every hour, and sometimes it makes me feel sad. It is easy to say—' Just as the twig is bent the tree's inclined'-but it is not so easy a thing to bend the human twig as you will. There is great danger of creating one deformity in the effort to correct another; or of checking, in its flow, the healthy sap by undue pressure. And still further; our own states of mind, from various causes, are ever changing, and from these changes result obscurity, or a new direction of our thoughts. What seems of the first moment to-day, is not so considered to-morrow, because other ideas are more distinctly before our minds, and throw things of equal importance into obscurity. Our own uncorrected here

ditary evils are also in our way, and hinder us from either seeing aright or doing aright."

"You are disposed to look at the gloomy side of the picture, Anna," replied her husband smiling. "Suppose you take a more encouraging view."

"Shew me the bright side, James. I will look at it with pleasure."

"There is a bright side, Anna-every thing has a sunny side; but I do not know that it is in my power to shew you the sunny side of this picture. I will, however, present to your mind a truth that may suggest many others of an encouraging nature. Have we not the divine promise to those who train up a child in the way he should go, that when he is old he will not depart from it? Foolishness is indeed bound up in the heart of a child, but the Christian parent need not despond in the struggle to eradicate it. Can there be a higher or holier end than a mother's, when she proposes to herself the good of her child?"

"I believe not."

"Into that end will there most assuredly be an influx of wisdom to discover the true means. Do not despond, then. As your day is, so will your strength be."

Anna sighed heavily, but made no reply for some moments. She was too deeply conscious of the difficulty of applying the true means, to feel confidence in the practical bearing of the principles that her husband had declared, and which she so well knew were true.

"It is easy to theorize," she at length said. "It is pleasant to the mind to dwell upon true principles, and see how they apply in real life. But it is a different

matter when we come to bring down these theories ourselves. There is in us so much that hinders-self-love, indolence, pride, and a thousand other things, come between our good purposes and their accomplishment."

"True. who is all

But on the side of good resolutions is One,

"Right, my dear husband!—Right" exclaimed Anna, interrupting him. "He that is for us is more than all who are against us. If I can only fix my confidence, like an anchor of the soul, upon Him, all the rough places of peevish nature will be made even. Light will break in from a dark sky. I shall see clearly to walk in right paths."

"Ever let us both strive to fix our confidence upon God," responded Hartley in a low but earnest voice.

"If we do so, we shall not find our duty so hard to perform as at first sight it may appear to us. We must keep our minds elevated above all mere worldly and selfish ends, and seek only the highest good for our offspring."

"The highest good,-Yes, that must be our aim. But do we agree as to what is the highest good?"

"An important question, Anna. If we do not agree, our task will be a difficult one. What do you call the highest good?"

Anna mused for some time.

"The highest good-the highest good-" she murmured abstractedly. "Is it wealth ?-Honour ?—The love and praise of men ?—The attainment of all earthly blessings?-No-no. These can only continue for a time. This life is a brief season at best-a mere point