door they both went. The duke rang the bell, and the door being opened, he ordered all the servants to be called together in the large hall. Now,' said he to the boy, 'look round, and point out the person who gave you the shilling.' That was the man,' pointing to the butler. The wicked servant confessed his theft, and attempted to excuse himself, but the duke commanded him to be silent, ordered him to give the sovereign up to the boy, and instantly to quit his service. As for you,' said he, turning to the astonished cow-boy, ‘I will take you into my house, and if you prove yourself a faithful servant, I will take care to reward you as you deserve.'

The lad begged the duke's pardon for having asked his assistance in driving the cow, and hoped he would not be angry. The duke replied that he was very glad he had met him, as by that means he had been enabled to detect a dishonest servant, and reward an honest boy.

THE OLD MAN'S COMFORTS.

"You are old, Father William,' the young man cried, 'The few locks which are left you are grey; You are hale, Father William, a hearty old man ; Now tell me the reason, I pray?'

'In the days of my youth,' Father William replied, 'I remember'd that youth would fly fast, And abused not my health and my vigour at first, That I never might need them at last.'

"You are old, Father William,' the young man cried, And pleasures with youth pass away,

And yet you lament not the days that are gone; Now tell me the reason, I pray?'

In the days of my youth,' Father William replied, "I remember'd that youth could not last;

I thought of the future, whatever I did,

That I never might grieve for the past.'

"You are old, Father William,' the young man cried, 'And life must be hastening away;

You are cheerful, and love to converse upon death; Now tell me the reason, I pray?'

"Iam cheerful, young man,' Father William replied, 'Let the cause thy attention engage; In the days of my youth I remember'd my God! And He hath not forgotten my age!'

FARMER BLAKE'S LAST LESSON.

IT is some time, now, since I left the Grange Farm, and since then Farmer Blake has been called away from the world. There are a few people that I am not at all likely to forget, and Farmer Blake is one of them.

In my account of the first lesson given me by him, 'A little at a time, and go on,' I said that no day of all the years I lived at the farm was better remembered than the first; and that not a single lesson was more deeply impressed on my mind, than the lesson that he then taught me. When I said this, I spoke the truth; though, at the present

moment, the last day I spent at the farm, and the last lesson the farmer gave me, are certainly uppermost in my memory. Whatever other people may say of Farmer Blake, this is what I will say -that he was a diligent man, a kind-hearted man, and a wise man, besides being one of the best friends I ever had in the world.

'Maurice,' said he, as we stood talking together in the rick-yard, between the two corn-stacks, ‘it seems but as yesterday since you came to the Grange, and now you are going to leave it, to do for yourself on your own farm what you have for some years been doing for me on mine. You have been a good servant, and I hope that I have not been a bad master. If ever you want a helping hand, or a good turn of any kind, come to John Blake, and you shall have it. Well do I remember giving you your first lesson, "A little at a time, and go on," and now I will give you the last," Make the best of everything.""

Farmer Blake was here silent for a minute or so, that he might see, I suppose, how I took his advice; for he was a shrewd man, and knew almost as well by looking at me what was passing in my mind, as he knew what time of day it was by the clock face.

'Make the best of everything,' continued the farmer, and you will make but few mistakes. God has not given us hands that we may be idle, feet that we may stand still, nor has he put heads on our shoulders that we should be thoughtless. Make the best use you can of your head, your feet,

and your hands; and you will then keep a tidy homestead about you, when, without doing this, you may have no homestead at all.'

Farmer Blake had a habit of pausing every now and then when he meant his words to be attended to, just as if he would give me time to consider and remember them.

'Make the best of your land,' said the farmer; 'for wheat, and barley, and turnips will not grow from stones and clods of clay: work it well, drain it well, aye, and manure it well; for, if you do not feed it, it will soon leave off feeding you.

'Make the best of your time. If God sends fair weather, "make hay while the sun shines," by doing what you can out of doors; and, when he sends foul weather, be as busy as you can inside your barns.

'Make the best use of your eyes. If you see a gap in the hedge that a sheep can get over, remember that all the sheep in the field will be sure to follow. See here! that careless cow-lad has left a great stick leaning against the corn-stack; now you know as well as I do, that if it is left there all night, half-a-dozen or a dozen rats or mice may run up it, and get into the rick, and these may increase to a hundred before the corn is threshed. Make the best use of your eyes, Maurice; for hard as it is to get, it is still harder to keep.'

I ought to have said before, that, during the time I was at the Grange, Farmer Blake paid much more attention to holy things than he did when I first

went there, and this will account for the latter part of what he said to me, in giving me his last lesson.

'And now, Maurice,' said he, 'it would not be upright in me, if I did not honestly confess that I have made sad mistakes in my time. Until late years I have lived all for this world, and none for another; but, thank God, my eyes have been opened. Time has been when I should have been satisfied with what I have said; but now I must add to it a little more. Make the best of your

trials and your afflictions. Make the best of your mercies, of your Sabbaths, and of God's holy word. 'He that would thrive in earthly things, must attend to earthly things; and he that would prosper in heavenly things, must attend to heavenly things. A Christian man, like the farmer, should look at the seed that he sows; for the crop of the one is gathered in on earth, but the harvest of the other will be in heaven. God has been very good to us in his gifts; and, whatever may be our trials and troubles, if in this world we only make the best use of everything, we shall have among ourselves more gladness, and give God more glory.'

I stood the other day by the grave of Farmer Blake, when the setting sun was shining through the elm-trees in the churchyard; and when I looked at the name graven on the tombstone, it seemed as if I almost heard the farmer's voice saying to me, 'A little at a time, and go on;' and 'Make the best of everything.'*

* Old Humphrey's Rural Rambles.

Spottiswoode and Co., Printers, New-street Square, and Parliament Street.

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