Their mirth, however, was interrupted, for Harry was taken extremely ill. The aunt who thought herself a favorite, came and offered to take care of him; but Harry was uneasy if his step-mother was away from him long at a time. She was, indeed, a most kind and attentive nurse, and Harry often afterward declared that if she had been his own mother, she could not have been more tender and devoted.

After this nothing happened to interrupt their harmony, for they now truly loved and trusted each other. Each did the other good in every way they possibly could, and they are, at this very time, a most united and happy family. Harry is studying for the ministry. He is now twenty-one years old; and almost every evening, at twilight, he may be seen walking out with a sweet young lady, a niece of his step-mother, who has come to reside with them; while his sister Mary goes along, sometimes before, and sometimes behind, skipping and singing like a bird. Harry calls her his little bird, and she looks up and laughs, and then runs off to gather the prettiest flowers she can find for her "dear brother Harry."

THE AGONY IN THE GARDEN.

BY MRS. ADALIZA CUTTER PHELPS.

WHILE the last echoes of that song were dying,

Fainter, and fainter still upon the air,

While midnight winds were through the olives sighing,
The sad disciples with their Lord repair

To the cool garden of Gethsemane,

Amid its green retreats to bend the knee,

Before high Heaven, to seek for comfort there. "Tarry ye here," said Jesus, "while I go Yonder to seek for aid, in this mine hour of woe."

The favored three He took, that they, still near Him,
Might aid and comfort in his suffering hour;
That their beloved presence still might cheer Him,
When crushed so low by grief's o'erwhelming power;
Even to earth that mighty soul was bending,
Beneath the sorrows that were fast descending,

As the fierce storm sweeps o'er the drooping flower.
"Watch, watch with me,' in agony he cried
To those who, trembling, stood in terror by his side.

He turned away, and, on the green grass kneeling,
Intenser still his mortal anguish grew,

The might, the power of agony revealing,

Which human bosoms never, never knew. "Remove this cup, O Father, if thy will!

If not, O, bid each murmuring thought-be still!"

Then He arose, and near his followers drew.

Upon the ground for sorrow they were sleeping,

The cool winds breathing round, -the night dews o'er them weeping.

"Could ye not watch even one hour with me,
For one brief hour, O Peter, by my side?

Where now thy love, thy boasted constancy?"
In mournful accents the Redeemer cried.
"Watch, watch and pray, for, though the spirit's willing,
The flesh is weak when agony is thrilling

The very vitals, when the soul is tried

With fierce temptations, which beset our way,

O, therefore, watch, my own ; 0, therefore watch and pray !”

Again the suffering Saviour knelt and prayed,
While fiercer anguish came upon his soul,
While keener sorrows on his heart were laid,

And deeper shadows o'er his pathway stole.

"In pity, Father, let this bitter cup
Pass from me; but if I must drink it up,

I bow submissive to thy just control.

Thy will, O Father, not mine own, be done!

Yet aid, and strengthen now, thy weak and suffering Son !"

WOMAN'S CHARACTER.

No trait of character is more valuable in a female than the possession of a sweet temper. Home can never be made happy without it. It is like the flowers that spring up in our pathway, reviving and cheering us. Let a man go home at night, wearied and worn by the toils of the day, and how soothing is a word dictated by a good disposition! It is sunshine falling upon his heart. He is happy, and the cares of life are forgotten. A sweet temper has a soothing influence over the minds of a whole family. Where it is found in the wife and mother, you observe kindness and love predominating over the bad feelings of the natural heart. Smiles, kind words and looks, characterize the children, and peace and love have their dwelling there. Study, then, to acquire and retain a sweet temper. It is more valuable than gold; it captivates more than beauty; and to the close of life retains all its freshness and power.

READING FOR YOUNG LADIES.

BY Z. EDDY, ESQ.

"EVIL communications corrupt good manners." We should, therefore, not only avoid vain and demoralizing companions, but useless, unprofitable and demoralizing books. Books of all kinds, good, bad and indifferent, are scattered thick as leaves in Valombrosa. Two thousand new books are printed in this country annually, besides periodicals and newspapers and new editions of old books; and as many more in England, which are imported here. No person does or can read the twentieth part of these books. Some are read casually as they come to hand, and many that are selected are positively bad, and others wholly unprofitable, serving only to agitate the mind and disqualify it for serious business. Many, are no doubt, carefully selected, and read with profit.

Books of science and art are selected by the teachers, and afterward by men of business, according to their necessities, and I do not include them among those which are read merely for general improvement. But books which are calculated and fit for the perusal and study of young ladies,- books of polite literature, and those which give a right discipline to the mind, and qualify them for the stations which they hope to fill in life, and those which are useful to them after they come to fill those stations, are seldom selected with any proper care, but are often purchased because they are puffed in handbills, or commended by ladies in fashionable life, whose chief object in reading is mere amusement. Thus, many have whole alcoves of fashionable novels, covertly or openly brought into families, and covertly or openly read, which are mere trash, and read only for the story. By means of them, many promising young ladies waste their day, and even their night, in "that which profiteth nothing," but which weakens and attenuates their minds, impairs health, and disqualifies them for usefulness and duty, so that they become mere ciphers in society. Young ladies should make it a business to ascertain the character of all the books they read, before devoting precious time to reading them, and especially to learn the views of the wise, prudent and excellent of their own sex; and they will find that there are useful and entertaining books, many more than they can ever read,

the study of which will always be profitable and never without interest.

--

Young ladies should early understand that we have a classical literature, that is to say, standard prose and poetry,— which has stood the test of time, and been set down as excellent by critics and all wise and discriminating people; that this reading is good and profitable, and even interesting and entertaining, to all people of correct taste; that there are such books in every literary department, beginning with the reign of Queen Anne, down to Wordsworth, Washington Irving and Bryant; and even preceding that time, Milton stands out prominent above all subsequent writers in epic poetry. A little reading of classic authors will soon correct the taste and judgment, and enable young ladies to reject the flashy, flimsy, senseless stuff, which passes for literature with the vain, thoughtless or fashionable of their

sex.

"No man, having drunk old wine, straightway desireth new, for he saith the old is better." No young lady, who has well read the poetry of John Milton and Cowper, will be pleased with the sing-song stuff of the minor poets; nor, if she has read Pope and Bryant, will she think much of the flashy rhymes of the little beautiful books which catch the eyes of the light minds of the day. If she has read Addison and Irving, she will not be pleased with the coarse or the fine miscellanies of the hour. If she has read Macaulay, she will be satisfied that history is better than romance; if she has read Blair and Chalmers, she will not say of every new sermon "that is the best I ever read," but will be prepared to discriminate; so, if she has read the chaste writings of Miss Hannah More, and Mrs. Hamilton, and Mrs. Hemans, she will have a taste which will save her from the mortification of lauding every little effusion which some of her sex are constantly throwing off, as well as the snares of multitudes of foolish novels, of which the world is full. There are memoirs, also, of the excellent ladies of their own sex, distinguished in several departments of literature, as well as in religion, and for benevolent, pious. and useful action, which all young ladies will be pleased to read, if they have, in this way, come to have a correct taste; and still more pleased, if they have correct religious principles and affections.

Manifestly those that have leisure to improve their minds and taste by reading, should seek for that kind of reading which will best promote this improvement. Chambers' Cyclopædia of English Litera