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The hunter, with a smile, took the horn from his belt and presented it to the shepherd, who hastened back to his cottage, the abode of contentment and happiness.

LESSON VI.

Affection to Parents rewarded.

1. FREDERICK, the late king of Prussia, having rung his bell one day, and nobody answering, opened the door where his servant was usually in waiting, and found him asleep on a sofa. He was going to awake him, when he perceived the end of a billet, or letter, hanging out of his pocket.

2. Having the curiosity to know its contents, he took and read it, and found that it was a letter from his mother, thanking him for having sent her a part of his wages, to assist her in her distress, and concluding with beseeching God to bless him for his filial attention to her wants.

3. The king returned softly to his room, took a roll of ducats,* and slid them, with the letter, into the page's pocket. Returning to his apartment, he rung so violently, that the page awoke, opened the door, and entered.

4 "You have slept well," said the king. The page made an apology, and, in his embarrassment, happened to put his hand into his pocket, and felt with astonishment the roll. He drew it out, turned pale, and, looking at the king, burst into tears, without being able to speak a word.

5. "What is the matter?" said the king; "what ails you?" "Ah! sire," said the young man, throwing himself at his feet, somebody has wished to ruin me. I know not how I came by this money in my pocket."

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6. "My friend," said Frederick, "God often sends us good in our sleep send the money to your mother; salute her in my name; and assure her that I shall take care of her and you."

7. This story furnishes an excellent instance of the gratitude and duty which children owe to their aged, infirm, or unfortu nate parents. And, if the children of such parents follow the example of Frederick's servant, though they may not meet with the reward that was conferred on him, they will be amply

* Dù-cat, a coin of several countries in Europe, struck in the dominions of a duke. It is of silver, or gold. The silver ducat is generally of the value of an American dollar; and the gold ducat of twice the same value.

recompensed by the pleasing testimony of their own minds, and by that God who approves, as he has commanded, every expres sion of filial love.

LESSON VII.

The Golden Mean.

1. WHEN the plains of India were burnt up by a long drought,* Hamet and Selim, two neighboring shepherds, faint with thirst, stood at the common boundary of the grounds, with their flocks and herds panting round them, and in the extremity of distress, prayed for water.

2. On a sudden, the air was becalmed, the birds ceased to chirp, and the flocks to bleat. They turned their eyes every way, and saw a being of mighty stature advancing through the valley, whom they knew, on his nearer approach, to be the genius of distribution. In one hand he held the sheaves of plenty, and in the other the sabret of destruction.

3. The shepherds stood trembling, and would have retired before him but he called to them with a voice gentle as the breeze that plays in the evening among the spices of Saboa;‡ "Flee not from your benefactor, children of the dust! I am come to offer you gifts, which only your own folly can make vain.

4. "You here pray for water, and water I will bestow; let me know with how much you will be satisfied; speak not rashly; consider, that of whatever can be enjoyed by nobody, excess is no less dangerous than scarcity. When you remember the pain of thirst, do not forget the danger of suffocation. Now, Hamet, tell me your request.

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5. "O being! kind and beneficent," says Hamet, "let thine eye pardon my confusion. I entreat a little brook, which in summer shall never dry, and in winter shall never overflow."

6. "It is granted," replied the genius; and immediately he opened the ground with his sabre, when a fountain, bubbling up under their feet, scattered its rills over the meadows; the flowers renewed their fragrance, the trees spread a greener foliage -and the flocks and herds quenched their thirst.

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*Pronounced drout, dryness, want of rain, or water.
+ Pronounced sà-ber, a short sword.

+ Pronounced Sà-be-a, Arabia.

7. Then turning to Selim, the genius invited him likewise to offer his petition. "I request," says Selim, "that thou wilt turn the Ganges through my grounds, with all its waters and all its inhabitants."

8. Hamet was struck with the greatness of his neighbor's sentiments, and secretly repined in his heart that he had not made the same petition before him; when the genius spoke: "Rash man, be not insatiable! Remember, to thee, that is nothing, which thou canst not use: and how are thy wants greater than the wants of Hamet?"

9. Selim repeated his desire, and pleased himself with the mean appearance that Hamet would make in the presence of the proprietor of the Ganges. The genius then retired towards the river, and the two shepherds stood waiting the event.

10. As Selin was looking with contempt upon his neighbor, on a sudden was heard the roar of torrents, and they found, by the mighty stream, that the mounds of the Ganges were broken. The flood rolled forward into the lands of Selim, his plantations were torn up, his flocks overwhelmed, he was swept away before it, and a crocodile devoured him.

LESSON VIII.

Against Religious Persecution.-A RABBINICAL TALE. 1. AND it came to pass after these things, that Aram sat at the door of his tent, about the going down of the sun. And behold! a man bent with age, coming from the way of the wilderness, leaning on a staff. And Aram arose, met him, and said unto him, "Turn in, I pray thee, and wash thy feet, and tarry all night, and thou shalt arise early in the morning, and go on thy way."

2. And the man said, "Nay, for I will abide under this tree.” But Aram pressed him greatly; so he turned, and they went into the tent. And Aram baked unleavened bread, and they did eat. And when Aram saw that the man blessed not God, he said unto him, "Wherefore dost thou not worship the most high God, Creator of Heaven and earth ?”

3. And the man answered and said, "I worship the God of my fathers, in the way which they have appointed." And Aram's zeal was kindled against the man, and he arose and fell upon hun, and drove him forth with blows into the wilderness. And God called unto Aram, saying, "Aram, where is the stranger?"

4. And Aram answered and said, "Lord, he would not worship thee, neither would he call upon thy name, therefore have I driven him out before my face into the wilderness." And God said, "Have I borne with him these hundred and ninety years, and nourished him, and clothed him, notwithstanding his rebellion against me, and couldst not thou, who art thyself a sinner, bear with him one night ?"

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5. And Aram said," Let not the anger of my Lord wax hot against his servant; lo, I have sinned, I pray thee, forgive me.' And Aram arose, and went forth into the wilderness, and sought diligently for the man, and found him, and returned with him to the tent, and when he had treated him kindly, he sent him away on the morrow with gifts.

LESSON IX.

Story of Goffe, the Regicide."-PRESIDENT DWIGHT.

1. In the course of Philip's war, which involved almost all the Indian tribes in New-England, and among others those in the neighborhood of Hadley,f the inhabitants thought it proper to observe the first of September, 1675, as a day of fasting and prayer.

2. While they were in the church, and employed in their worship, they were surprised by a band of savages. The people instantly betook themselves to their arms,—which, according to the custom of the times, they had carried with the to the church,-and, rushing out of the house, attacked their invaders.

3. The panic, under which they began the conflict, was, however, so great, and their number was so disproportioned to that of their enemies, that they fought doubtfully at first, and in a short time began evidently to give way.

4. At this moment an ancient man, with hoary locks, of a most venerable and dignified aspect, and in a dress widely dif fering from that of the inhabitants, appeared suddenly at their head; and, with a firm voice and an example of undaunted resolution, reanimated their spirits, led them again to the conflict, and totally routed the savages.

* A regicide is one who puts a king to death. Goffe, Whalley, and Dix well, were three of the judges who condemned to death Charles I. king of Great Britain, 1648. They afterwards fled to America.

+ Hadley, a town in Massachusetts, on the east bank of Connecticut river 97 miles west of Boston-40 north of Hartford.

5 When the battle was ended, the stranger disappeared; and no person knew whence he had come, or whither he had gone.

6. The relief was so timely, so sudden, so unexpected, and so providential; the appearance and the retreat of him who furnished it were so unaccountable; his person was so dignified and commanding, his resolution so superior, and his interference so decisive, that the inhabitants, without any uncommon exercise of credulity, readily believed him to be an angel, sent by heaven for their preservation.

7. Nor was this opinion seriously controverted, until it was discovered, several years afterward, that Goffe* and Whalley† had been lodged in the house of Mr. Russell. Then it was known that their deliverer was Goffe; Whalley having become superannuated‡ some time before the event took place.

LESSON X.

The Affectionate Dog.

1. In the time of Robespierre, a revolutionary tribunal in one of the departments of the north of France, condemned to death an ancient and respectable magistrate, on suspicion of his being guilty of a conspiracy. Immediately after the decree was passed, he was committed to prison, where he saw his family dispersed by a system of terror.

2. Some had taken flight; others, themselves arrested, were carried into distant jails; his domestics were dismissed; his house was buried in the solitary of the seals; his friends either abandoned him or concealed themselves; every thing in the world was silent to him, except his dog. This faithful animal had been refused admittance into the prison. He had returned to his master's house and found it shut. He took refuge with a neighbor, who received him; but that posterity may judge rightly of the times in which we have existed, it must be added that this man received him trembling, in secret, and dreading lest his humanity for an animal, should conduct him to the scaffold.

*Pronounced Goff.

† Whàl-le.

+ Superannuated, to become feeble, or impaired by old age.

$ Pronounced Rob-es-peer', a sanguinary tyrant of France, was born at Arras in 1759. At an early period of the French revolution, he became the chief of the Jacobins-the leading party at that time,-and at length obtained the supreme command. A confederacy was formed against him, and he was arrested in the national assembly, and executed in July, 1794.

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