dusty lane, unless it should happen here (as I have been told it sometimes does in India and other hot countries), that a violent shower of rain should fall, and in it a number of small fish!"

"Is that true, uncle?" said Henry; "does it ever rain fishes?"

"Yes, my dear," said Mr. Dalben : « I knew a gentleman, who being in a tent in India, in the midst of a sandy plain, as much as a thousand miles from the sea, picked up several little fishes at the moment of their fall from the clouds in a violent storm of rain.”

By the time that Henry had done wondering and talking about this story, they were come to the end of the lane, and passing over a stile, they entered upon a wide and open field, where a number of sheep and lambs were feeding on the soft and thymy herbage.

"No hope, Henry, of finding any fish here,” said Mr. Dalben, "any more than in the lane which we have just left. I should therefore advise, that we put off finding our other three classes till another afternoon, when I will walk down with you, my dear boy (if all is well), to the river which winds in the bottom of this valley, and whose course is marked by rows of willows, which you may distinctly see from this distance. And now," he added, "we will speak a little

of these sheep, which are feeding so peaceably in this beautiful field. I never, my dear little boy, see sheep feeding happily in a field with their lambs playing beside them, but I look forward to that blessed time when the Shepherd King shall reign over all the earth, and when he shall gather his sheep together, and preserve them from all their enemies, and pour upon them showers of blessings."

"That will be in the time of the millennium, uncle,” said little Henry: "I wish I could live to see that time."

"How things will be ordered and arranged before the second coming of our Lord, we know not exactly, my dear boy," said Mr. Dalben; "but some persons suppose that the second of St. Peter, third chapter, 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, and 14th verses, allude to that time: But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat; the earth also, and the works that are therein, shall be burnt up. Seeing, then, that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens, being on fire, shall

be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless.'

"From these verses therefore it appears, my dear boy, that we have nothing to do, but to follow our Shepherd King whilst in this present state of being; to obey his gentle calls; to submit ourselves to his holy will; and as much as in you lies, to study the character of those persons who shall make a part of the blessed number of the inhabitants of the earth in the days of the millennium. In those days no one will desire to be rich or great, no one will be anxious to join house to house and field to field, but every one will strive to please his Shepherd and his God; and every one will strive to be holy, humble, and inoffensive."

By this time they had crossed the pleasant field where the sheep were feeding, and were entering into a thick wood, through the midst of which ran a narrow winding path, which, as they passed on, sometimes led them up hill, and sometimes descended into the bottom of a narrow valley or dingle.

Having gone on for some little time, they

came within sight of an old cottage, built of timber with lath and plaster; the timbers had been painted black, and still retained their colour; but the white plaster had been rendered yellow and gray by time; and in many places both lath and plaster had fallen so entirely away, that the inner chambers were open to the outward air. A few panes of greenish glass were still left in one of the casements, but half the old door of the house was gone.

"Could your dear father visit this world again," said Mr. Dalben, "there is perhaps no place which he would behold with more delight than this old cottage, because here it was that he was first permitted to exert himself in the service of his God."

Henry looked hard at Mr. Dalben, as not thoroughly understanding the tendency of this remark. Whereupon Mr. Dalben explained himself to this purport: but as I have made my chapter sufficiently long, I will here break off, and proceed in my next.

CHAP. IX.

Giving an Account of Jenny Crawley; of Mr. Milner's Kindness to her.

"ABOUT twenty years ago, there lived in the house which you see before you, Henry," said Mr. Dalben," an old woman of the name of Jenny Crawley. This old woman lived here alone, and had done so for many years. She maintained herself by making matches and be soms, and by buying and selling rags for paper. She was always seen in the same dress; namely, a petticoat patched from top to bottom, with patches of all manner of colours and shapes; a short blue jacket, an apron and handkerchief, and a flat hat made of felt. She was never seen at a place of worship, and could not read. Her only companions in this place were a gray cat and a magpye; and she had little furniture in her house, but an old wicker chair, a three-legged stool, a three-cornered oak table, a tea-kettle, and a few cracked cups and plates: her bed, which was in the room up stairs, was as uncomfortable as the rest of her furniture."