not worthy to be compared unto the glory that shall be opened to us. Through suffering, virtue becomes perfected. Soon shall transient sorrows lead to everlasting joys. Even Christ had to pass through suffering unto His glory: Mary followed Him by the same road. Neither is there for us any other way to heaven." Theodora was deeply moved while she listened to him, and she took great delight in the beautiful picture. She could not look enough at it. "I will follow the example of the wretched mother," said she. "I will look up to heaven; pray-believe-and say with her- Be it unto me, O Lord, according to Thy Will!" " "Good," said the pastor; "that is right, and it gives me pleasure.” The good man knew no such pleasure, as giving consolation to an afflicted spirit. He took the lovely picture from the wall, gave it to the poor fisherman's wife, and said: "In order that you may not forget your good resolution, and that you may be able to keep it, take this picture home with you. I give it you. When the Lord causes your heart to bleed anew, and when you feel again the two-edged sword, cast your eyes on this picture. Renew your resolution. And with God's help the wounds will heal by degrees, and in heaven above a glorious crown will also await you." Theodora followed the advice of the good pastor; and her sorrow became less acute. Only when she passed the tree under which she had seen her little Augustus for the last time, her heart felt as if it were pierced. One day the thought came into her head, of cutting a little hole in the tree, and fixing the bright picture in it. "That tree always makes me sad again," she said; "but now I shall ever find fresh consolation therein. Alas!" she sighed, "other mothers are able to place a little memorial to their departed children in the churchyard: this tree, then, may serve as a memorial of my dear Augustus." She told her idea to the pious old pastor, and he had nothing to say against it. "If it bring you comfort," he replied, "do so by all means." With great labour she cut a round hole about the size of a pane of glass in the trunk of the tree, and fixed the picture in it. And now, when she passed the tree, and her heart was heavy, she gazed at the bright face, saying, "I, too, will be like Mary, the handmaid of the Lord; let Him do by me according to His Will.” Then her heart was always lighter. DESCRIPTION OF CABOOL. "CABOOL is a most bustling and populous city. Such is the noise in the afternoon, that in the streets one cannot make an attendant hear. The great bazaar, or 'Chouchut,' is an elegant arcade, nearly six hundred feet long, and about thirty broad. It is divided into four equal parts. Its roof is painted; and over the shops are the houses of some of the citizens. The plan is judicious; but it has been left unfinished; and the fountains and cisterns, that formed a part of it, lie neglected. Still there are few such bazaars in the East; and one wonders at the silks, cloths, and goods which are arrayed under its piazzas. In the evening it presents a very interesting sight. Each shop is lighted up by a lamp suspended in front, which gives the city an appearance of being illuminated. The number of shops for the sale of dried fruit is remarkable, and their arrangement tasteful. In May, one may purchase the grapes, pears, apples, quinces, and even the melons, of the bygone season-then ten months old. There are poulterers' shops, at which snipes, ducks, partridges, and plovers, with other game, may be purchased. The shops of the shoemakers and hardware retailers are also arranged with singular neatness. Every trade has its separate bazaar, or open stall, and all of them seem busy. There are booksellers and venders of paper, much of which is Russian, and of a blue colour. The month of May is the season of the 'falodeh,' which is a white jelly strained from wheat, and drunk with sherbet and snow. The people are very fond of it, and the shopkeepers in all parts of the town seem constantly at work with their customers. A pillar of snow stands on one side of them, and a fountain plays near it, which gives these places a cool and clean appearance. Around the bakers' shops crowds of people may be seen waiting for their bread. I observed that they baked it by plastering it to the sides of the oven. Cabool is famed for its kabobs, or cooked meat, which are in great request. Rhuwash' was the dainty of the May season in Cabool. It is merely -blanched rhubarb, which is reared under a careful protection from the sun, and grows up rankly under the hills in the neighbourhood. Its fla vour is delicious. 'Shabash rhu wash! bravo rhuwash!' is the cry in the streets; and every one buys it. In the most crowded part of the city there are story-tellers amusing the idlers, or dervises proclaiming the glories and deeds of the prophets. If a baker makes his appearance before these worthies, they demand a cake in the name of some prophet; and, to judge by the number who follow their occupation, it must be a profitable one. There are no wheeled carriages in Cabool. The streets are not very narrow; they are kept in a good state during dry weather, and here and there are small covered aqueducts of clean water, which are a great convenience to the people. We passed along them without observation, and even without an attendant. To me the appearance of the people was more novel than the bazaars. They sauntered about, dressed in sheep-skin cloaks, and seemed huge from the quantity of clothes they wore. All the children have chubby red cheeks, which I at first took for an artificial colour, till I found it to be the gay bloom of youth. Cabool is a compactly built city, but its houses have no pretension to elegance. They are made of sundried bricks and wood, and few of them are more than two stories high. It is thickly peopled, and has a population of about sixty thousand souls. The river of Cabool passes through the city; and tradition says it has three times carried it away, or inundated it. In rain there is not a dirtier place than Cabool."-Burnes's Travels in the Bokhara. SAGACITY OF THE ELEPHANT. ACCORDING to some, the elephant the horse and dogs. Taking the is the most sagacious of animals, brain as the index of intelligence, while others consider him inferior to there is nothing in the size of that organ which would lead to the towards the building. When they former opinion, and therefore we arrived within a few yards of it, quite must look to the general conduct in martial order, they made a sudden of the animal for proof of the stand, and began deliberately to reassertion. His docility, obedience, connoitre the object of their attack. attachment, and memory, all cer- Nothing could be more wary and tainly point to no mean degree of methodical than their proceedings. endowment; but perhaps not more The walls of the granary were of than is shown by the horse and solid brickwork, very thick ; and dog; while his actions are rendered the only opening into the building more perfect only by means of was in the centre of the terraced his trunk. How far he is supe- roof, to which the ascent was by a rior in general sagacity, that is, ladder. On the approach of the ele in reasoning from cause to effect, phants, the two astonished spectators and in adapting ways and means clambered up into a lofty banyan to an end, the reader will be ena- tree, in order to escape mischief. bled to decide from the subjoined The conduct of the four-footed beanecdotes. And here it will be ob- siegers was such as strongly to excite served that we distinguish between their curiosity, and they therefore docility and sagacity; for although watched their proceedings with inthe former should be most apparent tense anxiety. The two spectators where the latter quality predominates, yet may animals, such as even the pig, be taught by force of habit to perform many astonishing feats, when they are avowedly destitute of general intelligence. The following, given on the authority of the Rev. Robert Caunter, seems to be a purely deliberative act; and that, be it observed, by the animal when in a wild state, and perfectly unacquainted with the devices of human training :-" A small body of sepoys stationed at an outpost Fort de Galle, in Ceylon—to protect a granary containing a large quantity of rice, was suddenly removed, in order to quiet some unruly villagers, a few miles distant, who had set our authorities at defiance. Two of our party happened to be on the spot at the moment. No sooner had the sepoys withdrawn, than a herd of wild elephants, which had been long noticed in the neighbourhood, made their appearance in front of the granary. They had been preceded by a scout, which returned to the herd, and having no doubt satisfied them, in a language which to them needed no interpreter, that the coast was clear, they advanced at a brisk pace were so completely screened by the foliage of the tree to which they had resorted for safety, that they could not be perceived by the elephants, though they could see very well through the little vistas formed by the separated branches what was going on below. Had there been a door to the granary, all difficulty of obtaining an entrance would have instantly vanished; but four thick brick walls were obstacles which seemed at once to defy both the strength and sagacity of these dumb robbers. Nothing daunted by the magnitude of the difficulty which they had to surmount, they successively began their operations at the angles of the building. A large male elephant, with tusks of immense size, laboured for some time to make an impression; but after a while, his strength was exhausted, and he retired. The next in size and strength then advanced, and exhausted his exertions, with no better success. A third then came forward, and applying those tremendous levers with which his jaws were armed, and which he wielded with such prodigious might, he at length succeeded in removing a brick. An opening once made, other elephants advanced, from the granary, had acted as sentiwhen an entrance was soon obtained, nel while the rest were enjoying the sufficiently large to admit the deter- fruits of their sagacity and persevermined marauders. As the whole ance. herd could not be accommodated at as to be enabled to observe the adHe had so stationed himself once, they divided into small bodies vance of an enemy from any quarter, of three and four. One of them and upon perceiving the troops as entered, and when they had taken they returned from the village, he their fill, they retired, and their sounded the signal of retreat, when places were immediately supplied by the whole herd, flourishing their the next in waiting, until the whole trunks, moved rapidly into the junherd, upwards of twenty, had made gle. The soldiers, on their return, a full meal. By this time a shrill found that the animals had devoured sound was heard from one of the the greater part of the rice. A ball elephants, which was readily under- from a field-piece was discharged at stood, when those that were still in them in their retreat; but they only the building immediately rushed out, wagged their tails, as if in mockery, and joined their companions. One and soon disappeared in the recesses of the first division, after retiring of their native forests." (To be continued.) The Cabinet. Blessed are all they who trust in Him; INN is, if you understand it, the CHURCH. not in themselves, but in Him. By grace An INN, because we pass through it on are we saved through faith, and that not our journey of life: that will be our Perhaps you may say, What does he when we have arrived whole at the kingmean, that he says this so often? Again dom of heaven. In the mean time let us this; and a third time this: and he hardly be willing to be cured in the inn; lest, I had no reason to say it. For there are prevent our being healed by that treatever speaks, but he says this. Would that by our boasting, we effect nothing but to men who are ungrateful to grace, attri- ment.-S. Augustine, Sermon 130. HOME, from which we shall never remove, buting much to our poor and wounded nature. It is true that man, when he was created, received great powers of free will, but, by sinning, he lost them. Having fallen into death, he became weak,: he was left in the way half dead IN token that thou shalt not fear by thieves. The Samaritan (which is by set him upon his own beast: [but] besides this he is carried to the inn. Why is he lifted up? He is still under In token that thou shalt not blush that I received in Baptism the remission We blazon here upon thy front care. But it is sufficient for me, he says, of all sins. Was then thy infirmity ended, sins. This is quite true: all my sins were But 'neath His banner manfully, blotted out in the Sacrament of Baptism, all without exception, words, deeds, In token that thou too shalt tread thoughts-all were blotted out. But this on the road side. You recollect, beloved, how that man who was left by the thieves half dead by the way-side, was comforted Thus outwardly and visibly by receiving oil and wine for his wounds. That is, indulgence was granted to his And may the brow that wears His cross error; and yet it is only in the inn that his languid weakness was cured. The l Hereafter share His crown. THE REV. H. ALFORD. Miscellaneous. EXILES OF SIBERIA.-The villages are very numerous, not only on the road, but as far back on either side as we could see; and the people all looked healthy, comfortable and happy. In any place where the posthouse was out of repair, our police officer used to pounce on the best house for our use; and, as the owners would neither make any demand, nor accept any remuneration, we were generally obliged to compromise the matter by forcing a small gift on the host's wife or daughter. The dwelling in which we breakfasted to-day, was that of a person who had been sent to Siberia against his will. Finding that there was only one way of mending his condition, he worked hard, and behaved well. He had now a comfortably furnished house and a well cultivated farm, while a stout wife and plenty of servants bustled about the premises. His son had just arrived from Petersburg to visit his exiled father, and had the pleasure of seeing him, amid all the comforts of life, reaping an abundant harvest, with one hundred and forty persons in his pay. In fact, for the reforming of the criminal, in addition to the punishment of the crime, Siberia is undoubtedly the best penitentiary in the world. When not bad enough for the mines, each exile is provided with a lot of ground, a house, a horse, two cows, and agricultural implements, and also, for the first year, with provisions. For three years he pays no taxes whatever, and for the next ten only half of the full amount. To bring fear, as well as hope, to operate in his favour, he clearly understands that his first slip will send him from his home and his family, to toil, as an outcast, in the mines. Thus does the government bestow an almost parental care on all the less atrocious criminals.-Simpson's Narrative. was making me stretch myself out, my tormentor soaped me all over from head to foot, rubbing and lathering me with a handful of pine tops. Once more taking his bucket, the horrid operator kept drenching me, the successive pailfuls descending gradually from nearly a boiling heat to the temperature of fifty degrees. The whole process occupied about an hour. I then returned to the antechamber, where, after being dried with hot towels, I was very glad to put on my clothes. It was impossible, however, to make my escape immediately, for I was so relaxed as to be obliged to recline on a sofa for a quarter of an hour; and then I withdrew, inwardly resolved never again to undergo such a castigation.Simpson's Narrative. A RUSSIAN BATH.-While at Sitka I took a bath, which might be a very good thing to those that like it. On entering the building, I was much oppressed by the steam and heat, while an ill-looking, long-legged, stark-naked fellow waiting to officiate as master of the ceremonies. Having undressed in an antechamber, so far as decency would permit, I made my way into the bath-room, which was heated almost to suffocation. Having thus got me into his power, the gaunt attendant threw some water on the iron furnace, while to avoid, as far as possible, the clouds of steam that were thus raised, I squatted myself down on the floor, perspiring profusely at every pore. I next seated myself on a bench, while bucket after bucket of hot water was thrown on my head; and then, I CUNNING FELLOWS.-An English engineer was employed in mining for coal in Syria. The mine was profitable, but some one or other of the officials suggested that the Englishman did not get coal as fast, or in such large quantities, as the natives could if they were allowed to try. Permission was granted, and the engineer sent off to Alexandria upon some excuse. Meantime, the Turks set to work, and in two or three days, with very little labour, produced five times as much coal as the Englishman had; this was reckoned an immense triumph; but one fine morning the whole excavation fell in and buried the workmen. What was the fact? The engineer, as he had undermined, left large pillars of coal to support the earth above, which the Turks immediately knocked down, and the prize served to fill their baskets on the first days of their supposed triumph. The catastrophe, however, would, one should have supposed, have been a lesson to them. No such thing. "It was the will of God!" So they killed the goose that laid the golden eggs; but the moral of the tale was thrown away. |