Then the story of an omlette which was told us—an omlette of fifty years ago, but which, to the narrator, was still as much an object of interest as on the day on which she broke the eggs to make it. A servant girl in a country inn she had been, in which capacity, as she assured us, she had 'mixed with the gentry.' One day her mistress had been suddenly called away, and 'gentlemen came, and an omlette they wanted and an omlette they maun hae—and an omlette o' the best they had that day.' She had never made one before, but in her pride of success she went on describing every step of the process, and the credit she got; and we sympathized with her with all our hearts, and only found out afterwards how absurd the whole story was.

Then came a Sabbath morning, and to the kirk-yard (which was overlooked by the windows of our mansion) came a poor old woman, attended by a small boy, and carrying a tiny coffin in which was laid one of the twin babes of her only daughter. They seemed to be a very lonely pair, living somewhere on the moor; and on the death of the child, the mother being still very ill herself, the old grannie had procured its coffin and then set off on foot to bring it to its burial. A sadder, more desolate, funeral could hardly be imagined; and the poor woman-somewhat soothed by the ready sympathy and abundance of bodily comforts which my sister lavished on her started off again with her little companion to her sorrowful home.

Then there was the old Irish woman who had come over when the railway was being made, with her sons who were engaged as navvies. The fever had come among them, and she described the state of destitution and misery in which they had lived; and how she, ill herself, had nursed her boys one after another, and brought them through the terrible timeand it made our hearts bleed as she went on to tell us how she had now no home of her own, but lived with one of these sons; and how his wife, little heeding the care and love which the old mother had lavished on him in those days of suffering, treated her as an interloper, and shewed her, too plainly, that her support was a burden she was weary of. Many were our consultations how to help her without exciting the jealousy and ill-will of the grasping daughter-in-law, and by gifts to both we hoped we had succeeded, but it was altogether a sorrowful tale.

Nor must I forget our idiot boy, our innocent, as they call such in Scotland. He, too, was a keeper of cows, and excited our pity by the want of a covering for his head; and we purchased a bonnet with a fine red tuft at the top, and a scarlet comforter, which we intended to present to him on the first opportunity. This occurred as we were returning from the shop, for we met our friend in the very middle of the village, with all his cows in procession before him. My sister went up to him and offered the parcel, saying it was for him. He stared, but vouchsafed no answer. She opened the parcel, hoping the bright colour would catch his fancy-but no. The obstinacy of an idiot had got possession of him, and the only answer she could get was 'Na, na, I winna tak' it; I winna tak' it.' I then came to her assistance, and we exhausted all our eloquence in vain; and by this time we found, to our dismay, that the stoppage in the village street had attracted everyone to door and window, and that we were the subjects of observation if not the laughing-stock of the whole community. In despair, I caught the parcel from my sister's hand, and (as she afterwards told me) speaking as if I had been forcing a dose of medicine on an unwilling child, thrust it into his hand with the

imploring words, 'Take it like a good boy, only take it;' and, having got rid of it, we made a hasty retreat within our own gates, while the boy (fairly vanquished at last) grinned from ear to ear, and leaving all his cows to their own discretion in the street, darted into the nearest house to show his prize.

Afterwards, however, being reproached by some of the servants who were shocked at his incivility, he assured them he liked the articles very much, and had thanked the ladies! for them.

There was a blind man too, with whom we made a passing acquaintance. He was a beggar, led by a very pretty little dog, and we stopped to speak to him. He travelled all the country round,' he said, with the help of his dog. 'But,' we asked, 'how does the dog know where you wish him to lead you?' 'I tell him,' he answered; and on our still expressing our surprise, he said, "Try him yourselves; ask him which is the way to any of the towns in this part of the country.' 'Where is Lanark ?' we asked, and instantly the little nose pointed right round in the true direction; Edinburgh, Peebles, and many more towns, we named, and round and round wheeled the dog, always correct in his answers as far as we had ourselves knowledge to judge of his accuracy. How he had learned this, or if it was but a cleverly managed trick, we could not make out; but in any case it surely was a curious specimen of doggish sagacity.

Then came the last evening, when we really regretted our approaching departure, and we were touched more than perhaps we needed to have been when the village band came up to give us a parting serenade; and next morning many of our old friends were round the carriage with their last adieux as we started for the station, and our hearts were quite full as we took our leave of them; and in the words of good old John Bunyan, 6 we saw them no more.'

(To be continued.)

Dear M. I.,

CORRESPONDENCE.

CLASSES FOR COMMUNICANTS.

In answer to M. I.'s enquiry as to the working of a Communicants' Class, F, speaking from her own experience, would recommend that it should be held on Sundays, (to obviate the necessity on other days of late hours,) and that the numbers should not exceed twenty. The girls are generally interested in preparing something during the week; such as either the References, or the Questions for Students, in The Monthly Paper of Sunday Teaching. (Mozley.) Three quarters of an hour's brisk teaching is generally sufficient, of which one quarter may be devoted to singing, overlooking the answers, and changing borrowed books; one quarter to reading aloud by the teacher, upon some subject connected with Bible History, Church Services, or the like; and the third quarter to drawing out the agreement and lessons of the Collect, Epistle, and Gospel, for the Day-or explaining a portion of the Prayer Book, &c. The class will probably be a mixed one in point of ability, and tact will be required in putting direct questions, lest the more ignorant should be ashamed by an inability to answer. Points of conscience respecting the Holy Communion, such as slack or non-attendance, it is far safer to refer to the Clergyman.

It is said to be difficult to work a class composed of different grades, such as married women, dress-makers, and servants. I have found them go on very harmoniously together.

F.

HINTS ON READING.

EVERYONE should read the Life of Las Casas, (Bell and Daldy,) culled and adapted from Mr. Helps's great history of Spanish America, by his son. The book should be put in the way of all who may have to do with aboriginal populations. No protest against colonial ill-usage of the 'nigger' ever was so eloquent as the great clerigo's' life-the Bishop Selwyn of the sixteenth century. And that there may be a great self-impelled movement for good in the dark races of the distant isles, is to be seen in Bishop Staley's Five Years' Church Work in Hawaii, (Rivington,) a chequered account, whose dark side shows the trustworthiness of its bright one.

We know, too, that many of our readers will be glad to hear that The Gates of Paradise, that fair dream, may now be separately procured, being published by Messrs. Rivington.

Seekers after God, Mr. Farrer's contribution to Mr. Macmillan's Sunday Library, is a touching and memorable triad of portraits of three heathen, who almost touched Christianity, yet, as it were, with eyes holden that they should not know itbeautiful and most sad.

Lastly, let us speak of two novels-Holme Lee's Busil Godfrey's Caprice, and Lady Charles Thynne's Colonel Fortescue's Daughters. They might almost be called Trust and Distrust. Perhaps Distrust has the cleverest plot, it all turns on an admirable device, the characters, too, are graceful; but it is curious to contrast the fretted irritated feeling it gives with the satisfied comfortable sense of respect with which we leave the calm, grave, unfaltering pair in Holme Lee's story; though it is perhaps hard to be brought into contact with such an exceptional demon of a woman as Emmot Torre, who disqualifies the book for many who might otherwise read it. Christabel's Geraldine is her only parallel.

NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS.

No MS. can be returned unless the Author's name and address be written on it, and stamps be sent with it.

Contributions must often be delayed for want of space, but their writers may be assured that when room can be found they shall appear.

H. S. C. begs to inform E. A. B. that the lines incorrectly quoted in The Monthly Packet for September are by Richard Lovelace, (1618–1658,) a Cavalier poet, and form the concluding stanza of a poem entitled To Lucasta, on going to the Wars. But the two first lines should run as follows:

'Yet this inconstancy is such,

As you, too, shall adore;' &c.

S. W. or Prosperina.-Please tell us to what MS. you refer, or what answer you are expecting from us.

Two Contributors tell us they 'enclose this MS.' As they do not 'enclose' it with their letters, but, we conclude, send it with unenclosed ends in a separate parcel, and neither write their names on it, nor its title in their letters, how are we to know their MSS. apart, or from any other we receive by the same post? A third MS. has again placed us in the same difficulty. Will Contributors never attend to the notice that always stands at the head of this page?

Lina.-Keble's Christian Year-poem for the Third Sunday after Epiphany.—Dionis is the Spanish form of Dionysius, or Denis. Out of the many saints of this name, the

chief are the Areopagite of the Acts, and St. Denis, one of the first apostles of France, who was beheaded at Montmartre in the first century.-St. Olave was a King of Norway, contemporary with Ethelred the Unready, for whom he fought against the Danes near the church on the Thames that still bears his name. He was converted in the Channel Isles, tried to Christianize his subjects, but was killed by the heathen in the battle of Stiklestad, in 1030.-St. Vedast, or Vaast, was one of the Bishops who assisted St. Remi in the conversion of the Franks. He died in 539 at Arras, his diocese, of which he was the first Bishop.

Declined with thanks.-Mary; H. R. B.; Agnes's Story; F. F.; The Two ChristmasBoxes; My First Visit to France.

J. begs for titles of songs and hymns set to tunes with bass accompaniments for the piano, suitable for children under ten years of age.

G. S. A. would be greatly indebted for any information as to the Rules drawn up for the Association of St. Vincent de Paul, by Frédéric Owanam.

The Rev. Edward Josselyn Beck (Commissary to the Bishop of Newfoundland) acknowledges with thanks 10s. from E. S. M., for the Bishop's Church Ship.

Constance also answers M. J.; but as her letter contains no practical information, we omit it.

Remigia. The Rubric indicates that the Lord's Prayer at the beginning of the Communion Service is to be said in the same manner as the ensuing Collect―i. e. by the Priest alone. The Amen not being in italics also denotes that it is only to be said by the Priest. The reason, as given in Blunt's Key to the Prayer Book, is, that the Celebrant uses it for himself as a prevailing intercession connected with his particular duty, that he may be found not unworthy to represent his Lord, the chief Priest of the Church, in the offering of the Holy Eucharist.

6

If the lady who wrote to Greta under cover to the Editor, will forward her address to Greta, care of Mrs. Mansell, The Elms, Howsell, Malvern Link, she shall have a full

answer.

S. W. begs to answer the Correspondent who begged to know how to assist the Shoreditch Sisters, that their first requirement is money, and next strong clothes for the poor, and that they also have opportunities of selling fancy work. A letter on their needs, for which we have no room, shall be given in our next.

E. M. G. asks the author of the lines—

Your voiceless lips, O flowers, are living preachers,

Each cup a pulpit, every leaf a book,

Supplying to my fancy numerous teachers

A. H., where to find

From lowliest nook.'

'Commit their pure souls to their Captain, Christ.'

O. asks for the name of a small book of Questions on the Prayer Book, if possible with Scripture References; also, on Scripture History.

John and Char.cs Mozley, Printers, Derby.

No. XI.-FOR THE FESTIVAL OF ALL SAINTS.

(Resultet tellus)

LET Heaven's exalted sphere

And earth re-echo clear

The Eternal Father's praise, Who rules the sky;
To Whom the Angelic throng
Raise their harmonious song

In the celestial palaces on high;

So also let us here to-day

With tuneful voice before Him our thanksgivings lay.

The choir of All the Blest

In Paradisal rest,

To Him full tribute of devotion yields;

There the new song they raise

In Christ their Captain's praise,
Treading the pure flowers in the dewy fields;
And clad in white, with laurel crown'd,

Follow the Lamb, their Guide, where'er His steps are found.

For they the alluring gleams

Of this world's short-lived dreams
Despising, yearned for joys of highest Heaven:
Through the blest Spirit's power,

Who His bright gifts doth shower,

Whereby to us immortal life is given:

For He doth search our inmost part,

And from all taint of sin doth purify the heart.

VOL. 6.

He, Consubstantial One,

With Father and with Son,

For ever reigns in His high citadel;

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PART 35.