time we feared she was on her last voyage. We were but a few days out from the harbour, when a severe storm of five days' continuance overtook us.

I must tell you of a feat performed by a sailor-boy at the height of the storm. He was literally a boy, and far better fitted for thumbing Webster's "SpellingBook" than for furling a sail in a storm. But his mother was a widow, and where could the boy earn a living for himself and mother better than at sea? The ship was rolling fearfully. Some of the rigging got wrong at the mainmast head, and it was necessary that some one should go up and put it right. It was a perilous job. I was standing near the mate, and heard him order that boy to do it! He lifted his cap, and glanced at the swinging mast, the boiling wrathful seas, and at the steady, determined countenance of the mate. He hesitated in silence a moment, then rushing across the deck,

he ran down into the forecastle. Perhaps he was gone two minutes, when he returned, laid his hands on the ratlines, and went up with a will. My eyes followed him till my head was dizzy, when I turned and remonstrated with the mate for sending the boy aloft. He could not come down alive! Why did you send him? "I did it," replied the mate, "to save his life. We've sometimes lost men overboard, but never a boy. See how he holds like a squirrel. He is more careful; he'll come down safe, I hope."

Again I looked till tears dimmed my eyes, and I was compelled to turn away, expecting every moment to catch a glimpse of his last fall.

In about fifteen or twenty minutes he came down, and straightening himself up with the conscious pride of having performed a manly act, he walked aft with a smile on his countenance.

In the course of the day I took occasion to speak to him, and asked him why he hesitated when ordered aloft?

"I went, sir," said the boy, "to pray." "Do you pray?"

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Yes, sir; I thought that I might not come down alive, and I went to commit my soul to God."

"Where did you learn to pray?"

"At home: my mother wanted me to go to the Sabbath-school, and my teacher urged me to pray to God to keep me; and so I do."

"What was that you had in your jacket ?"

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"My Testament, which my teacher gave me. I thought that, if I did perish, I would have the word of God close to my heart."

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MORNING HYMN.

THE morning bright,

With rosy light,

Has waked me from my sleep;

Father, I own,

Thy love alone

Thy little one doth keep.

All through the day

I humbly pray,

Be thou my guard and guide;

My sins forgive,

And let me live,

Blest Jesus, near thy side.

Oh make thy rest

Within my breast,

Great Spirit of all grace;

Make me like thee,

Then I shall be,

Prepared to see thy face.

THE CHILD-COLPORTEUR.

"MOTHER, will you promise me something?" asked a little boy, laying his hand on his mother's shoulder as she sat busily sewing.

"Promise you what?" asked she. "Will you only say 'Yes,' mother?" "That would be very rash; you do not want me to say 'Yes' in the dark, do you, Eben?"

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Oh, but, mother, you might say so now, I know," persisted the child.

"Then I am sure you had better tell me what you want me to say 'Yes' to," said the mother.

"Well, then, may I be a real colporteur? may I, mother, please?" asked the boy, looking earnestly into her face. "A real colporteur, Eben?”

"Why, the other day when I stayed at home sick, I played at being a col

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