danced till the stars grew pale, while poor little Mabel tossed restlesslyd from side to side, longing for a cool draught for her parched lips. You did not know how happy you ought to be, and how miserable little Mabel was. 12. "You won't be naughty any more'?" That's a good child. And now remember that money is not happiness; that fine clothes and fine carriages are not happiness; and that even this bright, beautiful world, with its birds, its flowers, and its sunshine, is dark without loving hearts to rest upon. Thank God for kind parents and a happy home. 'Tis you who are truly rich, Mary: pray for poor Mabel. a DANG-LING, hanging loosely. SPIED, Saw; observed. * FLUSHED, Overspread with a red color. d RESTLESS, without rest; unquietly. [Little Mary, discontented, and tired of every thing that is old and familiar, thinks she has no cause to be happy: she thinks the little girl whom she sees beautifully dressed, and riding in a fine carriage, must be very happy Who this little girl was, Mabel Graya cripple, etc. Mabel's mother. What things do not constitute happiness. What chi dren should be thankful for.] LESSON III. THE BLUEBIRD. 1. I KNOW the song that the bluebird is singing, 2. Hark! how the music leaps out from his throat- Listen a while, and you'll hear what he's saying, Daffodils'! daffodils'! say', do you hear' ?- CHEER'-Y, cheerful; gay. b SWAY'-ING, borne backward and forward by the wind. EMILY HUNTINGTON MILLER. • MES'-SAGE, song; any notice or word sent. d CHEER, gladness; cheerfulness. [The bluebird in the apple-tree. Why is the bluebird here called a "brave little fel. low?" Which verses are supposed to be the bluebird's song? it where the bluebird addresses the "blossoms" in the 3d verse, and the "snowdrop," What figure of speech is "crocus," etc., in the 4th verse? (Apostrophe.) What is an Apostrophe!] 1. It was bitterly cold. The snow was falling; it was growing dark, and it was the last evening of the year. 2. In the cold and darkness, a poor little bareheaded and barefooted girl went along the street. When she left home she had slippers on; but little good had they done her. They were very large old slippers, which her mother, since dead, had worn: so large were they that the little girl had lost both of them as she was hurrying across the street to get out of the way of two carriages which rolled rapidly by. One of the slippers was nowhere to be found; and a wicked boy had run off with the other. 3. So the little girl went on, with bare feet, while the snow fell thicker and faster. She carried a quantity of matches in a basket, and she held a bundle of them in her hand. Nobody had bought any thing of her during that long day: no one had given her a single penny. 4. Hungry, and shivering with the cold, the poor little thing crept along. The large flakes of snow covered her long fair hair, which fell in ringlets around her thin pale face; but little was she thinking of her appearance now. In a corner between two houses she at length sought what shelter she could from the storm; and, nestling down close to the wall, she covered, as well as she could with her scanty garments, her poor little feet, which were red and blue with the cold. 5. But she grew colder and colder; and she feared to go home, for, as she had sold no matches, and could carry home no pennies to buy bread with, her father would beat her. Besides, it was cold at home; for she lived with her father up under the roof, where the wind and the snow came in, though the largest cracks had been stopped up with straw and rags. 6. Poor little thing! Her hands were already numb with cold. And she thought,-oh how much good one. match would do her, if she might take one from the bundle, draw it across the wall, and warm her fingers by the flame! She drew one out-"Risht!" how it sputtered! how it burned! It burned with a warm bright flame, like a candle; and she bent her hand around it: it was a won derful light! 7. It seemed to the little girl as if she were sitting before a large iron stove, in which the fire burned brightly, warming all around. She stretched forth her feet to warm them too: but the flame went out, the stove disappeared, and there she sat with a little piece of the burned-out match in her hand. 8. Another match was lighted. It burned brightly; and the wall, where the light fell upon it, seemed to become like glass, so that she could see into the room beyond. And there was a table, on which was spread a snow-white cloth; and there were china plates; and at one end of the table a roasted goose was smoking. Oh! how delicious the fragrance! 9. But, what was still more delightful, the goose hopped down from the table, and, with a knife and fork sticking in it, waddled up to the little girl, when—the match went out, and nothing but the thick, cold wall and the drifting snow were to be seen. 10. She lighted another match; and, when it blazed forth, all at once she seemed to be sitting under the most splendid Christmas-tree. It was larger, and more beautifully decorated than the one she had seen the Christmas before, through the window, in the rich merchant's house. 11. Thousands of little tapers were burning among the green branches; and beautiful pictures, such as she had seen in the shop windows, looked down upon her. The little maiden stretched forth her hands toward them, when -the match went out. But the lights of the Christmastree rose higher and higher, until they seemed to be like stars: then one fell-down-down-leaving, for a moment, a long trail of light in the sky. 12. "Some one is dying now," said the little girl; for her old grandmother, who alone had loved her, but who was now no more, had told her that when a star falls a soul takes its flight to heaven. 13. She drew another match across the wall; and in the light which it threw around, her old grandmother seemed to stand before her; and oh! how bright! how mild was her countenance! and what an expression of love was there! 14. "Grandmother," cried the little one, "oh, take me with you! I am afraid you will go away as soon as the match goes out, just like the warm stove, the delicious roasted goose, and the Christmas-tree!" Then hastily she lighted the rest of the matches, for she wished to keep her grandmother with her as long as possible. 15. And the matches burned so brightly that it was lighter than day. Never before had her grandmother appeared so beautiful, and so tall. She took the little girl in her arms; and, in brightness and joy, they flew highhigh up into the heavens, where they felt neither cold, nor hunger, nor fear.-for they were with God! 16. But in the corner between the two houses, at the cold hour of dawn, sat the little match girl, with rosy cheeks, and with a smiling mouth, leaning against the wall, half covered with snow, and frozen to death on that last night of the Old Year. Of her matches, one bundle had been burned. 17. "She has been trying to warm herself," people said. |