ΓΕΝ

STAND BY THE COUNTRY.

MEN and women of the North, brothers and sisters in the

bond of the American Union, you have among you the scarred and wasted soldiers who have shed their blood for your temporal salvation. They bore your Nation's emblems

bravely through the fire and smoke of the battle-field; nay, their own bodies are starred with bullet-wounds and striped with sabre-cuts, as if to mark them as belonging to their Country, until their dust becomes a portion of the soil which they defended. In every Northern graveyard slumber the victims of this destroying struggle. Many whom you remember playing as children amidst the clover blossoms of our Northern fields, sleep under nameless mounds with strange Southern wild flowers blooming over them. By those wounds of living heroes, by those graves of fallen martyrs, by the hopes of your children and the claims of your children's children yet unborn, in the name of outraged honor, in the interest of violated sovereignty, for the life of an imperilled nation, for the sake of men everywhere and of our common humanity, for the glory of God and the advancement of His Kingdom on earth, your country calls upon you to stand by her through good report and through evil report, in triumph and in defeat, until she emerges from the great war of Western civilization, Queen of the broad continent, Arbitress in the councils of earth's emancipated peoples; until the flag that fell from the wall of Fort Sumter floats once more, inviolate, supreme, over all her ancient inheritance, — every fortress, every capital, every ship,—and this warring land is once more a United Nation.

A

THE BURNT CHILD.

LITTLE girl, named Annie Gray,

Was going home from school one day;

And, as the day was rather warm,

Had hung her cloak upon her arm;
The cloak was woollen, nice and thick;
But suddenly, Ann's heart beat quick,
As breathless past ran Sally Dyer,
Crying out," Fire! oh! John's on fire!"
Now tell me what, in such a case,
Would you have done in Annie's place?

Would

you have run in search of aid,
And thus your useful help delayed?
Ann to the cottage hastened on,
Where dwelt poor Mary Williamson;
And then the sight that met her view
Proved her worst fears were all too true.
A moving column of thick flame,
Which hither, thither, went and came,
Was all that could be seen of John,
The widowed mother's younger son.
His little sisters trembling there,
With screams terrific rent the air.
But on the burning boy Ann flung
The cloak that on her arms was hung,
And wrapped him all so well about,
That soon the fire was quite put out;
And Johnnie's life was saved that day,
By the good sense of Annie Gray.

DE

A SALUTATORY SPEECH.

EAR friends, we are glad to see you here to-day. It makes us think you care a good deal about us, and like to know what we do at school. We will recite lessons and verses, and will sing our songs as well as we can, and we hope you will not be sorry you came in to see us. Now we will show you what we can do to-day.

ANOTHER.

I

AM a very little boy (or girl), and I suppose that is why the teacher puts me first to-day. But I am big enough to tell you that we are very glad to see you. I hope you will like our school very much. We will sing our best songs and say our prettiest verses, and be just as good as we can all the time you stay, for we want you to come again.

H

THE PURPOSE OF LIFE.

AST thou midst life's empty noises,
Heard the solemn steps of Time,

And the low, mysterious voices

Of another clime?

Early hath life's mighty question
Thrilled within thy heart of youth,
With a deep and strong beseeching,
What, and where is truth?

Not to ease and aimless quiet
Doth the inward answer tend;
But to works of love and duty,
As our being's end.

Earnest toil and strong endeavor
Of a spirit which within
Wrestles with familiar evil
And besetting sin;

And without, with tireless vigor,
Steady heart, and purpose strong,
In the power of Truth assaileth

Every form of wrong.

THE

EARLY RISING.

HE lark is up to meet the sun,
The bee is on the wing;

The ant its labor has begun,

The woods with music ring.

Shall birds and bees and ants be wise,

While I my moments waste?

O let me with the morning rise,

And to my duty haste.

ΝΕ

NEVER GIVE UP.

EVER give up!—it is wiser and better
Always to hope, than once to despair;
Fling off the load of doubt's cankering fetters,
And break the dark spell of tyrannical care.

Never give up, or the burden may sink you,
Providence kindly has mingled the cup;
And in all trials and troubles bethink you,

The watchword of life must be, "Never give up!"