to be that of a thief. His parents had brought him up with difficulty until the time came for his confirmation, and as he had never been to school, they gave him a superficial knowledge of his catechism by word of mouth, and he conceived henceforward a bitter dislike to all who could read and write. Once a year, as he had seen his parents do, he went to the village church and remained to the holy communion. On two other occasions only had he ever been seen in church, and those were when he paid the last honours to his father and mother. Of God and his word no more was remembered in the mill than that Hans, the servant, read the morning and evening blessing as he had been accustmed to do for the last fifty years, and that Christina the maid repeated at noon and evening in a soft timid voice, "Come, Lord Jesus, and be our guest.

What the miller's man thought when he uttered the blessing, God only knows, no one had asked him for years past, and it would have been of no use if they had, for he was stone deaf. Any one who conversed with him had to use signs, and the most comprehensible of these signs used by the farmers who came to the mill, was an offered brandy-bottle or an end of tobacco.

But let us now turn to the third human being who lived in the Golden Mill, Christina the maid of all work. In such a spot one would expect to find the girl of twenty years old, a blunted, loveless, joyless being; but she was the contrary of all this. Her parents, poor daylabourers in the valley, had died when she was very young, and the

parish had paid a small trifle for a poor family to bring her up. They had educated her with their own children in honest poverty, and had planted in her susceptible heart a deep sense of the fear of God.

When she was confirmed her adopted mother said to her, "Christina, I would willingly keep you with me and give you daily bread, but you need more than that, you have been confirmed now, and you are too old to run about barefoot and help the lads take care of the farmer's geese. That is no work for a great girl like you. If I were you, I would go to your poor mother's cousin who lives in the Golden Mill, and ask if he knew of a place for you."

Don't

"To my cousin in the Golden Mill?" inquired Christina, timidly. 'He does not know me, and he does not wish to know me. you remember what an unkind look he gave me the day I was confirmed, when you called out after him,

Christopher, come and speak to your cousin Christina. She has nobody in the wide world to look after her but you.' I never shall forget the face he turned on me, when he fixed his grey eyes upon me, and murmured a sort of 'how d'ye do'?"

"So it may be, Christina," said the indefatigable adopted mother, "but a hungry man does not look much at the hand that gives him food. If you go to your cousin you can but come back again, and then perhaps I shall find out some other way of helping you.'

And Christina went, and one may easily imagine with what a beating heart she reached the dwelling of her cousin. Even her adopted

mother was astonished that she did not come back again. Her cousin was certainly very much surprised when he first saw her at his door, and heard her request that he would employ her, or advise her what to do. He left her for some time to be entertained by deaf Hans, whilst he went to look after the mill, but after some time he came back and said: "Christina, I am willing to keep you here and employ you as my servant, but I cannot give you any wages, as the mill does not bring in much, only now and then perhaps I can get you a new gown or two."

And Christina stayed in the mill, and with her, kind spirits seemed to take up their abode there. For the sacrifice of prayer was never wanting The child the mill

to the altar of her heart. had brought with her into a heart enriched by Christ. Dwelling as she did in solitude, with no companion but those two rough men, yet the blessedness of being a Christian created for her a paradise of peace and joy, and darted beams of heavenly light through the night which surrounded her. And deaf Hans, and even cousin Christopher, could not resist 'the influence of this good and pious maiden.

It was not only that the household of the two bachelors assumed quite a different appearance, and showed nothing but neatness and order where before all was dirty and comfortless. Her words, the mute entreaty of her eye, nay even her very presence, gradually induced the men to forsake many of their ungodly practices. They acknowledged the force of her Christian example, and always treated her

the mill itself there was not much for the industrious girl to do, but this only gave her more occupation out of doors. She had to drive the goats up to the hills in the morning, and to keep watch over them there; or to fasten them with ropes to the bushes. She had to collect hay and twigs for their food, and also to gather in the autumn dry leaves and moss to serve instead of straw for the animals, and to stuff beds with for the household. The hills were the scene both of her employment and her pleasures. The stillness around, the rushing water, the clapping of the mill-wheel, and the view over that fair wide plain which stretched out in front of it, filled the girl's heart with a delight she could not express in words. It is true she often wished herself once more in that pleasant village with the companions and playfellows of her childhood; but when she recollected how completely alone in the world and how timid and feeble she was, then Christina thanked God for the new home He had given her, and besought him with tears in her eyes to grant to her master and guardian the peace the world cannot give. Alas, this prayer was much needed!

Thomson.

HERE was a meeting of trees the other day in the Botanic Gardens at Kew, for the purpose, as it was said, of stopping the wholesale slaughter which was being committed amongst them. The vegetable kingdom was represented by members from every quarter of the globe. Trees from the jungle in India shook hands-leaves, I mean --with others from the backwoods of Canada, and representatives of New South Wales bowed to relatives from Central Africa; flags from Japan mixed with flags from Egypt, and Chinese shrubs occupied the same position as Siberian bushes: altogether it was a very novel and interesting gathering.

The chair was taken by the Banyan tree, as being the oldest member present. It was a very remarkable specimen from India, named “Cubbeer Burr," and its age was generally supposed to be

about 3,000 years. Under its branches Alexander the Great had quartered his soldiers 300 years before Christ.

"Branches and leaves," said the Chair-tree, "the subject for our consideration is a most important one indeed. It is high time that

Woodman spare that tree' should be something more than a song. Everywhere the ring of the axe is to be heard, and unless some step be taken, our whole tribes will be exterminated. A great poet has said something about 'tongues in trees.' Now, as I don't see the use of a tongue unless it can speak, let ours be heard in no uncertain sound, for the old forests are being thinned and the woods bared; 'Nature expects that every tree will do its duty!"

There was a loud rustling among the leaves, and a clattering among the branches, which sounded like "Hear, hear, hear!" in the midst of which Ficus elastica, the Indiarubber tree, rose to order.

"My venerable brother says truly," he remarked, "the devastation has begun, and half the business of destruction done. In better days, long since, I have seen my sister worshipped by the Hindoos. It was a thousand years ago. The god Vishnoo was said to have been born under her branches, and the people called her 'the religious fig tree,' and he who reared a young plant was sure to go to heaven. Stone tables or altars were built under her limbs, upon which sacrifices were offered, and holy Brahmins used my sister's leaves as holy plates whereon to eat their holy food; while medicinal virtues came out of her body, and a village of people converted her shades into a temple."

"Oh, as to that," interrupted a gnarled old Oak from an English common, "see how they cut me about now, when, at the same time of which you speak, I was regularly worshipped by the people of this land; every berry of the mistletoe which impertinently grew upon my arms, was worth a large sum as curing all manner of disease, but it was only after it had been cut off with the golden knife of the old Druid priest; but now they saw me asunder, build their ships with slices of my trunk, then blow me to pieces with shot and shell, and afterwards saw me into logs, and burn me to powder in red-hot flames."

"Ugh!" groaned an old Elm, "what's that? after I have drunk the filthy air that comes from men's bodies, giving them pure in return through the millions of stomachs in

ceive is to be cut to pieces to make long boxes to enclose their vile bodies when they are dead, and to rot with their bones in the damp, dark grave."

Another description of Oak confirmed the last speaker. In respectable society he was called, he said, Quercus suber, but the common people called him "The Cork Tree." He was second brother to him who was burnt to death. The family appeared to be very unfortunate, for, according to his report, he was not only flayed alive at the age of twelve years, but his skin was baked, and this dreadful operation, he said, was repeated so often, that he had scarcely recovered from one before he was called upon to endure another.

The Chair-tree remarked that it had been suggested that a memorial or petition should be drawn up, in which should be set forth the claims of the members, and the use they were to the great human family.

"Write it on my leaves," said the Papyrus plant from Egypt, part of which had been used for this purpose thousands of years ago, "and show them how I am scratched to death."

"With ink made from my galls," groaned the gnarled old Oak; but he was reminded that gall-nuts were a disease, and were the cradles of a little grub, whose egg had been left there by a fly, and that it had nothing to do with the tree.

"Hasn't it, though ?" replied the Oak. "Don't you know it is the very essence of my body that is concentrated in the gall?"