spake the son:--"Talk not to me, I heeded not weak woman's tears; But when I sail'd upon the sea, I quickly silenc'd all their fears.

Free was my trade, my arm was free, And human blood I freely spilt; And many an aged breast like thine, Has sheath'd my dagger to its hilt.

Our blood-red pennon floated free, Our blood-stained deck its witness gave; Blood, human blood, was on our hands, And mingled oft with ocean's wave."

Shudd'ring, the mother cried: "My son, Though you are steeped in human gore, There is a fountain filled with blood, That can your purity restore.

Your Angel wife bath'd in that flood, And proved a Saviour's promise true, And when she gently pass'd from earth She left her dying love for you;

And bade you seek a Saviour's face, And by His mercy be forgiven, And by that new and living way, Seek an inheritance in Heaven."

"Then she is dead," he mournful cried, "'Tis better thus, for see the sun With rosy light now streaks the east: And ere it sets my race is run.

Firm would I stand upon the drop, Meet firmly my approaching doom; But death is not an endless sleep, And justice lives beyond the tomb.

Yet this conviction comes too late; My soul is lost,--I cannot pray; Forget your son--forget my fate, And walk in wisdom's pleasant way."

In agony the mother pressed To her sad heart her guilty son; But yet, like incense from that heart, Sweetly arose, "thy will be done."

No hands were folded on his breast. They laid him not within the tomb; The surgeon took him from the drop, To meet a more disgraceful doom.

And such is life, whose ebb and flow Heaves the deep sea of human mind; True happiness they only know, Whose every wish's to Heaven resigned.

The History of a Household.

Early in the winter of 18--, there was a heavy rain, accompanied by high winds, which swelled the waters of the Sandy river to an amazing height, and every moving thing upon its surface was borne away with the rapidity of lightning. Standing upon its margin was Frank Somers, his eyes fixed with intense interest upon a frail raft that was plunging and heaving among the boiling waves. Upon it stood a man about the middle of life, with an athletic form and a 

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