A. L. O. E.

“ I began to wonder whether little girls could find any peculiar enjoyment in biting their finger-ends—whether they thought it becoming to look hunchbacked, or merely delighted in teasing their teachers, and defeating the efforts of those who love them to make them lady-like and agreeable. As I am a needle, and not a little girl, I cannot tell which of these three motives it was that influenced the conduct of Lily. If any of my young readers ever follow her example, I beg them to decide the question.
At length lessons were finished, and the tired teacher was free, but not to rest. Oh no! ”

“ What is marred, make right;
What is severed, unite;
And leave where’er you pass love’s golden thread of light!’” “That’s a pretty little story!” said Eddy, as his brother wound off the end of his skein. “You must teach me the tiny fairy’s song—
‘What is marred, make right.’ Just say it over again once or twice, Georgie.” ”

“ Oh, Lily, let us only consider what a blessing God has given us in such a parent; we cannot love her too much, nor care for her too much, nor too earnestly try to obey that commandment, ‘Honour thy father and thy mother.’ And now, will you forgive me for what I have said? ”

“ She has become too small for Lily’s finger now, but occupies a quiet corner in the box. The broken-pointed Scissors I have lost sight of for years. Lily has grown into a sweet, gentle young maiden, ever watchful to show kindness to those who need it, ever thoughtful of the feelings of others. Her mother speaks of her now as her “right hand;” and the bloom has returned to the lady’s pale cheek, and her brow is calm and serene. George has entered the Church, I understand; and Eddy, like the compass in the story, is pursuing his way on the wide ocean. ”

“ I’ve seen him galloping up and down this very room, with Master Eddy perched upon his shoulders, and Lily scampering at his heels; and it would have puzzled even our sharp friend the Needle to say which was the liveliest of the three.”
“He’s in trouble, then,” said the Thimble: “I’ve seen enough of life to know that mortals have their trials, which are to them as the hammer and the furnace to us.” ”

“ I do not think that he despises anything but what is mean or wrong. You don’t know how fond little baby is of him; and as for Eddy, he is never so merry as when he is at romps with Georgie, or listening to one of his stories. I don’t know how it is, but every one seems more happy, and everything looks brighter, when Georgie is at home. ”

“ I believe in Him through whom is forgiveness of sins; I believe in His mercy, His merits, His Word”—Fritz almost started, for at that moment one sentence spoken by the Holy One flashed across his memory, and by that sentence he stood condemned:—“If ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” Fritz Arnt thought of Carl Gesner.
“Have I not nourished hatred and malice in my heart for years?” thought the young soldier. “Then have my very prayers been a mockery; then am I still UNFORGIVEN. I dare face an earthly foe, but how dare I face a heavenly Judge? ”

“ If a lump of it were placed in Lily’s work-box, all her needles and scissors, and her keys, if she had any, would jump to it, and cling to it in a minute, just as you would jump into mother’s arms.”
“Oh, I wish that I had a lump as big as my head! I should like to see the poker and the tongs and the shovel all jumping!” exclaimed Eddy, full of merriment at the thought.
“And the odd thing is,” continued George, “that when iron is well rubbed with this loadstone, it seems as though it grew just like it, for it gets the very same curious property of attracting other bits of iron. ”

“ Depend upon it, dear reader, your reading and writing, your sums and your tables, nay, even the terrible dog’s-eared grammar, are nothing to what the smallest needle must go through before it is fit to appear in the world! ”

“ At that time of excitement all Prussians were ready to show kindness to the brave defenders of their land; and Fritz knew that even Carl might be willing to make friends with a young soldier then, for the farmer had 135such patriotic zeal as to talk of joining the army himself. But Fritz would have nothing to do with Carl Gesner. “I will never cross the threshold nor grasp the hand of a man who turned us all out of doors, and nearly killed my mother,” muttered Fritz to himself, as he strode past the house of the farmer. ”

“ To what, think you, does it owe its beauty? To an amalgam (that is the title given to the mixture) —an amalgam of mercury and tin, which lines the glass at the back.”
“And makes it a pretty aid to vanity and 50folly,” said the broken-pointed Scissors, with bitterness. “If there is one thing which silly mortals like better than another, it is to look at their own faces in a glass.”
“If mercury has often ministered to vanity and folly,” said the Thimble, “I remember hearing of one curious instance where it served to mortify them both. ”

“ Ellerslie hastily quitted the room, impatient with his wife, with himself, with all the world!
The lady took the sealed letter in her tremulous grasp, folded her hands, and again looked upwards: again her lips moved; and this time the big tears rolled slowly down her cheeks.
“We must do all that we can,” she faintly murmured to herself. “The hearts of men are in His hands. We must leave no proper means untried, and then commit all to a higher Power.” ”

“ Presently lights were seen moving over the dark field: helpers of the wounded were going about on their errand of mercy. But there were too few of them to do the work quickly; for so many poor soldiers lay low that it was impossible in one night to relieve the terrible wants of all. With keen anxiety Fritz watched the distant lights, while Carl Gesner lay groaning beside him. ”

“ One of the boys at my school had a large steel magnet—that is, steel that had been rubbed with the loadstone—and it was the funniest thing in the world to see a dozen needles sticking to it at once, like so many quills upon a porcupine.”
“But what has this to do with the compass?” inquired Lily. ”

“ I could not help recollecting what the Thimble had told me about gold—how that metal, which is so weighty and precious, yet can be spread into leaves so thin as to brighten the paper on the wall and adorn the leaves of the book. I wondered if there were anything like this to be found in human life; if the precious thing called virtue, which my companion had likened to gold, could also be found to extend to trifles, and in the smaller occurrences of life show its power to brighten and adorn. It was an odd idea, but it arose from what I heard Lily say that morning of her 45brother ”

“ David knew well that our best works deserve no reward from God, yet he could not but recall with joy the gracious promise to those who feed the poor: They cannot recompense thee; for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just. ”

“ In the confusion of that struggle Fritz saw a Prussian fall under 140a blow from a Frenchman’s sword. Even as he fell, Fritz caught a glimpse of his face: begrimed as it was with smoke and dust, the young soldier recognized the features of Carl Gesner! The Frenchman’s sword was raised again to kill the prostrate Prussian; but Fritz sprang forward, warded the blow, and at the same moment himself fell to the earth, struck in the thigh by a musket ball from another quarter.
Sudden darkness seemed to come over the wounded youth. ”

“ Man determined to aid his own weakness by the wonderful strength of iron. He made the ploughshare, and the furrows are turned up; he made the sickle, and the sheaves are gathered; huge trees, which he would never have had force to pull down, are laid low by a few strokes of his axe.”
“There is no doubt but that ours is the most useful metal by far,” said the Scissors, with something of a sneer. “Who would use ploughshares, or sickles, or axes of silver? Precious little work they would do!”
“I grant it,” said the Thimble, with perfect good-humour ”

“ Eddy opened his eyes very wide.
“Well, men really make such spoons—I mean, that they would, if they thought that any one would buy them—of a mixture of bismuth, lead, and tin!”
“I never heard of bismuth before,” cried Lily.
“It is a white metal, of a reddish-yellow tinge, used with others in making solder for the plumbers. There’s the beauty of my book, Lily; it tells one so much that one never heard of before. Did you know that there was a wine made of steel?”
“Steel wine? Oh yes! that is what mamma has to take every day, to make her strong. But it is not at all nice ”

“ I have often wished that the stars, which preached one text to Napoleon, could have preached one other to his heart; then the conqueror would have felt that there is a glory greater and more lasting than that which earthly triumphs can give. ”

“ Ellerslie, making an effort to speak.
“Say nothing about it, say nothing about it—it’s all settled and done. When a man comes half-way to meet me, why it’s my way to go the other half to meet him. Eh, George?” he added, as if appealing to the boy, who stood silently and sadly leaning against the arm of the sofa. ”

“ A PERFECT METAL.
“I AM not very sorry,” observed I to the Thimble, “that careless Miss Lily has forgotten to replace our companion, Mrs. Scissors, in the box. Her manners are so sharp, her remarks so cutting, that I take little pleasure in her society.”
“She has a little speck of rust on her, I own,” quietly replied my philosophic friend; “but we must all learn to bear patiently with the weaknesses of others, and see that we keep our own metal bright.” ”

“ There’s none for you,” she said sharply to Owen. “Go and shut up those ducks.”
David glanced at the boy as he slunk away. “I’m glad,” he thought, “that I did a good turn to that poor fellow, and saved him a beating.”
“You’ll always get on well in the world, Davy,” observed Mrs. Pell, as she cut for him a large slice of her home-made plum-bread. “You always keep steady to your duty, and you make friends wherever you go.”
Mrs. Pell was right. David passed through boyhood, youth, and manhood, prospering in what he undertook, till he became a wealthy farmer. ”

“ Look—oh! look—there’s another! it rises higher than the first!”
“How beautiful—how grand—how glorious it is!” exclaimed Harry, clapping his hands with delight. “It darts aloft like a conqueror 128rising upwards and upwards; and there—see how it bursts into a shower of stars—much brighter than stars—filling the sky with its spangles of light! There is nothing so glorious to look upon as a rocket!”
For nearly an hour the mother and her sons watched the beautiful fireworks over the trees, the rockets bursting on high into showers of many-coloured sparks which entirely hid the stars from view. ”

“ Eddy more than once broke in on their tête-à-tête, but was told to go away, and not disturb them. Driven to his own resources, the child rode round the room on a footstool; but this amusement was stopped, as being too noisy. He then kicked his heels for some time on the sofa, till, finding the occupation tiresome, he made the discovery of a little hole in a cushion, from which he managed to abstract several tiny feathers, which amused him for a quarter of an hour. ”

“ I 37shall always couple silver and knowledge together, the best metal and the best thing in the world!”
“Ah, there you are wrong!” said my bright companion; “there is a metal far more precious than silver, and a possession even more valuable than knowledge. What is learning compared to virtue! what is silver compared to gold!”
“Gold! what is that?” said I. You must remember that I was but a young needle, with little information, but eager to obtain more.
“Gold is what is called a perfect metal,” replied the Thimble ”

“ Then, it’s so odd to think that from mixing some metals together you can get quite a new one! Look at the bright brass rods upon which the curtains are hung; brass is a mixture of copper and zinc.”
“They look like gold!” cried Eddy, looking up. “What do people mix to make gold?”
“You funny little philosopher,” said George, playfully tapping his brother on the cheek, “that’s the very question which for ages 78puzzled the brains of the learned. They wanted to discover some way to mix up metals and make gold. ”

“ I observed, “that it is when mixed with tin that mercury forms the amalgam used for the backs of mirrors.”
“Mercury is not the only metal which unites in a friendly manner with tin. Joined to copper, it becomes bronze, of which those pretty chimney-piece ornaments are made; and pewter, so useful to the poor, comes from tin united with lead. It is also very commonly used to line copper pots and pans, which, without such a coating of tin, might poison the food which they contain.” ”

“ Pell promises a beating, she is certain to keep her word. Well, let Owen be beaten,—what do I care!”
157That was David’s first thought; but a more generous one succeeded. “I might drive home these ducks for Owen, and keep them and him out of trouble. To be sure, he deserves nothing from me; but are we not told to be kind even to the unthankful and the evil? I should think that God is pleased when we bear the burdens of our friends; more pleased when we bear the burdens of strangers; but most pleased of all when, for His sake, we show kindness to those who have done us a wrong.” ”

“ Thimble, ever cutting a dance like that!”
“The lady called it quicksilver,” I observed. “Was it, then, no relation of my friend?”
“Relation!” again exclaimed the Scissors; “a relation that would eat her, rim, top, and all; make holes for her knowledge to run out of! Quicksilver is a dangerous neighbour.”
“Dangerous both to metal and to man,” 49quietly rejoined my learned companion. “Its power can dissolve both silver and gold; and to the human species it acts as a powerful poison.” ”