THE USEFUL LITTLE GIRL.

MRS. BURTON lived in a large town, and had three little children; the eldest of these was Susan, and she was just four years of age at the time when my story begins; then came Bell, a pretty little girl about two years and a half old; and the baby was Charles, he might be six months or a little more.

There was an old nurse who took care of these little ones, and sat all day in the nursery, excepting when she took the baby out to enjoy the air; and there was a young maidservant also, who waited upon her, and carried little Bell when they went out; and I can assure you that nurse and Betty had quite enough to do, for Susan, who was, as I said, four years of age, gave them more trouble by far than the other two put together.

There was not a thing which could be laid down that she did not take up and put out of its place; and if she were told not to touch any thing, she was then sure to watch the very first moment to get hold of it; when the nurse was dressing her brother she would run away with his cap or his shoes, and whenever she saw him asleep she chose that time to make most noise.

Bell was a very quiet, gentle little baby, and everybody loved her, but Susan was always contriving something to make her cry, so that there never was any peace in the nursery excepting when Susan was in the parlour with her mamma.

Now it happened one day in spring, just at that time of the year in which the mornings are often fine and sunny, and the evenings very cold, that Mrs. Burton's sister came from the country to see her. Susan was sent for into the parlour to see her aunt, and found that the table was spread with cold meat for luncheon, for her aunt was going back into the country in about an hour. When Susan saw the meat upon the table, she immediately asked her mamma for some of it; and her mamma cut her a slice, and put it on a plate with a bit of bread, which kept her quiet for a while; and I dare say that Mrs. Burton was not sorry for any thing that would keep her in her place, for she was always ashamed of

her rudeness before her sister, though she did not take the right way to keep her in proper order. So Susan, being very busy with her cold meat, was quiet, and could hear what her aunt was saying to her mamma.

"I went this morning into a print-shop," said Mrs. Burton's sister, "and I met with two very beautiful pictures both alike. I have bought them both; and one is to be hung up in your nursery, sister, and the other in mine. They are gone to be put into frames, and I dare say that yours will be sent home to-morrow. They represent a shepherd with his crook in his hand, and a crown on his head; and on one side of him is a flock of milk-white sheep and lambs, and on the other a flock of goats." Then turning to her niece, she said, " My dear Susan, this shepherd represents the Lord Jesus Christ at the day of judgment, and the milk-white sheep on his right hand are the redeemed ones who have been made white in his blood, and the goats on his left represent those who do not belong to him. Those are the naughty people; but I hope, my dear Susan, that you will be made like one of the milk-white lambs who stand at the right hand of the Shepherd, and that you will be taken to feed in the pleasant fields which the good Shepherd has prepared for those who love him."

Mrs. Burton then said, "I hope so, too, sister. Indeed, I do trust that Susan is one of God's children."

"We can only tell whether a little girl is a child of God by her behaviour, you know, sister," replied the other lady, "for even a child is known by its ways; and if Susan really loves God, she will try to be kind and gentle, and useful to nurse, and to her little brother and sister." Just as her aunt had spoken these words, Susan had put the last bit of meat into her mouth, and before she had swallowed it, she cried out-" Useful, aunt! How do you mean? How can I be useful with these little hands? Mamma says I am a baby, and that I cannot be useful."

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"You cannot do much, Susan," replied her aunt; none of us can do much, and especially such a little thing as you are: but you can help being troublesome —and you can fetch and carry what is wanting—and you can rock your brother's cradle-and you can lead Bell about-and, at least, show that you love the good Shepherd by trying to please him, and being kind to those whom he has made."

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Susan got very red while her aunt was speaking, and if some company had not entered at that moment, I think that she would have burst out into a loud cry, for she was quite ready for it: but, as it was, she did not cry at that time, for one of the ladies who came into the room stooped to kiss her, and said, "Really, Mrs. Burton, Miss Susan is grown quite a beauty; I should never have known her had I seen her in any other house." Susan understood this lady's words, and therefore I do not doubt but that she had understood her aunt's also.

Before Susan's aunt went away, Mrs. Burton asked her to come to dinner at the end of the week, to keep Susan's birthday; and begged her to bring her little daughter Constance with her. Constance was just one month younger than her cousin Susan.

Now Susan thought no more of what her aunt had said to her till the picture came next day which was to be hung up in the nursery.

It was set in a gilt frame: it was a large picture, with a bright sky of purple and gold; and the good Shepherd stood on a little mound in the middle of a wide plain. On his right hand were thousands and thousands of milk-white sheep and lambs. Betty tried to count them, but it was impossible; and behind these multitudes of sheep and lambs, seeming as it were to be far away, were certain lovely hills, with groves of trees, and waterfalls, and all sorts of pleasant things; while on the left hand of the Shepherd were many goats, and behind them a dark land where no sun shone, but from which smoke arose, as from a fiery furnace, ascending towards the clouds.

The picture was hung up over the chimney-piece, and the nurse said that she had never seen a picture in all her life that had pleased her better. But Susan was sulky when it came, and said, "I don't like it, because my aunt says I am not one of the milk-white lambs." "I suppose your aunt does not think that you are a good girl, miss ?" said the nurse.

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"She says I am not useful," replied Susan. says that people who love the good Shepherd try to give no trouble, and are useful; and I can't be useful with these little hands-I am a baby-and I must give trouble and I don't like the picture."

"You need not give so much trouble, however, as you do, miss," said Betty, "that's quite sure; and you

might be of use, too, many a time, if you would. Why, did not I ask you, but just now, to fetch me Master Charles's bells, when he was a crying, and what must you do but run away with them, right out of the room?" "Hush, hush, Betty," said the nurse, "I hear the mistress coming, and she will think you have been meddling with what don't belong to you."

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Nurse said this in a whisper, but Susan heard it; and when her mamma came in, she ran up to her, crying and sobbing, "Betty has been scolding me; she wants me to be useful. How can I be useful, mamma, with these little hands? Can I wait on myself, mamma? Can I be of any use?"

Mrs. Burton looked vexed, though she did not say any thing to Betty on the subject at that time; but she took Susan out of the room, and kept her with her most of the morning, and Susan knew, as well as if it had been told her in so many words, that her mamma was not pleased with Betty on her account.

That same evening, after dinner, Mrs. Burton ordered the nurse and Betty to take the children out to walk.

It was a most pleasant evening in the month of May; there were primroses and violets in the hedge-rows, and cowslips in the meadows, and the young lambs were bleating in the fields, and the birds singing in the bushes.

"These fields and those hills," said Betty, "put me in mind of those which are in the picture, and make me wish, more than ever I did before, to be one of that flock which are to enjoy them for ever.

"But, as I heard mistress's sister say once, when she was in the nursery talking to mistress, 'It is not by our good works that we are to get to heaven, but through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ; nevertheless, every one of us is to try to show his love to his Lord by endeavouring to please him; and it is his pleasure that we should be kind to one another, and so we are all bound to try, big as well as little;' and I suppose this was the lesson she was endeavouring to teach Miss Susy there, and I wish to my heart she could succeed, for then we should lose our worst plague."

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"Well, well, Betty," said the nurse, learn to hold your tongue? We servants, who are to get our living, must try to please our missises Public Li The nurse and Betty, while they were talking, had

sat down on the trunk of a tree which had been felled, and Susan and Bell were playing about five yards distance on the grass; but before Betty could make any reply to the last remark of nurse, little Bell set up a violent scream, and the next moment they saw her rolling in a bed of nettles, into which her sister had pushed her, because she had refused to give up a bunch of cowslips which she had plucked from the grass.

"There now," said Betty, taking up her little darling (for Bell was her favourite), "there now, Miss Susy, see what you have done;" and she took the little one in her arms, and sitting down with her on the trunk of the tree, tried to sooth her.

"Poor little babe," said the nurse, "her little hands and arms are all in bumps. Can you see never a dock leaf? it's the best thing in the world for the sting of nettles. Ah," added the old woman, "there I see some dock," and she tried to persuade Susan to fetch them for her. "Do, dear miss," she said, "fetch me one or two of them broad leaves to rub little sister's hands, for Master Charles is asleep on my lap, and I don't like to disturb him." Susan pretended not to hear, but walked away, and not choosing to return at their call, the nurses were both obliged to walk after her.

"If it was not for this dear child here in my arms," said Betty, "I would rather wait on a cobbler's wife than stay with missis, to be put upon in this way by that little torment."

But now, if I were to give you as true an account of all the little teasing ways of Miss Susan Burton, and tell you how she used to draw the pins out of nurse's knitting-to lose Betty's needles-to overturn the cups and saucers-to cover the floor with crumbs of bread, bits of meat, and half-picked bones-to contrive almost every day to wake the baby two or three times, with a thousand other disagreeable tricks, I am afraid I should tire you as much as everybody else was tired by this spoiled child;-and yet this little girl, had she been properly managed, and now and then duly chastised, and constantly made to obey the word of command, might have been a very nice child, and been an honour and comfort to her papa and mamma, instead of being the torment of the whole household.

Well, but time went on, and at length the morning of Susan's birthday arrived. After breakfast Mrs. Burton