about Evan, how blessed a prospect it would appear; but that is the bitterness of death to me now. My poor, poor boy! I would rather hear he was in the way of earning his livelihood, than that he got a hundred a-year. Tell me, Sir!-and oh! consider you are speaking to a dying creature can you possibly give him any creditable employment, where he might gain a crust of bread, and be independent?" "I honour your very proper feeling on the subject, Mrs. Mackay, and shall help Evan to the best of my ability," replied Major Graham, in a tone of seriousness and sincerity. "To judge by these fine geraniums, he must be fond of cultivating plants; and we want an under-gardener in the country; therefore he shall have that situation without loss of time." "Oh, mother! mother! speak no more of dying! You will surely get better now!" said Evan, looking up, while his thin pale face assumed a momentary glow of pleasure. "Try now to get better! I never could work as well, if you were not waiting to see me come home! We shall be so happy now!" "Yes! I am happy!" said Mrs. Mackay, solemnly looking towards heaven, with an expression that could not be mistaken. "The last cord is cut that bound me to the earth; and may you, Sir, find hereafter the blessings that are promised to those who visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction." CHAPTER XII. THE YOUNG MIDSHIPMAN. When hands are link'd that dread to part, Of them that bid farewell. HEBER. NEXT Monday morning, at an early hour, Frank had again found his way with great difficulty to the house of Widow Mackay, where he spent all his pocket money on two fine scarlet geraniums. If they had been nettles or cabbages, he would have felt the same pleasure in buying them; and his eyes sparkled with animation when he entered uncle David's room, carrying them in his hand, and saying, “I was so glad to have some money! I could spare it quite well. There is no greater pleasure in being rich than to help such poor people as Evan Mackay and his poor sick mother!" "Yes, Frank, I often wonder that any enjoyment of wealth can be considered equal to the exercise of kind feelings, for surely the most delightful sensation in this world is, to deserve and receive the grateful affection of those around us," replied Major Graham. "What a wretched being Robinson Crusoe was on the desert island alone, though he found chests of gold, and yet many people are as unblessed in the midst of society, who selfishly hoard for tunes for themselves, unmindful of the many around who ought to be gratefully receiving their daily benefits.” "I was laughing to read lately of the West India slaves, who collected money all their lives in an old stocking," said Frank," and who watched with delight as it filled from year to year; but the bank is only a great stocking, where misers in this country lay up treasures for themselves which they are never to enjoy, though too often they lay up no treasures for themselves in a better world." "I frequently think, Frank, if all men were as liberal, kind, and forbearing to each other as the Holy Scriptures enjoin, and if we lived as soberly, temperately, and godly together, what a paradise this world would become, for many of our worst sufferings are brought on by our own folly, or the unkindness of others. And certainly, if we wished to fancy the wretchedness of hell itself, it would only be necessary to imagine what the earth would become if all fear of God and man were removed, and every person lived as his own angry, selfish passions would dictate. Great are the blessings we owe to Christianity, for making the world even what it is now, and yet greater would those blessings be, if we obeyed it better." "That is exactly what grandmama says, and that we must attend to the Gospel from love and gratitude to God, rather than from fear of punishment or hope of reward, which is precisely what we saw in poor widow Mackay and Evan, who seemed scarcely to expect a recompense for behaving so honestly." "That was the more remarkable in them, as few Christians now are above receiving a public recompense for doing their duty to God. Men of the world have long rewarded each other with public dinners and pieces of plate, to express the utmost praise and admiration, but of late I never open a newspaper without reading accounts of one clergyman or another, who has been honoured with a public breakfast!' when he is presented by an admiring circle with 'a gold watch and appendages!' or a Bible with a complimentary inscription, or a gown, or a pair of bands, worked by the ladies of his congregation! and all this, for labouring among his own people, in his own sphere of duty! What would Archbishop Leighton and the old divines have said to any one who attempted to rouse their vanity in this way, with the praise of men ?" "What you say reminds me, uncle David," said Frank, ❝that we have been asked to present our Universal-Knowledge-Master with a silver snuff-box, as a testimonial from the scholars in my class, because he is going soon to Van Dieman's Land, therefore I hope you will give me half-a-crown to subscribe, or I shall be quite in disgrace with him." "Not one shilling shall you receive from me, my good friend, for any such purpose! a snuff-box, indeed! your master ought to show his scholars an example of using none! a filthy waste of health, money, and time. Such testimonials should only be given, as Archbishop Magee says, to persons who have got into some scrape, which makes their respectability doubtful. If my grocer is ever publicly presented with a pair of silver sugar tongs, I shall think he has been accused of adulterating the sugar, and give over employing him directly." "Laura," said Frank, "you will be having a silver.thimble voted to you for hemming six pocket-handkerchiefs in six years!" "I know one clergyman, Dr. Seton, who conscientiously refused a piece of plate, which was about to be presented in this way," continued Major Graham; "he accidentally heard that such a subscription was begun among the rich members of his congregation, and instantly stopped it, saying, 'Let your testimonial consist in a regular attendance at church, and let my sole reward be enjoyed hereafter, when you appear as my crown of joy and rejoicing in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming.' Sir Edward Graham's particular friend, Captain Gordon, at last wrote to say, that the Thunderbolt, 74, having been put in commission for three years, was about to sail for the African station, therefore he wished Frank to join without delay; and as a farther mark of his regard, he promised that he would endeavour to keep his young protege employed until he had served out his time, because a midshipman once paid off, was like a stranded whale, not very easily set afloat again. Lady Harriet sighed when she read the letter, and looked paler all that day, but she knew that it was right and necessary for Frank to go, therefore she said nothing to distress him on the occasion, only in her prayers and explanations of the Bible that evening, there was a deeper tone of feeling than ever, and a cast of melancholy, which had rarely been the case before, while she spoke much of that meeting in a better world, which is the surest hope and consolation of those Christians who separate on earth, and who know not what a day, and still less what many years, may bring forth. Major Graham tried to put a cheerful face on the matter also, though he evidently felt very sorry indeed about parting with Frank, and took him out a long walk to discuss his future prospects, saying, "Now you are an officer and a gentleman, entitled therefore to be treated with new respect and attention, by all your brother officers, naval or military, in his Majesty's service." Frank himself, being a boy of great spirit and enterprize, felt glad that the time had really come for his being afloat, and examining all the world over with his own eyes; but he said that his heart seemed as if it had been put in a swing, it fell so low when he thought of leaving his dear happy home, and then it rose again higher than ever at the very idea of being launched on the wide ocean, and going |