"It must needs be a long prayer, I suspect, that would turn Brown now," said Mrs. Brown, bitterly; at the same time there were tears of vexation in her eyes at the home truths her neighbour had had the boldness to utter to her.

"Constant prayer, daily patience, and a woman's love, I believe, will win back any man living," said Mrs. Smith, gravely. "Do try then, neighbour, for even if they fail you'll find the reward come back into your heart. But you can't fail, for God is a hearer and answerer of prayer; and He never fails in anything He has promised us."

"

Well, I will remember what you say, for I believe you mean it kindly," said Mrs. Brown; "but with the children starving round me, and my husband coming home night after night the worse for liquor, and never giving me enough money so much as to have a decent meal between us all, 'tis a sorry life I lead, I can tell you, and many's the time I wish I was dead and gone.'

"Ah! neighbour, that's just want of faith altogether," returned Mrs. Smith; "want of faith in God, and want of faith in yourself. Besides, Death, which folks are so fond of thinking and talking of, as if it was the end of trouble, is nothing but the beginning of another life, and that's certain, and if ye haven't had courage to live out the difficulties you meet with here, you can't expect to come in for the Rest,' which, as far as I understand my Bible, God only promises to those who, He says,

'have won this life's conflicts:' by that, neighbour, I mean our troubles, whatever they be, and have 'overcome,' that's the word He uses; not given in, you see, but got above them; because they trusted in Him to deliver them and bless their own efforts."

Mrs. Brown sighed audibly.

"I can't stay to talk longer to-day, Mrs. Brown," said Mrs. Smith, "because it's high time to be getting my husband's supper ready; but if you like to send your two biggest children in to-night to have a bit with us, you're quite welcome. Goodbye, and God send you help." So saying, Mrs. Smith, with an encouraging smile, took her leave.

After she was gone, Mrs. Brown went to her own house, and, sitting down, had a hearty cry. She felt there was a great deal of truth in all Mrs. Smith had said, but how to begin and turn over a new leaf, she didn't know. Then, too, she hadn't even a Bible in the house, even if she could have found out how, and she felt ashamed to borrow one, lest folks should know why she wanted it; whilst she was so out of the habit of praying, that, as she said to herself, "She shouldn't know how or what to ask for," and so, after vainly indulging her grief, she fell back into the old excuse; that "there never was a woman so tried before, and she supposed the only way was to bear it, and get along as she could."

CHAPTER III.

"Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it."

IF we desire to follow out the result of good and bad management, as exhibited in the different characters and arrangements of Mrs. Smith's and Mrs. Brown's households, it will be necessary to look beyond their every-day domestic economies, and weigh the forecast of one set of parents in the training and destination of their children's future, against the haphazard carelessness of the other.

How little in general do fathers and mothers take into consideration of what immense importance it is to themselves, as well as to their offspring, that the latter should, when of a suitable age, have what is called "a good start in life" given them:-be placed, in fact, in some open path where good conduct and industry, combined with the fear of God, may by gradual steps lead to comfort and independence. It is the lack of being placed on this

lowest rung of this ladder, from which hope, seeing a clear path before it, can climb, first in imagination, and then in practice, to its heights, which causes so much juvenile lawlessness and crime in efforts for independence ;-for more than half the petty larcenies and thefts which are recorded proceed, we shall find on inquiry, from neglect and premature want, in boys and girls, who are driven to shift for themselves before their characters are formed, or they have acquired self-control enough to resist temptation.

"Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it." Such is the command and the promise. But to ensure the latter, viz., the stedfastness contained in that final promise, we must bear in mind that "the way must be carefully borne in view first, and the training then adapted to it, in one or other of its varied phases.

Natural talent, special tastes, position in life, and surrounding circumstances, will dictate what the training should be, which, with God's word and promises, as the foundation for growth and progress therein, should place each child born into the world in the way he should go.

On the other side, we go against nature if we leave uncultivated natural tastes and talents, and force children into pursuits unprofitable to them; bringing them up in opposition to God's command; forgetting the claims of childhood, and setting little ones to long

hours of toil when they should be at play or at school;-such a course will never give them that "start in life" which a parent's loving care should ensure to them. The amount of wages earned in the latter case may indeed relieve parents temporarily, of the burthen of their children's maintenance; but very soon they will be thrown back again on their hands, and that probably too at an age when ignorance and independence combined will have so hardened their hearts, that the time is past for parental influence to have any effect; and fathers and mothers will have to reap in bitterness and disgrace the fruit of their own neglect.

As it is ever pleasanter to close with a bright picture of life's results, we will first take a rapid view of poor ignorant Mrs. Brown's management as regarded her children; and in order to do this, it will be necessary to retrace her history from the time when convinced, but not roused, by Mrs. Smith's arguments, she accepted her misery as a burthen she could not get rid of; deeming herself in consequence the most miserable woman alive.

Up to that time her children, four in number, had gone to a day-school; but when her husband got discharged from his work for his drunken habits Mrs. Brown did not know where to turn, for even the pence for their schooling; and having let the account run in arrear for two or three weeks, when -called on to pay it she couldn't; and then, instead of explaining her difficulties, where perhaps a kind ear