66 But, William," said I, "it is in another world that she will arise;" and I attempted to explain to him the nature of that promise which he had mistaken. The child was confused, and he appeared neither pleased nor satisfied. "If mother is not coming back to me, if she is not to come up here, what shall I do? I cannot stay without her.” "You shall go to her," said I, adopting the language of the Scripture; "you shall go to her, but she shall not come again to you." "Let me go, then," said William; "let me go, that I may rise with mother." "William," said I, pointing down to the plants just breaking through the ground, "the seed which was sown there would not have come up if it had not been ripe; so you must wait till your appointed time, until your end cometh." "Then shall I see her?" "I surely hope so." "I will wait then," said the child; "but I thought I should see her soon; I thought I should meet her here." In a month, William ceased to wait. He died, and they opened his mother's grave, and placed his little coffin on hers. It was the only wish the child expressed in dying. Better teachers than I had instructed him in the way to meet his mother; and young as the little sufferer was, he had learned that all the labors and hopes of happiness, short of heaven, are profitless and vain. XLVII. NEVER GIVE UP. TUPPER. NEVER give up! It is wiser and better Never give up ! or the burden may sink you; The watchword of life must be, "Never give up." Never give up! There are chances and changes Is the true watchword of, "Never give up!" Never give up! Though the grape shot may rattle, Stand like a rock, and the storm or the battle Providence wisely has mingled the cup; XLVIII.—THE DEATH OF WYCKLIFFE. SIR WALTER SCOTT. [This lesson is taken from a poem called Rokeby, the scene of which is laid in England, in the year 1644, when the country was torn by a civil war between the king and the Parliament. Oswald Wyckliffe is represented as a designing villain, and Bertram Risingham as a lawless ruffian. They had been partners in guilt; but Oswald had of fended Bertram, who had vowed vengeance in consequence. Oswald was on the side of the Parliament, which was successful. Some prisoners had been intrusted to him, whom he has prepared to put to death on account of a false charge of treachery and breach of their word. For that purpose a scaffold had been reared in a dismantled church, and the prisoners brought there.] THE Outmost crowd have heard a sound Nearer it came, and yet more near; Rang the report the bullet sped— And to his long account, and last, While yet the smoke the deed conceals, * Deathsmen, executioners. † Nave, the central aisle or body of the church. Chancel, the space in front of the altar, at the head of the central aisle. And bursting in the headlong sway, A mantle o'er the corse he laid: * Halberd, a weapon consisting of a pole, with a cross piece of steel at the head. + Hailed, fell like hail. Basil was a servant of Oswald. § Fell, cruel. [This lesson is also from the poem of Rokeby. Redmond, when a young child, had been brought to the castle of Sir Richard Rokeby by an Irish guide, who had been attacked by robbers in a neighboring wood, and mortally wounded; living only long enough to deposit his infant charge in Sir Richard's hands. Redmond turns out to be the son of an English nobleman; and the poem ends with his happy marriage to his early playmate, Matilda.] THE tear down childhood's cheek that flows * But blithest laughed that cheek and eye, By lawn, by grove, by brooklet's strand, But summer months bring wilding † shoot *Blithest, merriest. ↑ Wilding, a species of apple. |