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THE DYING CHILD ON NEW YEAR'S EVE.

PY ALFRED TENNYSON.

If you are waking, call me early, call me early, Mother dear ;
For I would see the sun rise upon the glad New Year;

It is the last New Year that I shall ever see;

Then you may lay me low i' the mould, and think no more o' me.

To-night I saw the sun set; he set and left behind

The good old year, the dear old time, and all my peace of mind; And the New Year's coming up, Mother, but I shall never see The may upon the blackthorn, the leaf upon the tree.

There's not a flower upon the hills; the frost is on the pane ;
I only wish to live till the snow-drops come again;

I wish the snow would melt and the sun come out on high,
I long to see a flower so before the day I die.

The building rook'll caw from the windy tall elm tree,

And the tufted plover pipe along the fallow lea,

And the swallow will come back again, with summer o'er the wave; But I shall lie alone, mother, within the mouldering grave.

When the flowers come again, Mother, beneath the waning light,
Ye'll never see me more in the long grey fields at night;
When from the dry dark wood the summer airs blow cool,
On the oat-grass, and the sword-grass, and the bulrush in the pool.

Ye'll bury me, my mother, just beneath the hawthorn shade, And ye'll sometimes come and see me where I am lowly laid : I shall not forget ye, Mother, I shall hear ye when ye pass With your feet above my head, in the long and pleasant grass.

I have been wild and wayward: but ye'll forgive me now;
Ye'll kiss me, my own Mother, upon my cheek and brow;
Nay, nay, ye must not weep, nor let your grief be wild,
Ye should not fret for me, Mother, ye have another child.

Oh! I will come again, Mother, from out my resting place;
Though ye'll not see me, Mother, I shall look upon your face;
Though I cannot speak a word I shall hearken what ye say,
And be often, often with ye, when ye think I'm far away.

Good night, good night; when I have said good night for evermore,
And ye see me carried out from the threshold of the door;
Don't let Effie come and see me till my grave is growing green;
She'll be a better child to you than ever I have been.

She'll find my garden tools, upon the granary floor;

Let her take 'em, they are hers, I shall never garden more; But tell her, when I am gone, to train the rosebush that I set, About the parlour window, and the box of miguionette.

Good night, sweet Mother, call me, when it begins to dawn;
All night I lie awake, but I fall asleep at morn;

But I would see the sun rise upon the glad New Year:
So if you're waking, call me, call me early, Mother dear.

CHAPTERS FOR CHILDREN TO READ TO THEIR

PARENTS.

"DON'T BE LATE."

I have been much grieved at the children in my school coming late in the morning; and I have made a rule to close the doors punctually at Nine, and proceed to prayers, and suffer none to come in, whether teachers or scholars, until prayers are over. I then call the late children together, and take them to task, one by one, for their bad habit. The answers I get to my questions are all very similar; and I have come to the opinion, that it is not always the child's own fault. It is true, that in some cases lazy boys and girls will play or loiter on their way to school, even though it be the Lord's day, and so never get there until prayers are over; but I think this is often not the case. Generally, children walk on to school steadily and quickly as soon as

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they are let loose from their Mother's door. I often watch them hurrying on, as if they feared to be late : and it is always a pleasing sight,-the little girls with their bags, and the boys with their bibles and prayer books, with nice clean face and shining shoes only, I don't like to see them eating their bread and butter as they go along the street, not biting at a large apple or turnip after they get into school. Now, as I said before, when children come late to school, it very often is their fault, but I think it oftener the fault of the Fathers and Mothers.-To show this, I will just give you the answers made by some late children to my questions:

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Fanny White," said I, "it vexes me very much to think that I should so often find fault with you about coming late to no purpose." Fanny's eyes filled with tears, as she said, "Please, Sir, it's not my fault." "How is that?" I asked, for I found her anxious not to state the real reason. After some difficulty, I learnt from her, that her father went out to work every morning at five o'clock, winter and summer, and that on Sunday morning he always indulged himself by sleeping till nine or ten, and that this made them all late. Now I would not wish to deprive Fanny's father, who works so hard all the week, of the additional sleep that he gets on Sunday, which is intended to be a day of rest, so long as he is up in time for his private devotions and going to Church but I do think that there must be bad management somewhere, when it prevents the children from going to school in good time, and gets them into the habit of not being punctual. The remedy is very simple. Let Fanny's mother get breakfast in good time so that the children may start early, and let the rest wait till her father is ready.

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Mary Barker was next called up. Why are you late, Mary ?" "Please, Sir, I have to wash and dress the baby." Many girls made this answer. "Now surely," I said, "this is a very bad excuse, I must call and speak to your Mother." I did call in the course of the week, and from what Mrs. Barker said about her domestic duties, it appeared very necessary that Mary should help to wash and dress the younger ones, or their Mother could not get to Church, but there was no need to be late about it. I found on inquiry, that they never thought of getting up till eight o'clock, and then all was bustle and confusion, every body in a hurry and crying out "Be sharp now, or you'll be late again."

After a little talk, Mrs. Barker agreed that the children should rise at seven, or at the latest, at half-past: and I think she has kept to her word, for Mary has not been late since.

Jacob Cooper was invariably late before he made his appearance. The reason given was this, he has several younger brothers and sisters who come to the school, and he has to clean all the boots and shoes on a Sunday morning. As soon as he had blackened Johnny's shoes, his mother tied them on, put a thick piece of bread and butter into his hand, and started him off; the consequence was, Johnny always came with his mouth full, and could not join in the service or the singing for the first few minutes; and then his face was greasy and disagreeable to look at, and all the upper part of his slip dirty and untidy. Sometimes Johnny had a little sugar on his bread and butter, and this always made matters worse. The same was the case with his sister, whom they called Sarah Ann. In a few minutes more another pair of shoes would be ready, then came the tying on, and the thick piece of bread and butter, and the greasy face, and the full mouth, and the dirty pinafore, all over again as in Johnny's case. Last of all it was as much as Jacob could do to get his own shoes cleaned and himself made tidy, and get to school in timeto be too e. And when he reached there he felt unhappy, so much work to do on a Sunday morning, and always late, and his Teacher's grieved and sad look-all these made him at last quite dislike the school, and he was just thinking about giving up school altogether when I called on his mother. I pointed out the propriety of having all the shoes and boots cleaned on Saturday night. Mrs. Cooper excused herself by saying that Jacob, who worked at a grocer's shop, was never home till nearly eleven o'clock on Saturday nights. This seemed at first to be something like an excuse; but I next inquired whether it was absolutely necessary that Jacob should clean the shoes, the answer was, "he was the eldest boy, and was like to do it." After a good deal of talking, Mrs. Cooper agreed to my plan, which was that all the children who were able, should clean their own shoes the last thing before they went to bed on Saturday night-that Mrs. Cooper should clean her own and that Jacob should clean his own and his Father's, after he came home at night. Jacob happened to come in to his dinner while I was

there, and I told him of my plan, his eyes beamed and his face, which had latterly worn a downcast look whenever he talked to me, now brightened up and made him look quite good-natured. "I shall be glad enough to do that, sir," said he, "though I'm full tired when I get home o' Saturdays; and I'll just look at those which Teddy has cleaned and if they don't shine well, I'll just put a bit extra polish on 'em." Here then the difficulty seems to be got over. This only occurred last week, but I shall look out for Jacob on Sunday and shall really expect to see him in time.

Now these are only a few out of the many things which bring children late to school, that admit of a remedy, and I really hope that the children who read this Magazine, will do all they can to come to school in good time; and that all the parents who hear this short chapter read to them, will set about removing all the hinderances which prevent their children being punctual.

No doubt children are very useful to their parents on Sunday mornings-they are u ful to dress the baby, and fetch the milk, and sweep the door steps, and blow the fire, and sometimes to peel the potatoes, and fetch water and make toast; but all this should be done in time to get to school at nine o'clock. And now, I close my chapter as began; take this for your rule through the new year-"DON'T BE LATE." When you lie down

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in bed on Saturday night, think of my chapter and say "DON'T BE LATE.' When you wake in the morning, and feel sleepy, and turn round, and stretch yourself, and yawn, and wonder what time it is, and whether you may not lie a quarter of an hour longer, think of my advice and spring out upon the floor, and cry out to your brothers and sisters, "DON'T BE LATE." And if you

have anything to do for your parents do it as quickly as you can, saying to yourself all the time, "DON'T BE LATE. And lastly do not loiter on the way. If you call for any of your companions and they are not ready, don't wait for them, but put your head in at the door and cry out, "DON'T BE LATE," and then hurry along to school as fast as you can. Every body is late who comes into school after the clock has struck nine. Accept these few words of friendly counsel from your very sincere friend and well wisher,

PETER PARTICULAR.

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