of sheep strolled around, and the bold little lambs came to peep in our faces, and then gallop away in pretended alarm; sometimes tearing our clothes to tatters in an ardent hunt for the sweet filberts that hung high above our heads, on trees well fortified behind breastworks of bramble and thorn; sometimes cultivating the friendship, while we quaffed the milk of the good-natured cows under the dairymaid's operation, whose breath I was instructed to inhale; all was freedom, mirth, and peace. Often would my father take his noble pointers preparatory to the shooting season, at once to try their powers and to ascertain what promise of future sport the fields presented. These were destructive expeditions in one sense. I remember the following dialogue, repeated to me by my brother, when we came home after a day's demolition of wearing apparel.

"Mr. B., this will never do; that girl cannot wear a frock twice without soiling it, nor keep it whole for a week: the expense will ruin us."

"Well, my dear, if I am to be ruined by expense, let it come in the shape of the washerwoman's and linendraper's bills-not in those of the apothecary and undertaker."

My dear father was right; and it would be a happy thing for girls in general, if somewhat of appearance, and of acquirement too, was sacrificed to what God has so liberally provided, and to the enjoyment of which a blessing is undoubtedly annexed. Where, among females, do we find the stamina of constitution and the elasticity of spirit which exist

in those of our rural population, who follow out-door employment? It pains me to see a party of girls, a bonneted and tippeted double-file of humanity,

"That like a wounded snake drags its slow length along," under the keen surveillance of a governess, whose nerves would never be able to endure the shock of seeing them bound over a stream or scramble through a fence, or even toss their heads and throw out their limbs as all young animals, except that oppressed class called young ladies, are privileged to do. Having ventured, in a fit of my country daring, to break the ice of this very rigid and frigid subject, I will recount another instance of the paternal good sense to which I owe, under God, the physical powers, without which my little talent might have lain by in a napkin all my days.

One morning, when his daughter was about eight years old, my father came in, and found sundry preparations going on, the chief materials for which were buckram, whalebone, and other stiff articles; while the young lady was under measurement by the hands of a female friend.

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'Pray, what are you going to do to the child?"

Going to fit her with a pair of stays." "For what purpose?"

"To improve her figure; no young lady can grow up properly without them."

"I beg your pardon; young gentlemen grow up very well without them, and so may young ladies."

"O, you are mistaken. See what a stoop she

has already! depend on it, this girl will be both a dwarf and a cripple if we don't put her into stays." My child may be a cripple, ma'am, if such is God's will; but she shall not be one of our making."

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All remonstrance was vain; stays and every species of tight dress were strictly prohibited by the authority of one whose will was, as every man's ought to be, absolute in his own household. He also carefully watched against any evasion of the rule a ribbon drawn tightly round my waist would have been cut without hesitation, by his determined hand; while the little girl of the anxious friend whose operations he had interrupted, enjoyed all the advantages of that system from which I was preserved. She grew up a wand-like figure, graceful and interesting, and died of decline at nineteen, while I, though not able to compare shapes with a wasp or an hour glass, yet passed muster very fairly among mere human forms, of God's moulding; and I have enjoyed to this hour a rare exemption from headaches, and other lady-like maladies, that appear the almost exclusive privilege of women in the higher classes.

Compressure of the feet was with equal strictness forbidden by my judicious father. This vain custom is, perhaps, not so fatal as the other, but it produces many evils. Coldness of the extremities may certainly exist where nothing of the kind has been practised, but while rejoicing that I, experimentally, know nothing of it, I cannot help recollecting that the bounding pulse which plays so joy

fully through my veins was never impeded in any part; and feeling this, I would no more expose a girl to one affliction than I would to the other. Do Christian mothers take a sufficiently serious and prayerful view of this subject, as regards their children? Do they weigh, in the balance of God's providing, this necessary provision of clothing-to separate not only what is unseemly for the woman professing godly simplicity, but what is enervating to those physical powers which she is bound to promote to the Lord, and the weakening of which is actual robbery of him? I fear we females are more ready to ask counsel one of another in this matter than of the Lord-or even of our husbands, who, in nine cases out of ten, no doubt, would decide against the foolish and pernicious custom. At least, in all my arguments with my own sex, I have found the men invariably siding with me on this topic.

THE PEARL OF GREAT PRICE.

A WEALTHY lady of Java, having been married to an English merchant, came to reside in England. Being unacquainted with the language, together with the customs and manners of the country, nearly the whole of her time was spent in playing with her children, of whom she was very fond, and decking herself in her jewels and pearls, of which she had a large and costly collection. She often called for her treasure-box, and amused herself by first looking at a fine necklace, then at a beautiful pair of ear-rings, and then held them up to glitter

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in the sun. There her treasure was, there was her heart also, and she thought there was little happiness beyond the contents of her box, and such like stones. Her Scotch nurse being one day in her room, in broken English she said to her, Nurse, this poor place-poor place!" "Why, madam?" asked her nurse. "Me look out of the window," replied the lady, "and see no woman in the street with jewels on-no jewels to be seen. In my country, all covered with diamonds and pearls. We dig into the hills in our country, and we get gold and silver, and precious jewels. You dig into your hills, and get nothing but stones." The nurse replied, "O yes, madam, we have a pearl in our country—a pearl of great price." The Javanese lady caught her words with great eagerness and surprise. "Pearl of great price! Have you, indeed? O that my husband was come home! He buy me this pearl; me part with all my pearls when he come home, to get this pearl of so great price." "0," said the nurse, "this pearl is not to wear. to be had in the way you think. It is a precious pearl, indeed; and they who have it are truly happy. They who have it are at peace, and have all they wish for." "Indeed," said the astonished lady, "what can this pearl be ?" "The pearl," said the nurse, "is the Lord Jesus; and the saying, that he came into the world to save sinners. All who truly receive this saying, and have Christ in their hearts as the hope of glory, have that which makes them rich and happy, whatever else they want; and so

It is not