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Entered according to Act of Congress, in June, 1867, by J. W. Bukkk & Cos., in the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States for the So. District of Georgia.
Yol. I.
THE PET LAMB.
SVjjjjro yER T Y is a weary
thin s; of " rief and
pain. It bows down the
* heart of the most skilful
J man, and makes even the
,#3,V smallest child complain with
f heavy sighs and murmurs.
The children of the rich,
who have not their bread
to earn ; who, like the
lillies of the held, “ toil not, neither
do they spin,” have no knowledge
of the cares and privations of those
whose lots are not so fortunately
cast. As years roll by, and life
wears on, they walk along life’s
pleasant ways, where all is rich
and fair, with an abundant share
of all the luxuries of lib?, while
the children of the poor man must
rise betimes, before the sun begins
his daily career, and scarcely com
plete their tasks when he sinks in
the west. As Mrs. Howitt beauti
fully expresses it—
-11 Few things have they to call their own, to fill
their hearts with pride;
The sunshine and the summer flowers upon the
highway side,
Aud their own free companionship on heathy
commons wide.
“ Hunger and cold and weariness these are a
frightful three,
But another curse there is beside, that darkens poverty
They may not have one thing to love, how small soo er
it be.”
A poor laboring man had but one little
lamb; it rested with his children beneath
the shade of the trees which grew in front
of his cottage; it ate from their hands,
and nestled close to their hearts, their
one only treasure. But want, “even as
an armed man,” came down upon his
household. The father labored all day
long, that his little ones might not suffer,
and one by one the household things were
disposed of to buy bread. One morning
he stood in his humble doorway, with
MACON, GrA., OCTOBER 20, 1867.
downcast eyes. Gaunt poverty stared
him in the face, and smothered every
pleasant thought in his breast. His little
children were playing with their pet lamb
before the door.
“What is this creature’s life to us?” he
asked himself. “It will buy us bread.
Even though my little ones may weep all
day, and each one go to his or her mom n
ful task to-morrow with down-drooping
head, the hungry must be fed, and the
pet lamb must go to buy us bread.
When the little ones heard of it, then
sorrow was most pitiful. r i hey plead foi
it with tears and sighs :
“Oh, mother dear, it loves us so, and
besides it, what have wo to love and play
with ?”
One little boy, in the impotence of his
despair, said to the others :
“ Let’s take him to the broad green hill.
I know a little hiding place, where they
can never find him.”
But poverty is relentless. Though the
father’s and mother’s hearts were run
ning over with pity for their children,
grim want stared in at the door, and the
pet lamb was bound with strong cords,
and taken over the hot and dusty
road to the town and sold.
“ The little children through that day, and
throughout all the morrow,
From everything about the house a mournful
thought did borrow;
The very bread they had to eat was food unto
their sorrow.
“ 0 ! poverty is a weary thing; ’tis full of griet
and pain;
It keepeth down the soul of man as with an
iron chain:
It maketh even the little child with heavy sighs
complain.”
- —«.. ®
A Boy’s Lawsuit.
Under a great tree, close to the
village, two boys found a v> alnut.
“ It belongs to me,” said Igna
tius, “ for I was the first to see it.
“No, it belongs to me,” cried
Edward, “'for I was the first to
pick it up.”
And so they began to quarrel in
earnest.
a I w ill settle the dispute,” said
an older boy, who just then came
up.
He placed himself between the two
boys, broke the nut in two, and said:
■ •The one piece of shell belongs to him
who first saw the nut; the other piece to
him who picked it up; but the k«nel I
keep for judging the ease. And tin., h.
said, as he sat down and laughed, “is the
common end of most lawsuits.
_____ ♦♦♦—
Tin- Tiikee Guides.— A sound head, an
honest heart, and an humble spirit are
the three best guides. They will ever
suffice to conduct us in safety, in e\ ei}
variety of circumstances.
No. 17.