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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.