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What the Minutes Say.
Wc are but minute?, ’*M things
Each one furnished with sixty wings.
With which we fly on our unseen track,
And not a minute ever comes back.
We are but minutes; when wc bring
A few of the drops from pleasure’s spring,
Taste their sweetness while yet we stay,
It takes but a minute to fly away.
We are but minutes; each one bears
A little burden of joys and cares:
Take patiently the minutes of pain ;
The worst of minutes cannot remain.
We are but minutes; use us well,
For how we are used we must one day tell;
Who uses minutes has hours to use,
Who loses minutes whole years must lose.
Written for Burke’s Weekly.
MAROONER’S ISLAND;
OR,
Dr. Gordon in Search of his Children.
BY RF.V. F. R. GOULDING,
Author of the “ Young Metro oners,"
CHAPTER XlV.— Concluded.
RITII a grave, yet highly
pleased expression of
countenance, Wheeler
went directly to Dr.
Gordon, and said—
in, what would you think
ringing you a message
m your children ?”
'l'don turned somewhat
pale, and his voice almost choked as he
asked:
“ Are they here ?”
Wheeler was troubled to see how much
more of hope had been excited by his
words than he intended, and he hastily
replied:
“No, they are not here. I wish they
were. Rut here is a message from them
which I doubt not will give you joy. ’
He then unwrapped from its envelope
and put into Dr. Gordon's hands a little
vessel, nicely carved out of a piece of
white cedar, and ballasted with buckshot
so as to right itself upon the water, even
after being upset. The little sails were
so rigged that whenever she “yawed,”
as sailors call the turning of a vessel out
of her course,) she would “luff up ” into
the wind, or run before it, as the case
might be, but always keep moving. On
its tiny flag of white silk was the word
“Hope,” and on the smooth white deck
were deeply penciled, in a female hand,
the words:
“ Schooner Hope.
Harold Mclntosh, Builder; Robert Gor
don, Rigger; Mary Gordon, Sail-maker;
Frank Gordon, Captain and Super
cargo.
Bound from Marooner’s Island to Belle
vue, Tampa, with a full freight of
love and good wishes.”
13 IT II K IT • s \Y E E K L V .
This precious little toy Dr. Gordon took
into his hands, and, with all the compo
sure he could command, examined in
every part. Not a word was exchanged
between him and the rest, only a few
whispers and low murmurs of the voice,
beginning with Wheeler, conveyed from
man to man the general fact that the
young marooners had been heard from.
Unable longer to control his feelings, Dr.
Gordon drew back as far as possible from
observation, covered his face with both
hands, and trembled from head to foot;
while the men, who, used every excuse
for looking in an opposite direction, could
not help seeing an occasional tear trickle
through his fingers.
As soon as the Doctor had finished his
examination, and had laid the little ves
sel on the seat, Tomkins took it up, scru
tinized its various parts, then passed it
to the men. Poor Wildcat, who could not
read, and who was, beyond comparison,
the most powerfully excited person
aboard, except Dr. Gordon, looked plead
ingly to his friend Jones to read and ex
plain to him every word. Then the men
began to talk, first in low whispers, then
in an under-tone, and at last more freely,
until they had exchanged thoughts upon
all the points connected with the little
vessel and its launchers. The conclusions
at which they seemed satisfactorily to
arrive, and which Dr. Gordon was much
interested to hear, although he had not
as yet allowed himself to say a word,
were:
Ist. That the missing company had
reached land in safety ;
2d. That the land they had reached
was an island ;
3d. That this island could not be very
far away;
4th. That when that vessel was made
and launched, the young people were at
leisure, in good spirits, and in no fear;
sth. That this toy had probably been
made and launched within the past two
days.
These conclusions, which tallied closely
with those of his own mind, were very
comforting to the grief-stricken father,
and caused him to feel very near to his
lost ones. There were some other ques
tions also discussed by the men on which
there was a strong division of opinion.
These were—
-Ist. Whether that island lay to the
north or the south of their present posi
tion.
2d. TV hether the young people were
most probably then upon the island, or
had left it and returned to Tampa.
3d. Whether, therefore, it was worth
while to continue their search down the
coast; and whether it were not better to
turn their bows northward, and to search
the coast on their way home.
These several points were freely dis
cussed, and some important facts adduced
about currents and counter-currents in
the Gulf; but when, after discussing the
third point, someone appealed to Dr.
Gordon to know whether he thought best
to return to Tampa, or to keep down the
coast, his reply was—
“To keep dow’n the coast. My impres
sion is,” said he, “that they are still be
low us.”
This decided the question about the
voyage.
In addition to what had been said
Wheeler took occasion to remark that
one reason why his exploring tour upon
the Gulf side of the key had been so much
prolonged, was that he could catch occa
sional glimpses of some object far south
which seemed to him like a canoe with
two persons aboard. Thinking that they
might be Dr. G ordon’s negro man, in com
pany with Riley, he had tried, by ascend
ing the most elevated points of the key, to
obtain a better view of them, but the
curvature of the earth hid from him ail
but the head and shoulders of the men, if
indeed they were men, as he supposed.
Towards sunset they approached an
other low island of pines, where they
landed and prepared to encamp for the
night.
Silent Influences.
The Rev. Albert Barnes say’s:
“It is the bubbling stream that flows
gently’, the little rivulet which runs along
day T and night by 7 the farm house, that is
useful, rather than the swollen flood or
the warring cataract. Niagara excites
our wonder, and we stand amazed at the
power and greatness of God there, as He
pours it from the hollow of His hand.
But one Niagara is enough for the Conti
nent and the world, while the same world
requires thousands and tens of thousands
of silver fountains and gently flowing
rivulets that water every farm and mea
dow, and every garden, and shall flow on
every day and night with their gentle,
quiet beauty’. So it is with the acts oi
our lives. It is not by great deeds, like
those of the martyrs, good is to be done,
but by the daily and quiet virtues oi Hie,
the Christian temper, the good qualities
of relatives and friends.”
Filling a child’s mind is like pack
ing a trunk. We must take care what
we lay in below, not only’ to secure foi
that a safe place, but to prevent it h'° m
damaging what is to come after.