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Entered according to Act of Congress, in J une, 1869, by J. W. Burke & Cos., in the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States for the So. District of Georgia Vol. Ill—No. 40. THE LITTLE BOY OH CRUTCHES. __ stood in the fast-falling f'kMg* snow over the open grave, just ready to let down into its silence the beautiful form of a little child about three years old. All must have been struck by the pale, the very pale face of the hither, and have said in their thoughts: “ Poor fellow ! you will soon fol low her.” All must have noticed the almost wild look of the mother as her child was about to be buried in the dark, cold grave. The snow lay in the bottom of the grave, and it lay white on the coffin. But did they notice a little lame boy, a few years older than the little sister about to be buried, as he leaned on his small crutches over the corner of the grave, and looked so earnestly into it ? He was very small, and very pale, and the first look at him showed you that he must be a cripple as long as he lives. He had lost his little sister— his playmate, h.s other self. No voice has been so gentle, and no heart so loving to him as hers. He : shed no tears. He stood like a mar-1 ble figure upheld by crutches. But j his little bosom heaved as if it would j burst; and, though he uttered no sound, I felt sure he was sincerely j mourning. ( From that grave the little fellow j began to droop and wither. It was j soon noticed that he ate but little, j and in the night would be heard, as I with a low voice he repeated over J and over the little hymns that he used to repeat with his little sister, j They thought it the grief of a child, , and that new toys and new playthings would banish it; but the arrow had gone in too deeply to be thus drawn out. For hours he would go and sit in the little nook where he and Jessie used to play, with his chin in his thin hand thinking, thinking ! Sometimes h e would ask if Jessie could “remember now,” or if she would “love him still MACON, GEORGIA, APRIL 2, 1870. or if they supposed “ she sang the same hymns where she was gone” which they used to sing together, or if “ she wou’d know him if she should meet him with out any crutches, 1,1 The hymns that spoke of Jesus and His love, of heaven and its rest, of the angels and the redeemed, seemed to be his delight. Though he seldom men tioned Jessie’s name, it became after a time well understood that he thought only of her. He laid aside his play things as of no use, but would bend over her little drawer, and earnestly gaze at what her tiny fingers once handled. Slowly and gently his life began to Whole No. 144. ( ebb out. He had no sickness, made j no mention of pain, had no cough, ; and medicine could do nothing for him. When he was compelled to remain in his bed from sheer weakness, he begged that he might lie on the very bed and on the same spot where Jessie died. Sometimes in the night he would be heard to utter a sup pressed moan, and when his mother hastened to him and inquired what he wanted, he would only say : “I want Jessie! Do you think she has forgotten me? I want to go to Jessie, and she will tell me all about it.” Once, just before the angel came for him, he was heard to break out | almost in a shout. “ What is it, my son?” said his mother. “ Oh, I thought Jessie had come.” “No. But, my child, you are go ing to Jessie. You will soon see her.” The little crutches are now stand ing in the corner of the mother’s chamber, leaning against the little bureau that held Jessie’s clothes and things. His little hat hangs just over the crutches. The pale face is there no more. Side by side the two small graves are seen under the great hemlock that tenderly spreads its shade over them. The cold winds of winter whistle over them. But where are the children? Did Jessie know him ‘without crutches?’ Is he lame and pale and moaning now ? Or is the Good Shepherd leading them to still waters, and edu cating and training them up in that pure and bright world ? There is no little boy on crutches looking into the grave of a sister there ! Satan. Satan would have me while away my life in inactivity, under pretences of mo desty, diffidence, and humility, and he is never wanting to furnish me with excuses for delaying, or shifting ser vice.