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Sometimc.
Sometime, when all life's lessons have been
learned,
And sun and stars forevermore have set,
The tilings which our weak judgment here have
spurned,
The things o'er which we grieved with lash¬
es wet,
"VV dl flush before us, out of life’s dark night,
As stars shine most in deeper tints of blue;
A nd we shall see how all God's plans are right,
And how what seemed reproof was love
most true.
And v/e shall see how, while we frown and
sigh,
God’s plans go on as best for you and me;
How, when we called He heeded not our cry,
Because His wisdom to the end could see.
And even as wise parents disallow
Too much of sweet to craving babyhood,
So God, perhaps, is keeping from us now
J life’s sweetest things, because it seemeth
good.
And if, sometimes, commingled with life’s
wine,
We find the wormwood, and rebel and
shrink,
Be sore a wiser hand than yours or mine
Pours out this potion for our lips to drink.
And if some friend we love is lying low,
Where human kisses cannot reach his face,
Oh, do not blame the loving Father so,
But wear your sorrow with obedient grace.
And you shall shortly know that, lengthened
* 4 .'
breath
Is not the sweetest gift God sends His
friend.
And that, sometimes, the sable pall of death
Conceals the fairest boon Ilis love can send.
If we could push ajar the gates of life,
And stand within and all God’s working sec,
We could interpret all this doubt and strife,
And for each mystery could find a key.
But not to-day. Then be content, poor heart!
God’s plans like lilies pure and white un¬
^
fold.
We must not tear the close shut leaves apart,
Time will reveal the calyxes of gold.
And if, through patient toil, we reach the land
Where tired feet, with sandals loosed, may
rest,
When we shall clearly see and understand
I think that we will say, “God knew the
best!"
— Mrs. May Utley Smith.
The Warrior’s Last Blow.
A STORY OF THE FIRST AFGHAN WAR.
The mountains of northern Afghan¬
istan are a cold and dismal region in
winter at the best of times; but nev¬
er had they looked colder, bleaker, and
more dismal altogether than just about
day'break on a chill, dreary morning in
January, 1842. On either side of a
deep, narrow, gloomy gorge vast black
precipices rose hundreds of feet into
the air, flecked with streaks of ghostly
white by the snow that had lodged in
the clefts and hollows, Here and
there among the rocks the skeletons
of a few leafless trees looked gauntly
down upon the dreary valley, which
seemed as dark and silent and lonely as
the mouth of a tomb. In the heart of
that savage solitude it might well as¬
tonish any one to hear several words
of English, and those, too, spoken by
the voice of a young child.
Three figures had just issued from a
deep cavern, or rather cleft, in the
rock, in which they seemed to have
taken shelter for the n ght. The fore¬
most—a tali, gaunt, sinewy Asiatic,
with his shaggy black hair twisted in¬
to long curls after the Beloochi fash¬
ion. a heavy Afghan jezail (rifle) on
h’s shoulder, and a long dagger in his
silken girdle—looked just the man for
such a wild region; but the slight,
delicate-featured English lady who fol
lowed him. and the little girl whom
she led by the hand, were the very last ?
people that one would have expected
to meet m tire depths of this grim wil
derness. |
Both looked pale and worn, as if
enoh rough travelling were far too
much foe their strength; and a very
pretty sight it was to see how careful
the fierce warrior was of them both,
helping the mother whenever she
stumbled among the sharp stones, and
carrying the child in his strong arms
through the great snow-drifts that had
swept across the narrow break-neck
path every here and there. But all
this while his keen black eye kept
glancing back over his shoulder, or
looking restlessly from side to side, as
if expecting every moment the ap¬
pearance of an enemy.
How they had come there is easily
told. They were the wife and daugh¬
ter of Colonel Harcourt, an English
officer, who, having been detached to
take charge of a hill fort on the Brit¬
ish line of advance upon Cabool (the
Afghan capital), had left them with
the main army as being more likely to
be safe there. But now the armv * it
self, having been driven out of Cabool
by the Afghans, had been attacked
among the mountains in its retreat to¬
ward the frontier of India and com¬
pletely destroyed. Amid the general
slaughter, Mrs. Harcourt and her little
Minnie had been saved with great dif¬
ficulty by their friend Ismail Beg—a
brave Beloochi chief in the English
service, who was now doing his best
to bring them safely to the fort where
Colonel Harcourt was in command.
But even Ismail’s strong nerves
trembled as he suddenly saw far in
the distance a line of dark figures com¬
ing on over the frozen hill-side swift
and merciless as pursuing wolves.
The Afghans were on their trail.
Had he been alone, the daring Be¬
loochi would have feared nothing, for
he had faced worse odds before now’,
and if he had to run for his life, few
men in those mountains could have
overtaken him. He caught up 'Min¬
nie, and strode onward through mud
and snow% w r hile the little girl nestled
her golden head against his shoulder
as if feeling quite safe in his hands.
But there was no one to carry poor
Mrs. Harcourt, whose delicate feet
were already sorely cut by the sharp
stones; and do what they might, the
pursuers gained upon them, uttering
yells of savage triumph, which made
the lady shudder, and Ismail clinch
his teeth grimly.
Just then a sudden turn around a
sharp corner showed them, high on the
rocky ridge beyond, the fort for which
they were making. But between
them and it yawned a hideous chasm
several hundred feet in depth, spanned
by one of those perilous bridges which
one sees also in South America, con¬
sisting merely of two ropes, one above
another, the lower for the feet and the
upper for the hands. Hanging above
that dreadful gulf, the two cords
looked no bigger than spider’s threads;
but this was their only chance.
Snatching off his scarf, Ismail blind¬
folded Mrs. Harcourt with it, and bid
ding Minnie shut her eyes and ding
tightly to his neck, he led the mother
forward to the ropes, placed her hand
on the upper one and her foot on the
ower, and told her to go forward and
fear nothing until she felt herself on
firm ground. Then he stepped in
front of her, and holding the child in
one arm went fearlessly along the ter
rible passage.
At that moment the Afghans came
over the brow G f the hill behind, and
ra i se <j a howl of fury as they saw their
prey about to escape. One man lev
elIed his rille atthe fugitives, but in
s tantly lowered it again, for they could
not fire at Ismail without the risk of
hitting Mrs. Harcourt or Minnie,
whose ransom would make them rich for
life. If it was possible to take the pair
alive the Afghans were determined to do
And now the excitement of this race
for life and death rose to a height.
Down came the pursuers with fright¬
ful yells, plunging headlong through
the snow, while the fugitives crawled
foot by foot along the perilous bridge.
Now they were half-way across, now
three-quarters, and now, with a long
deep breath of relief, the brave Bel¬
oochi set down Minnie upon the oppo¬
site bank, and placed Mrs. Harcourt
beside her. But as he rose to his feet
again, three rifles cracked at once, and
poor Ismail tell heavily upon his face
among the stones.
‘•Shavash!’ (well done) roared the
Afghan leader. “Forward, comrades,
there is no one to stop us now.”
Shouting wildly, the cruel gang
darted toward the bridge, and were ill
ready some distance along it. when Is
mail Beg, mortally wounded though
he was, raised himself on his knees
with a last effort, and with one furi¬
ous slash of his dagger cut the upper
rope right through. One wild cry
rang through the air as the fierce pur¬
suers fell headlong down the black un¬
fathomable depth below, and then sill
was still.
That very evening Colonel llar
court, having seen his wife and child
safelv established in the fort, sallied
l'orlh at the head of a party of his best
men, and brought in the body of poor
Ismail, which was buried next day
with military honors under a tree in a
corner of the great court, with a sim¬
ple wooden cross over it, upon which
the Colonel engraved with his own
hand:
“Greater love hath no man than
this, that a man lay down his life for
his friends .’’—David Ker in the Young
People.
Andrew Jackson’s Tenderness.
“People have little idea of the ten¬
derness of President Jackson’s heart,”
said General Brinkerhoft , “Even on
his deathbed, when his body was rack¬
ed with the pains of fast-approaching
dissolution, his kindness of heart was
shown in nearly every act, one of his
daughter’s stories well illustrating this.
Mrs. Jackson, jr., had some rare and
tropical plants which she prized very
highly and tended with a great deal of
care. But a few days before he died,
when he knew his end was near, Gen
Jackson called his adopted son Andrew
to his bedside, and pointing to the
plants which were standing on the
front veranda said: ‘Andrew, 1 can’t
live but h few days, and when my
funeral takes place there will dubtless
be a great many people here. Unless
you take some way to protect those
plants they will be broken oil or de¬
stroyed or taken away. Now Sarah is
very proud of them, and I think that
when the time comes you should have
those plants carried to the upper ver¬
anda and lock the windows and then
they will be safe.”
“lie died a few days afterward. His
directions in this respect were not ob¬
served, and Mrs. Jackson’s plants
Nvere destroyed or carried away in
P‘ eces or as a whole, as mementos ol
occasion. Cleveland header.
A Keen Observer.
I told Jones what I thought of nini
t he olher da v and \ col,ld he / “ “ 1
-
. * un * n ^ * <>I1( ea us
^*° 1 r 1 lm ' J 1 lna
nght off , ’ . 1<I iiroWn
^ doesn ’ *? t tak* yon * >n*, l see
>
through a man, observed Smith ad
miringly. “What did he do.”
“He kicked me down stairs .”—Neic
York Graphic.
THE HOME DOCTOR.
To Remove a OlOfe from tl»e Eye.
Take a horse-hair and double it, leaving
a loop. If the mote can be seen lay the
loop over it, close the eye, and the mote
will come out as the hair is withdrawn.
If the irritating object cannot be seen,
raise the lid of the eye as high as possi¬
ble and place the loop as far as you can,
close the eye and roll the ball around a
few times, draw out the hair, and the
substance which caused so much pain
will be sure to come with it. This
method is practiced by a\makers and
other workers in steel.— Medico! Tones.
Alleged Cure for a felon.
A doctor in the Phrenological Journal
says that be has tried this euro for a
felon in many cases and has never known
it to fail :|Take common salt roasted on a
hot stove until all the chlorine gas is
thrown off, or it is as dry as you can
make it. To a teaspoonful, and also a
teaspoonful of pulverized Castile soap,
add a teaspoonfui of Venice turpentine;
mix them well into a poultice and apply
to the felon. If you have ten felons at
once make as many poultices. Renew
this poultice twice a day. In four or
five days your felon will, if not opened
before your poultice is first put on pre¬
sent a hole down to the bone, where the
pent-up matter was before your poultice
brought it out. If the felon has been
cut open or opeued itself, or is about to
take off the finger to the first joint, will no
matter, put on your poultice; it
stop right there, and in time your finger
will get well even if one of the first
bones is gone. Of course it will not rc
store the lost bone, but it will get well
soon .—American lineal Home.
How to I sc Hot Witter.
One of the simplest and most effectual
means of relieving pain is by the uso of
hot water, externally and internally, the
temperature varying according to the
feelings of the patient.
For bruises, sprains, and similar acci¬
dental hurts, it should be applied imme¬
diately. as hot as can be borne, by means
of a cloth dipped in the water and laid
on the wounded part, or by immersion if
convenient, and the treatment kept up
till relief is obtained. If applied at once,
the use of hot water will generally pre¬
vent, nearly, if not entirely, the bruised
flesh from turning black.
For pains resulting from indigestion,
and known as wind colic, etc., a cup of
hot water taken in sips insufficiant will often relieve flan¬
at once. When that is a
nel folded in several thicknesses, large
enough to fully cover the painful place,
should be wrung out of hot water and
laid over the seat of the pain. If should
bo as hot as the skin can bear without
injury, and be renewed every ten min
utes, or oftener if it feels cool, until tho
pain is gone.
The remedy is simple, efficient, harm¬
less. and within the reach of every one,
and should be more generally used than
it is. If used along with common sense
it might save many a doctor’s bill and
many a course of drug treatment as well.
ConcernIng the Cereals.
A German scientist prefects some in¬
teresting information in u paper on the
original habitat of some of the cereals.
Barley was cultivated before any of the
other cereal? in Scandinavia, and to it
the generic name of “corn” was re¬
stricted by the Northmen from the earli¬
est tude times. which As a proof could of lx* the high lati¬ in
at corn grown a
remote age the Egil’g Saga is cited where
mention is made of a barn in Helgoland
(sixty-five degrees north latitude) used
for storing it and capable of containing
tables sufficient to accommodate HOC
guests at a feast. Barley was cultivated
in Iceland from 870 to 1400, ami then
the inhabitants ceased to raise it and
liecame dependent upon the home conn
try for their supply. Lately the Danish
government and private individuals have
introduced into Iceland with consider¬
able success not only barley but vege¬
tables and fruits. In Norway anything
like good barley cannot lie grown much
further than seventy degrees north, and
in Sweden the polar limit is about sixty
eight degrees. Rye came into use as a
breadstuff in Scandinavia at a v.-rv early
time. The summer crops of rye arc gen¬
erally fit for cutting when the Jjartcy
lnu vest is ready.
Actions, looks, words, steps, form the
alphabet by which you may spell charac¬
ter.
The secret of success*,i,ife is for a
man to be ready for op£ *viu*»ty when i;
comes.