Nell paused, and seemed very much agitated; her eyes glared wildly, and bending close to Florence, she continued in a whisper:  “We became very poor, in consequence of my extravagance; I then thought my mother a burden; she was too ill to work, and I left her to starve; she did not, however; she died of a broken heart. I was her murderer!  ’T was that which drove me mad.  Look! see you not that black cloud which darkens the sunshine of my life?”

“I cannot see a cloud,” sobbed poor Florence, who was now tasting the bitter cup of repentance.

“I know it, poor child!” continued Nell; “the cloud I mean is such as you just felt,—­=Temper=. It is within us!  Conquer your temper, Florence Drew, and you may yet be good and happy.  Go, now, and seek mother, who is at this moment shedding tears of sorrow for her little girl’s ill-temper.  Go to her and—­” But, ere she could finish, Florence had glided into her mother’s room, and was kneeling humbly at her feet Tears of sorrow were changed to those of joy and repentance, as Mrs. Drew folded her little girl to her breast in a long and affectionate embrace.

Florence has never been unkind to her mother, or given freedom to her temper, since that day.  She is now the teacher of a class in a Sabbath school, and she often relates to her little scholars the story I have just related to you.

Crazy Nell continues to gather herbs, an object of pity to the benevolent, and of sport to the unfeeling.  And now, my dear little readers, I must repeat Crazy Nell’s expression:  “Conquer your temper, and you will be happy;” or, in the words of the sacred Scriptures, “He that ruleth his own spirit is greater than he that taketh a city.”

MAY.

[Illustration:  SHECHEM.]

SHECHEM.

BY REV.  J.G.  ADAMS.

In the picture opposite, the reader will see represented a part of the city of Shechem, at the foot of Mount Gerizim.  It is a very noted place in history.  It is called Sychar in the Gospel, John 4:5.  It was here, at Jacob’s well, that Jesus met the woman of Samaria.  The account of the conversation which they held together is one of the most interesting records in the New Testament.  I wish all our young readers would make themselves acquainted with it.  Jesus was a Jew; and the Jews had no dealings with the Samaritans.  Weary with travelling in the heat of the day, our Lord sat down to rest by that ancient well, when the stranger woman came to draw water from it.  Jesus said unto her, “Give me to drink.”  She was surprised that he, being a Jew, should ask water of her, a Samaritan.  This very surprise which she expressed led to a most instructive conversation.  Read it, and see how plainly Jesus teaches us the nature of true worship.  The Jews had their temple at Jerusalem; the Samaritans had theirs on Mount Gerizim.  The woman said to Jesus, “Our fathers worshipped in this mountain, and ye say that Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.”  She would ask which was the true place.  Jesus declared to her that it was not so much the place, as it was the heart, which made worship what it should be.  Read the answer of Jesus as the New Testament gives it, and then see if the Quaker poet, Barton, has not beautifully expressed it thus: