162 Eclectic series, 13.  What a sense of shame did James now feel!  Little Caroline seized his arm, and pulled him into the room.  But he hung down his head, and covered his face with his hands. 14.  His uncle went up to him, and kindly taking away his hands, said, “James, will you not bid me welcome?” But quickly starting back, he cried, “Brother, this is not your son.  It is the boy who so shamefully insulted me in the street!” 15.  With surprise and grief did the good father and mother learn this.  His uncle was ready to forgive him, and forget the injury.  But his father would never permit James to have the gold watch, nor the beautiful books, which his uncle had brought for him. 16.  The rest of the children were loaded with presents.  James was obliged to content himself with seeing them happy.  He never forgot this lesson so long as he lived.  It cured him entirely of his low and insolent manners.

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Lesson LXIII.

We are seven.

1.  I met a little cottage girl: 
She was eight years old, she said;
Her hair was thick with many a curl,
That clustered round her head.

2.  She had a rustic, woodland air,
And she was wildly clad: 
Her eyes were fair, and very fair;—­
Her beauty made me glad.

3.  “Sisters and brothers, little maid,
How many may you be?”
“How many?  Seven in all,” she said,
And, wondering, looked at me.

4.  “And where are they?  I pray you tell.” 
She answered, “Seven are we;
And two of us at Conway dwell,
And two are gone to sea.

        l64 Eclectic series.

5.  “Two of us in the churchyard lie,
My sister and my brother;
And, in the churchyard cottage, I
Dwell near them with my mother,”

6.  “You say that two at Conway dwell,
And two are gone to sea,
Yet ye are seven!  I pray you tell,
Sweet maid, how this may be.”

        Thirdreader. 165

7.  Then did the little maid reply,
“Seven boys and girls are we;
Two of us in the churchyard lie,
Beneath the churchyard tree.”

8.  “You run about, my little maid,
Your limbs, they are alive;
If two are in the churchyard laid,
Then ye are only five.”

9.  “Their graves are green, they may be seen,”
The little maid replied,
“Twelve steps or more from mother’s door,
And they are side by side.

10.  “My stockings there I often knit,
My kerchief there I hem;
And there upon the ground I sit,
And sing a song to them.

11.  “And often after sunset, sir,
When it is light and fair,
I take my little porringer,
And eat my supper there.

12.  “The first that died was sister Jane; In bed she moaning lay,

166 Eclectic series.

Till God released her from her pain;
And then she went away.