Such has been the career of two of the playmates of my childhood.  They are both living, but they have been traveling in opposite directions,—­I may say ever since they left the cradle.  And so far as we can judge, the main reason is, that the one had a mother whose influence was only for evil, the other, a mother who was intent upon doing good.  Both their mothers now dwell in the unseen world; while the one is represented on earth by a most loathsome specimen of humanity, the other by a pure and elevated spirit, that needs only to pass the gate of death to become a seraph.

Mothers, I need not say a word to impress the lessons suggested by this contrast.  They lie upon the surface, and your own hearts will readily take them up.  May God save you from looking upon ruined children, and being obliged to feel that you have been their destroyers!  May God permit you to look upon children, whom your faithfulness has, through grace, nurtured not only into useful members of human society, but into heirs of an endless glorious life!

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Original.

REMINISCENCES OF THE LATE REV.  THOMAS H. GALLAUDET.

BY MRS. G. M. SYKES.

There is a little legend of the Queen of Sheba and wise King Solomon, which is fragrant with pleasant meaning.  She had heard his wonderful fame in her distant country, and had come “with a very great company, and camels that bare spices, and gold in abundance, and precious stones;” this imposing caravan had wound its way over the deserts, and the royal pilgrim had endured the heat and weariness of the way, that she “might prove the king with hard questions, at Jerusalem.”  This we have upon the highest authority, though for this particular test we must be content with something less.  Entering his audience-chamber one day, she is said to have produced two crowns of flowers, of rare beauty, and apparently exactly alike.  “Both are for thee, O wise king,” said she, “but discern between them, which is the workmanship of the Most High, and which hath man fashioned in its likeness?”

We read of costly oriental imitations of flowers in gold and silver, in pearls, and amethysts, and rubies.  How shall Solomon the King detect the cunning mimicry?  Solomon the Wise has determined.  He causes the windows looking upon the gardens of his ivory palace to be thrown open, and immediately the crown of true flowers is covered with bees.

Like King Solomon’s bees are the instincts of childhood, sure to detect the fragrance of the genuine blossom in human nature, and settle where the honey may be found.  It was a rare distinction of the good man whose name stands at the head of this chapter, that children everywhere loved him, and recognized in him their true friend.  An enduring monument of his love for children, and his untiring efforts to do them good is found in the books he has written for them.  His Child’s Book on the Soul,