have ten apples on it. My brother you have used better: bid him, at least, share his apples with me." 10. "Share his apples with you!" said his father: the industrious must lose his labor to feed the idle! Be satisfied with your lot; it is the effect of your negligence; and do not think to accuse me of injustice, when you see your brother's rich crop. 11. "Your tree was as fruitful, and in as good order, as his: it bore as many blossoms, and grew in the same soil; only it was not fostered with the same care. Edmund has kept his tree clear of hurtful insects; but you have suffered them to eat up yours in its blossoms. 12. "As I do not choose to let any thing which God has given me, and for which I hold myself accountable to him, go to ruin, I shall take this tree from you, and call it no more by your name. It must pass through you orother's hands, before it can recover itself; and, from this moment, both it, and the fruit it may bear, are his property. 13. "You may, if you will, go into my nursery, and look for another, and rear it, to make amends for your fault; but, if you neglect it, that too shall be given to your brother for assisting me in my labor." 14. Moses felt the justice of his father's sentence, and the wisdom of his design. He, therefore, went that moment into the nursery, and chose one of the most thriving apple trees he could find. Edmund assisted him with his advice in rearing it; Moses embraced every occasion of paying attention to it. 15. He was now never out of humor with his comrades, and still less with himself; for he applied cheerfully to work; and in autumn, he had the pleasure of seeing his tree fully answer his hopes. Thus he had the double advantage of enriching himself with a splendid crop of fruit, and, at the same time, of subduing the vicious habits he had contracted. LESSON XXX. One Thing at a Time. 1. ONCE on a time, when the snow was deep on the ground, and the wintry winds howled among the old oak and elm trees, a party were sitting round the blazing hearth of a farm-house. It was Christmas: the farmer and a few friends sat nearest the fire, and the men servants, some with clean frocks on, and others with red waistcoats and blue jackets, sat at a little distance. 2. They had all had their supper, for in those days men went to bed earlier than they now do; ay! and got up earlier too. The bright pewter plates and dishes above the large dresser, and the bacon and hams, and hung-beef, looked as though those men did not live without eating. It was a merry night with them all, and Farmer Broomfield was telling them how things went on in the world when he was young. 3. "I will tell you," said the farmer, "what was my principal fault, when I was a lad; I could never be contented in doing one thing at a time. Many a scrape I got into on account of this failing; and I often think that, if I had not broken through the habit, I should not own such a farm as I have now got. 4. "I remember once going with my father to a church at some distance, and a grand church it was; and so, after service, I looked about me: there was the marble monument of a great hero, who had died in the defence of his country; and another, put up for a great writer of books. At one end of the church, printed in gold letters, were the names of some noblemen who had left money and land to the poor; and at the other, the name of a church-warden who had given, I know not how much, towards repairing and beautifying the church. 5. "As soon as I came out, 'Father,' said I, 'how I should like to be a great hero, and die for my country; and write learned books; and have a marble monument; and give money to the poor; and repair and beautify the church!' Stop! stop!' said my father; 'not so fast. Attend to one thing at a time; for if you are to be a great hero, as you say, and die for your country, I hardly know how you will contrive to write learned books, and give money to the poor, to say nothing about repairing and making the church beautiful.' 6. "The very next day, I was out with my father, when, by some accident, a waggon load of hay was thrown over, and the shaft horse lay kicking and plunging on the ground. I cried out directly, Draw the waggon back! Cut the bellyband! Hold the horse's head down, and loosen the-' 7. "Hold! hold,' my lad, cried my father, and do let us be satisfied in doing one thing at a time.' So I held down the horse's head, he unhooked the back chain and belly-band, and loosened the traces, and in two minutes the horse was on his legs; and, presently after, all the hay was in the waggon again; and I saw the advantage of doing one thing at a time. 8. "Never shall I forget what a piece of business I made of it one day when I went to market. I had a good large basket of eggs to sell, and was told to order several things to be sent home. There was a new red waistcoat of my father's to be sent from the tailor's, a loaf of lump sugarwhich was then a great luxury-from the grocer's, and other things from other places. 9. "Now, it happened that I did not sell all my eggs, and, as I thought it would be of no use for the tailor and the other people to send their things, when I could take them all home myself, I called for the waistcoat, and the sugar-loaf, and the other articles, putting the waistcoat carefully at the bottom of my basket, and the eggs at the top, and, spreading a clean cloth over them all, I mounted Dobbin to ride home. 10. "At first I walked Dobbin quietly along; but, thinking it might save a journey, if I rode half a mile round, to call on a neighboring farmer, whom my father had directed me to see the next day, about some turnip-seed, I set Dobbin off in a trot, quite forgetting the eggs in my basket, When 1 got home, the first thing my father did was to ask if I had remembered to call about his waistcoat. 11. "I told him that I had not only called, but brought it with me; and the loaf of sugar, and the other things; and called on Farmer Reynolds into the bargain. "Ah! that is just like you!' said he; you must do every thing or nothing; but I hope you have no eggs in your basket.' Then it was, for the first time, that my mind misgave me; but when my father went to the basket, to take out his waistcoat, what a cry he set up! did 12. As I trotted Dobbin along, the sugar-loaf had jumped up and down; the eggs had got under it, and every one of them was broken or cracked upon my father's red waistcoat I thought I should never hear the last about it; for my fa ther talked to me for an hour, and finished by saying, that he hoped this would cure me; that in future I should call to mind his red waistcoat, and content myself with doing one thing at a time. 13. "Some time after, being out in the fields at work, our dog was running after some birds that were flying about and picking up the seeds. The dog chased first one and then another, but never caught any. Look there, Joe!' said my father; that dog is very much like a son of mine!' Why so?' replied I; 'he is running after the birds, but he does not seem to catch any.' 'No, Joe!' said my father, and he is not likely to catch any while he plays that game; for, like some people we know, he is not contented with doing one thing at a time.' 14. "At last I was thoroughly cured; for a fire broke out in the kitchen, soon after we were in bed, and up we got in a pretty bustle, as you may suppose. As soon as I saw the fire, I called out as loud as I could, 'Pump some water! Run and alarm neighbor Yates! Get the goods out of the house! Cry, fire! Raise the neighborhood!' 15. "My father soon stopped my foolish bawling, and, by attending properly to one thing at a time, put out the fire. I was terribly alarmed, and saw so clearly the advantage of my father's plan, that I was determined to adopt it; and ever since then, whatever has been the occasion, I have tried to omit nothing that ought to be done, and have generally succeeded in my undertaking by doing only one thing at a time." LESSON XXXI. The Lost Nestlings. 1. "HAVE you seen my darling nestlings?" "I cannot, cannot find them, Though I've sought them far and wide. 2. "I left them well this morning, I'd a nest without a brood. 3. "Oh, have you nought to tell me, About my tender offspring That I left within the nest? 4. "I have called them in the bushes, 8. And to mourn your murdered children, "I'm sorry that I've taken The lives I can't restore; 9. "I ever shall remember The plaintive sounds I've heard, LESSON XXXII, [Spoken at an Exhibition, by one of the pupils of the New England Institution for the Blind, at Boston.] 1. THE bird that never tried his wing, 2. That captive bird may never float |