with love and joy; only a sickly babe, who had forgotten him, and
turned from him with alarm. Where could he go, but to the grave to weep
there? then he returned to the house to look at the very spot where he
had knelt with his wife in prayer, and parted from her in hope of a happy
return.

Little Maria was nursed with a mother's care, though not in a mother's
arms; but her delicate frame had been shaken by her infant troubles, and
care and comforts came TOO LATE. After drooping day by day, she died at
the age of two years and three months, exactly six months after her
mother. Her father was near to close her faded eyes, and fold her little
hands on her cold breast, and then to lay her in a little grave, close
beside her mother's, under the Hope Tree.

The words of the poet would suit well the case of this much tried
infant:--

"Short pain, short grief, dear babe, were thine,
_Now_, joys eternal and divine."

Like Maria's are the sufferings of many a missionary's babe, and many lie
in an early tomb. But they are dear to the Saviour, for their parents'
sakes, and their deaths are precious in his sight, and their spirits and
their dust are safe in his hands.

[11] Taken from "Travels in Eastern Asia," by Rev. Howard Malcolm.

[12] Amherst is only thirty miles from Maulmain.

SIAM.

Cross a river, and you pass from Burmah to Siam. These two countries,
like most countries close together, have quarrelled a great deal, and
now Britain has got in between them, and has parted them; as a nurse
might come and part two quarrelsome children. Britain has conquered that
part of Burmah which lies close to Siam, and has called it British
Burmah; so Siam is now at peace.

But though these two countries have been such enemies, they are as like
each other as two sisters. Siam is the little sister. Siam is a long
narrow slip of a country, having the sea on one side, and mountains on
the other.

The religion of Siam is the same as that of Burmah, the worship of
Buddha. But in Siam he is not called Buddha: the name given him there is
"Codom." You see how many names this Buddha has; in China he is Fo; in
Burmah he is Gaudama; in Siam, he is Codom. Neither is he honored in Siam
in exactly the same way as in Burmah. Instead of building magnificent
pagodas, the Siamese build magnificent image houses or temples.

The Siamese resemble the Burmese in appearance, but they are much worse
looking. Their faces are v