g, but she was not prepossessing in her appearance;
and Mrs. Percy, who never studied character, or sympathized with
menials, or strangers, would have laughed at the idea of dwelling with
compassion on the lot of her washerwoman with a drunken husband. Yet her
feelings sometimes became interested for the poor she heard of abroad,
the poor she read of, and she would now and then descant largely on the
few cases of actual distress which had chanced to come under her notice,
and the little opportunity she enjoyed of bestowing alms. Superficial in
her mode of thinking and observation, her ideas of charity were limited,
forgetful that to be true it must be a pervading principle of life,
and can be exercised even in the bestowal of a gracious word or smile,
which, under peculiar circumstances, may raise a brother from the
dust--and thus win the approval of Him, who, although the Lord
of angels, was pleased to say of her who brought but the "box of
spikenard"--with tears of love--"_She hath done what she could._"

THE VISION OF BOATS.

ONE morn, when the Day-god, yet hidden
By the mist that the mountain enshrouds,
Was hoarding up hyacinth blossoms,
And roses, to fling at the clouds;
I saw from the casement, that northward
Looks out on the Valley of Pines,
(The casement, where all day in summer,
You hear the drew drop from the vines),

White shapes 'mid the purple wreaths glancing,
Like the banners of hosts at strife;
But I knew they were silvery pennons
Of boats on the River of Life.
And I watched, as the, mist cleared upward,
Half hoping, yet fearing to see
On that rapid and rock-sown River,
What the fate of the boats might be.

There were some that sped cheerily onward,
With white sails gallantly spread
Yet ever there sat at the look-out,
One, watching for danger ahead.
No fragrant and song-haunted island,
No golden and gem-studded coast
Could win, with its ravishing beauty,
The watcher away from his post.

When the tempest crouched low on the waters,
And fiercely the hurricane swept,
With furled sails, cautiously wearing,
Still onward in safety they kept.
And many sailed well for a season,
When river and sky were serene,
And leisurely swung the light rudder,
'Twixt borders of blossoming green.

But the S