look at it rather for the sake of finding matter for
thought, than for the object of getting rapidly through its contents.

At a little distance from him sat a lady, busily employed in working
with her needle. She was young and if not decidedly pretty, very
interesting in appearance. Though she was looking at her work, from the
expression of her countenance it might be perceived that she was
listening attentively to a gentleman seated by her side, who was reading
to her in that clear low voice, with that perfect distinctness of
enunciation, which is so pleasant to the ear. A stranger might have
guessed, from the tone of tenderness, yet of perfect confidence, in
which he occasionally spoke to her, and the glance of affection which
she gave him in return, that they were husband and wife; nor would he
have been mistaken.

They were Captain and Mrs Clayton, who were returning to India after
their first visit to England since their marriage. His appearance and
manners were very gentlemanly and pleasing, and he was a man much
esteemed by a large circle of acquaintance. They had now been married
about eight years, and had no children. Mrs Clayton had gone out to
India at the age of seventeen with her father, a colonel in the army,
and soon after her arrival she was won and wed by Captain Clayton, so
that she was still a very young woman.

Sometimes, when she saw a happy mother nursing her child, she would
secretly sigh that she was not so blessed; but, I am glad to say, she
did not on that account indulge in the custom of bestowing any portion
of her care and attention on puppy dogs and cats, as I have seen some
ladies, both single and married, do in a most disagreeable manner. I,
of course, desire to see people kind to dumb animals; but I do not like
to see little beasts petted and kissed, and treated in every way like
human beings, with far more care and attention bestowed on them than are
given to thousands of the children in the back streets and alleys of our
crowded towns. I trust that you, my young friends, will remember this
when you have money or food to bestow; and, instead of throwing it away
in purchasing or feeding useless pets, that you will give it to
instruct, to clothe and feed those who are born into the world to know
God, to perform their duty to Him, and to enjoy eternal life. Dreadful
is it to contemplate that so many live and die without that knowledge,
who might, had their fellow-men exerted t