ung lads to say their own prayers in
private, notwithstanding the advice of the ministers to the contrary.
The only times that Pat and Eugene were ever asked into the parlor to
pray was on some rare occasions, when Mrs. Reuben, through a laudable
curiosity, and to serve as an example to her own children, caused the
orphans to say their prayers aloud before retiring to bed. The two
little fellows, one five and the other eight years of age, joining their
hands before their breasts, repeated the Lord's Prayer, Hail Mary, the
Apostles' Creed, the General Confession, the Acts of Faith, Hope, and
Charity, the Litany of the Blessed Virgin, the Prayer of the Angel
Guardian and Patron Saint, and Prayers for the Dead: these they repeated
aloud, and correctly, to the astonishment of the other children and the
edification of the mistress.

"Ah, Reub, Ben, and Will," she said, "when will you be such good boys as
Patsy and Geny? You can't say the Lord's Prayer yet."

"I can tell," said Reub, blushing, "more than Pat can. I know how old
Mathusalem was, who was the wife of Abraham, and who was the mother of
Solomon, and the wife of Putiphar."

"I don't know how to say so many prayers," said Ben, contemptuously;
"but I can tell how many cents in ten dollars, how many states in the
Union, and how large England is."

"I can sing a hymn," said Will, "which I heard in the choir in the
Methodist meeting house when I went there with cousin."

"Let us hear you, Will," said his mother.

"Mother, I have only a little of it," said Will.

"Say all you remember," said she, "and sing it."

"The ladies first said, ma," said he, commencing,--

'O for a man--O for a man--O for a mansion in the skies.'

"The men answered,--

'Send down sal--send down sal--
Send down salvation to our souls.'"

At this specimen of ludicrous poetical composition the mother burst out
a-laughing, in which she was joined by the two arch Irish lads; and
Will, discouraged, blushed and stopped.

"I would rather not have any prayer than have that foolish hymn," said
Ben. "O Will! O, you goose!"

"Silence, boys!" said Mrs. Prying. "Pat and Eugene, can you not sing?
Come, let us hear how you can sing. Commence. Don't be ashamed."

"Will we sing, ma'am, what the Christian brothers taught us?"

"Yes, Pat, any thing; don't be shy," said the lady. The lads began thus,
with joined hands and uplifted eyes:--

"Ave Maria! hear the prayer
Of th