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THE BROOK AND THE FOUNTAIN.

A FABLE.

A FOUNTAIN varied gambols play'd,
Close by a humble brook;

While gently murmuring through the glade,
Its peaceful course it took.

Perhaps it gave one envious gaze
Upon the fountain's height,
While glittering in the morning rays,
Pre-eminently bright.

In all the colors of the sky,

Alternately it shone :

The brook observed it with a sigh,

But quietly roll'd on.

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The owner of the fountain died;
Neglect soon brought decay;
The bursting pipes were ill-supplied;
The fountain ceased to play.

But still the brook its peaceful course

Continued to pursue ;

Her ample, inexhausted source,

From nature's fount she drew.

"Now," said the Brook, "I bless my fate,

My shewy rival gone;
Contented in its native state

My little stream rolls on.

"And all the world has cause, indeed,

To own, with grateful heart,
How much great nature's works excel

The feeble works of art."

MORAL.

Humble usefulness is preferable to idle splendor.

MAKING RESOLUTIONS.

NEVER form a resolution, that is not a good one and when once formed, never break it. If you form a resolution, and then break it, you set yourself a bad example, and you are very likely to follow it. A person may get the habit of breaking his resolutions; this is as bad to the character and mind, as an incurable disease to the body. No person can become great, but by keeping his resolutions; no person ever escaped contempt, who could not keep them. If any of my young friends resolve to read this book through, as proposed in the introduction, I hope they will not fail to do so, unless they have good reasons for it.

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"I may well of my father's great courage be proud; Wherever he came,

Flock, shepherd, or dame,

All trembled, and fled at the sound of his name.

Did any one spy

My papa coming by,

Two hundred or more, -Oh! he made them all fly! One day, by a blow,

He was conquer'd, I know;

But no wonder at last he should yield to a foe:

He yielded, poor fellow!

The conquering bellow

Resounds in my ears as my poor father's knell
A fox then replied,

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The beasts which he frighten'd or conquer'd, were asses;
Except a few sheep,

When the shepherd asleep,

The dog by his side for safety did keep.
Your father fell back,

Knock'd down by a whack

From the very first bull that he dared to attack -
Away he'd have scour'd,

But soon overpower'd,

He lived like a thief, and he died like a coward."

TO MY COUSIN ANNE,

ON RECEIVING FROM HER A NET WORK PURSE MADE BY

HERSELF.

My gentle Anne, whom heretofore,

When I was young, and thou no more

Than plaything for a nurse,

I danced and fondled on my knee,

A kitten both in size and glee,

I thank thee for my purse.

Gold pays the worth of all things here!
But not of love! - that gem 's too dear
For richest rogues to win it!

I, therefore, as a proof of love,
Esteem thy present far above

The best things kept within it.

JERUSALEM.

A SYRIAN village is very beautiful in the centre of a fertile plain. The houses are isolated, and each surrounded with palm trees; the meadows are divided by rich plantations of Indian fig, and bounded by groves of olive.

In the distance rose a chain of severe and sivage mountains. I was soon wandering, and for hours, in the wild, strong ravines of these shaggy rocks. At length, after several passes, I gained the ascent of a high mountain. Upon an opposite height, descending as a steep ravine, and forming, with the elevation on which I rested, a dark, narrow gorge, I beheld a city entirely surrounded by what I should have considered in Europe, an old feudal wall, with towers and gates.

The city was built upon an ascent; and from the height on which I stood, I could discern the terrace and the cupola of almost every house, and the wall upon the other side rising from the plain; the ravine extending only on the side to which I was opposite. The city was in a bowl of mountains.

In the front was a magnificent mosque, with beautiful gardens, and many light and lofty gates of triumph; a variety of domes and towers rose in all directions from the buildings of bright stone.

Nothing could be conceived more wild, and terrible, and

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