market, and the smaller birds, which least of Nature's children seem known to sickness or to pain, fluttered with vigorous wing and frequent twitter about the leaves, and amid the branches of the rustling elder.

But there was one sight, which, from the moment when it first had caught the barber's eye, diverted him from every other thought. The new house, above alluded to, had been completed and inhabited during his illness, and it was with astonishment and dismay he perceived that the inmate was no other than a rival barber. He could not without anxiety contemplate the superior splendour displayed by this new competitor. The front of the house was handsomely dashed; the pole, exceeding at least by half the size of O'Berne's, was surmounted by a gilded ball that shone like another sun, while close beneath was fastened a long banner of hair that flouted the winds as if anticipating triumph. Above the lintel of the door was a sign board, executed in metropolitan style, which announced the proprietors (for it seemed to be a partnership) as "Fitzgerald and O'Hanlon, late from Paris and Dublin, professors of hair-cutting and perfuming", etc. "Mary", said the convalescent to his wife, as he surveyed this great display, why didn't you tell me there was a new barber set up since I lay down?"

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"I didn't think of it", replied the wife; 66 what matter can it be to us ?"

"I'm afraid time will show us that", said O'Berne. "Wasn't Ireland big enough without their coming to plant themselves, and their pole, over-right my very door?"

"What signifies themselves and their great pole ?" replied the wife. "You have your custom made, and the neighbours will stand by you, I'll engage”.

"That's not the way of the world", replied the barber, "and I'd be a fool if I thought it would be the way with me; there are some I know I can count upon. There's

the blacksmith, because he has no capers that way, and he says no one knows the sweep of his jaws but myself: he'll stick to me; and there's my third cousin, Pat Sheehy, the weaver, will stay by me for blood's sake; and a few more friends I may be sure of; and perhaps others that will be honest, as some will be rogues, without expecting it; but the rest, you'll find, will have their notions. The golden ball will draw many an eye away, and where the eye goes, the chin and head will follow. But where's the use of talking?"

The event even outstripped the anticipations of the barber. The time lost by his own illness and that of his wife, who fell ill of the same disease immediately on his recovery, accelerated a catastrophe which he had too much cause to fear. The villagers were unwilling to frequent a house which had now for two months been the seat of contagion. Party spirit also lent its influence to the success of the new-comers, and O'Berne lost many a head and chin to political differences.

In fine, before the lapse of many years, extreme and squalid misery descended on the dwelling of the barber. By degrees, retrenchment followed retrenchment, until what once were necessaries, assumed the character of luxuries too costly to be thought of. The barber and his wife no longer appeared abroad except when it could not be avoided, and at length that day was one of joy to the family which saw them supplied with a bare sufficiency of food.

From circle to circle, however, they descended in the region of adversity, nor had they yet arrived at the depths of the abyss. The rent of their tenement ran into arrear, and they were menaced more than once with an ejectment. This was the only event which began to strike a real gloom into the mind of the barber, already weakened by misfortune and the effects of sickness. While it startled every affection of his heart, it awoke in all its force (as the

heart in its alarm will often do) the full power of an imagination that prosperity had lulled into comparative inaction.

The barber, though he had received the same education, did not use it to the same advantage as his wife. It perplexed, while it soothed him, to observe the serenity with which his wife sustained the adverse change in their circumstances. She, who had sacrificed so much for him, did not even seem to be conscious that she had made any sacrifice whatever. Her wealthy relatives were now all scattered and burdened with their own separate claims, and could do nothing to assist the barber. Still, in their distress, her concern seemed all for her husband and her children. The sea is not more necessarily agitated by the sighing of the winter winds, than is a generous and religious bosom by the accents of distress and sorrow in a fellow being. So natural, so free from effort or reluctance, appeared the affectionate concern with which the gentle Mary exerted herself to alleviate the sufferings of her husband and her children,

At different times her gentle uncomplaining conduct produced varying effects upon her husband's mind. Sometimes, when his reflections took a gloomy turn, the clear angelic serenity of her looks would, with an influence like that of gentle music, subdue his discontent, and restore his thoughts to calmness and to order; at others, when he beheld her sharing in their common want, and remem bered what she was when she resigned abundance and respectability to unite her earthly lot to his, his anguish far exceeded what it was when he thought only of his own privations.

"We are worse off now", he said to her, one summer evening, as they sat before the open window which looked upon their little orchard, and watched the crows winging high above them to the distant wood; "our case is worse han that of even the animals that are left without reason. The face of the round world is free to them; from the worm

to the eagle, all are well provided for. The crow has his nest upon the bough, and the hare has her form in the furze, and their food is ready for them at morning in the fields, or by the river, for no trouble but the pains of seeking it. In the water, in the air, or on the earth, food, clothing, and a home, are ready found for all. The goldfinch has his painted feathers, and the robin his grain of seed, while our poor babes are perishing with cold and hunger”.

"For every pain we bear with true patience in this life", said his wife, "we shall receive an age of glory and of happiness in the next".

"Yet who would murmur at a Providence that is inscrutable", resumed O'Berne, in a fit of sombre musing; "if men would only do their duty by each other? But it is not, and it never will be so. They say that if you take a young bird unfledged from the nest, and set it down alone in some field far away, where the parents cannot find it, and leave it there and watch it, they say there is no bird that passes, of whatever kind, and hears its lonesome chirp, that will not bring it a worm, or a mouthful of some other food, until it gets strength to shift for itself. But men! men must have laws to force them even to do so much as will keep the breath of life within the lips of their own kind".

"All is well", said Mary, "while we keep our own fidelity. Let the storm blow as it will, let all our prospects and our possessions go to ruin; all still is well while Heaven is not offended. Let us keep our hands unstained, and in His name who distributed suffering and joy, let the worst that will befall us. It is not want nor plenty that can either give or take away our peace of mind. To be contented with the will of Heaven, and to strive to put it into practice, is always in our power, and if we are not so disposed in our distress, we may be certain that we should not be so under any change whatever. Let us preserve our innocence, and all is well"

"You are very easily contented", said the barber with an angry look. What were your thoughts, two months since, when the fire seized on the grocer's house next door, and we saw, with our own eyes, the remains of an unhappy infant dug out of the ruins ?"

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"I will tell you, Godfrey, what I thought", replied his wife; "I trembled for myself when I beheld it. He, said I, who has created the world so fair, and filled it with so many blessings, who has made that beautiful sun, and those millions of shining stars, and who daily and hourly shows his goodness and his mercy in new acts of kindness to his creatures; he too it is who has permitted that sinless child to perish by a frightful death. Let me therefore take the warning, and beware in what condition I fall into his hands; for if he thus afflicts the innocent and good on Earth, what should be done with us? I speak to you in this way, dear Godfrey, because I see you are beginning to sink in spirits. Beware, my dear, dear husband; it is in our moments of gloom and melancholy, as well as in those of thoughtless gaiety, that the enemy of our souls endeavours to seduce us into crime or madness".

As she said these words she laid her hand caressingly upon her husband's shoulder. Moved by the action as well as by the words with which it was accompanied, O'Berne was softened, and melted slowly into tears.

"Read to me", said he, "and it may be better"

His wife complied, and taking from the drawer a copy of the scriptures, began to read a portion of the New Testament. Godfrey listened, and it seemed to him as if he had never heard the words before. For several days after he became totally absorbed in the perusal of the volume; the profound wisdom of its counsels, the majestic simplicity of its narrative, and the stupendous nature of the events which it recorded, the heartfelt spirit of prayer with which it was pervaded, the terrible solemnity of its