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Was softly lingering on His hallowed name,
Whose praises angels sound eternally.
Quickly the mother sunk upon her knee,
And from her snowy forehead threw the long,
Dark tresses, and on her child gazed wildly;
The note seemed fluttering yet upon her tongue;
But she was dead - her heart had broken with her song.

PEGGY.

BY MRS. L. A. H.

She lived unknown,

With her name

No bard embalms and sanctifies his song."

COWPER.

POOR Old Peggy! how little could any one have thought, as they looked at thy uninteresting countenance, thy darkhued skin, thy trembling form, that thy name, thy true, unadorned name, and thy simple history, would ever have stood upon the printed page! Yet Peggy was one of the precious children of Zion, "comparable to fine gold;" she was one of God's "hidden ones;' " her name was written in the Book of Life, and she is now before the throne, freed from infirmity, praising with unfettered powers, the dear Redeemer, who set his name upon her, and made her an instrument of stimulating the more gifted to duty, and shaming the slothful and unprofitable servant.

Poor old Peggy! there are some who look upon thy race with disgust, because they find it

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Such would have turned from the unsightly casket, deeming not that it contained a jewel of exceeding beauty, a pearl of great price, a precious stone which should glitter in the Redeemer's crown for ever. Ah! perhaps those

very beings who despised thee, may have owed much to thy simple, fervent prayers! Those who deemed thee "a cypher in the works of God," may have

"Received advantage from thy noiseless hours,

Of which they little dreamed;"

and thy teacher, thy too faithless teacher, who, since you left her, has recalled with bitterness many unimproved opportunities of instructing and of comforting thee, may have had the blessings which evermore attended her in life, bestowed in answer to thy prayers.

Poor old Peggy! I see thee now, undismayed by the snow and cold of winter, or the rain and heat of summer, taking thy way each succeeding Sabbath to the house of God, with thy Bible and large hymn book under thine arm. I see thy earnest look in the class, thy undivided attention, thy fixed eye; I hear thy tremulous voice repeating the sublime words of Scripture, always accurately committed, always ready when called for. I see thy meek, quiet look, as thou waitedst for thy turn in the class. Yes! I see it all! The recollection would be sweet-unmixedly sweet

did there not arise with these remembrances thoughts of past neglect. I might have done so much more for her!

She was so desirous to learn! So willing to improve every opportunity. Peggy, when I meet thee in heaven, I shall fall at thy feet, and pray thee to forgive me for many negligences, that even at this distant period flit before me, and sit upon my soul in judgment.

I was young and inexperienced, when a class was given me in the Sabbath school. It was a colored class, and all of them knew how to read pretty well. I oftentimes had a deep feeling of responsibility, and was generally punctual in my attendance. I knew how to perform my duty outwardly. But O, how much clearer views I needed of Christ, to enable me to perform my duty to them fully! There was too little light in my own soul to allow me to throw sufficient brightness on the path in which my pupils should have trod. Yet they improved in reading, and committed a good deal of Scripture to memory, and I hope that the Spirit impressed it upon their hearts, and mercifully pardoned my deficiencies.

One day, a very old woman, with spectacles, took her place at the foot of the class. From her childhood she had lived in the family of a neighbor, with whom we were intimate, and had always been known among us children by the familiar appellation of "Aunt Peggy." I was surprised at her appearance; concluding, from her age, that it would be impossible to teach her any thing. But I had always loved her. When I was a little child she had won my affections, by many little gifts which her kind heart knew that

children valued; and I was determined to do what I could for her, in despite of the flippant remark of a young lady to me, as she passed onward to her own class, that I had " a most promising scholar."

"I know how to spell a little, Miss H," said the dear old woman, as she opened her spelling book, "but I do want to learn to read in the Bible."

She was my scholar for two years, although past seventy when she commenced. She learned to read fluently and understandingly the first year; and upon the second she laid up rich stores of Scripture truths and Scripture words in her memory. I have known that old woman repeat, at a lesson, from seven to twenty verses from the Bible, with hymns beside. Meek, uncomplaining creature. In that time she experienced most bitter and heart-breaking trials, but they never kept Peggy away from her place in the class. She would often look very sorrowful when she came in, but the cloud was generally dispelled before she had finished her lesson, she did so love God's habitation and the place where his honor dwelleth. For the two years in which I taught her, I do not think that she was ever once absent from school. She passed our house on her way thither, and often did I wish, when the weather was very disagreeable, that Peggy would not come out; but I saw her moving onwards, and I would not -O, I could not

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stay at home then. So she made me yet more attentive than I had been before.

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