any of us, so without any more entreaties we mounted, and smack went the whip. We were off; but we had not proceeded above twenty yards before Matt Norden was seen in the distance, running at the top of his speed to overtake us. "He is coming, Coachy," we vociferated at the top of our voices; "he is coming; pray stop one minute." We repeated our petition, full forty times, but the more we prayed Coachy to stop, the more he shook his head and smacked his whip; and the faster went his horses. Matt, also seemed to run faster still, as the coach receded from his view; but the more he ran, the further he was behind, and in a few minutes we were out of his sight. Matt lost this opportunity of seeing an old companion through his indolence. As we ceased calling to Coachy, I observed that he would pay dearly for his want of punctuality that day, inasmuch as he had set his heart on spending a day with William Doane.

To pay dearly for his want of punctuality was no new thing with Matt Norden. He did not go to school with me, but during our vacations I had an opportunity of ascertaining how he fared where he went, and it was by no means creditable to himself. Old Mr. Norden was desirous of bringing his son up to the church, and he fancied that his son had both the piety and the abilities requisite for the priestly office. And in this estimate of the character of his son perhaps he was not mistaken. Matt Norden was one of the most pious among my companions, and I do not recollect his ever having uttered a word in my hearing, or committed any action,

which detracted from his character as a Christian. His abilities, also, were unquestionably good; he only lacked one thing requisite to make him a shining character, and that was industry. His father was well aware of this sad feature in Matt's character, but still he thought he would improve in this respect, and therefore he resolved to spare no expense in order to promote his interests. One of the best schools of the day was selected for Matt's education, and his fond father flattered himself that his son would surely benefit by the instructions of his learned preceptor. His pleasing dreams, however, proved visionary. Not long after Matt had been thus favourably placed out, a letter from his master to Mr. Norden showed, that, however skilful the preceptor might be, it was of little avail unless his efforts were seconded by the industry of his scholar. These letters were repeated at different intervals during the whole of the time Matt was at school, so that old Mr. Norden finally despaired of ever seeing his son mount the rostrum. Matt's own lips, also, bore testimony to his lack of success in ascending the ladder of learning, for during his vacations he was ever pouring complaints in the ears of his father about the punishments he had to endure at school, because he could not con his lessons in time for his master. He seemed to have an instinctive dread of his preceptor, and often, when comparing the treatment which we received under our respective masters, did he wish that he could join me at Truth Hall. On no occasion, however, did I give him any hopes of being

treated better at Truth Hall than he was under his own master. I saw clearly that it was his own fault, and my constant advice to him was, "Be industrious and punctual, and then I have no doubt that you will escape punishment, and even gain the approbation of your preceptor." Matt, however, used frequently to solicit his father to let him go to Truth Hall: he was sure that he could learn there. But Mr. Norden turned a deaf ear to all his son's intreaties: he knew best at what school to place him, and he should not remove him. At first Mr. Norden negatived Matt's intreaties, perhaps, from a hope that his son would benefit most where he was, and from the feeling that " a rolling stone gathers no moss." But latterly he seems to have denied his request from a conviction that Matt would never learn his Latin and Greek anywhere. "I tell you what, Matt," he said one day in my hearing, after one of these petitions had been presented to him by his son, who intreated him with tears to let him go to Truth Hall,-"I tell you what, Matt, you will never learn anywhere. As your present master says, you have good abilites, but you will not use them. You have got into such a habit of delaying things, that, unless you alter, you will never succeed in any thing. What do you think I should have done, if I had acted as you are acting? Depend upon it, diligence and perseverance are necessary if you would wish to succeed in the world. A man may have even money; but if he has not these qualities as well, he may squander it away before he is aware. It is in

dustry alone that will make a full purse for a

man.

I have often thought that Matt Norden would have done much better, if, instead of soliciting his father to let him go to another school, he had resolved to please him by profiting to the utmost at the school where he was placed. It has been well said, that "he best bowls at the mark of his own contentment, who, besides the aim of his own eye, is directed by his father, who is to give him the ground." The good and dutiful son, indeed, is one who honours his parents by paying them the utmost deference and respect, by a filial affection for their persons, a tender regard for their happiness, a cheerful attention to their advice, and a constant obedience to their commands. As he becomes every day more sensible of his obligations to his parents, he grows every day more desirous of showing his gratitude to them. employs, also, his childhood in the strictest attention to the education bestowed upon him, and his youth to the profession or business that he is designed for, so that he may, by his proficiency in each, both please and be an honour to his parents. Now I would not for a moment infer that Matt Norden was wanting in respect, love, or duty to his parents; but at the same time his habits often exhibited something like a want of these essential qualities in the character of a good son. I have been at his father's when he has been asked a dozen times to do a thing before he actually did it; and at these times I always felt pain for him, because I knew that it was not from any disobedient spirit that the

He

thing was not done at first, but simply from his habit of procrastination. Matt, I have no doubt, loved his parents with all his heart; but he had no sense of the value of minutes and hours. He seems to have thought that every thing he had to do might as well be done at an hour hence as at the present moment; and that the thing he had to do would be, or could be, done as well then as now. But this was a grand mistake on his part. There is nothing like the time present for the performance of our duties: if we delay them, they are generally ill done, or left altogether undone. We should take care of our minutes, and our hours would be sure to take care of themselves. Every man, indeed, who has obtained for himself a great and permanent reputation, has won and secured it by patient and persevering labour-by treating time not as waste land fit only for geese to feed upon, but as an estate, every corner of which is worthy of being cultivated. Depend upon it, if youth neglect time, time will neglect youth. The stream of time, it has been observed, is fraught with golden sand; but it flings to the idler nothing but its froth, and he falls "like the fat weed in Lethe's stream," without ever having flourished.

I regretted Matt Norden's indolent habits the more because I foresaw that if his character as a Christian did not suffer at first by it, it certainly would in the end. I occasionally reminded him of this, and he would promise to be more active; but, although he may have at these times exhibited signs of reformation, he invariably relapsed into his habitual indolence.