4.  “It snows!” cries the Belle, “Dear, how lucky!” and turns
     From her mirror to watch the flakes fall,
   Like the first rose of summer, her dimpled cheek burns! 
     While musing on sleigh ride and ball: 
   There are visions of conquests, of splendor, and mirth,
     Floating over each drear winter’s day;
   But the tintings of Hope, on this storm-beaten earth,
     Will melt like the snowflakes away. 
   Turn, then thee to Heaven, fair maiden, for bliss;
     That world has a pure fount ne’er opened in this.

5.  “It snows!” cries the Widow, “O God!” and her sighs
     Have stifled the voice of her prayer;
   Its burden ye’ll read in her tear-swollen eyes,
     On her cheek sunk with fasting and care. 
   ’T is night, and her fatherless ask her for bread,
     But “He gives the young ravens their food,”
   And she trusts till her dark hearth adds horror to dread.,
     And she lays on her last chip of wood. 
   Poor sufferer! that sorrow thy God only knows;
     ’T is a most bitter lot to be poor when it snows.

Definitions.—­1.  Trow, to think, to believe.  Trap’pings, ornanents. 2.  Im’be-cile, one who is feeble either in body or mind. 3.  In-ter-vened’, were situated between. 4.  Mus’ing, thinking in an absent-minded way.  Con’quests, triumphs, successes.  Tint’ings slight colorings. 5.  Sti’fled, choked, suppressed.

Remark.—­Avoid reading this piece in a monotonous style.  Try to express the actual feeling of each quotation; and enter into the descriptions with spirit.

XIII.  RESPECT FOR THE SABBATH REWARDED.

1.  In the city of Bath, not many years since, lived a barber who made a practice of following his ordinary occupation on the Lord’s day.  As he was on the way to his morning’s employment, he happened to look into some place of worship just as the minister was giving out his text—­“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.”  He listened long enough to be convinced that he was constantly breaking the laws of God and man by shaving and dressing his customers on the Lord’s day.  He became uneasy, and went with a heavy heart to his Sabbath task.

2.  At length he took courage, and opened his mind to his minister, who advised him to give up Sabbath work, and worship God.  He replied that beggary would be the consequence.  He had a flourishing trade, but it would almost all be lost.  At length, after many a sleepless night spent in weeping and praying, he was determined to cast all his care upon God, as the more he reflected, the more his duty became apparent.

3.  He discontinued his Sabbath work, went constantly and early to the public services of religion, and soon enjoyed that satisfaction of mind which is one of the rewards of doing our duty, and that peace which the world can neither give nor take away.  The consequences he foresaw actually followed.  His genteel customers left him, and he was nicknamed “Puritan” or “Methodist.”  He was obliged to give up his fashionable shop, and, in the course of years, became so reduced as to take a cellar under the old market house and shave the poorer people.