THE YOUTH’S CABINET.

The Powder Plot.

amzs and Henry Holt
were bright, intel-
ligent boys, but of
that restless turn
of mind that made
: them wish con-
stantly to be em-
2 ployed about some-
thing; and unfor-
tunately they never stop-
ped to think whether they
could busy themselves
about something which
might be useful. But this
was not all, nothing came
within their reach, but their
hands were laid upon it; and
few things went out of their hands
without sustaining some injury. Many
a piece of mischief did they plan and
carry out, notwithstanding the care and
watchfulness of their kind mother.
Their mother did not allow them to
handle fire, or to take matches ; but they
were both ingenious, and after several
attempts they succeeded in making some
matches for themselves. They kept them
out of their mother’s sight, waiting for
an opportunity to use them. Not long
after this, their mother sent them on an
errand, more than half a mile from home.
On their way they had to pass through
a grove, and taking their matches with
them, they determined to have some
fine sport. They collected a quantity of
dried leaves and branches, and placing
them in a pile, they proceeded to set fire
to them, with one of their new made
matches. The fire was beginning to
kindle, and would soon have spread
where it would have been out of their

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power to stop it, had not a man who
happened to be passing near, seen the
smoke, and put out the fire before it had
time to do any damage. When James
and Henry were told that the pleasure
of a few moments which they expected
to enjoy by disobeying their parents,
if it had not been happily discovered,
would have destroyed many cords of
wood, in a part of the country where it
was scarce and valuable, no doubt they
thought that this would have been pay-
ing pretty dearly for a little play.

Had they thought what would follow
from a fire made up in the woods, they
would not have kindled it. But here
was the wrong. Few boys sit down and
say to themselves, “1 will disobey my
parents, and destroy property, just for
the sake of a little fun.” The difficulty
is, boys do not thank.

A few months since, while I was in
a hardware store, one Saturday eve-
ning, a boy came in, and asked the shop-
keeper if he could mend a knife for
him.

« Well, let us leok at it,” said the
shopkeeper, who was rather an eccentric
man ; “you would like to have it to whit-
tle with to-morrow, would you?”

«Ok no, sir!” answered the little fel-
low, “ to-morrow is Sunday.”

« Ah, so it is,’ answered the shop-
keeper, “and you remembered it, did
you, my boy? that’s right. Always keep
your thinking machinery going, and al-
ways mind your mother.”

These were two very important les-
sons, which I hope the little boy re-
membered; but they were lessons which
James and Henry did not easily learn,