THE YOUTH’S CABINET.

 

ing to the best of my recollection, must
have been a great deal more noisy than
musical.

These horns, blown both at once, and
at an hour when it was not possible that
dinner could be ready, sounded odd
enough to my father and hismen. They
listened a moment, and made up their
minds that there was something the
matter at home. Assoon as they looked
toward the house, they saw plainly
enough what the matter was; and you
may be sure they did not lose much
time in running to the scene of danger.
One of them, I recollect, was in such
_ haste, that he swam across a large pond,
' situated between the field where they
were at work and the homestead.
Other men, too, besides those at work
for my father, alarmed by the sound of
the horns, and the sight of the flames,
rushed to the spot, and all together
made a most vigorous effort to prevent
the destruction of the barn, which, by
the way, was at the time full of hay and
grain, and would inevitably have been
consumed, if it had taken fire.

Well, the barn was saved. The men
had to work very hard to save it, how-
ever. Some of them got badly burned,
too; for they were obliged to rush into
the flames, in order to place wet blan-
kets on the side of the building which
was most exposed. The barn was saved ;
but, oh! what pain I suffered while the
result was doubtful! I cried nearly all
the time. I would have given every-
thing I had in the world, if I could have
gone back a few paces in the stream of
time, or could have undone what I had
so foolishly done.

After the fire was put out, the men all
came into the house, to take some re-

161

freshments; and as they occasionally
looked toward me, I felt as if it would
have been a very pleasant thing indeed,
could I but have sunk into some potato-
hole or other, where I could have cover-
ed myself up, and where no mortal eye
could see me. Oh, what. mortification,
and shame, and remorse, had my disobe-
dience occasioned me! Neither my father
nor my mother punished me. for my
fault. They did not, indeed, speak one
word of reprimand. They thought,
I had had sufficient punishment. They
were right. So I thought then, and so
I think now. Nothing they could have
said or done to me would at all have
deepened the conviction in my mind of
the folly and sin of disobedience to pa-
rents, or have tended to strenghten my
resolution to obey in future. I inwardly
felt the truth of that sentiment of Scrip-
ture, that “the way of transgressors is
hard.”

Dear reader, I have here given you a
sort of looking-glass, in which you can
see your face. You can see exactly
where your danger lies, when you are
tempted to disobey your parents. It is
in allowing the tempter, as it were, not
only to come into your mind, but to stay
there, and to repeat his wicked sugges-
tions a hundred times over. How easy
I could at first have resisted the tempta-
tion to make my bonfire, contrary to the
command of my mother! But I did not
resist it. I cherished it. I turned it
over and over in my thoughts, until my
soul was full of it. After that, I could
no more control my wicked inclinations _
than I could control the fire, after I had

lighted it, and fed it bountifully with
fuel. I was no longer my own master.—

Mother’s Magazine.