TUE PREMIUM. 173

Lucy, for many days, could think of nothing
fhat interested her so much as Mary’s composition
—what she had said, and, still more, what she
had left unsaid, of the pleasures of home. This
last occurred to her so often, that at length she
resolved to write down her thoughts, and so make
a composition of her own. In this she succeeded
so well, that afew days before the examination
she showed Mary an essay longer than hers on the
same subject, in which not one of the enjoyments
described by her was referred to. Lucy had cele-
brated home as the place where all the kindly and
genersus feelings were awakened and exercised,
and where they met their full and sweet reward
in grateful affection. She had described the young
and thoughtless as sometimes casting a longing,
lingering look, even from the midst of their
feverish gayeties, back to its pure and peaceful
enjoyments. There the man, worn and wearied
with the cares and sorrows of life, sought rest
from his burdens; the sick thirsted for the air of
home, for the looks and voices they had known
there; and from the bed of death the parting
spirit fondly turned to home, the scenes of its