BLESSINGS ARE U

XVI.

? m4 s) America. Some of my readers will remember
éj tN that pair of old ladies, Miss Sally Martin and
| Miss Phebe Davis, who taught in the village
of my boyhood, and whose scholars fill the pulpit, the
army, and the senate. They pursued their good work
till they were old.

‘‘ Her cap, far whiter than the driven snow,
Emblem right meet of decency does yield ;
Her apron dyed in grain, as blue, I trow,
As is the harebell that adorns the field;
And in her hand, for sceptre, she does wield
Tway birchen sprays; with anxious fear entwined,
With dark distrust and sad repentance filled;
And steadfast hate, and sharp affliction joined,
And fury uncontrolled, and chastisement unkind."

But the modern ‘school-teacher is a lighter, gayer
personage, and is almost always young. Mary Brewer

may be taken as the type of such; and now, as Mrs.
Smith, she still retained a fondness for her former