There were few eyes in the court-room undimmed. In the silence that followed Mr. Carman spoke out:-- "Is my character to be thus blasted on the word of a criminal, your honors? Is this right?" "Your solemn oath that this charge is untrue," said the judge, "will place you in the right." It was the unhappy boy's only opportunity, and the court felt bound in humanity to hear him. James Lewis stood up again instantly, and turned his white face and dark, piercing eyes upon Mr. Carman. "Let him take his oath if he dare!" he exclaimed. Mr. Carman consulted with his counsel, and withdrew. After a brief conference with his associates, the presiding judge said, addressing the criminal:-- "In consideration of your youth, and the temptation to which in tender years you were unhappily subject, the court gives you the slightest sentence, one year's imprisonment. But let me solemnly warn you against any further steps in the way you have taken. Crime can have no valid excuse. It is evil in the sight of God and man, and leads only to suffering. When you come forth again after your brief incarceration, may it be with the resolution to die rather than commit crime!" And the curtain fell on that sad scene in the boy's life. When it was lifted again, and he came forth from prison a year afterwards, his mother was dead. From the day her pale face faded from his vision as he passed from the court-room, he never looked upon her again. Ten years afterward a man was reading a newspaper in a far western town. He had a calm, serious face, and looked like one who had known suffering and trial. "Brought to justice at last!" he said to himself, as the blood came to his face; "convicted on the charge of open insolvency, and sent to State prison. So much for the man who gave me in tender years the first lessons in ill-doing. But, thank God! the other lessons have been remembered. 'When you come forth again,' said the judge, 'may it be with the resolution to die rather than commit a crime!' and I have kept this injunction in my heart when there seemed no way of escape except through crime; and God helping me, I will keep it to the end." YOUR CALL. The world is dark, but you are called to brighten Some little corner, some secluded glen; Somewhere a burden rests that you may lighten, And thus reflect the Master's love for men. Is there a brother drifting on life's ocean, Who might be saved if you but speak a word? Speak it to-day. The testing of devotion Is our response when duty's call is heard. HERRINGS FOR NOTHING. The darkness was coming on rapidly, as a man with a basket on his head turned the corner of a street in London. He cried loudly as he went, "Herrings! three a penny, red herrings, good and cheap, at three a penny!" Soon he came close to me and commenced conversation. "Governor, why can't I sell these herrings? I have walked two miles along this dismal place, offering them; and nobody will buy."