"Oh, where dwell ye, my ain sweet bairns? I'm woe and weary grown!" "Oh, ladie, we live where woe never is, In a land to flesh unknown." There came a shape which seem'd to her As a rainbow 'mang the rain; And sair these sweet babes plead for her, And they pled and pled in vain. "And O! and O!" said the youngest babe, "My mither maun come in;" "And O! and O!" said the eldest babe, "Wash her twa hands frae sin." "And O! and O!" said the youngest babe, "She nursed me on her knee." "And O! and O!" said the eldest babe, "She's a mither yet to me." "And O! and O!" said the babes baith, "Take her where waters rin, And white as the milk of her white breast, Wash her twa hands frae sin." * * * * * Original. MY LITTLE NIECE, MARY JANE. This little girl was doubtless one of those whom the Savior early prepares for their removal to his pure and holy family above. The sweet, lovely, and attractive graces of a sanctified childhood, shone with a mild luster throughout her character and manners, as she passed from one period of intelligence to another, until she had reached the termination of her short journey through earth to heaven. Peace to thy ashes, gentle one! "Light lie the turf" upon thy bosom, until thou comest forth to a morning, that shall know no night! After the birth of this their first child, the parents were continually reminded of the shortness and uncertainty of life, by repeated sicknesses in the social circle, and by the sudden death of one of their number, a beloved sister. Whether it was that this had its influence in the shaping of the another's instructions, or not, yet such was the fact, that the subject of a preparation for early death, was not unfrequently the theme, when religious instruction was imparted. The mind of the mother was also impressed with the idea of her own responsibility. She felt that the soul of the child would be required at her hands, and that she must do all in her power to fit it for heaven. Hence she was importunate and persevering in prayer, for a blessing upon her efforts; that God would graciously grant his Spirit, not only to open the mind of her child to receive instruction, but also to set it home and seal it there. Her solicitude for the spiritual welfare, of the child was such, as often to attract the notice of the writer; while the results forced upon her mind the conviction, that the tender bud, nurtured with so much care and fidelity, and watered with so many prayers and tears, would never be permitted to burst into full flower, in the ungenial soil of earth.