I cannot go and leave her to die in the night alone.”
As I spoke Ben raised his lantern, and the light on my

wife was thrown; And I saw her eyes fixed strangely with a pleading

look on me,

While a tremblin' finger pointed through the door to

the ragin' sea. Then she beckoned me near, and whispered, "Go, and

God's will be done! For

every lad on that ship, John, is some poor mother's

son."

Her head was full of the boy, sir-she was thinking,

maybe, some day For lack of a hand to help him his life might be cast

away. “Go, John, and the Lord watch o'er you! and spare

me to see the light, And bring you safe," she whispered, “out of the storm

to-night." Then I turned and kissed her softly, and tried to hide

my tears, And my mates outside, when they saw me, set up three

hearty cheers; But I rubbed my eyes wi' my knuckles, and turned to

old Ben and said, " I'll see her again, maybe, lad, when the sea gives up

its dead.”

We launched the boat in the tempest, though death was

the goal in view, And never a one but doubted if the craft could live it

through ;

But our boat she stood it bravely, and, weary and wet

and weak, We drew in hail of the vessel we had dared so much to

seek. But just as we come upon her she gave a fearfull roll, And went down in the seethin' whirlpool with every

livin' soul! We rowed for the spot, and shouted, for all around was

darkBut only the wild wind answered the cries from our

plungin' bark.

I was strainin' my eyes and watchin', when I thought I

heard a cry,

And I saw past our bows a somethin' on the crest of a

wave dashed by ; I stretched out my hand to seize it. I dragged it

aboard, and then I stumbled, and struck my forrud, and fell like a log on

Ben. I remember a hum of voices, and then I knowed no

more

Till I came to my senses here, sir-here, in my

home ashore. My forrud was tightly bandaged, and I lay on my

little bedI'd slipped, so they told me arter, and a rullick had

struck my head.

Then my mates came in and whispered; they'd heard I

was comin'round. At first I could scarcely hear 'em, it seemed like a

buzzin' sound;

But as soon as my head got clearer, and accustomed to

hear 'em speak, I knew as I'd lain like that, sir, for many a long, long

week. I guessed what the lads was hidin', for their poor old

shipmate's sake. I could see by their puzzled faces they'd got some news

to break; So I lifts my head from the pillow, and I says to old

Ben, “ Look here!
I'm able to bear it now, lad—tell

me,

and never fear.”

says, “ What's

Not one on 'em ever answered, but presently Ben goes

out, And the others slinks away like, and I

this about? Why can't they tell me plainly as the poor old wife is

dead ?” Then I fell again on the pillows, and I hid my achin'

head; I lay like that for a minute, till I heard a voice cry

“ John!" And I thought it must be a vision as my weak eyes

gazed upon; For there by the bedside, standin' up and well was my

wife. And who do ye think was with her? Why, Jack, as

large as life.

It was him as I'd saved from drownin' the night as the

lifeboat went To the wreck of the Royal Helen ; 'twas that as the

a

They'd brought us ashore together, he'd knelt by his

mother's bed, And the sudden joy had raised her like a miracle from

the dead; And mother and son together had nursed me back to

life, And my old eyes

woke from darkness to look on my son and wife. Jack? He's our right hand now, sir ; 'twas Providence

pulled him through He's allus the first aboard her when the lifeboat wants

a crew.

GEORGE R. SIMs.

THE GREAT ISSUE.

,

TCH,

great issues before the country-nothing less, in a word, than whether the work of our noble fathers of the revolutionary and constitutional age shall perish or endure ; whether this great experiment in national polity, which binds a family of free republics in one united government—the most hopeful plan for combining the homebred blessings of a small state with the stability and power of great empire-shall be treacherously and shamefully stricken down, in the moment of its most successful operation, or whether it shall be bravely, patriotically, triumphantly maintained. We wage no war of conquest and subjugation; we aim at nothing but to protect our loyal fellow-citizens, who, against fearful odds, are fighting the battles of the Union in the disaffected States, and to re-establish, not for ourselves alone, but for our deluded fellow-citizens, the mild sway of the Constitution and the laws. The result cannot be doubted. Twenty millions of freemen, forgetting their divisions, are rallying as one man in support of the righteous cause-their willing hearts and their strong hands, their fortunes and their lives, are laid upon the altar of the country. We contend for the great inheritance of constitutional freedom transmitted from our revolutionary fathers. We engage in the struggle forced upon us, with sorrow, as against our misguided brethren, but with high heart and faith, as we war for that Union which our sainted Washington commended to our dearest affections. The sympathy the civilized world is on our side, and will join us in prayers to Heaven for the success of our arms.

EDWARD EVERETT, 1861.

BILL AND JOE.

“ COME

ME, dear old comrade, you and I

,
Will steal an hour from days gone by—
The shining days when life was new,
And all was bright as morning dew-
The dusty days of long ago,
When you were Bill and I was Joe.

“ Your name may flaunt a titled trail,

Proud as a cockerel's rainbow tail;
And mine as brief appendix wear
As Tam O'Shanter's luckless mare;
To-day, old friend, remember still
That I am Joe and you are Bill!