other Arab tribes to oppose the entrance of from the lateral wadys, so as to impede the Israelites into the heart of the Penin- their advance,-a mode of warfare suited to sula, where their own towns and pasture the character of the country, and referred lands were situated. The scouts of these to in Deut. 25, 18:—“How he met thee people must have watched from the east- by the way and slew the hindmost of thee, ern ridges the progress of the Hebrews all the feeble behind thee, when thou wast southward, uncertain perhaps of their ulti- faint and weary.” This passage is thus mate intentions; but when they turned in- perfectly connected with the account of the land along the Wady Feiran, the main and battle in Exodus. most accessible route to the interior, their The ground for the decisive contest was object must have been at once understood; well chosen by the desert tribes, long accusand an immediate muster would take place tomed to defend their country against the of all the available force of the Amalekites to Egyptian armies ; but we must describe the bar their farther progress, while it appears scene of the battle, and the subsequent that parties were also sent to cut off strag- march to Sinai, in a second paper. glers in the rear, or to make flank attacks

J. W. Dawson.

FROST-BOUND.

“Ice and Snow, praise ye the Lord."
On Earth, poor Earth, locked fast and bound

In chains of ice and drifted snows-
How shall deliverance be found

For thee? What strong hand shall unclose
Thy fetters, letting loose the sound
Of laughing waters; from the ground

Calling the violet and the rose ?

How peacefully, how quietly

Thou waitest undaunted, undismayed !
Is there some secret hidden from me,-

Some message in the storm and shade
Which tells of recompense to be
For such brave souls as bide like thee

The Lord's good leisure, unafraid ?
Oh heart, poor heart, whose frozen springs

Melt not for ray of star or sun,
But lie in icy folded rings

Pulseless and voiceless every one,-
Whose hopes fled forth on rapid wings
And vanished with sweet vanished things

Ere yet the Winter was begun,-
Learn this great patience, and abide

Courageously the bitter day;
Trust the Eternal Love, por chide

Though still thy Summer should delay.
Hope is deferred but not denied ;
And in the deepest snow-drifts hide

The blossoms of a coming May.

Susan Coolidge.

JERICHO JIM.

ye see, 'nd

his eyes.

“Say, now, marm! Lemme in. I aint this worthy man to ask : “Why doos Deahalf so smart's I look to be. I kin do con Ellery allers go grumblin' round like an more 'n four things to help ye, and I'm old gobbler ?” and the Deacon saw fit to kinder onlucky jess now. Mother's dead, answer for himself, to the great confusion

of the inquirer, who had not seen him comHere the simple creature blubbered hon- ing : • Why, ye see, I have ter; so's to evestly, and drew his ragged sleeve across erage things. Wife's orful smoothly ; com

Mrs. Ellery relented. “Well, f'table as a punkin in a corn lot; allers a who be ye, anyhow ? Where d’ye come smilin' and chirpin'; 'nd it stands to reason from?"

all m’lasses aint good for this world ; 's got "Ho, Jemimy! Where d’ye come from ?

to be some grind, so I do the grindin?” Flat fislı 'n flounders! where d'ye come from?' With which exposition of his unconscious I'm Jericho Jim; come from Jericho heathenism, the Deacon gave a grunt and straight, a Tuesday mornin'. No place for walked away. He was better than his Jim there. Dad broke his neck last winter; words, however, for his heart was warm and drunk as David, ’nd slipped up, 'n the sled his head clear; and poor Jericho Jim soon fixed him out a goin' over him ; mother found that his new home was a haven of rest she cried some, but he was dead, anyhow;” for his weary body, and did his very best to and with a sort of furtive grin on his thin, reward the sheltering goodness that fed and sallow face, and a spark in the hitherto va- clothed him, and beamed on him like suncant gray eye, Jericho Jim sent his stick shine in kind looks and words. spinning in air and caught it again dex- “ I declare for't,” grumbled Deacon Ellery, trously.

"it beats all to see that are feller work; I “Where be ye a goin' to?” inquired the dono whether he's a fool or not. See him old lady again, resting on her broom-handle, a pitchin' into the wood-pile, mother? and looking over her spectacles at the queer Well, ye'd say there warnt no better feller creature before her.

to pile wood betwixt here'n Danbury; but “ I'm goin' here, marm. They said suthin' yesterday, when he was a sawin', all of a 'bout the poor-house, down to Jericho; so I sudden he stopped short 'n jumped the quit. Poor-houses aint clean;" and he gave fence 'n lay down in the sunshine ’nd kicked a sidelong glance into the kitchen, neat as a his heels. “Jim,' says I, “what be ye stoplady's parlor, not passing over the clean pin' for?' 'So's to grow,' ses he, cooler'n calico gown and stainless cap of good Mrs. a cucumber. “Grow?' says I. 'Yes,' ses Ellery.

he. “It's a reel growin' day; the’ aint a “That's so; they're dirty holes. Well, heap sech days; sun a shinin', birds a you come in and set down. I'll give ye some singin', wind a blowin' real soft: mostly vittles, and ye can stay till husband comes we're friz to death in this world; kinder home; he'll see to ye.”

stunted, Deacon ; I want to grow whilst I So Jericho Jim was set down to an abund- can; there's more'n forty days in the wilderant supper of beans, biscuit, pie and ginger- ness to work, ye know.' Well, if I didn't bread, and plenty of hot tea, and proved be- let him be! 'Taint no use a talkin' to him yond a doubt that he was hungry.

when he gets a curus notion like that holt When Deacon Ellery came home he

on him.” growled a little at the new inmate of his “ There's somethin' to most o' his notions, family, more because it was his way to that's a fact,” replied the old lady. “I growl than because he meant it; for his kinder wonder whether or no he aint got keen eye for business discerned in Jim an the right on't, Mr. Ellery. Mebbe ef we'd inexpensive helper whom his increasing took more sunshine into us along back, you years and rheumatism made welcome if not an' me wouldn't ha' been so dreadful rheuneedful. Somebody was once overheard by maticky.”

“ He's a queer genius anyhow,” muttered cherk. Then he larfed rough as bark. the Deacon, walking off ; but it was to be "Give us a quart,' sez he; 'I haint got no observed after this that the old man sat in change to-day.' Well,' sez I, “it aint no the south doorway more than he ever had matter 's long's ye’re to hum; Deacon 's done ; and that his wife let in all the sun- willin' to trust folks 't stay to hum.' lle shine into her bed-room and kitchen that looked orful beat 'n mad, ’nd I see the docthe small green-paned windows allowed. tor larfin’; but he took the milk, ’nd I whipIf they were too old to be cured of rheuma- ped up, I tell ye.” tism, at least the rooms grew cheery and the Jericho Jim never knew that Tim Harris air sweet, and spectacles did them more staid at home through his wife's long illness, good than usual.

simply to be sure, since he had no money to They would neither have read or remem- buy it with, that the delicate baby, sole surbered a hygienic treatise on the benefits of vivor of six, should have its regular food;

for sun and air, but they had sense enough to drunkard and idler as he was, he had a pasaccept the homely wisdom of Jericho Jim, sionate, reasonless fondness for his children; and brains enough not to let carpets stand and when one after another they died he between them and comfort.

sought fresh consolation at the whiskey Before many months Jim became a sort shop. But this one lived, thanks to its sudof neighborhood courier; he peddled milk den weaning from its hieart-broken, wornfor the Deacon, and dispensed with his out mother, whose bitter troubles and meaquarts and pints all the news of the village. ger food had poisoned even the draught of Many a good woman waited eagerly for his life for her babies, and sent them to uncoming, and ran out with her apron over timely graves. While she lay helpless and her head, not merely for the pitcher of fresh, raving with fever for nine long weeks, Tim sweet, rich fluid, but to hear about “Mis'” staid at home, nursed her as well as he could, Alien's sick baby, or Jones's grandmother tended and fed the baby, who learned to cry who broke her leg last week, or Sary for him, instead of crying at the sight of Penny's company from York; and it was him as all the others had, and getting fat strange enough to see how quaintly and . and rosy on the yellow milk that Jim destly Jim fitted his story to the hearer. brought daily in a little pail from the DeaWith the curious instinct that sometimes con’s Alderney, wound itself round the dwells in the souls of those we conceitedly father's heart, kept him with bands stronger call half-witted, he seemed to comprehend than iron from his evil haunts, taught him the characters he met, to understand their to live without his stimulant, at least for so wants and their ways; and many was the long; and established a hold on him never word in season carelessly dropped from his lost. It was little Rosy Ilarris who in after lips that did a blessed errand, all the more years coaxed her father into good habits, and because it was uttered by “ the foolishness of made her mother's last days bright and man.”

calm; but it was Jericho Jim who began “Did ye stop to Harris's to-day?” in- the good work with his unauthorized statequired the Deacon, as Jim rode up to the ment of the Deacon's willingness to trust a gate one frosty morning, with clattering man who “ stayed to hum.” empty cans.

Curious enough, too, were Jim's peace“ Well, I expect I did.”

making propensities. These clouded or “Lef' the quart, I s'pose, 'n didn't git straying minds sometimes take a certain nothin' for't?”

elfish delight in mischief, but his desire and No, sir! I give 'em somethin' to boot. delight was peace. Miss Nancy Vance was Ole Harris came to the door for't; she's a thin and somewhat little old maid, yet done up. Doctor's gig was a stannin' there, gifted with a good deal of sense, and toleran’ he was clus up to the winder a mixin' a ably reasonable; about half a mile from her mess, 'n ole Harris sez: • Be you Ellery's little brown house, where she lived with a fool?' 'Yes, I be, you bet,' sez I, pooty bed-ridden mother, and did tailoring, lived

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the Widow Pyne, a noisy, good-natured, high- ever that might be, she had a kindly word tempered woman; quick to resent or to fancy for Jim; and he poured her full pint with an injury, but equally quick to forgive. a beaming grin. “Stop a minnit, won't Between her and Miss Nancy raged a feud ye;" he called after her

“Won't ye jest of such strength and bitterness as is only to set down that are milk, an’ hold up your be found in a little country village between apern; here's some o' Miss Pyne's amazin' people whose minds are narrowed by their apples." limited horizon and slight experience. They “ Widder Pyne's apples !” ejaculated the were both church members, but they would amazed spinster, as she received the crimson neither look at each other aoross the meet- spheres into her check apron. ing-house, nor recognize each other in the “ Yes! them's the fellers; she sent 'em porch. Miss Nancy always called Mrs. along o' me. Good-day!” With which amPyne “ that pesky widow," and was styled in biguous statement, Jim whipped up the old return with more vigor than reticence, “ that horse and went along before Miss Nancy darned old maid.”

had time to think. Jericho Jim was aware of this, and many “Well! here's nigh onto a merracle !” a time shrunk as if from a pin-prick or a she exclaimed to herself. “ Widder Pyne's blow when one began to vituperate the apples! I've heered she sot by 'em dreadother, and openly evaded the subject. fully, and now she's been an' sent 'em to me.

“I spose old Nance Vance takes half a Well! well! well! I'd oughter be ashamed pint o’ milk on ye, don't she ?" inquired o' myself, that's a fact; 'tis shameful for Mrs. Pyne, with a sniff.

church-members to keep up a querrel the way “ Land o' glory! what splendid red apples we've did; but she's got the start of me, them be!" ejaculated Jim, his ears shut to that's a fact. I must kinder show my feelins the question, but his eyes very wide open to now, surely.” an Astrachan apple-tree in the corner of the So the next day Jim was invited to stop yard.

on the way back, and carry Widow Pyne a Now this apple-tree was widow Pyne's basket of fresh eggs, for eggs were Miss glory; nobody in Sawyer had such a tree; Nancy's specialty. Imagine Jim's secret joy and she petted it like a baby, dug about it and Mrs. Pyne's noisy surprise. with her own hands, manured it every fall, “ Sent me them eggs ? Land o' Goshen! and gave it copious libations of dish-water she ain't weak in her mind, is she, Jim ? all through the summer. No tent worms Must be a leetle touched; or else I be: I ever found lodgment in its thrifty branches; guess she's a good cretur, after all. I dono and in May it was always pink with blos- what on airth hes ailed us two to be allers a soms, for a tree so coddled had no “ off fightin', and now she's begun it, I guess I year,” but bloomed and bore in every re- kin be as neighborly as other folks. Don't turning season.

ye go by here to-morrow without getting a It was

a sight to behold,” as its gratified pocket-full o' apples for Nancy Vance, Jim. owner remarked, and Jim's admiration was Let's see. I'll put 'em in the basket.” But so fervent, Mrs. Pyne could not do less than the second supply of apples never reached reward him with a pocket full of the glow- Miss Nancy. Jim had a queer sense of jusing fruit.

Jim was duly gratified, and tice, and a squirrel's love for nuts and fruit. jogged on his way revolving a scheme in his He had done a good work with the other simple mind which fructified, literally, as he apples, and lost them, as far as his own defound himself at Miss Vance's door. Miss lectation was concerned; these others he Nancy came out for her pint of milk looking would keep for his own eating; and his very unusually benign; some of the small items simpleness made up for wisdom, for a second that make up lonely women's life had been supply of fruit would certainly have led to gracious that morning; perhaps her bread awkward explanations, while as it was, when had risen just right, or her hens had done the two ladies met on the church steps next their duty in the matter of eggs; but how. Sunday, smiling and beaming to make their

a

woman

mutual acknowledgments, there were no cently, “why I thought folks knew more 'n questions to ask or answer, and they parted dogs!” in friendliest fashion, to remain firin allies There was no answer to this: John Dekin thereafter.

walked away; and there ran through his Not far from the Ellery farm there lived mind, oddly enough, a scrap of a text he a baul-tempererl, cross-grained old fellow, had heard somewhere; perhaps his mother John Dekin by name, who had driven his read it to him; may be he had heard it at boys away from home long ago by dint of meeting, though he generally went to sleep being everything a father ought not to be: there :-“ Is thy servant a dog, that he should and whose wife staid with him simply be- do this thing?" It clung to him with that cause she was his wife; a fact which is of curious persistence peculiar to texts, which some virtue to a good woman. Now this defies philosophical explanation; and more man was a great stickler for his rights: he than once thereafter modified some currish had a right to do as he liked in his own act, or silenced some growl, before he fully house, no doubt; and the neighbors agreed recognized the invisible restraint upon him. that they had an equal right to keep away Not long after, that violent bull of Mr. Defrom it! All but good Mrs. Ellery, whose kin's broke into Deacon Ellery's lot of wingreat kind heart could not see a

ter wheat, just about two inches high, and suffer as she knew Mrs. Dekin must, and made a general mess of the whole field, alnot try to alleviate her sufferings. She ready soaked by a wet autumn. Jim diswould go there persistently, though she covered the creature in full tide of devastatrembled before the big dog, and quivered tion, browsing on the tallest spires, and at the sound of his master's voice ; for it trampling down the rest into undistinguishwas one of John Dekin's “rights” to keep able mud. Ile sat down a moment and conthe fiercest dog and the crossest bull any- sidered; then filled his pockets with potatoes, where about Sawyer. Jericho Jim volun- left in the next lot after digging as too teered to go with Mrs. Ellery when she paid small to save, and carefully tossed one over her visits to the Dekin farm, and as there the fence just before the old bull's nose; never was a dog who could withstand Jim's the bait was too tempting, the creature nipway with the brute creation, he and Tige ped it up at once, another fell about a foot soon became the best of friends.

in front of him, then another still further off, “ Hullo!” said the farmer one day as he and following the fence, which tended tocame suddenly round the corner of the house, ward the barn-yard, Master Taurus before and found Jim, who had just escorted Mrs. he really understood the snare was beguiled Ellery to the door, sitting on the step and into his own quarters, and the gate shat fondling the great bull-dog, who with watery fast behind him. Then Jim hunted up the eyes and slobbering jaws, rested his muzzle farmer. on Jim's knee, and looked up into the thin, “ Say, Mr. Dekin; hed you just as lives kind face above him. “ Hullo you feller! keep that are splendid ole bull o' your'n in look out for that crittur; he'll be into ye nd the barn a spell, till I git our folkses fence chaw ye up, 'fore you can wink.”

sot up?" I guess not,” said Jim, with one of his “Why, what harm's he ben a doin'? half silly, gentle smiles. · Ile knows real llain't I a right to keep a buil' in my own well I don' want to hurt him none; so he lot, I want to know?" don' keer to hurt me; no more he will, will “Sartinly, sartinly! but ye see the poor ye, Tige?”

cretur wanted a fresh bite, an' he kinder The dog's stump of a tail wagged affection- pushed down the fence like, and got into ate answers.

some winter wheat; so I guessed I'd git him “Well, mebbe it 'll do with dogs; you out on't fust” seem to kinder get round that one ; but it “Ilow in thunder did ye get him out ? ain't folkses ways,” growled the farmer.

that's the rint.” “ Ain't it?” said Jim, looking up inno- • Well, I coaxed him a leetle ; sorter tolled

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