through the subjection of our bodies, we shall only be the more accessible to temptation; as you remember our Master's most dire conflict with the Evil One was when He was "an hungred," after His long long fast. So we must keep strict Vigil at like seasons. We must both be sober, and watch unto prayer. Forgive my sermonizing you, my fellow priest; I was reminding myself of all this as much, and more, than you.'

Wilcox thrust his arm impetuously through his companion's, saying in a tone as vehement as the gesture, but earnest and remorseful withal, 'Crichton, I know I'm a wretched coward. I hate myself. There was I, not half an hour ago, ready to thank Heaven that I was not like you— subject to ordinances, forsooth. I'm slave enough to my own selfindulgence. I know now-I can't follow in my Master's steps, and share in His discipline. And I have nothing to say against it on the score of health, have I, Crichton? I can't forget what the training was when I was captain of our boat at Cambridge. There was abstinence enough. I would have lived on a straw a-day, if it had been necessary, to bring the Trinity Hall boat to the head of the river, and make myself famous.'

He stopped for want of breath; and heard Crichton say, half to himself, 'Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible.' There was a long silence, during which the two friends had turned homewards. When they had reached the edge of the lonely heath, Wilcox halted suddenly, and spoke in a low wistful tone: Crichton, will you say the Collect for the First Sunday in Lent? I can't altogether remember it; and I should like to think of it in connection with to-day.'

6

And while the young priest stood with bared head, and eastward aspect, Crichton repeated: ""O Lord, who for our sake didst fast forty days and forty nights; give us grace to use such abstinence, that our flesh being subdued to the spirit, we may ever obey Thy godly motions in righteousness and true holiness; to Thy honour and glory, Who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen."

OUR SHIP.

BY THE REV. J. C. ATKINSON.

WHO has not heard of the fairy craft, manned (or moused, should we say?) with a crew of twelve white mice, and a lily-white duck for captain? Who has not read of the magic ship, which sailed as well on dry land as deep water, that would carry a thousand, with all stores well found, as easily as one, or one as easily as a thousand, and when laid up in ordinary might be safely and commodiously docked in its owner's waistcoat pocket-always supposing, that is, that he wore waistcoats, which I don't believe he did. But strange as were these ships, and parlous their voyages, surely Our Ship must have been of the same bedigree, and gifted with somewhat like capacities. One day not a ship

at all, and the next full-rigged, and with her snowy canvas unfurled; with a lading that cumbered the deck, was hung all high and thick amid the rigging, clewed up to the spars, rich and rare and tempting to the bright eager eyes of the consignees; reposing placidly on the blue wavelets, and yet with miles betwixt her and the sea, and miles of mountain-hills moreover, with only a broken pass, through which the mountain stream struggled and flashed and foamed and rattled on its downward course along its rock-bestrewn channel, to give access to or from the great deep.

But Our Ship was guiltless of the sea, as well as called into sudden being and freighted with a sudden cargo. A veritable hull, timbered and planked and decked and painted, with veritable mast and bowsprit, boom, and gaff-for she was yacht-rigged, Our Ship was; with veritable cordage-shrouds, back-stays and fore-stay, and running rigging complete; and veritable snowy sails, symmetrical and flat as a board; she had flitted up silently and unseen on the last work-a-day of the old year to her haven on a seeming blue sea (of calico) on a platform at the end of our lofty school-room, and long before the night, was ready, full-rigged, and full-freighted, for the breaking of the New Year's Day, and the assembling of the fresh, hearty, healthy, handsome, intelligent Dales children to their school festival.

For Our Ship was a Christmas Ship,' no mere miniature model, let me warn you, that a chick of a midshipman could have tucked under his arm and walked no worse with than if it had been a telescope; but a stout vessel, nearly ten feet long, and with a tapering mast reaching high up into the open roof, and with a goodly Union-Jack floating fair (the help of a cunningly-devised wire support) from the peak.

Our Ship, to tell the truth, was somewhat cumbered with her lading; for there were 127 children in attendance at the day-school, and 57 at the Sunday-school, for each of whom there would be a present, and for most of the latter a reward as well. Besides, there were other children-eight in one house alone-who looked anxiously to see what Our Ship had brought for them from the mysterious port she had sailed from; and others yet, in one way or other connected with the school, who were not forgotten in getting the cargo together. So that there were more than 230 'bales' on board, each with its own destination fairly inscribed by the supercargo. Unlading such a ship as this was not to be lightly taken in hand, and so a tea-party was arranged to come off first. Do our readers know what a Yorkshire tea-party is?

'What a peculiarly Yorkshire institution a tea-party is!' was, a few weeks since, the remark of a Yorkshire incumbent, who, though like myself, long a worker in the county in question, was a native of a southern county. Truly it is.

Three hundred and fifty sat down to tea at our school festival on New Year's Day, and there was yet abundance and to spare of eatables, whose destination it was to be divided among the old and infirm, who were unable to be personally present. And of all this mighty mass of food, comprising all kinds of cake, cheese-cakes, cream-cakes, preservetarts, and the like, (no mere bread so much as admitted,) and the tea and cream and sugar to moisten it withal, scarcely one twentieth part but was contributed in kind, or, when cooking conveniences were not adequate, sums of money given instead, by the different parishioners, the small holders and yeomen and tradesmen, and even working-people in some cases, of the district.

But that is one of the peculiar features of the tea-party proper. However many the guests or partakers, the viands are contributed by more or fewer individuals. Such and such ladies, or farmer's wives, or tradesmen's wives, undertake to take a tray,' and provide not only the 'tea-graithing'-cups, saucers, spoons, plates, &c.-but also the eatables and drinkables; and they preside at their trays themselves, however often the tables may be furnished with guests. Sometimes, perhaps generally, the tea-party is held in connection with some object or institution which it is desired to support; and then a small charge is made for the tea:"Tickets, one shilling each, admitting to the meeting after tea is over, may be had of So-and-so:'-and the proceeds, after paying incidental expenses, are handed over to the receiver for the special 'cause' in question. Once, in this parish, on a conical flat-topped hill not a quarter of a mile from this house, such a party was held in a mighty marquee fitted up for the purpose, and more than nine hundred tea-drinkers assembled on the occasion. And by it was realized a very handsome sum towards buying books for a new Mutual Improvement Society in the parish.

But whatever the object of the tea-party, there is always a meeting after it, with addresses by various speakers, but all having one common direction. The addresses may be varied with singing, or resolutions, or any other of the divers forms which large public meetings adopt for the expression of their sentiments; and after Our Ship had discharged her freight, retaining only her many many coloured lamps, and flags, and other mere additions for ornament sake, songs and rounds and Christmas carols by the children—a tuneful lot enough-relieved and diversified the soberer statements touching school progress and prospects, school work, teachers and taught, given by the incumbent and the master, and speeches on other topics germane to the matter in hand and to the occasion.

Qne speech from 'Our Ship' may bear a brief notice, for it told of the probable origin of the peculiar Yorkshire Institution,' especially applicable, it would seem, in thoroughly Danish Cleveland:-for it traced it up through the still-existing Swedish and Danish gille-or guild, combination or contribution feast-to the old sacrificial festivals of the days of Odin, Thor, and Balder. These gilles, time out of mind, and descending evidently from eld-hoary usage, depend upon the contributions of eatables and drinkables by the inhabitants of the district concerned, which are all received by the gille-master, who may be either the master of the house where the feast is to be held, or another; and the whole arrangements of the festivity, down to the decoration and equipment of the room or rooms set apart, the reception of the guests, the common participation, the toasts or healths, and accompanying speeches, with occasional singing, are such, that any reader familiar with the Yorkshire tea-party cannot fail to be reminded of this North English corresponding celebration.

One difference, however, the speaker referred to-that, whereas in old times, and down to such not very remote times, there was an official whose duty it was to receive all the offensive weapons of all the male guests at the door, and safely put them under lock and key, that so there might be a lessened danger of brawl and bloodshed when the ale and brændevin had done their usual work; the harmless tea-party of now-adays seemed to be attended by no worse result than a good squeeze and some personal discomfort to those who in such a crowd could only find standing-places instead of room to sit comfortably; while the change

from a cup to Allfader Odin-now replaced in South Sweden by a cup to God Almighty, (ett skaal til Gud Allmagtig,) and a succeeding one to The Lord and his Twelve Apostles-to the report upon the schools, and other school-talk, was surely a slight improvement, and a step of progress in a right direction.

Dear Mr. Editor,

CORRESPONDENCE.

ENGLISH.

I read with some sympathy the lament of Mrs. Higginbottom. It is a hard case never to be allowed to forget being called by so un-euphonious a name. But I was even more interested in the remarks which you, Mr. Editor, made on the lady's letter.

There is no doubt that the real transgression against good manners lies, as you say it does, in the unnecessarily personal mode of the address. I could mention a case in point. In the Eastern Counties there exists among the poorer classes a habit of calling you by your name, but as if the said name in no way belonged to you.

For instance, I lived in Essex many years ago. One day I was told a woman wished to see me. I went to her. She addressed me thus I wish to speak to Mrs. M-, if you please, Ma'am.'-' Certainly; I am Mrs. M

'Yes, Ma'am, just so. But if you please, I want to ask Mrs. M- if she'd be good enough to spare me an out-patient's ticket for the Hospital, if she have one to spare. It's for my old gen'leman, (her husband,) he has a "misery" in his leg, an' it don't get no better, only worse. And if Mrs. M——— have a ticket, I should take it kind of her to give it me. And if the good lady could spare me a bit or two of old linen to dress him with meanwhile, I'd take it very kind of her, that I would; for Mrs. M knows cotton stuff be a very "ungain" thing to dress a wound with.'

It certainly gave me a very odd feeling to be spoken of to my face. I felt like the old woman in the Nursery Rhyme, when her personal identity was questioned-'If I be I, as I do think I be-but there was nothing annoying in the address; no feeling of intrusion, so to speak.

It is different in the cases Mrs. Higginbottom mentions.

She is right in saying that School-mistress' is the proper designation of the certificated lady at the head of the National School, and it is probably for that very reason that the name sounds harsh in the ears of the dispenser of useful knowledge, and that she prefers being addressed as 'Governess.'

·

Mrs. Higginbottom is afraid that when she or her daughters take a class in the Sunday-school, their pupils will say Yes, Miss,' or 'No, Teacher,' as the case may be; and no one can think it unlikely. It is the personality, again, here, which is objectionable. The person who teaches is, for the time, a teacher.'

By the way, why should the calling of a teacher' be unnecessarily obtruded more than any other? Who says 'Yes, Butcher,' or 'No, Baker,' to these very useful members of society? If neither

'Tinkers, Tailors,'

'Soldiers,' nor 'Sailors,'

are addressed as such, why should school-mistresses or their voluntary assistants be? The reason why calling a young lady 'Miss' in addressing her is offensive, is because that too is, in a measure, personal. 'Madam,' or its usual contraction 'Ma'am,' is used to married and unmarried indiscriminately.

As the subject of modern colloquialisms has been started, will you permit me, Mr. Editor, to complain of a few which strike me unpleasantly. Perhaps some of your correspondents may be able to enlighten me as to their origin. Some I believe to be of American growth. Certainly one is. I allude to the misuse of the word expect. To expect, surely means to look forward. Yet I heard the following question and answer this morning, and anyone may hear the like any day.

'Where is Mary?'-'I expect she is in the garden.'

'I expect she is. There are, according to my notions, two faults of grammar in these few words. The first I have already alluded to, using the verb in a wrong sense, and the second is using it in a wrong way.

If the word expect is followed by another verb, that other verb should be in the infinitive mood. Thus, it is not correct to say, 'I expect I shall see her;' and yet I have heard gentlewomen by birth, and who have received the ordinary education, so express themselves.

And now for another complaint.

What have little words, such as prepositions and personal pronouns, done to deserve the neglect they meet with?

If I heard a girl say, I have been helping mother make the beds,' I should suppose her to be a cottager's daughter and not a squire's, because bed-making is not one of a young lady's duties. But if the words were, 'I have been helping mother pick cowslips, I am sorry to say I should be quite uncertain as to the speaker's rank in life. 'I have been helping mother.' Whose mother? Eve, to be sure, was the mother of all living. Has she returned to earth? I must say, it grates on my ear to hear young people say, 'Father gave me that book.' 'I saw it in mother's room.' Why not say my father,' and 'my mother,' as you would say, 'my sister,' or 'my brother,' 'my husband,' or 'my wife?' It is true that in the days when 'papa' and 'mamma were universal household words, they were used without any prefix-' Papa told me,' &c.; but 'papa' and 'mamma' were more like proper names than terms of relationship.

You will say I am an inveterate grumbler; but as I have begun, I must state another of my grievances. I constantly hear people say, 'I laid down on my bed.' What did they lay? Themselves, I suppose. But then they should say so. To lay is a verb active, and requires an accusative as well as a nominative. The only biped who can say I've been laying' with any degree of propriety is a hen; and even she, if she were a very precise hen-a sort of feathered female Lindley Murray, would add 'an egg.'

I have called these blunders colloquialisms; I wish they were only such. But I have met with all these, and many others, in the writings of popular authors. In that very amusing book, Cobbett's English Grammar, there are examples given of errors committed by great writers. It would be an invidious task to do as Cobbett does, so I will not try. But there are books by persons of high reputation which I never open without feeling sure I shall meet with such phrases as the ones I have already mentioned, and some others not a whit better. I was awoke,' instead of 'I awoke,' or 'I was awakened;' 'Like he did,' for 'As he did;' 'He drunk it off, instead of He drank,' &c. &c.

I once heard a lady say, I am thankful to my teachers for never having made me learn a rule of grammar. I was in no way surprised at anything in the declaration, except the gratitude. I felt inclined to answer her as Mrs. Howden did Miss Grizel Damahoy, in The Heart of Midlothian

'Ye are thankfu' for sma' mercies, lassie."

I fear, Mr. Editor, you cannot count it a 'sma' mercy that I now bring this long letter to an end, by subscribing myself,

Yours most respectfully, MONA.

A RIDDLE.

A gentle breeze across my first has swept-
Gentle as when my second low is breathed:
It waked my third, which then in silence slept;
And sounds melodious in the air are wreathed,
As when, with skilful fingers on my whole,

Pours forth its harmonies some gifted soul.

Father and mother are, we believe, used out of dislike to the vulgar 'pa' and 'ma.' But the pronour. ean only correctly be dropped in the vocative. Aunt' is a worse case still. Aunt Lucy or Aunt Mary becomes a sort of proper name, but aunt alone should never be used except in the vocative.-EDITOR