fear there is no chance of our ever getting another."

"How I do wish I was rich!" cried Tom; "I would give you an apricot-tree, and all manner of things besides. I should like to be as rich as our Squire best; but it would do to be as rich as Farmer Tomkyns. Oh, if I had only half as many sheep, and pigs, and cows, and haystacks, as he has, how happy I should be! Don't you wish you had some of the Squire's or Farmer Tomkyns's riches, Ned?"

"No," replied Ned, "I don't; because we ought not to wish for other people's things."

He then told Tom all that he could remember of what his grandmother had said to him about the sin of coveting what does not belong to us; and that doing so, besides breaking one commandment, is very likely to lead to the breaking of others also.

"But," asked Tom, "how is it possible to help longing sometimes for things we have not got, and yet see other people have?" "We may not," said Ned's grandmother, who had come out to call the boys in to tea, and had overheard the latter part of their conversation; "we may not, perhaps, be always able to prevent covetous or envious thoughts from entering our mind; but we should directly endeavour to drive them away, and pray to God to make us contented with 'that state of life in which it has pleased Him to place us.' 'Be content with such things as ye have,' says St. Paul. And again, speaking of himself, he tells us, 'I have learned, in whatever state I am, therewith to be content.' Besides, Tom, the rich are not always happy. They have a great many cares and anxieties that we know nothing of. You cannot have forgotten what trouble Farmer Tomkyns was in last spring when so many of his cattle died of the distemper, and he was afraid he should lose the rest. It is true the Squire can afford to have always a grand dinner to sit down to; but of what use is that when he is, and has been for years, in such a bad state of health that the choicest dainties afford him no pleasure! Do not you think, Tom, that if you were in his place, you would gladly give all the fine clothes, dainty food, and wealth that you possessed, to be strong and hearty again, even though you had only a poor cottage to live in, and a crust of bread to eat?"

"Yes," replied Tom, "that I would, I am sure."

"We are all," resumed the old woman, "too apt, I fear, to think more of the blessings and comforts we want, or fancy we want, than of those we already possess. We forget that c those among us who have least, have far more than they deserve.'"

"What you say, grandmother," observed Ned, "puts me in mind of some verses in one of Watts's Hymns, that I learned by heart a little while ago. May I say them?"

"Do so, my dear," replied his grandmother. And Ned repeated the following verses:--

"Not more than others I deserve,
     Yet God hath given me more;
For I have food while others starve,
     Or beg from door to door.

"While some poor wretches scarce can tell
     Where they may lay their head,
I have a home wherein to dwell,
     And rest upon my bed.

"While others early learn to swear,
     And curse, and lie, and steal;
Lord, I am taught Thy name to fear,
     And do Thy holy will.

"Are these Thy favours, day by day,
     To me above the rest;
Then let me love Thee more than they,
     And try to serve Thee best."

"They are very pretty verses indeed," said his grandmother, when Ned had finished; "and I am glad that you remember them at the right time."

The day after this conversation, Tom told Ned that he should not be able to go home with him when work was over that evening, because his uncle was coming.

It was frosty, and nothing could be done in the garden; so when Ned had mended a rail in the little wicket gate that was broken, and had had his tea, read the Bible, got by heart a column-of spelling, and said it to his grandmother, he sat down on a stool near the fire,