dently suffering. He looked at her friendly face for a moment, and then the heart which had been so hardened against her, the pride and obstinacy which had refused to see her unfailing dutifulness for so many years, all melted into gratitude for her exceeding love and tenderness. The strong man's spirit was bowed within, and he wept like a little child. "Oh! Nelly," he said, "I've been so wicked, even you must be hating me, though you are so kind to me; I used not to believe in a God, but I do now that I'm dying; and it's too late to mend ; pray, Nelly, that I may live a little longer, for I can't pray myself."

There were happy thankful tears in Ellen's eyes as she knelt by her father's side, and repeated one after another many prayers, and collects, and holy Psalms; still she prayed on, till she saw that Upton was sleeping, and then, tired with her journey and want of rest, she laid her head down close to the hand which had struck her to the ground when last they parted, and slept long and well. Partly owing to her persuasions, partly from his own anxiety for life, on the following day Thomas Upton consented to have his leg taken off. Ellen stood by him through the dreadful operation, and watched him in the long period of weakness which succeeded with most devoted care and love. Her prayers were granted, for not only did he perfectly recover his health, but his sickness was blessed to him, and he left Leeds a humbled, penitent, happy man.

They came back to Newtown, and hired a tiny cottage near Mrs. Simpson's shop. Upton is so

steady and active that he manages to earn enough to provide himself with food and clothing, and Ellen is now quite a good dressmaker, and has always as much work as she can manage. People like employing her, she is so civil and punctual. It is very pleasant to see Ellen walking with her father to church every Sunday; in her joyous, happy face, you would not recognise the care worn, delicate girl who used to work so patiently in the old house; still less could you believe that the lame, but welldressed and respectable-looking old man beside her is the once wicked, dishonest, and cruel Thomas Upton.

(Concluded.)

THE MUNGOOSE OR ICHNEUMON.

THIS is a little domestic animal of India, which must be of wonderful use and value, from its antipathy to vermin-and the word vermin implies in India something more terrible than it does with us. The first that Mr Acland saw was at Madras. "As I was going to the Cathedral last Sunday," he says, "I saw a mungoose, a little green and yellow animal, something between a ferret and a squirrel. It is said that when bitten by a snake, it runs and rubs the place over with the juice of a certain plant, which immediately cures it.

My Samee, or native man-servant, who is a Malay, gave me one about as large as a kitten,

and quite as playful. It will attain to the size of a cat; it follows me about, and sleeps at the foot of the bed, and if a snake comes into the room, will instantly kill it. When an Indian mother wishes to go out, she need only just tell the mungoose to mind the cradle, and then he lies down by it, and suffers neither man nor reptile to approach. This creature once tamed, is quite wretched out of human society."

He found its use in these points himself, when he came to settle in his distant bungalow or country house, at Mindapore.

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There are a great number of snakes about here, though I have not yet seen one. I suspect my mungoose or Ichneumon keeps them away, as he is an inveterate enemy to all vermin; a venomous lizard, about a foot long, black, with yellow stripes down the sides, often comes into our verandah, but as soon as it hears the mungoose it disappears with all possible dispatch; as do also the poisonous centipedes, of which there are several in the house. The noise of the mungoose is very peculiar, generally purring like a cat, but when angry it barks sharp and snappishly, while every hair on its long tail

stands on end."

How necessary it is to have such an ally against invaders, domesticated in an Indian home, one may judge from the following, out of many descriptions of the annoyances to which a household is subject.

"There is another creature here from which you are comparatively free in England, and that is the bat. Numbers, of all sizes, make their nests

up above the chats or ceiling-cloths in the bungalows; some not bigger than the hummingbird, others so large as to deserve their name of flying foxes. Often at night they come into the rooms; one evening when my wife was going to bed, she found five large bats wheeling round and round in her dressing-room. On such occasions as this, I post myself in one corner of the room, and my chokedar or watchman in another, both armed with long sticks, with which we keep hitting at the bats until we knock them down, and then we throw them out of doors ; often, as they wheel round the room, one will hit himself against the punkah, and fall to the ground; instantly the mungoose springs upon him, and we hear the bones crushing in his jaws.

"One night I was suddenly awakened by something moving and scratching about my head; I raised my hand, and found a large bat clinging to my hair; dreading a snake, I had started up-there was a weight on my head, I dashed him off, and soon went to sleep again: but he appeared to have taken a fancy to me, and I was again awakened in the same manner; this time therefore I got out of bed, knocked the animal down, and killed him. I have several times been roused at night by a cockroach, three or four inches long, crawling over my face. The other evening a flight of large maulises came into the parlour, and soon drove us to bed. I have two Cobias (poisonous snakes), which were both killed in my own house; also a tarantula, which I caught in my dressing room.

"The mungoose is very fond of serpents; he

kills and eats them with great rapidity, and then jumps into my wife's lap, to ask for some milk."

This useful little animal has its drawbacks; though if he will clear the house of so many revolting creatures, we must excuse some mischievous tricks.

"The musk rat is a small short-snouted animal, from which musk may be extracted; the scent arising from it is overpowering. All the houses here swarm with them; but the mungoose has either killed or driven away all that were here, and our house therefore is quite free from the smell. The mungoose is very destructive. I just left the room for a few minutes, and while absent, it commenced demolishing some eggs which I had brought in from the fowl-house: there were eight on the table; he had broken five over my papers, and then dipped his paws into the ink, and then ran over the table. Whilst punishing him for this fault I held him by the neck, but he, nevertheless, managed to give me a severe scratch with his claws. is a thorough beast of prey, and will eat nothing but animal food, except sugar."-Collected from "Manners and Customs of India.”

He

THE CHRISTMAS LETTERS.

THOSE who remember the letters written by three sisters, on Ascension Day, may perhaps like to read the letters which they wrote the next