FRIENDLY VISITOR: PUBLISHED IN MONTHLY NUMBERS, DURING THE YEAR 1837. BY THE REV. W. CARUS WILSON, M. A. RECTOR OF WHITTINGTON, AND PERPETUAL CURATE OF CASTERTON. VOL. XIX. "Much good may be done this way to considerable numbers at once, in an accep- KIRKBY LONSDALE: PRINTED AND SOLD BY A. FOSTER Of whom may be had single numbers to make sets complete. SOLD BY L. AND G. SEELEY, FLEET STREET, LONDON; The Profits are devoted to charitable purposes. FRIENDLY VISITOR: PUBLISHED IN MONTHLY NUMBERS, DURING THE YEAR 1837. BY THE REV. W. CARUS WILSON, M. A. RECTOR OF WHITTINGTON, AND PERPETUAL CURATE OF CASTERTON. VOL. XIX. "Much good may be done this way to considerable numbers at once, in an acceptable manner, at a trifling expense."-ARCHBISHOP SECKER. KIRKBY LONSDALE: PRINTED AND SOLD BY A. FOSTER Of whom may be had single numbers to make sets complete. SOLD BY L. AND G. SEELEY, FLEET STREET, LONDON ; The Profits are devoted to charitable purposes. It was on a gloomy afternoon in February, that we went together to visit old Isaac's dying wife. It was the first waik we had taken together for many months. The breath of the fresh air, and the feeling of returning strength to enjoy it, will give pleasure at all times; and we enjoyed the walk, though yet there was scarcely an half-opened daisy along the bank, or a bird in the hedge. The thrush, storm-cock, as the people call him, because he sings in such boisterous weather, shunned this chill and cloudy afternoon; not one robin greeted us, winter's bird though he be; nor could we discover that blush of red along the hedge, which, in a week or two more, will tell that Spring, and her buds and blossoms, are coming. But do you remember, on our way home, the glorious evening star, that shone out in the west before us, just where the sun had set? What matter if there should be but little of brightness along our path here, if we can but keep our eyes fixed on the star that shall guide us safe home at last? In the row of very poor houses to which we went, one was pointed out to us by its very neat garden, and its cut hedges of evergreen box. Here will be daisies and polyanthuses in abundance in a few weeks, and lavender and carnations for those who live till Midsummer to gather them. Ah, frail flowers! Yet there are frailer things that you outlive. It is not only the yew of a thousand years, and the venerable oak, that laughs to scorn the mightiness of man; but the lowly acorns will spring up for fifty years together in the same spot, when he that first set it, and his children, are gone, and their place knows them no more. But why repeat the same tale so |