surely on a summer Sabbath, amid the green hills and pastoral vales of Scotland.

The little church of Boneil, primitive as though, instead of being near a metropolis, it had been perched on some lone isle of the Hebrides, was filled to excess on the present interesting occasion, with a congregation as perfectly in keeping with the scene and situation, as it was novel and striking

to me.

There was not a face in the assembly — a sprinkling of rustic noblesse in the gallery hardly excepted — which could have been assigned by a physiognomist to any vocation save a rural one.

When the minister rose, breaths were held in, and the very dogs recalled their dreaming fancies from the dun hill side, lest a start or suppressed bark should disturb the solemn silence. To commence the services of the day, he gave out the twenty-third Psalm to be sung by the congregation.

The Lord's my shepherd, I 'll not want.

He makes me down to lie
In pastures green: he leadeth me

The quiet waters by.

My soul he doth restore again;

And me to walk doth make
Within the paths of righteousness,
Ev'n for his own name's sake.

Yea, though I walk in death's dark vale,
Yet will I fear none ill:

For thou art with me; and thy rod
And staff me comfort still.

My table thou hast furnished
In presence of my foes;

My head thou dost with oil anoint,
And my cup overflows.

Goodness and mercy all my life
Shall surely follow me:

And in God's house for evermore
My dwelling-place shall be.

This beautiful Psalm, always so great a favorite in a pastoral assembly, came more home to their feelings than ever, 'when its green pastures and still waters' were applied, as they evidently were by the venerable reader, to his own tranquil sojourn of a lifetime in the glen of Boneil. The allusion to a darker valley, the inevitable, and not very distant termination of a lengthened pilgrimage, woke a yet tenderer chord; and when these words were sung, as the psalmody of Scotland so impressively is by young and old, it was not the voice of the gray haired contemporary parish precentor alone that betrayed signs of emotion!

The text was the simple words of the Psalmist - 'I have been young, and now am old;' and when the good man sketched with faltering voice an unpremeditated picture of that gradual pilgrimage from youth to age, every step of which many of his hearers had taken side by side with this

tried veteran in the path of duty and affliction; when the young heard him allude with a parent's tenderness to follies they felt years could alone teach them entirely to abjure; and the old saw his venerable face lighted up with joys he had taught many, like himself, to draw from above — tears, fast and frequent as from dropping eaves, attested the sympathy that reigned between the good shepherd and his flock.

I awoke on the morrow, fancying all nature decked in tenfold beauty for the joyful anniversary; my own spirits elated with a healthful gladness which courtly fetes may take away, but could never yet bestow. The privileged guests for the day (Gordon and myself included) were the elders, most of whose fathers had presided at the minister's ordination the schoolmaster, who, in the absence of nearer and dearer, had long been to him as a son; and the doctor, who, under a dress and exterior rugged as those of his shepherd neighbors, veiled a skill beyond their simple wants, and few and rare ailments.

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But a self-invited member was soon added to the group, in the person of a young neighbor laird, who made sport an excuse (with those who required any) for farming his own moderate patrimony, and enjoying, unfettered by the etiquettes of society - so called the style of life most congenial to his age and disposition. At the breakfast-table, young Boneil, for so from his property he was styled, walked in, with his heartfelt congratulations, and a bag full of grouse, shot before town dandies had well composed themselves to their first sleep.

'Any other day of the year, Mr. Maxwell,' said the frank young sportsman, 'I would have dropped in at dinner, and taken my chance of a welcome. But this is a sacred one, and I would like to have my intrusion sanctioned beforehand. If you think me worthy (and if you do n't you'll say so, in spite of all your hospitality) to rejoice with you on your fifty years' retrospect of duties fulfilled and good deeds done remember, you'll find it a hard matter ever to shut the door on me or my pretensions again.'

6

'God forbid I should, Norman,' said the old man, shaking his manly visiter by the hand; a kind heart and a leal one are aye welcome! Fifty years back, your father bore both, and his son is no changeling! Stay with us now, or return, as it best suits you.'

'Oh! I dare not stay!' cried the young man, with a significant smile at Lilly and her aunt; 'I should be sadly in the way. Besides, I spied a roe in the glen this morning, and must have another hit at the venison. What say you to a pasty, Miss Anne, between this and noon yet?'

'I'll say for her, Norman, that it will be like the savory meat of Esau, that old Isaac valued for the hunter's sake, if ye get it; and if not, we've the will for the deed, and that's just the same. And now off with ye-else your pies in the bush will stand in the way of aunt Anne's puddings in hand!'

'There goes as fine a lad as ever lived,' said the pastor, as he went out. If he were my own son. I could scarce love him better.'

I looked up, and chanced to meet the delighted glance of the retreating Lilly; and it told me as plain as a thousand words, that the old man might, ere long, take to his heart a grandson!

The Manse, meantime, teemed all the morning with unbidden yet privileged guests. Neighboring pastors came to congratulate the willing fellow-laborer, under whose fatherly shadow themselves had grown insensibly gray · with whom they had taken sweet council and walked in the house of God as friends - and with whom they hoped, though in all humility, to stand side by side at the great account. Couples married by him in the earlier periods of his incumbency, still lived to thank him for half centuries of happiness; while children and grandchildren, christened by his hand, and made Christian by his precept and example, came with them to add their grateful acknowledgments.

Our party, swelled by a few guests of the better order, at length sat down to dinner; and never did feast yield more unmingled satisfaction. The old man, exhilarated by the spontaneous burst of affection with which his anniversary had been hailed, felt a buoyancy of spirit to which he had for years been a stranger. Gordon and I were excited to the utmost by so unwonted a celebration. The dominie himself, through the week the' observed of all observers,' looked up in delighted admiration to his own exemplary teacher; while the rough diamond of a doctor eyed him with the exact counterpart of the expression with which his dog, of the true shepherd breed, fixed his eyes in mute devotion