ut in future avoid it. Well, Jane, how is your
bird?"

"I think it is better, papa; but one can form no opinion so soon."

"Go, show it to your mamma--she is the best doctor among us--follow her
advice, and no doubt she will add its cure to the other triumphs of her
skill."

"Jane is fretting too much about it," observed Agnes; "why, Jane, you
are just now as pale as young Osborne himself."

This observation turned the eyes of the family upon her; but scarcely
had her sister uttered the words when the young creature's countenance
became the color of crimson, so deeply, and with such evident confusion
did she blush. Indeed she felt conscious of this, for she rose, with
the wounded dove lying gently between her hands and bosom, and passed,
without speaking, out of the room.

"Don't you think, papa," observed Miss Sinclair, "that there is a
striking resemblance between young Osborne and Jane? I could not help
remarking it."

"There decidedly is, Maria, now that you mentioned it," said William.

The father paused a little, as if to consider the matter, and then added
with a smile--

"It is very singular, Mary; but indeed I think there is--both in the
style of their features and their figure."

"Osborne is too handsome for a man," observed Agnes; "yet, after all,
one can hardly say so, his face, though fine, is not feminine."

"Beauty, my children!--alas, what is it? Often--too often, a fearful,
a fatal gift. It is born with us, and not of our own merit; yet we are
vain enough to be proud of it. It is at best a flower that soon fades--a
light that soon passes away. Oh! what is it when contrasted with those
high principles whose beauty is immortal, which brighten by age, and
know neither change nor decay. There is Jane--my poor child--she is
indeed very beautiful and graceful, yet I often fear that her beauty,
joined as it is to an over-wrought sensibility, may, before her life
closes, occasion much sorrow either to herself or others."

"She is all affection," said William.

"She is all love, all tenderness, all goodness; and may the grace of her
Almighty Father keep her from the wail and woe which too often accompany
the path of beauty in this life of vicissitude and trial."

A tear of affection for his beautiful child stood in the old man's eyes
as he raised them to heaven, and the loving hearts of his family burned
with tenderness towards this their youngest and best beloved sister.

The sun had now gone d