time in haunts of
dissipation. And several years rolled on in this way, he growing more
hardened, and his aged parents, in their loneliness, weeping over the
ruin of their guilty and wandering son.

One day an armed vessel sailed into one of the principal ports of the
United States, accompanied by another, which had been captured. When
they arrived at the wharf, it was found that the vessel taken was a
pirate. Multitudes flocked down upon the wharf to see the pirates as
they should be led off to the prison, there to await their trial. Soon
they were brought out of the ship, with their hands fastened with
chains, and led through the streets. Ashamed to meet the looks of
honest men, and terrified with the certainty of condemnation and
execution, they walked along with downcast eyes and trembling limbs.
Among the number was seen the unhappy and guilty boy, now grown to
be a young man, whose history we are relating. He was locked up in
the dismal dungeon of a prison. The day of trial came. Pale and
trembling; he was brought before the judge. He was clearly proved
guilty, and sentenced to be hung. Again he was carried back to his
prison, there to remain till the hour for his execution should
arrive. News was sent to his already broken-hearted parents, that
their son had been condemned as a pirate, and was soon to be hung.
The tidings was almost too much for them to endure. In an agony of
feeling which cannot be described, they wept together. They thought
of the hours of their child's infancy, when they watched over him in
sickness, and soothed him to sleep. They thought how happy they felt
when they saw the innocent smile play upon his childish cheek. They
thought of the joy they then anticipated in his opening years, and of
the comfort they hoped he would be to them in their declining days.
And now to think of him, a hardened criminal, in the murderer's
cell!-- Oh, it was too much, too much for them to bear. It seemed as
though their hearts would burst. Little did they think, when, with
so much affection they caressed their infant child, that he would be
the curse of their life, embittering all their days, and bringing
down their gray hairs with sorrow to the grave. Little did they
think, that his first trifling acts of disobedience would lead on to
such a career of misery and of crime, But the son was sentenced to
die, and the penalty of the law could not be avoided. His own remorse
and his parents' tears could be of no