e,
In grave-like garments dressed,
Lay the twin children of their love,
In death's serenest rest.

"These were the jewels lent to me,
Which God has deigned to own;
The precious caskets still remain,
But, ah, the _gems_ are flown;
But thou didst teach me to resign
What God alone can claim;
He giveth and he takes away,
Blest be His holy name!"

The father gazed upon his babes,
The mother drooped apart,
While all the woman's sorrow gushed
From her o'erburdened heart;
And with the striving of her grief,
Which wrung the tears she shed.
Were mingled low and loving words
To the unconscious dead.

When the sad sire had looked his fill,
He vailed each breathless face,
And down in self-abasement bowed,
For comfort and for grace;
With the deep eloquence of woe,
Poured forth his secret soul,
Rose up, and stood erect and calm,
In spirit healed and whole.

"Restrain thy tears, poor wife," he said,
"I learn this lesson still,
God gives, and God can take away,
Blest be His holy will!
Blest are my children, for they _live_
From sin and sorrow free,
And I am not all joyless, wife,
With faith, hope, love, and thee."

THE TEA-PLANT. (FROM HOGG'S INSTRUCTOR.)

Hid behind the monster wall that screens in the land of the Celestials
from the prying eye of the "barbarian," the Tea-plant, in common with many
things peculiar to those regions, remained long unknown to Europeans, and
the snatches of information brought home by early travelers concerning it,
were, in too many cases, of that questionable and contradictory kind, so
characteristic, even in the present day, of the writings of those who
travel in Eastern lands. Tea has now become a general article of domestic
consumption in every household of our country having any pretension to
social comfort, as well as in that of every other civilized nation, and,
indeed, the _tea-table_ has no mean influence in refining the manners and
promoting the social intercourse of a people. Important, however, as this
universal beverage has become as an essential requisite to the social and
physical comfort of all classes and conditions of civilized society, yet
our knowledge of the plant from which it is produced is still very
imperfect; and this, notwithstanding the fact