Would be drown’d in the water.”

Alfred began to read pretty well by the time he was five years old. He and his papa would read a chapter in the Bible together, verse by verse, once a day. Then, when his papa had time, he would talk a little to his son about what they had read.

The month of March had come, and brought with it many signs of spring. The blue-bird and the robin had been heard, and wild-flowers bloomed in warm and sunny nooks. The willow showed its silvery balls, and the sun was high in the heavens.

One sunny day, when the snow had melted, and the roads were a little dried, Mr. Penrose took his little boy to walk in the woods. They found some beautiful green moss, and one bunch of arbutus. Alfred brought the flower to his mamma, and put the moss around her flower-pots. Then, when they had rested, he sat down to read his chapter with his father.

They read the seventh chapter of Matthew, which tells of the man whose house the floods swept away, because it was built upon the sand.

“Who is meant by the foolish man, Alfred?” said his papa.

“Is it the wicked man, papa?” asked the little boy.

“Yes, it is the sinner, who does not love the Saviour. Jesus Christ is the only hope of the soul. I know I often tell you this; but I do it because I want you always to remember this great truth. Jesus here compares himself to a rock. When we learn to love the Saviour as we ought, then we are set upon this rock; and God will not let sorrow, or even death, remove us from that safe resting-place.

“Last summer I saw something which made me think of what we have just read.

“It had rained hard in the night, but cleared off early in the morning. The sun was very hot. About ten o’clock I saw quite a smoke arise from the flat, tin roof of the wing of the house. I looked, and found it covered with water. I wondered what it could mean. Upon examination, I found a bird’s nest, very neatly made of hair, and lined with feathers, placed directly over the hole which led into the spout. It filled it up entirely, and so prevented the water running into the spout.

“Poor foolish bird, to take so much pains to build its nest in that insecure place! She had thought, I suppose, that she would keep house very snugly there; and there bring up her little ones, and give them their first lesson in flying from the house to the big willow-tree, which stands alongside of it.

“How frightened she must have been when she felt the waters overflowing her nest! How much she must have wished that she had put it in the right place! My dear boy, we must make a better provision for our heavenly home than this poor bird did for her nest; so that we may not be surprised and disappointed, like her, at last.”