myrrh, aloes, cassia, frankincense, and balm of Gilead."

"Mine are camphire, spikenard, saffron, calamus, and cinnamon. I found them all in one place," said Lilias, "so I thought I had better make two bunches. My other one is all of corn, wheat, barley, rye, and cummin.”

"I have got a fir-tree!" said Robin, triumphantly.

"Oh! he cannot have that, can he, auntie?" cried May.

“I found it, and I must," pleaded Robin.

Suppose he kept his fir-tree till next Sunday, Aunt Myra, and then we made a new game, and found all the trees of the Bible," said Nelly, who was apt to be a little peacemaker.

"That is a capital thought," said her aunt. "Now, let me hear what Arthur and Muriel have found, and then Bertram and I will read ours, for we looked out some we thought might not be thought of."

"I took the fading flower upon the head of Ephraim," said Muriel, “and I have got reeds and rushes to go with it."

"That is not a very pretty bunch," said Arthur. I have got lilies, not like Amy's lily, out of the Song. My lilies are what Jesus said were more glorious than Solomon; and I put some green

grass round them, because grass was the first plant that was created. Then I have flax, and a brier, a thistle, and mandrakes."

"Well," said Aunt Myra, "Bertie and I gathered a bramble first.'

'Oh! is there a bramble in the Bible?” cried Robin.

"Turn to Judges v. 8, and let us read the parable of the bramble," said Aunt Myra. "That is what people do now when they trust in any one but God; they find, when trouble comes, they have only got a bending bramble to lean upon, whose thorns run into them and prick them."

"That is just what the ancient Britons did,” said Arthur, "they leaned upon the help of the Saxons when attacked by the Picts and Scots; and when the Saxons came, they made slaves of the Britons; that was like sending for the bramble, and they did find its thorns very soon."

"Yes, that is very true," said Aunt Myra, "the more so that the Britons were Christians; so they ought to have cried to God for help, instead of sending for the heathen Saxons."

"What is your next plant, auntie?" asked Evelyn.

"The almond; you will find it in the last chapter of Ecclesiastes: The almond tree shall flourish.' This chapter is a description of old age, and the

almond tree means the white hair of an old man, because the almond trees are covered with such a mass of pure white flowers. Then, I have a beautiful little plant, which, I daresay, none of you knew was in the Bible. We call it the Star of Bethlehem, on account of its fair star-shaped flowers; but in the Bible it is called 'Dove's dung.' The root is like a crocus bulb, and was eaten for food by the very poor; so that in a time of great famine we read there was sold 'the fourth part of a cab of dove's dung for five pieces of silver.""

CHAPTER VIL

TREES

E are to have Robin's game to-day, auntie, you remember-the trees of the Bible," said Nelly, the next Sunday.

"Yes, we will each make a little wood of trees we should like to walk under," said Lilias.

"I think we ought not to have the tree of good and evil, because that was such a very sad tree," said Evelyn.

"No; I think we will agree to miss that out," said Nelly; "but we might all have the tree of life in our woods, for mamma told me that was an emblem of Jesus Christ, and no wood would be perfect without that."

I shall draw a tree at the top of my paper," said Arthur; "that will mean the tree of life." "Draw one on my paper," said Evelyn.

“And one for me, too, please," said Amy.

"I have a thought to propose," said Aunt Myra. "You will find several trees compared to our Lord Jesus; when you write down the names, put a cross over these trees, because we must look at them very particularly. Time is over," said Aunt Myra, looking at her watch; "Lilias shall read hers first."

"My wood is of cedar trees, and fig trees, and olives," and she read aloud the verses she had found.

"I have Shittim wood, the vine, the apple-tree, and the pomegranate," said Arthur.

"And I have got nuts in my wood," said Evelyn, "and willows."

"Mine are the palm, the myrtle tree, and the sycamore, and the oak," said Muriel.

"I have found gopher wood, which Noah made the ark of, and the olive tree the dove picked a leaf from; quite another tree from Lilias' olive, because hers is in the New Testament," said Evelyn.

"In Romans xi. the Jewish nation is compared to an olive tree, and in Isaiah, to a vine; both were cast away as unprofitable; and still we see the Jews homeless and outcast among the nations; but the time is coming when they will repent; and then, we read, the branches that were broken off will be grafted into the tree again," said Aunt Myra.

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