December, 1844, and was married to Albert, Prince of Wales, March 10, 1863. Their first-born has received the names of Albert Victor Christian Edward, the first after his father, the second after his royal grandmother, the third after his grandfather on his mother's side, and the fourth after his grandfather on his father's side, namely, Edward Duke of Kent. This child is now two years old. God has also given to the young parents a second infant, George Frederick Ernest Albert. May the blessing of the Lord rest upon the princely household!

THE HEART'S DOOR.

I'LL never forgive Fred!" said Dora, angrily, as she came into the parlour, holding up before her mother the fragments of a little toy-a tiny sofa-a piece of the set of furniture her uncle had given her a few days before.

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Dora, my child!"

Well, I mean just what I say!" continued the angry little girl. "Fred came rushing into the summer-house just as he always does, and trod on it with his great boots; and when I spoke to him about it he said he didn't care a bit, and wished he had broken the chairs too."

"Think before you say more, my dear. Perhaps you vexed Frederick by your manner of speaking."

"I only told him he was careless and stupid, and

so he was. It's too bad. No, I will never forgive him ;" and as she turned over the pieces of the ruined toy in her hands her face grew dark with wicked feelings.

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Hark, Dora! listen: some he is knocking, I am sure."

Little Willie, a three-year old younger brother, stopped playing with his blocks on the floor, and looked at the door as if expecting a visitor.

"What do you mean, mamma? I do not hear any one," said Dora.

No

"Have you forgotten, my daughter, that there is a door to your heart? You have opened it once this morning, and let in an evil, hateful thing. picture that could be made of it would be too dark to represent what is now in your heart."

Dora hung her head, for she began to understand her mother.

And now, if you will listen, you will hear One, your best Friend, at that door. He is knocking gently. Dear little daughter, let him in. He has a message for you, and it is, 'If ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses:' and that word 'men' means everybody, even Freddy, who, you think, has offended you so much."

Dora's heart was softening. The tears came into her eyes. She opened the door of her heart a little way. Willie, who had been listening, came, and, putting his little arms round her neck, kissed her, but said nothing. Her heart's door swung wide open now, and love entered.

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Yes, mother, I will forgive Freddy," sobbed Dora. "I was as much to blame as he; and I know I spoke spitefully, or he would have felt sorry when

he did it."

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Then, my darling, thank that dear Friend who has found the way into your heart with his love, and go now to Freddy, ana make it up with him."

Dora laid away the fragments of the sofa, and went out with sunshine in her face and joy in her heart; for its door was closed again, and her best Friend was within.

NEW YEAR'S DAY IN THREE PLACES.

old year had done Now, with a joyful

THE bells that rung out the their work like the year itself. peal, they had welcomed in the new one. "What is past is past," they seemed to say, "we cannot have it back again; now then for a new start, and may God help us to do better."

But I suppose they say different things to different people; they could hardly have said this to Robert Wilmot, or he would not have been in bed at eight o'clock this same New Year's morning. It was a pleasant country house where he lived; his father was rich, and he was the only son; so if outward things could make us happy he would have had a good chance indeed. I am, however, sorry to say, all his advantages had only made him selfish. He was in the habit of thinking a great deal more of himself and his own pleasures than other people, and thus

he expected his sisters always to give up to him; indeed he thought it very strange if his father or mother wished him to do what he had no mind to do.

"Oh! Robert, how can you make such a fuss, and look so disagreeable?" his eldest sister would say; and Robert would reply, "How can anybody look pleasant in doing what they don't like, I should like to know?"

Poor Robert! he had much to learn. We all like our own way best; but there is no peace for any of us till we have learned to give it up, first to God, and then to others.

It was a bad beginning of the New Year, certainly, to be called three times, and then, when he did come down-stairs, to find prayers over, and his father and mother looking grave at his lazy habits. Perhaps

it was owing to this that nothing seemed to go right with him all day. Have you not found many a time, when you have been late in the morning, that you have not recovered it all day? At any rate, instead of being in a good humour, as everybody ought to be on New Year's Day, nothing seemed to please him. He hardly thanked his father for the skates he gave him, because he was wanting a new whip; and it was just the same with all his other presents. After breakfast, his sister asked him to lend her his pony, that she might take a ride with her father. No, Robert wanted the pony himself. She might have known that, though just before he had been intending to go down to the pond to skate. So the pony was ordered, and he started for his ride.

Widow Green curtseyed to Robert as he passed her cottage, but he took no notice of her. He thought it was the duty of those sort of people to pay him respect, and when her little boy, Tommy, opened a gate for him just after, he never asked him why he was crying so bitterly. If he had, he might have enjoyed the pleasure of giving Tommy another penny for the one he had just lost, the only New Year's present he had had. The wind was so cold, and the pony did not go well, and altogether it was not a pleasant ride. When he got home it was dinner time, and then time to prepare for his cousins, who were coming to spend the evening with him.

Robert was bright and clever, but instead of helping, he only seemed to hinder every amusement. He would not play at all at hunt-the-slipper, because he wanted blind-man's-buff first. And at other games it was all the same; it must be done just in his way, or else he would be sulky. When, at last, it was time to say good-night, Robert declared it was very hard they should go so early, when they were just getting into the fun; but he said it was always the way, he never could have anything he liked; with a great deal more not worth repeating.

I am much afraid Robert Wilmot's New Year is not likely to be happier than his old one: it cannot be if he goes on thinking only of himself, and of nobody else. Let us take a peep at a very different

scene.

In the village not far off, this same New Year's Day was dawning on a small and humble cottage,