Filial Kindness Rewarded.


GUSTAVUS III, king of Sweden, passing on

horseback through a village in the neighborhood

of his capital, observed a young peasant girl of

 interesting appearance, drawing water at a 

fountain by the wayside. He went up to her, and

 asked her for a draught. Without delay she lifted

 up her pitcher, and with artless simplicity put it

 to the lips of the monarch. Having satisfied his

thirst, and courteously thanked his benefactress,

he said, "My girl, if you would accompany me to

Stockholm, I would endeavor to fix you in a more

agreeable situation."

''Ah, sir," replied the girl," I cannot accept your

proposal; I am not anxious to rise above the

 state of life in which the providence of God has

 placed me; but even if I were, I could not for an

 instant hesitate."

''And why?" rejoined the king somewhat 

surprised.

"Because." answered the girl, coloring, "my

mother is poor and sickly, and has no one but me

to assist or comfort her under her many 

afflictions;

and no earthly bribe could induce me to leave

her, to neglect the duties which affection

 requires from me."

"Where is your mother?" asked the monarch.

"In that little cabin” replied the girl, pointing

to a wretched hovel beside her.

The king, whose feelings were interested in

 favor of his companion, went in, and beheld,

stretched on a bedstead, whose only covering 

was a bed of straw, an aged female, weighed 

down with years, and sinking under infirmities.

 Moved at the sight, the monarch addressed her:

 "I am sorry, my poor woman, to find you in so 

destitute and afflicted a condition."

“Alas! sir," answered the venerable sufferer,

"I should be indeed to be pitied, had I not that

kind and attentive girl, who labors to support

 me.

and omits nothing she thinks can afford me 

relief!

May a gracious God remember it to her for good,"

she added, wiping away a tear.

Never, perhaps, was Gustavus more sensible

than at that moment, of the pleasure of 

possessing an exalted station. The gratification

 arising from the consciousness of having it in 

his power to assist a suffering fellow-creature 

almost overpowered him, and putting a purse 

into the hand of the young villager, he could only

 say, "Continue to take care of your mother; I 

shall soon enable you to do so more effectually.

 Good bye, my amiable girl, you may depend on 

the promise of your king."

On his return to Stockholm, Gustavus settled a

pension for life on the mother, with the reversion

to her daughter at her death.

 

YI