



Produced by Annie R. McGuire








[Illustration: HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE

AN ILLUSTRATED WEEKLY.]

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VOL. II.--NO. 56. PUBLISHED BY HARPER & BROTHERS, NEW YORK. PRICE FOUR
CENTS.

Tuesday, November 23, 1880. Copyright, 1880, by HARPER & BROTHERS. $1.50
per Year, in Advance

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[Illustration: LITTLE SAMUEL.--[SEE NEXT PAGE.]]

THE BOYHOOD OF SAMUEL.

BY THE REV. BRADFORD K. PEIRCE, D.D.


A long time ago--more than three thousand years--a little boy was born
to a loving mother. She was a Jewess, and in those days it was the
custom to be called by only one name. Her name was Hannah, or Anna. She
lived with the father of her little boy in a mountain village six or
eight miles north of the city of Jerusalem.

Hannah was a tender-hearted woman, and as good as she was gentle. She
longed to have a little boy who might grow up and be trained to be a
teacher of the true God among the people around her, who were very
ignorant and wicked in those days. So she prayed, and God heard her
prayer. Upon the birth of the little fellow she named him Samuel, which
means _Asked of God_. So happy and grateful to God was this Jewish
mother that she wrote a wonderful song, which has been preserved all
these years, and may be still read in the Bible.

When her boy was two or three years old she carried him to the place
