3. I leaned forward to catch a view of the children, and saw William standing with one foot advanced, and his hand firmly clinched, in the midst of the group. He was a fine subject for a painter at that moment. His flushed brow, flashing eye, compressed lip, and changing cheek, all told how the word coward was rankling in his breast. "Will he indeed prove himself one by yielding to them?" thought I. It was with breathless interest I listened for his answer; for I feared that the evil principle in his heart would be stronger than the good. But no.

4. "I will not go without asking my mother," said the noble boy, his voice trembling with emotion; "and I am no coward, either. I promised her I would not leave the house without permission, and I should be a base coward if I were to tell her a wicked lie."

5. I saw him in the evening in the crowded parlor. He was walking by his mother's side, a stately matron, clad in widow's mourning. Her gentle and polished manners, and the rich, full tones of her sweet voice, showed her to be a lady of refinement and culture. It was with evident pride that she looked on her graceful boy, whose face was one of the finest I ever saw, fairly radiant with animation and intelligence.

6. Well might she be proud of such a son, one who could dare to do right when all were tempting to do wrong. I shall probably never see the brave boy again; but my heart breathed a prayer that that spirit, now so strong in its integrity, might never be sullied by worldliness and sin; never, in coming years, be tempted to do evil.

7. Then, indeed, will he be a joy to the widow's heart, a pride and an ornament to his native land. Our country needs such stout, brave hearts, that can stand fast when the whirlwind of temptation gathers thick and strong

around them; she needs men who from infancy upward have scorned to be false and recreant to duty.

8. Would you, young friend, be a brave man, and a blessing to your country?— be truthful, never tell a lie, or deceive in any manner; and then, if God spares your life, you will be a stout-hearted man, a strong and fearless champion of the truth.

XII-WAITING FOR SOMETHING TO TURN UP.

1. "And why do you throw down your hoe by the way, As if that furrow were done?"

It was the good farmer, Bartholomew Grey,
That spoke on this wise to his son.

2. He had thought to have given the lad such a start As would bring him at once to his feet;

And he stood in the furrow, amazed, as young Bart,
Lying lazy, and smiling so sweet,

3. Replied" The world owes me a living, you see, And something, or sooner or late,

I'm certain as can be, will turn up for me,
And I am contented to wait!"

4. "My son," said the farmer, "take this to your heartFor to live in the world is to learn —

"The good things that turn up are, for the most part,
The things we ourselves help to turn!

5. "So, boy, if you want to be sure of your bread,
Ere the good time of working is gone,
Brush the cobwebs of nonsense all out of your head,
And take up your hoe, and work on."

ALICE CARY,

XIII. THE OWL.

1. The Barn Owl is a very common bird. It lives in barns, hollow trees, and old buildings. It feeds almost entirely on mice, though it will sometimes eat little birds. One owl is more useful to the farmer than a hundred mouse-traps, for it catches and eats the fieldmice, which can not easily be decoyed into traps.

2. In the dusk of evening, when the mice begin to stir abroad in search of food, the owl starts in search of the mice, and with noiseless flight quarters the ground in a sportsmanlike and very regular manner, watching with its great round eyes every movement, and catching with its sensitive ears every sound.

3. Not a mouse can come within reach of the bird's eye, or make the least rustling among the leaves within his hearing, that is not detected and captured. The claws are the instruments by which the owl seizes its victim, and it does not employ the beak until it desires to devour its prey.

XIV. CAST IN A LINE.

1. One day a country lad stood looking at an old man who was fishing, and he could not help wishing aloud that he had such a fine basket of fish.

"There are twenty fish," said the old man; "I will give thee an equal number if thou wilt tend this line for me while I am gone."

2. The lad was delighted at the proposal, and eagerly took his seat. It was a fine fishing morning, and there were plenty of hungry fish in the stream; so the boy met with excellent success. By and by, as the old man

was long gone, the fish in his basket numbered more than those in the one he had coveted.

3. After a time the owner of the line came back, and, counting out the twenty fish from those the boy had caught, left him, with this advice: "When thou art in want, do not waste thy time in idly wishing, but cast in a line for thyself."

4. Lay this advice to heart, boys, if you ever wish to succeed. If you have an honest calling, no matter how humble, your work will be honorable. All the boys that ever rose to good positions in the world learned early to cast in a line for themselves.

5. There was once a poor Scotch lad whose father was lost at sea, and as his mother could afford him but few opportunities for improvement, he determined to educate himself. His schools and school-masters were the old stone quarries and great gray boulders scattered along the beach. Here he delighted to spend his leisure hours, with a large hammer which had been his greatgrandfather's; and with it he chipped away at the rocks, and gathered many curious specimens to pore over at home.

6. The farm servants who came to the beach for loads of sea-weed used to laugh at him, and ask him if he was finding silver among the stones. But he was too intent on his studies to be laughed out of them. He was gathering something worth much more than silver- he was gathering golden grains of knowledge.

7. What a treat it was to him to get a holiday in the woods, or by some rocky streamlet! How much more he saw than other boys in all that lay around him! and all because he looked at and studied patiently what he saw. There was a time when he knew no more of the earth and its treasures than any child in the street. 8. He kept on steadily and surely gathering more and

more knowledge of these wonderful works of God, and seeing in them all the Creator's footprints. At length, the humble stone-mason stood before the world as the great geologist Hugh Miller!

Remember that those who loiter always lose the race.

XV.-MAKING TRACKS.

1. A light snow had fallen, and the boys desired to make the most of it. It was too dry for snow-balling, and not deep enough for coasting. It did very well to make tracks in.

2. There was a large meadow near the place where they were assembled. It was proposed that they should go to a tree which stood near the center of the meadow, and that each one should start from the tree, and should see who could make the straightest track-that is, go from the tree in the nearest approach to a straight line. The proposition was assented to, and they were soon at the tree.

3. They ranged themselves around it, with their backs toward the trunk. They were equally distant from each other. If each had gone forward in a right line the paths would have been like the spokes of a wheel - the tree representing the hub. They were to go till they reached the boundaries of the meadow, when they were to retrace their steps to the tree.

4. They did so. I wish I could give a map of their tracks. Such a map would not present much resemblance to the spokes of a wheel.

"Whose is the straightest?" said James Alison to Thomas Sanders, who was at the tree first.

Henry Armstrong's is the only one that is straight at all."