children would help him to be a better man. Doctors may say what they will about wine and ale being good for me, but I am sure it can never be right for me to take what has done my father so much harm, and made you, my mother, so wretched as you were."

It is perhaps scarcely necessary to say, that the name of this little girl was not the only one added to the temperance list that night. William and Martha were unable to resist the force of an example so powerful, and they never afterwards regretted that they had taken the temperance pledge.

FABLE OF

THE INDEPENDENT BEES.

THERE was once a beautiful garden-no matter wherecontaining a number of beehives, each with its little community of busy, working bees, and each governed by its own sovereign, who made laws for the benefit of the whole population within the hive.

It would, in all probability, puzzle the wisest of our modern entomologists to say to what species these bees belonged, for they were all of a pale, or rather pinkish kind of yellow colour, esteemed by them as the exact colour which bees ought to be; though the tinge of this yellow was so very varied, approaching so often to white, and then to the opposite extreme of black, that the most knowing bee amongst them had never been able to say which particular degree of black or white approached the nearest to perfection. The fact was, they believed themselves all to be of the right colour, and therefore they made no difficulty about the matter.

Had these bees possessed a little more modesty, they would have had the candour to take into account, that they were not the only bees in the whole world; and some of them knew this very well, for on taking a distant flight,

they had discovered another garden quite as beautiful as their own, and quite as full of hives, where the bees were all brown-poor despicable things! It is impossible to say how much the yellow bees looked down upon them for being a different colour from themselves. It is true they had as many wings to fly with, nor were they deficient in the number of their legs; they had eyes, too, and built their cells, though not with the same exactness, yet in a manner which satisfied their wants; and altogether, though not quite so bustling or so skilful as the yellow bees, they had at least as great a right to please themselves.

All might have been well, however, if the yellow bees had been satisfied only to despise the brown. But what did they do besides? They rushed in amongst them, seizing all they could secure, and carrying them home to their own hives, portioned them out amongst their friends in exchange for certain quantities of wax and honey, and then flew off again to fetch more. The brown bees having slender hives, and not being accustomed to think much about danger, were very little prepared to defend themselves from such merciless enemies. All they could do was, to endeavour to escape by flight, and to hide themselves as well as they were able amongst the shades and the hollows of their own garden.

But the yellow bees were not satisfied with merely hunting their prey, and snatching single victims wherever they could. They devised plans for accomplishing their cruel

purpose on a larger scale, by making the sovereigns of the different hives quarrel and fight amongst themselves, and then persuading those who gained the victory to sell them all the brown bees which were taken captive. Thus a regular supply was obtained to a very great amount; and as the difficulties of getting them away from their own garden was great, hundreds and thousands died by the way, in the most cruel manner, and thousands more endured sufferings a great deal more terrible than death.

All this while, the yellow bees were as proud as ever. They were proud of the fruits and the flowers of their garden, of the firm and skilful construction of their cells, of the quantity of honey they were able to lay by for winter use; and, what is rather remarkable, they were proud of being good, at least, a great deal better than the brown bees, and they called themselves by a good name, and gave it out amongst all the bees in the world, that they were more just and more merciful than those who were not called by that

name.

It may reasonably be supposed from this, that they took the brown bees to their own hives, to teach them knowledge, and to do them good. But, no. The truth soon came to light. The brown bees were to do all the hard work for the yellow. They were not only to be seized by violence and carried away from their own garden, but they were to be made to work in all kinds of weather, while a great many of the yellow bees were idle--they were to be

tied together, made to carry heavy burdens, whipped, and abused in many ways, until the general opinion amongst the bee-population was, that it was better to die than to be a bee with a brown complexion. It is easy to imagine that of these, neither the brown nor the yellow were the independent bees.

No; the independent bees lived a great way off, in a very large garden, very fruitful, and watered by broad streams, and in many places covered with such thick shrubberies, that the first yellow bees which flew over were afraid to venture far into the garden, lest they should be lost. They came back, however, with such wonderful descriptions of what they had seen, that other bees flew over, and more, and more, in such numbers, that they in time called the great garden their own. But chiefly one very old hive, with a powerful sovereign, laid claim to a large portion of it; and being a little too full, sent out a great many of its inhabitants to live there entirely. This hive took the liberty of making laws for the bees of the new garden, and of sending them messages what they were to do, or not to do, though the distance at which they lived rendered it very difficult to have the messages always delivered in time.

It would have been strange, had any one discovered so wide, so fruitful, and so flowery a garden as this, without any bees at all; and here was found a kind of red bee, very wild, and very much disposed to sting when hurt; so the yellow bees thought it best to let them pretty much