"The storm that sings his lullaby

So sweetly while you sleep, You little think what dangers lie Within his cradle deep.

"You see the sailor when he laughs,
And tells of perils o'er,

Or when the social bowl he quaffs
With messmates on the shore.

"And thus you think his jovial heart
Is always light and gay,

You cannot see the tears that start
When he is far away.

"You cannot tell the love that burns,
Though distant he may roam;
Nor how his faithful bosom yearns.
For children, wife, and home.

"Then think awhile before you close Your eyes in peaceful sleep,

And breathe one earnest prayer for those Who plough the stormy deep.

"And thank the God whose care has bless'd
You with a happier doom;
In weary life, a home of rest-
In death, a peaceful tomb."

CAPTAIN COOK.

THIS great navigator, whose early history affords few indications of the illustrious career by which he was afterwards distinguished, was born at the village of Marton in the North Riding of Yorkshire, in the year 1728. He was one of nine children; and his father occupying the situation of farming-labourer, the first rudiments of instruction he received were from a school-mistress in his native village.

Judging merely from circumstances, a boy thus situated would appear one of the least likely of human beings to discover new countries, or to sail round the world; yet scarcely had the future adventurer attained the age of thirteen, before we see one step taken towards that field of enterprise which opened something like a new world to him and to his country. At the age of thirteen, James Cook was bound apprentice to a shopkeeper residing about ten miles from Whitby, at which place, it is more than probable, he received an early bias in favour of a seafaring life, from the scenes and circumstances presented to his observation in that romantically situated seaport town.

With his first master it appears that Cook had some dispute, upon which he left his employment, and followed the bent of his inclination, by engaging himself for five years as a common sailor in the service of a gentleman of Whitby.

Nothing up to this period of his life seems to have been known of Captain Cook, to mark him out as a man of distinction; but it is worthy of observation, that but a few years clapsed after he had settled in that line of life for which he was naturally fitted, and had thus qualified himself for the common routine of a sailor's duty, before he was promoted, from one step to another, in a manner so rapid as must have been astonishing to his early friends and rural connections.

In the year 1762 we find him, although still a comparatively unimportant individual, occupying an honourable post, and engaged in active service at the retaking of Newfoundland; after which, on his return to England, he was married to Elizabeth Batts, at Dorking, Essex.

All this while, however, it must be observed, that Captain Cook was fitting himself, by application and industry, to fill with credit to himself, and benefit to his country, that high station to which he was subsequently called. The elevation of Captain Cook to the rank of a distinguished navigator, was not merely the result of circumstances in which he took no part himself. Adapted by an excellent constitution for the labours and vicissi