7. The door suddenly opened, and the children's mother entered. You should have seen her, speechless with terror, her cheeks white as a sheet, and her eyes fixed with horror! But the youngest boy nodded with a look of intense delight, and cried, "Mother, we are only playing at soldiers! At that moment the master of the bear appeared. From the Danish of Andersen.

XXIII. GETTING INTO A PASSION.

1. Ir does not follow, because people may retire from the world, that they must become saints; for so long as the tendency to evil" remains in the heart, some circumstance from without will call it forth, and then sin is again committed. To make this clear, I must tell you an old story.

2. There was once a man of a very passionate temper; and, instead of looking for the cause of this in himself, he threw the blame of it on other people. It was they, he said, who made him get into such passions, and who spoiled" all his pleasure in life, and therefore he would leave them, and become a hermit.

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3. And so he went into a desert place, where there were no inhabitants, and built himself a hut in the middle of a wood, where there was a little spring of water; and the small quantity of bread that he needed he ordered a boy to bring to him once a week, and place upon a rock a good way from the hut.

4. He had not been a hermit very long not many days, I believe when he took his pitcher and went to the spring. The ground by the spring was very uneven, and so his pitcher fell over as he set it down. The hermit lifted it up, and placed it carefully under the spring, but the water, which poured out with great force, fell on one side of the pitcher, and again it tumbled. This put the hermit in a great passion, and, snatching up the pitcher, he said, "It

shall stand, though!" and set it down on the ground with such violence, that it broke all to pieces.

5. With this, he saw he had been giving way to one of his old bursts of passion, and he said to himself, "If this is the way I go on in my solitude, the fault must be mine ́if I cannot command my temper among men. I had better return to my duties in the world, and endeavor to avoid evil, and do what is right." And so he went back into the world a wiser and a better man.

1.0! GREEN was the corn as I rode on my way,
And bright were the dews on the blossoms of May,
And dark was the sycamore's shade to behold,
And the oak's tender leaf was of emerald and gold.

2. The thrush from his holly, the lark from his cloud,
Their chorus of rapture sung jovial and loud;
From the soft vernal sky to the soft grassy ground,
There was beauty above me, beneath, and around.

3. The mild southern breeze brought a shower from the hill,
And yet, though it left me all dripping and chill,

I felt a new pleasure, as onward I sped,

To gaze where the rainbow gleamed broad overhead.

4. O! such be life's journey, and such be our skill
To lose in its blessings the sense of its ill;
Through sunshine and shower may our progress be even,
And our tears add a charm to the prospects of heaven.
BISHOP HEBER.

XXV. ON CHEERFULNESS.

1. I HAVE always preferred cheerfulness to mirth. The latter I consider as an act, 113 the former as a habit of the mind. Mirth is short and transient, cheerfulness fixed and permanent.

2. Those are often raised into the greatest trans'oorts" of

mirth who are subject to the greatest depressions of melancholy; on the con'trary, cheerfulness, though it does not give the mind such an ex'quisite gladness, prevents us from falling into any depths of sorrow.

3. Mirth is like a flash of lightning, that breaks through a gloom of clouds, and glitters for a moment; cheerfulness keeps up a kind of daylight in the mind, and fills it with a steady and perpetual se-ren'ity.

4. A man who uses his best endeavors to live according to the dictates of virtue and right reason, has two perpetual sources of cheerfulness, in the consideration of his own nature and of that Being on whom he has a dependence. If he looks into himself, he cannot but rejoice" in that existence which is so lately bestowed upon him, and which, after millions of ages, will be still new and still in its beginning.

5. How many self-congratulations naturally arise in the mind when it reflects on this its entrance into eternity, when it takes a view of those improvable faculties which in a few years, and even at its first setting out, have made so considerable a progress, and which will be still receiving an increase of perfection, and consequently an increase of happiness !123

6. The consciousness of such a being spreads a perpetual diffusion of joy through the soul of a virtuous man, and makes him look upon himself every moment as more happy than he knows how to conceive.

7. The second source of cheerfulness to a good mind is its consideration of that Being on whom we have our dependence, and in whom, though we behold him as yet but in the first faint discoveries of his perfections, we sce everything that we can imagine as great, glorious, and amiable. We find ourselves everywhere upheld by his goodness, and surrounded with an immensity of love and mercy.

8. In short, we depend upon a Being whose power qualifies him to make us happy by an infinity of means, whose

goodness and truth engage him to make those happy who desire it of him, and whose unchangeableness will secure us in this happiness to all eternity. Addison.

1. SOME years ago, a fire broke out in one of our towns, and raged so violently that much damage was done. The wind was high at the time, and, the weather being very cold, the water froze in the engines, so that many buildings were destroyed before the flames could be subdued. Hundreds of poor people were driven forth shelterless by this disaster.

2. More than fifty families had to seek a home in the neighboring villages and towns. At a most inclem'ent season, old and young were compelled to leave the smoking ruins of their houses, and solicit shelter from the charitable.

3. Many good people were prompt in lending aid to those thus rendered destitute by an unlooked-for calamity. A clergyman of the town was very active in interesting the public of adjoining cities in their behalf. He made their case known through a newspaper," and collected considerable sums for their relief.

4.. Contributions of money and articles of food were sent in, not only from people in the neighborhood, but from those at a distance; and the good man had the satisfaction of distrib'uting almost enough to restore the impoverished families to their former condition.

5. Among those who came with donations for the sufferers was a little boy, who brought six cents, an old coat, and a basket of apples. "I wish I could have brought you more," said he, "but this is the best I can do. All these are my own, and I may do with them what I please. Sister tried to laugh me out of it, but I thought to myself, If a good many boys would only bring a little, it would amount to a good deal."

6. "You have done rightly, my son," said the clergy

man.

"Never shrink from giving, because your gift is small. If it is proportioned to your means, and given from a generous impulse, it is a good gift. If people would remember that many small contributions make a large amount, they would, like you, do good as far as they are able, and give what they have to give, without blushing because it is apparently trivial and unimportant."

From the German of Wilmsen.

XXVII.

MY GARDEN.

1. THE various flowers that in the garden grow
Not only please me, but instruct me too;
And while with fresh delight their forms I see,
Each has some lesson, some advice, for me.

2. "Be modest and retired," the Violet says;
"Seek not for every man's admiring gaze;
Better with me in lowly sweetness hide,

Than be a vain, obtruding child of pride."

3. "Be thankful and content," the Stonecrop cries;
"See what a little can my wants suffice;
E'en' on this barren roof I grow and thrive,-
Thus on a little learn like me to live."

4. Boast not of beauty," says the blushing Rose;
"To-morrow's setting sun my life will close,
My leaves will scatter in the evening wind, -
Like me, at least, some fragrance leave behind."
5. "Judge not in haste," the Strawberry exclaims;
"Wisdom examines, ere it harshly blames;

To careless eyes I seem a barren root,

But search beneath, and you shall find some fruit."

6. See," says the Sunflower, "how from morn till night
I turn towards the sun of life and light;

So turn, from youth to age, with love and fear,
To Him who makes thy comfort still his care."