this she invariably does to strangers. One day I went into the room where she was, and said, to try her, "Poll, where is Payne gone?" and, to my astonishment, and almost dismay, she said, "Down stairs." I cannot, at this moment, recollect anything more that I can vouch for myself, and I do not choose to trust to what I am told; but from what I have myself seen and heard, she has almost made me a believer in transmigration.

WILD HYACINTH. (Hyacinthus non-scriptus.)

EVERY child who has wandered in the woods in the sweet months of April and May knows the Blue-Bell, or wild Hyacinth. Scarcely a copse can be found throughout our land which is not then blue with its flowers, for it is to the woodland and the green lane, in Spring, what the buttercup is to the meadow. Growing near it we often find the beautiful pinkish-white blossoms of the wood-anemone, and before it fades away the hedges are getting white, and becoming fragrant with wreaths of the blooming May, Gleanings, p. 218.

but the primroses have almost all departed, and the violets are daily more rare. The root of the Wild Hyacinth is round, and full of a poisonous, clammy juice; indeed every part of the plant gives out more or less of this juice if we bruise it. Though the root is unfit for food, and is useless to us now, yet in former times it was much prized. In days when very stiff ruffs were worn, the juice was made into starch, and employed to stiffen linen. It served the bookbinder, too, as glue, to fasten the covers of books. The flower has a slight scent, but the chief charms of the Blue-Bell are its beauty and its early appearance. It is but lately that we have looked upon bare trees, and ground strewed with withered leaves, and when no songs of joy were heard; and now the early flowers seem to say, in the language of Scripture, "The Winter is past; the rain is over and gone; the flowers appear on the earth; the time for the singing of birds is come; and the voice of the turtle is heard in the land." Our Wild Hyacinth is sometimes found with white or flesh-coloured flowers, but the beautiful garden Hyacinths, with double blossoms, are brought from different countries of the East.

THE PAPER KITE.

ONCE on a time a paper kite
Was mounted to a wondrous height,
Where, giddy with its elevation,
It thus expressed self-admiration :-
"See how yon crowds of gazing people
Admire my flight above the steeple ;
How would they wonder if they knew
All that a kite like me can do!
Were I but free I'd take a flight,
And pierce the clouds beyond their sight;
But now, like some poor prisoner bound,
My string confines me near the ground.
I'd brave the eagle's towering wing,
Might I but fly without a string."
It tugg'd and pulled, while thus it spoke,
To break the string. At last it broke :
Depriv'd at once of all its stay,
In vain it tried to soar away.
Unable its own weight to bear,
It flutter'd downward through the air;
Unable its own course to guide,
The wind soon plung'd it in the tide.
Ah! foolish kite, thou hadst no wing,
How couldst thou fly without a string
My heart replied, O Lord, I see
How much the kite resembles me:
Forgetful that by Thee I stand,

Impatient of Thy ruling hand,

How oft I've wish'd to break the lines

Thy wisdom for my lot assigns!

How oft indulg'd a vain desire,

For something more and something higher!
And, but for love and grace Divine,

A fall thus dreadful had been mine.

JOHN NEWTON.

THE USEFUL ARTS AND MANUFACTURES OF GREAT BRITAIN.

COTTON MANUFACTURE-continued.

MULE SPINNING.

THE throstle is not often employed for very fine spinning, because fine yarn would not bear the drag of the bobbin; but in mule spinning the yarn is wound at once upon the spindles without any strain. In the mule the rolling is first drawn by the usual system of rollers, and then stretched by a moveable carriage, as in the spinning-jenny of Hargreaves. The effect of first drawing and then stretching, is to make the yarn finer and more uniform, as will be explained presently. The spinningmule is the most interesting and impressive spectacle in a large cotton mill; on account of its vast extent, the great quantity of work performed by it, and the wonderful complication and ingenuity of its parts.

The spinning-mule consists of two principal portions; the first, which is fixed, contains the bobbins of rovings and the drawing-rollers; the second is a sort of carriage, moving upon an iron railroad, and capable of being drawn out to a distance of about five feet from the fixed frame. This carriage carries the spindles, the number of which is half that of the bobbins of rovings. Motion is given to the spindles by means of vertical drums, round which are passed slender cords, communicating with the spindles. There is one drum to every twenty-four spindles.

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stretching power of the mule, so that the yarn becomes the twist is equalized throughout, and When the carriage has completed a stretch, or is drawn out from about 54 uniform. to 64 inches from the roller-beam, the drawing-rollers cease to give out yarn, but the spindles continue to whirl until the threads are properly the carriage sometimes makes what is twisted. In spinning the finer yarns, called a second stretch, during which the spindles are made to revolve much more rapidly than before. The drawing, stretching, and twisting of a length of thread being thus completed, the mule disengages itself from the parts of the machinery by which it has hitherto been driven, and the spinner then pushes the carriage with his knee, back time with his right hand a fly wheel, to the roller-beam, turning at the same which gives motion to the spindles. At the same time a copping wire, as it is called, is pressed upon the threads by the spinner's left hand, and they are thus made to traverse the whole length of the spindle, upon which they form which is called a cop. These cops are then wound or built in a conical are used for placing in the shuttle in weaving, and form the weft, or short cross threads, of the cloth.

mules, guiding in the carriage of one One man is able to attend to two mule by hand, while the carriage of The carriage being run up to the steam-engine. Much skill is required the other is being moved out by the point from which it starts in spinning, in pushing back the carriage. As a the spindles are near to the roller-beam: preparatory step, the spinner causes the rollers now begin to turn, and to the spindles to revolve backwards for give out yarn, which is immediately a moment, to slacken the threads just twisted by the revolution of the spin-completed, and throw them off the dles; the carriage then moves away points of the spindles previous to from the roller-beam, somewhat winding them. In pushing the carriage quicker than the threads are delivered, back he must attend to three things:so that they receive a certain amount he must guide the copping wire so as of stretching, a circumstance which to ensure the regular winding of the gives value to this machine. The yarn on the cop; he must regulate the beneficial effect is produced in this motions of the spindles; and he must way: when the thread leaves the rollers push the carriage at such a rate as to it is thicker in some parts than in supply the exact amount of yarn that others, and those thicker parts not the spindles can take up in a given being so much twisted as the thinner time. ones, are softer, and yield to the

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The spinner is assisted by boys or