The Sunbeam.

THOU art no lingerer in monarch's hall:
A joy thou art and a wealth to all;
A bearer of hope unto land and sea:

Sunbeam, what gift hath the world like thee?

Thou art walking the billows and ocean smiles;
Thou hast touched with glory his thousand isles;
Thou hast lit up the ships and the feathery foam,
And gladdened the sailor like words from home.

To the solemn depths of the forest shades
Thou art streaming on through their green arcades,
And the quivering leaves, that have caught thy
Like fireflies glance to the pools below.

[glow,

I looked on the peasant's lowly cot:
Something of sadness had wrapped the spot;
But a gleam of thee on its casement fell,
And it laughed into beauty at that bright spell.

Sunbeam of summer, oh! what is like thee,
Hope of the wilderness, joy of the sea?
One thing is like thee, to mortals given

The faith touching all things with hues of heaven.
MRS. HEMANS.

QUESTIONS:-1. Is sunshine peculiar to the palace? 2. What expression in the first line shows that it is not? 3. What effect has the sunbeam on the billows? 4. What is meant by ocean "smiling"? 5. What effect has it upon the sailor? 6. What are the "green arcades" of the forest? 7. What are the leaves quivering in the sunbeam compared to? 8. What are "fireflies"?

ONE of those summer visitations which, at some time or other, desolate the countries situated between the tropics, extended its ravages to our locality. It was towards the end of December, when the sun in Capricorn warms Mauritius with

its vertical fires. The south-east wind, which generally lasts nearly the whole year, had ceased to blow. Clouds of dust arose from the surface of the earth, and remained suspended in the air. The earth cracked in every direction, the grass was burnt up, warm exhalations issued from each mountain gorge, and the majority of the brooks were dried up. Not a single speck was visible above the sea. Occasionally, during the day, some reddish vapours appeared above the plains, resembling at sunset the flames of a conflagration. Night alone afforded any refreshment to the scorched atmosphere. The red moon rose out of a dark horizon, and seemed immeasurably large. The flocks grazing on the sides of the hills lifted up their throats to the sky, gasping for breath, and made the valleys re-echo with their plaintive bleatings: even the Caffre who tended them cast himself on the ground in the hope of refreshing his fevered body. The soil was everywhere burnt up, and the stifled air resounded with the hum of insects which sought to allay their thirst in the blood of inen and animals.

In process of time the excessive heat drew vapours from the ocean, which covered the island like a vast parasol. The summits of the mountains collected those vapours, and from time to time long flakes of fire flashed from their dark recesses. Then the thunder, in a horrible succession of discharges, rolled and clapped over the

woods, the plains, and the valleys, and terrible rains, resembling cataracts, fell in volumes from the heavens. Foaming torrents rushed through the mountain-gaps and down the mountain-sides; the space between them became a sea; the table-land, where the huts and cabins stood, was thus converted into a little island; and roaring waters, masses of broken earth, uprooted trees and detached rocks, burst, pell-mell, like an awful avalanche, through the entrance of the valley. Towards evening the rain ceased, the south-east trade-wind resumed its ordinary course, the stormy clouds were driven to the north-east, and the setting sun appeared above the horizon.

B. DE ST. PIERRE,

Moan, ye Wild Winds.

MOAN, ye wild winds! around the pane,
And fall, thou drear December rain!
Fill with your gusts the sullen day,
Tear the last clinging leaves away!
Reckless as yonder naked tree,
No blast of yours can trouble me.

Give your chill and wild embrace,
And pour your baptism on my face;
Sound in mine ears the airy moan
That sweeps in desolate monotone,
Where on the unsheltered hill-top beat
The marches of your homeless feet!

Moan on, ye winds! and pour, thou rain!
Your stormy sobs and tears are vain
If shed for her whose fading eyes
Will open soon on Paradise:

The eye of Heaven shall blinded be,
Or ere ye cease, if shed for me.

The tropics - That portion of the earth's surface which extends for 23 degrees to the north and south of the equator.

Capricorn. The name of one of the signs of the Zodiac; the sun enters Capricorn on the 22nd December. Mauritius.-An island in the Indian Ocean, about 20° south of the equator, and 600 miles east of Madagascar. It is nearly oval in form, and has an area of 708 square miles. It is also called the Isle of France, having been a French possession until 1809.

QUESTIONS:-1. What is Capricorn? 2. When does the sun enter Capricorn? 3. Where is Mauritius? 4. What was it formerly called? 5. Why? 6. What is the limit of the tropics? 6. What wind generally blows in Mauritius? 8. Describe the appearance of the country during the prevalence of heat? 9. Whence did the vapour come to cover the island? 10. How is their appearance described? 11. What is a trade-wind? 12. What is a south-east trade-wind?

"CHILDREN," said a kind father to his little family, as he took his seat by the fireside, and gathered