Letter on good Management as to Food, &c. 17 will make a comfortable meal; and a method will soon be found out which shall give them a supply of wholesome nourishment at a small expence; for, as the Epping dinner shews, there are many excellent and wholesome dinners, which will cost the family less than they spend at present, and give them much more comfort. A little farmer, a friend of mine, told me that he bought a quantity of Scotch barley and boiled it, putting in a very little bit of salt pork to give it a taste, with some vegetables from his garden, and that he made a capital dinner for his large family for a great deal less money than he could have fed them for with bread. I know the poor have not their salt pork to go to, and they must go to the shop for a little pepper, or salt, or allspice, to give any thing like taste to such a dish; but then what I want is to encourage them to try to get a supply of such things, and to have them ready in the house; if there was no going to the alehouse, the money saved there would furnish the house well with these things; and besides, if this plan of living is the cheapest, there is no need to talk of the expence, because it is more than saved in bread and other things. It is, indeed, very much to be wished, that the poor should have a wholesome nourishing diet, and should for this purpose be able to make their means go as far as possible. Some people, I am afraid, earn so little, that their supply of food, and clothing, and fire, is below what is good for their health. I know that rich people, from over-eating, are subject to many complaints that the poor know nothing of; but if too much is bad for health, so is too little. There are, however, many cottage families who are better off, and if any plan could be adopted which should come within their means, and enable them to live better than they do, at a smaller expence, it must be well worth their while to turn their attention to it. There is often as much spent in drinking as in eating; this is the worst of all

plans; none so sure of starving a family,-and it does the man no good either. Drinking raises the spirits for a while, and perhaps makes a man feel more willing to labour, but it is the food that gives the strength,-not, however, as much as a man can eat, but as much as he can digest.

X.

'CURIOUS ACCOUNT OF THE POWER OF FASCINATION IN SNAKES.

SOME sort of snakes are said to have the power of looking at the creatures which they wish to seize upon, with a sort of fascination, or charm, so that the poor victims seem to have no power of moving away from their enemy. The following curious account of the fascination exercised by snakes upon birds, is given by a writer in an American paper.

"I had often heard stories about the power that snakes have to charm birds and animals; which I cannot say I believed till I saw an instance of it, not long ago with my own eyes in Williamsburg, Massachusetts. As I was walking in the road at noon day, my attention was drawn to the fence by the fluttering and hopping of a robin red-breast, and a cat-bird, which, upon my approach, flew up, and perched on a sapling, two or three rods distant. At this instant, a large black snake reared his head from the ground near the fence. I immediately stepped back a little, and sat down upon an eminence the snake, in a few minutes, slunk again to the earth, with a calm placid appearance; and the birds, soon after, returned, and lighted upon the ground near the snake, first stretching their wings upon the ground and spreading their tails; they then began to flutter round the snake, drawing nearer at almost every step, until they stepped near or across

Fascination in Snakes.

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the snake, which would often move a little, or throw himself into a different posture, apparently to seize his prey; which movement seemed to frighten the birds, and they would veer off a few feet, but would return again as soon as the snake was still. All that the snake seemed to be waiting for was that the birds should pass near his head,-which they probably would soon have done, but, at this moment, a waggon drove up and stopped. This frightened the snake, and it crawled across the fence into the grass. The birds then flew over the fence into the grass also, and appeared to be bewitched and to flutter around their charmer; and it was not till an attempt was made to kill the snake that the birds seemed willing to depart; then they availed themselves of their wings, and flew into a forest a hundred rods distant.

"What this fascinating power is, whether it be the look, or the scent, or the singing by the vibration of the tail of the snake, or any thing else, I will not attempt to determine; possibly this power may be owing to different causes in different kinds of snakes. But so far as the black snake is concerned, the intention of it seems evident, this power of enticement or allurement being bestowed upon it for the purpose of enabling it to procure its food."

P. S. Since this case occurred, I have heard several respectable people, who have also seen birds charmed, observe that they have heard a sort of music, occasioned by the vibrations of the snake's tail, which motions they were near enough to see. The little birds seemed to have no desire whatever to escape from the snake; they seemed to take a pleasure in getting by degrees nearer and nearer to him, going as willingly to their own ruin as young men and women do, who, without appearing to see their danger, are, by the fascinating power of sinful pleasure, lured to their destruction.

V.

OF MOWING.

DELIGHTFUL is this meadow here, how doth the grass stand before me, some old and withering, some young and blooming, mixed together! Both must fall by the same stroke of my scythe; and that which is to fall by the very next stroke, stands as gay and insensible of its danger as that which will not fall to the very last. This is a lively picture of the world, wherein men dwell, old and young together, till death cuts them off; and, for aught I can see, they are all as careless and unconcerned about their latter end as this very grass. This is a most insufferable folly, that man, who knows he must die ere long, and knows not but he may die this very minute, should yet make no preparation for death. But whilst young men take it for granted that they have many years to come, and old men think themselves not so old, but that they may live a year or two more, they do all so live as if they were never to die.

But teach me, O my God, so to number my days, that I may apply my heart unto wisdom: make me seriously to consider that they are but as a span long; that mine age is nothing in respect of Thee; and that men in their very best estate, are altogether vanity. As soon as Thou scatterest them, they are even as a sheep, and fade away suddenly like the grass, which in the morning is green and groweth up, but in the evening is cut down, dried up, and withered. And now, Lord, what is my hope? Truly, my hope is even in Thee. I am but a stranger and sojourner here; but yet, O Lord! how unprepared am I to go to my long home! O spare me, therefore, a little, that I may recover my spiritual strength, before I go hence, and be no

more seen.

(From the Farmer's Golden Treasury.)

Answer. Idleness and mischief.

Q. What may we learn from the bee?

A. A lesson of industry.

Q. What does she do?

A. "Gather honey all the day

From every opening flower."

Q. And what is the honey which we are to gather?

A. Instruction from the Word of God.

Q. How does David, in Psalm xix. describe this instruction?

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A. As more to be desired than gold, yea, than much fine gold; sweeter also than honey, and the honey-comb."