66

sure;

and earth as ever a year before. And yet it did not look right. We examined the bark and the branches, and found nothing. "You are suspicious; you borrow trouble; your tree is well enough." "Something is the matter with that tree," we said, something is working death in it." People looked at it, and took hold of it, and said, "Pshaw! it is growing as finely as ever; it is all in your own eye." But we sometimes get impressions, and correct impressions, of persons different from what they at first appear, and yet we cannot tell how we get them. There is a sort of influence they let off, which tells the truth of them without their knowing it. This is sometimes called unconscious influence. was pretty much so with our tree. It kept up a good appearance, but there was a blight on it, and we felt it-very faint, to be sure, but still a blight.

It

One day, stooping down, some little particles of sawdust round the roots of the ash caught my eye; grains of sawdust here and grains of sawdust there. Taking out my knife, I closely examined the lower part of the trunk, down by the roots, and soon I spied a little hole here and a little hole there-two, three, four, five! Ah, there was the secret! The borers were in our tree, slowly but surely working its destruction. You have seen them. The borer is a small fat white worm, with a black head, which gnaws into the heart of a tree and makes a hole to lay its eggs in. Their teeth must be but pin-points, yet it is amazing what mis

chief they can do. They are death to a tree, for all the use it will ever be.

Well, boys, this made me think of the moral borers that sometimes worm their way into character: a bosom sin, a bad habit, a secret dishonesty. A youth may appear as fair as ever, his reputation may be as spotless, the world at large may suspect nothing wrong; but if the borers are at work, he can't hide it long. The don't-care swagger, the careless, irreverent tone, the restless eye, the reckless spirit, that unconscious influence which goes out of a person whether he will or no, will certainly disclose it, and we say with sorrow, "The borers, the borers are at work!"

There is a young man of my acquaintance, the joy of his parents and the idol of friends, with a fine mind, fine education, fine prospects, a fine fellow every way, beginning life under every advantage. After a while, his more discerning friends noticed a change in him; precisely what it was they could not tell, but there was a change, and a change for the worse. What borer was gnawing at his life-blood? How hard to believe there was one; and yet there was. It soon came out. It was intemperance, and it is working his ruin.

Beware, boys, of the borers! Secret sins cannot remain secret. You soon show the harm they are making with you. Their teeth are small, but they are sharper than a two-edged sword, and slowly but surely they will work your ruin-your present and your eternal ruin.-Hand and Heart.

NTISTHENES used to wonder at those who were curious, in buying but an earthern dish, to see that it had no cracks nor inconveniences, and yet would be careless

in the choice of friends-to take them with the flaws of vice. Surely a man's companion is a second genius to sway him to the right or bad.-Owen Feltham.

N

o surer destroyer of youth, of youth's privileges, and powers, and delights, than yielding the spirit to the empire of illtemper and selfishness. We should all be cautious, as we advance in life, of allowing occasional sorrowful experiences to overshadow our perception of the preponderance of good. Faith in good is at once its own rectitude and reward. To believe good and to do good, truly and trustfully, is the healthiest of humanity's conditions. take events cheerfully, and to promote the happiness of others, is the way to insure an enduring spring of existence. Content and kindliness are the soft vernal showers

То

and fostering sunny warmth that keep a man's nature and being fresh and green. "Lord, keep my existence fresh and green,' would be no less wise a prayer than the one so beautifully recorded respecting a man's memory. If we would leave a gracious memory behind us, there is no way better to secure it than by living graciously. A cheerful and benign temper, that puts forth pleasant blossoms, and bears sweet fruit for those who live within its influence, is sure to produce an undying growth of green remembrances, that shall flourish immortally after the present stock is decayed and gone.-Mrs. Cowden Clarke.

HE number of people destroyed by wild beasts constitutes an extraordinary feature of Indian life. Rewards are offered by the Government for the killing of these animals, but still the loss of life is very great in some districts, and in others it is less only because goats are abundant, and the wolves prefer kids when they can get them. No less than 14,529 persons lost their lives by snake-bites in 1869, and in 1871 there were 18,078 deaths reported as caused by dangerous animals of all classes; but Dr. Fayrer is of opinion that systematic returns would show that there are more than 20,000 deaths annually from snake-bites. The inhabitants of the borderlands between jungle and cultivation are killed and eaten by tigers in such numbers as to require the serious attention of the Government. A single tigress caused the destruction of 13 villages, and 256 square miles of country were thrown out of cultivation. Another tigress killed 127 people

in 1869, and stopped a public road for many weeks. A third killed 108 people in the three years 1867-69. In Lower Bengal alone 13,401 human beings were killed by wild beasts in six years, and 40 in South Canara in the single month of July, 1867. The Chief Commissioner of the Central Provinces has to report 946 persons killed by tigers in three years ending with 1869. There are difficulties in the way of extirpating tigers: the natives regard the man-eating tiger as a kind of incarnate and spiteful divinity whom it is dangerous to offend, and, as readers of correspondence which was published some time ago on the subject will remember, it is the desire of a few in India actually to preserve tigers for sport. Mr. Frank Buckland has suggested an organised destruction of the tiger-cubs in the breeding season, and the attraction of full-grown tigers to traps by means of valerian, of which tigers (which are only gigantic cats) are exceedingly fond.

W

HERE is Bob? I thought he was going," asked one boy of the other, as they went towards the water. "Bob is washing his mother's dishes," said the other boy. "Bob is nothing but a kitchen girl half the time. I would- " but I dare not write what Augustus said he would do if he were in Bob's place.

Pretty soon Bob's steps were heard behind them. "Not going without me, are you?" he cried in a gay tone.

"I thought you were kept by washing dishes," said Augustus. "It seems to me pretty mean business your mother puts you to do. I did not know it was boys' work to do such things."

"It is boys' work to do anything to help at home," cried Bob, with an angry flush upon his cheek; "and if I can help mother by washing up her dishes, I am glad and thankful to do it. One good turn deserves

another; and when I think of all she does for us, I like to lend a helping hand to do for her."

"But washing dishes!" said Augustus, scornfully.

66

Cleaning up is not the worst busines in the world," cried Bob good-naturedly. "I know plenty of worse things."

"You've got the right of it," said Tom. "I only wish I had a mother to wait on."

Yes, Bob is in the right of it. A boy who trains himself, or who is trained, to notice things about home, and to bear a hand in little matters which need help here or need help there, is growing up to be something more than a selfish, noisy, whistling, teasing member of the household, who expects to be waited on from morning till night. Active sympathy with one another's burdens makes household burdens all the lighter.

N page 8 our readers will find the portrait of a person whose name they may have frequently heard during the last two or three years-Joseph Arch. For some time past he has been the trusted leader of the agricultural labourers in their efforts to obtain better wages. There are different opinions entertained amongst good men concerning the wisdom of the course taken by the farm labourers in different parts of England, but it is generally acknowledged that Joseph Arch is an honest and honourable man. And so long as there are trades unions, it is well for their affairs to be guided by such men as Joseph Arch, Thomas Burt, and several others we could name.

Like many other leaders of the people, Joseph Arch suffered great hardships in early life. His parents were very poor, and times were very bad. And even after he became a man he endured much persecution on account of his religious principles. When speaking at a public meeting in Sheffield on the 1st of February, 1876, he gave the following facts in relation to what he had to suffer for being a Primitive Methodist :

"I will give you a little of the history of a man I knew very well. Thirty-two years ago he managed to get married-he was an agricultural labourer. Feeling that the duties of married life were different from those of the youth, and the young man