roaring and growling dreadfully, and they walked back and forth, and jumped up and down, as if they were in a state of great fury.

19. Fan. I should have been afraid of them.

20. Tim. No, there were strong iron bars in front of the cages; so we were not afraid. Well, in a few minutes, a young girl came in. She was dressed all in white, and was, I should think, about fifteen years of age. She was a very delicate and pretty-looking girl. She came in upon the stage, and took her stand in front of the cages. There she stood and courtesied to the audience.

21. Mark. Did the tigers stop growling?

22. Tim. No; they looked fiercer and more ferocious than ever. Pretty soon, some rough-looking men came in from a side-door, bringing some baskets with great pieces of meat in them.

23. Fan. Meat?

24. Tim. Yes, meat to feed the tigers with. One of the men had a wooden pitchfork. He gave the pitchfork to the girl. She took it and held it with the points up. Then another man took a piece of the meat, and put it upon the points of the pitchfork; and the girl, turning round, held it to the bars of one of the tigers' cages. The tiger immediately seized it with his paws, and pulled it through the grating.

25. Mark. And what did he do then?

26. Tim. He crouched down upon the floor, and, holding the meat in his paws, he began to gnaw it, as a dog would a bone. The girl then held her pitchfork again, and the man put a second piece of meat upon it, and the girl then fed the second tiger, and so on, along the whole row. The tigers seemed to be well

contented as soon as they got their meal; and they remained some time, eating it very quietly. We all looked on.

27. Mark. And was that all that you saw?

28. Tim. No. As soon as the girl had fed the tigers, she went out, and a man came in. The man said if we would wait a few minutes, until the tigers had eaten their meat, the young lady would go into their cages and play with them.

29. Fan. And did she?

30. Tim. Yes, she went in by a back door into one of the cages, and then passed from one cage to another along the whole row, by means of doors between.

31. Fan. And didn't they bite her?

32. Tim. No. They jumped about and played with her, and tumbled over and over each other before her, just as if they had been so many kittens.

33. Mark. I should have thought they would have torn her to pieces.

34. Tim. Yes, I suppose you would have torn her to pieces if you had been one of the tigers! But they had some gratitude. They remembered that she gave them their meat, and they were thankful to her for it. They would do whatever she directed' them. She would make them jump through a hoop that she held in her hand, or lie down and put their heads in her lap, and do various other things. Whatever she wished them to do, that they all seemed very willing to do.

35. Mark. I shouldn't think tigers would mind a girl.

36. Tim. They were grateful because she fed them. If you had been one of them, you would have torn her to pieces, I suppose, even if she had fed you every day for ten years.

37. Mark. O Timboo!

38. Tim. At least, if you would not have torn her to pieces, you would have refused to obey her. You would have lain down in a corner and gone to sleep, and you would not have done any thing to please her. 39. Mark. Why, Timboo, what makes you think I should have acted so?

40. Tim. Because that is the way you have acted towards your mother. She has been feeding, and taking care of you, and watching over you, and doing every thing to make you happy, now for eight years. 41. Mark. I am nine years old, almost. 42. Tim. Well, for nine years. And now, when an opportunity occurs for you to do some little good in return, such as going to carry a letter, you run off and hide. I don't believe that any one of those tigers that I saw, if he had been in your place, would have acted in such a way. [Mark hangs his head and looks ashamed.]

43. Fan. I think you ought to be ashamed of yourself, Mark.

44. Mark. I am ashamed of myself. I did not do right. I did not think.

45. Tim. That is just the difference between you and the tigers. They did think. When they saw the girl coming into their dens, all dressed in white, they said to themselves, "Ah, here comes the young lady that has given us so many good suppers! We will treat her well. Now we will do whatever she asks of us."

46. Fan. That is the way they ought to treat her for taking such good care of them.

47. Tim. Yes, but a boy, when he sees his mother,

never says, Ah, here is the kind mother that has taken care of me, and has done so many things for me all the years of my life, and I will do whatever she asks of me!" Instead of that, if he imagines there is any thing that he can do for her, and that she is going to ask him to do it, he runs off and hides.

48. Mark. Well, Timboo, I'll promise that I will never do such a thing again. And now, if you will just tell me what my punishment shall be, I'll take it. 49. Tim. I should think you would feel better for some punishment.

50. Mark. I think I should.

51. Tim. But the best thing for you to do, to make you forget this iniquity, is for you to watch for opportunities every day, for a month to come, to do some kindness or other to your mother.

52. Mark. Well, I will.

53. Tim. There is very little that you can do. The opportunities are very rare, but when they do happen, don't be more ungrateful than a tiger, and go away and hide. And now your box is mended. I am almost afraid to mend a box, or do any thing for you, for fear that you should bite me for it, or do some more ungrateful thing.

54. Mark. O Timboo, you are too bad. And now, Fanny, I think I had better go and tell mother that I am very sorry that I was not willing to carry her letter, and went away and hid; and that I never will do such a thing again.

55. Fan. I would, Mark. mother that, if I were you.

1 FAIR. A public meeting for traffic and the display of articles. FEROCIOUS. Savage, fierce.

I would go and tell It will comfort her.

3 DIRECTED. Ordered, bade.

4 REFUSED. Declined, rejected, denied. 5 INIQUITY. Wickedness.

*

2. I long to see the Northern Lights
With their rushing splendors fly,
Like living things with flaming wings,
Across the sunless sky.

3. I long to see those icebergs' vast,
With heads all crowned with snow;
Whose green roots sleep in the awful deep,
Two hundred fathoms low.

4. There shall we see the fierce white bear,
The sleepy seals' aground,

And the spouting whales that to and fro
Sail with a dreary sound.

5. We'll pass the shores of solemn pine,
Where wolves and black bears prowl,
And away to the rocky isles of mist,
To rouse the northern fowl.

* The Northern Lights are a kind of light which is sometimes seen at night in the sky. This light assumes all shapes, but is usually in streams, and exhibits various colors, from a white to a blood-red, and in the far north is very splendid. It is also called Aurora borealis or polar lights.