and scratched him, and tormented him, till the maddened monster was almost relieved when he felt himself drawn from his native element.

Jacques, Pierre, and their friend Paul all manned the boat, for the half-drowned diver had nearly recovered his strength again. The men had already examined nearly all their hooks, but they were greatly afraid their large prey had escaped them; but Pierre, who was drawing in the line, suddenly cried

"I have him at last, comrades; he is very heavy." And as he spoke the fierce-looking conger came writhing up, and was drawn by main force into the boat, where he was no sooner landed than he darted at the nearest diver, and tried to seize him.

"Mind your legs, your legs," cried the others. "Who will tie him up?" inquired Paul cautiously, keeping at a very respectful distance himself.

"I will; I have had experience of him already," answered Jacques, and with great circumspection he crept down to where the eel was, intending to put a cord round his victim with one hand; but finding to his chagrin that both were required for the powerful creature, he was obliged to call for Pierre's assistance, and the two men at length succeeded in lashing the conger to the thwarts, and had actually turned to speak to Paul, when a shout from him made them look round, and lo! the cord was broken, the place was vacant, and Mr. Conger Eel had disappeared.

"He has the strength of a horse," cried Pierre. "Surely there is something queer about him,"

echoed Paul. "No sooner had you turned, Jacques, than he burst his tying with one writhe, and slipped over the gunwale of the boat as if he had been accustomed to doing it all his life."

"We shall have to let him alone," observed Pierre; "no use in trying to catch that fellow; but he won't attack us again, I think."

Hardly for awhile, certainly, for after his long continued struggles and narrow escape, Mr. Conger Eel felt rather poorly. But he determined that his first business should be to punish with a dreadful punishment all the misguided fish who had been tormenting him when he was at their mercy. He was too wise to make a sudden onslaught on a party, and exhibit himself, so he used to seize and devour any unwary mullet, cod, or bream who happened to be swimming alone, and as the fish were not on their guard as usual, and none ever returned to tell the tale of their enemy's reappearance, shoals mysteriously vanished without ever being accounted for. Well was it for the inhabitants of the harbour that winter weather was approaching, for one morning, after a severe night's frost, numbers of conger eels were found floating on the surface of the water. The fishing boats put out at once, and after capturing a great number of these creatures (which, though alive, were quite unable to dive out of their reach), among whom was included our mischievous hero, they were all despatched to London in big hampers; indeed, our friend required a whole hamper to himself, so great was his size.

FRANCESCA.

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"Well, I hope they are all wise ones. Now, you know, you have all the same place to find to-daywhere are we going to read?"

"St. John, the fourth chapter, and the forty-sixth verse," said several.

"We had better go back to the forty-third verse, because we ought to find out when and where this miracle was wrought, and so put the jewel in its right setting. Those words' after two days' will help you, if you look back, to find out at what time of the year our Lord came this second time to Cana."

"That was one of my questions," cried Lizzie, in rather an injured tone.

"Suppose you were to try to answer it for yourself, Lizzie; you see, 'two days after' takes us back to Samaria, and our Lord had come from Judea to Samaria; tell me why He went into Judea."

"To keep the Passover," cried Margaret; "it says so in the second chapter."

"Yes, that is our Easter-time, as you know; and then Jesus and His disciples stayed a while by the Jordan, so that we cannot say more certainly than that it was probably summer or autumn in that same year when Jesus came back to Galilee. You notice that the people were talking and thinking a great deal about Him; do we know why?"

"Because of the miracles He had wrought at Jerusalem."

"Yes-no doubt many of the men of Cana and Capernaum, and other towns, had been to keep the Passover in the Holy City, and when they returned, we can fancy how eagerly they would tell all their kinsfolk and acquaintance about the wonderful works and words of the Great Prophet. And it was while these tidings were still fresh, still passing

from mouth to mouth through the country side, that the Saviour was once more seen in Cana, where He had wrought His first miracle."

"If you please, I have a question," said Ellen, shyly. "Why did not Jesus go to Nazareth, where His home was?"

"That is a very thoughtful question, Ellen; but you said His home was in Nazareth; had our Lord a home?"

"The Son of Man hath not where to lay His head," Margaret replied, reverently.

"How was He welcomed at Nazareth, a few weeks or months before?"

"They tried to cast Him down from the rocks," said Mary.

"Yes; and then Jesus said (as we are reminded in the forty-fourth verse), that a prophet hath no honour in his own country. After that visit our Lord had no longer any home on earth; He could not go to Nazareth any more. Now we will read on, and you will see that while Jesus was in Cana, a nobleman came to him from Capernaum for help."

"Was it a long journey?" asked Mary.

"Probably about five-and-twenty miles, so that even if the nobleman rode he would be some hours on the way, and you know what an anxious journey it must have been, for he left at home his child, perhaps his only one, and that child seemed to be dying. Now can you find out at what time of the day this nobleman came to Jesus?"

"There is not one word about the time," answered Alice, quickly.

"Are you quite sure of that?"

Margaret looked up. "It was at the seventh hour I noticed that-and I wanted to ask what time in the day was meant."

"You know we are reading from St. John's Gospel, and it is generally understood that he uses the Roman time, which is like ours, and not the Jewish time, as the other evangelists do, so that the words here mean seven o'clock-seven o'clock in the evening, I suppose."

"If he were a nobleman, I suppose he rode in a fine carriage, with ever so many servants," said Mary.

"That I cannot tell you; we do not know much about his office and place, only that he most likely belonged to Herod's court, and we cannot be sure in what manner the poor father passed along the road up to little Cana, which must have seemed a

small, out-of-the-way place in which to seek for help."

“I wonder where Jesus was when the nobleman found Him," said Ellen.

"That we do not know; but we are told how the poor father greeted Him, and these words make it plain to us that the nobleman as yet only thought of the Prophet as One who had power to work wonders, and therefore might help him in his trouble; he had never thought what these wonders were meant to teach-can you tell me what that lesson was?"

No one was quite ready with an answer. "What reply did Jesus make?" I asked.

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'Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe.'"

"Believe what? can you tell me?"

"I think I see what you mean,” said Margaret, turning over the leaves of her Bible; "is it not something like what St. John says, nearly at the end of his Gospel, 'These are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing ye might have life through His name "?"

"And therefore, you see, the Saviour found fault with the nobleman, because he only wanted the sign, and did not look any farther. This courtier was, most likely, used to a good deal of homage and obedience from those about him, and therefore we should not think it wonderful if he were offended now at being rebuked by the Prophet from Nazareth -do you think he was?"

"He seems only the more anxious that the Lord should help him, I think," said Edith.

"Yes; that rebuke tried him, and showed that his love for his child was stronger than his pride, and it also showed that he did believe a little already, for he felt sure that Jesus could save his son on two conditions. What were those?"

"There was one question I wanted to ask," said Mary; "why did the nobleman want Jesus to come down. He could heal the child quite as well from Cana."

But you see, the poor father's faith was not strong enough to imagine anything like that; every doctor or healer of whom he had ever heard had come to the patient's bedside and looked at him, and asked questions before he tried to help; and this nobleman expected that the Prophet must do so too. This coming down was one of the two conditions ; what was the other?"

"That the boy should be still alive, was it not?" asked Ruth.

“Yes, and we cannot at all wonder at these two conditions, because, so far as we know, Jesus had never yet healed any one at a distance from Him,

and had never brought back any dead person to life; so that our Lord was leading on this man to greater faith than any one had yet shown; and we can see this-that there must have been some faith already in the father's heart, or he could not have been led on to this higher lesson of trust."

"I wonder," said Margaret, thoughtfully, "why our Lord did not say, 'Thy son will live,' instead of Thy son liveth '?"

"I don't quite understand your question; to me those words seem so very wonderful, and I will try to show you all why. They show us that, as the Saviour spoke, He was looking at that sick-bed in Capernaum. The poor father had left it only a few hours before, and yet he could no longer see it-only picture in his mind what might possibly be happening there; but Christ saw it all. Perhaps there stood the poor mother, and He saw her look of wonder and hope as she felt the boy's hand, and found that there was no burning heat there, as she looked at his eyes, and found that they met hers, as she heard her son's voice speaking to her, and knew that the terrible fever had gone in one moment. Tell me what took place next in that house in Capernaum."

"The servants were sent to tell the father," said Edith.

"Yes, so great was the joy and surprise, that two or three of the household at least hurried along the road to Cana with the glad tidings."

"They must have gone in the night," said Mary.

"And their master was coming to meet them, though they did not know it," said Edith.

"Yes, through those night hours, along what was, I dare say, a lonely stretch of road, the servants were running on; and their master was also hurrying away from Cana, but it was not certainly till morning light was come that the nobleman saw those hurrying figures making their way towards him."

"I wonder whether he was afraid of what they might have to tell him?" said Margaret.

"It does not seem as if he were; you see, it says, 'And the man believed the word that Jesus had spoken.' And it was this faith which had made him able to take his way homewards without the company of the Healer, for whose presence he had asked. Besides, just answer this: did he ask the servants any question?"

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No; they spoke first," cried all.

"Yes. I should think we are to understand that they were too eager to wait until they reached him, but that they sent their cry along the silent road as soon as they saw him coming in the distance. Like

those runners who cried out 'Tidings, my lord the king,' these servants would try which should be the first to greet their master with the words, 'Thy son liveth.' Where had he heard those words before?"

"They were the very words that Jesus spoke to him," said Lizzie.

"And no doubt they had been in his ear, and in his mind every step of the way as the father journeyed towards home; and now how wonderful it must have seemed to have heard them spoken by other voices! how wonderful! and yet, after all, just what he might have expected. And notice that the father does not show any surprise; he only wants to know when the boy began to show any improvement."

"It was at the very minute when Jesus spoke," added Ellen.

"Was that all that the father learned from the

"But the nobleman believed before,” said Ruth. "He believed a little when he went to find Jesus; he believed more fully when he obeyed Him and turned homewards; and then, when he had seen the fruit of his obedience and trust he believed still more fully.

"And we now leave this beautiful story with the glad thought in our hearts that, from this time forth, not only the father, but the mother, the boy himself who was healed, the servants who carried the tidings, also as well as all who were in that nobleman's household, became disciples of Jesus."

1. (a) A Jewish month, in which a most important work was completed. (b) A disciple who considered the poor, and was blessed. (c) An unclean animal. (d) The servant of a man who was raised up to do a mighty work. (c) A term applied by an Apostle to one whose aid he requested on behalf of others. The initials of the names of the above are the first letters of five words which together form a well-known injunction of the Apostle Paul. Write it out.

2. Give the name of the youngest son of the man, whose brother died where he was born, and whose father died in a place bearing the same name as this brother. State with what great city this place traded, and by whom it was eventually destroyed.

3. (a) One of the messengers sent by a man in authority, to ask the counsel of an inspired servant of the Lord. (b) A man noted for the number of his children and grandchildren, who lived in state. (c) A city given to a noted family. Give a name applying to all three.

4. (a) A natural fastness, in which a number of men who had escaped slaughter found refuge. (b) A city given to a family the founder of which went down with Jacob into Egypt. (c) A god of a heathen nation. Give a name applying to each of the above.

5. Give the name of a city where (a) a wicked man acted in open defiance of God's laws; (b) to which another belonged who, for his transgressions, had none to bear his name after him; (c) which was looked upon by the people of God as a disgrace; (d) which, according to prophecy, was to come to ruin; and (e) where grew a tree under which had been a family mourning.

6. Give the name of a city which was twice the scene of a great national mourning, and which, in Holy Writ, is connected with a third general calamity.

7. (a) A verse from the Psalms expressing the tenderness of the Great Father for His people. (b) A desire which all might feel, and which was fulfilled, expressed in prayer by a man noted for his uprightness and integrity. (c) An exhortation to an unfaithful church. The first letters of each of the above sentences are also those of the words of a well-known injunction of the New Testa ment. What is it?

8. Write out an injunction of an Apostle, which exactly corresponds with that uttered on a memorable occasion by the men of a heathen nation.

9. Give the name of a prophet, who became so old, that he could not discern the objects around him, and who lived in a city to which another prophet points as being an example of God's righteous indignation against sin.

10. Give the name of a city to which belonged a prophet whose life was cut short for prophesying falsely, and which became connected with the history of a vil lainous assassin.

II. A city, the king of which was smitten by a servant of the Lord, and where afterwards was stationed an officer who became related to his lord. Give its name, which, written backwards, becomes at once a sign of God's care over His people, and of His anger against the wicked.

12. State how two great men suffered in connection with the three chief gods of a famous heathen nation.