Upon a youthful poet's slumbers;
Though sweet the music of the lay,
To Childhood it was all a riddle,
And, "Oh," he cried, "do send away,
That noisy woman with the fiddle."

Then Wisdom stole his bat and ball,
And taught him, with most sage endeavor,
Why bubbles rise and acorns fall,

And why no toy may last for ever;
She talked of all the wondrous laws,
Which Nature's open book discloses,
And Childhood ere she made a pause,
Was fast asleep among the roses.

Sleep on, sleep on!-Oh Manhood's dreams,
Are all of earthly pain or pleasure,
Of Glory's toils, Ambition's schemes,
Of cherished love, or hoarded treasure:
But to the couch where Childhood lies,
A more delicious trance is given,
Lit up by rays from Seraph eyes,
And glimpses of remembered heaven!

JUST JUDGMENT.

A GOOD JUDGE, AND A GOOD JURY.

It is of most essential importance to the due administration of justice that juries should be sensible of their own dignity; and, when occasion requires, that they should not implicitly and servilely bow to the opinion of any judge, however high he may be held in estimation. An instance of the beneficial result of a jury asserting, in a respectful manner, the privilege of having an opinion of their own, occurred not very long ago.

Two men were indicted for a burglary: after the counsel for the prosecution had opened, the amia

ble and learned judge who presided, addressing the jury, said, "Gentlemen, there does not appear to me any probability that a case of burglary can be made out against the prisoners, it is, therefore, needless to occupy your time any further." The jury having, however, conferred for a short time, the foreman replied, "With perfect deference to your lordship's opinion, we should rather prefer hearing the evidence. To this his lordship readily assented: the case went on, and the guilt of the prisoners was proved beyond the possibility of a doubt. After the verdict was returned, the learned judge said, "Well, gentlemen of the jury, I will not say that you are better lawyers than I am, but I am quite sure that in the present instance you have proved yourselves to be better judges."

The fur of the sea otter is thick and long, and of a beautiful shining black color, but it is sometimes, though rarely, of a silvery hue; the legs are thick and short; the toes joined by a web; the hind feet are like those of a seal. The total length from the

nose to the tail is four feet two inches; the tail is flat, thirteen inches long, and pointed at the extremity. The largest sized animals of this species weigh about eighty pounds.

The sea otter is a remarkably harmless animal, and most affectionately fond of its young; they have been known to pine to death for the loss of their offspring, and even to die on the spot from whence they have been taken away. Before the young can swim, the old animals carry them in their paws, and support them in the water lying upon their backs. The sea otter can swim in various positions-on its back, sides, and even perpendicularly, and are excessively sportive in the water. It frequents

shallow pools which abound in sea weeds, and feeds on crabs, lobsters, and other marine animals. They breed but once a year, and only produce but one at a time, which the female suckles and attends with great assiduity for nearly a year.

Vast numbers of these animals inhabit the coasts of Kamtschatka, and numerous islands contiguous to it, as well as the opposite coasts of America; they are also found on the larger South American islands. Their skins are of great value, and have long formed a considerable article of export from Russia. They dispose of them to the Chinese at the rate of seventy or a hundred rubles each, and receive in return some of their most valuable commodities.

ACCOUNT OF THE BEE-EATER OF SELBORNE,

HAMPSHIRE.

We had in this village, more than twenty years ago, an idiot boy, whom I well remember, who, from a child, showed a strong propensity for bees:

they were his food, his amusement, his sole object; and as people of this cast have seldom more than one point in view, so this lad exerted all his few faculties on this one pursuit. In the winter he dosed away his time, within his father's house, by the fireside, in a kind of torpid state, seldom departing from the chimney-corner; but in the summer he was all alert, and in quest of his game in the fields and on sunny banks. Honey bees, humble bees, and wasps, were his prey, wherever he found them: he had no apprehensions from their stings, but would seize them nudis manibus, and at once disarm them of their weapons, and suck their bodies for the sake of their honey-bags. Sometimes he would fill his bosom between his shirt and his skin with a number of these captives; and sometimes would confine them in bottles. He was a very merops apiaster, or bee-bird, and very injurious to men that kept bees; for he would slide into their bee-gardens, and, sitting down before the stools, would rap with his finger on the hives, and so take the bees as they came

out.

He has been known to overturn hives for the sake of honey, of which he was passionately fond.

Where metheglin was making, he would linger round the tubs and vessels, begging a draught of what he called bee-wine. As he ran about, he used to make a humming noise with his lips, resembling the buzzing of bees. This lad was lean and sallow, and of a cadaverous complexion; and, except in his favorite pursuit, in which he was wonderfully adroit, discovered no manner of understanding. Had his capacity been better, and directed to the same object, he had perhaps abated much of our wonder at the feats of a more modern exhibiter of bees; and we may justly say of him now,

"Thou,

Had thy presiding star propitious shone,
Shouldst Wildman be."

When a tall youth, he was removed from hence to a distant village, where he died, as I understand, before he arrived at manhood.-Rev. Gilbert White.

Bilbocquet.-In 1585, Henry III. of France diverted himself, while passing through the streets of Paris, by playing with a "bilbocquet," a cup and ball. The dukes d'Epernon and de Joyeuse accompanied him in his childish frolic, which, by this example, became so general, that gentlemen, pages, lackeys, and all sorts of people, great and small, made the manage. ment of the "bilbocquet" a serious and perpetual study. The same king traversed his capital with a basket hanging by a girdle from his neck, out of which peeped the heads of half a dozen puppies.

A Soldier's Age.-Napoleon, in his Italian successes, took a Hungarian battalion prisoners. The colonel, an old man, complained bitterly of the French mode of fighting-by rapid and desultory attacks, on the flank, the rear, the lines of communication, &c., concluding by saying," that he fought in the army of Maria Theresa."

"You must be old?" said Napoleon.

"Yes, I am either sixty or seventy."

"Why, colonel, you have certainly lived long enough to know how to count years a little more closely?"

"General," said the Hungarian, "I reckon my money, my shirts, and my horses; but as for my years, I know that nobody will want to steal them, and that I shall never lose one of them!"

Gardens in Ships. To sow in the temperate zone, and reap between the tropics, is a somewhat singular thing. Yet it is constantly done; for our great East India ships, in imitation of the Dutch, who first introduced the practice, have small salad gardens in flat wooden boxes on their poops, where the seed, acted upon by a heat increasing daily, shoots up in a surprisingly rapid manner. In these gardens the number of crops in a year are more numerous than in any spot on earth, for the gardeners, if so minded, can command almost any temperature.