place in the nest—the difficulty begins when he attempts to quit it. She calls him, she shows him some dainty little tit-bit, she promises him a reward, she tries to draw him forth with the bait of a fly.

Still the little one hesitates. And put yourself in his place. You have but to move a step in the nursery between your nurse and your mother, where, if you fell, you would fall upon cushions. This bird of the church, which gives her first lesson in flying from the summit of the spire, can scarcely embolden her son-perhaps, can scarcely embolden herself, at the decisive moment.

Both,

I am sure of it, measure more than once with their glances the abyss beneath, and eye the ground. It is an urgent need that he should trust his mother, that she should have confidence in the wing of the little one. But he has trusted, he has made the leap, he will not fall. Trembling, he floats in air, supported by the reassuring voice of his mother. All is finished. All is finished. Thenceforth he will fly regardless of the wind and storm, strong in that first great trial, wherein he flew in faith.

According to Wilson, the swallow's ordinary flight averages one mile a minute. He is engaged in flying for ten hours daily. Now, as his life is usually extended to a space of ten years, he flies in that period 2,190,000 miles, or nearly eightyeight times the circumference of the globe.

Michelet.

"You wretched ants!" said a mole.

"Is it

worth while that you should work the whole summer in order to gather together so little? If you could but see my hoard."

"Listen to me," replied an ant. "If it is greater than thou hast need of, then it is indeed right that men should dig after thee, empty thy barns, and make thee pay for thy rapacious covetousness with thy life."

THE GOOSE.

The feathers of a goose put the new-born snow to shame. Proud of this dazzling gift of nature, she believed herself rather born to be a swan than what she really was. She separated herself from her own kind, and swam round the pond in solitude and majesty. Now she stretched her neck, whose betraying shortness she wished with all her might to remedy. Then she tried to give it the stately bend from which the swan has merited the name of the bird of Apollo; still to no purpose, it was too stiff; and with all her pains, she could do no more than become a ridiculous goose, without becoming a swan.

THE YOUNG SWALLOW.

"What are you busy with ? " you busy with ?" inquired a swallow of the busy ants.

"We are gathering together provisions for the winter," was the quick answer.

"That is prudent," said the swallow; "I will do that also." And she began at once to carry a multitude of dead spiders and flies to her nest.

“What can that be for?" her mother asked at length.

"What for? A store for the bad winter, my dear mother; do you gather some too. The ants have taught me this foresight."

66 Oh, leave this little wisdom to the humble ants," replied the old swallow. "What is proper for them does not become the superior swallows. Kind nature has destined a better fate for us. When bounteous summer is over, we journey from hence, and then warm countries receive us, where we rest without want till a new spring comes."

Coffee comes from Mocha ;
Wholesome tapioca

Is from the West Indies brought,
Where the humming-birds are caught.

That same land produces
Fruits of richest juices,
Shadocks, oranges, and limes

Ripen in those sunny climes.

Tamarind and guava,
Pine-apples, cassava

(Or the tapioca bread),

There are in profusion spread.

Who would get the sago

Far as India may go,

There the cocoa-nuts are growing,

There the skies are fiercely glowing.

Indigo for dyeing

Is of her supplying,

Lofty palms you there may view

With the feathery bamboo.

Shawls so rich and handsome,

Diamonds worth a ransom,

From the same far country brought,
Are by wealthy people bought.

Ceylon's balmy island

Long hath furnished my land

Both with cinnamon and pearls, Worn by dames and pretty girls.

Pepper, which so nice is,
Cloves, and other spices,
We receive from Indian isles,
Distant many thousand miles.

Sugar, so delicious,

Arrowroot nutritious,

Are conveyed, I here protest,

From the Indies East and West.

Plantain and banana

Grow in hot Guiana;

There the chocolate is found,

Parrots in the woods abound.

Books that you may read in
This part are agreed in,
That Peru and Mexico

Gold and silver have to show.

White and fleecy cotton

Grows full many a spot on

In North and South America,

India, and Africa.

Many a one who tarries

For a while at Paris,

Buys the treasures of the place, Toys and trinkets, gloves and lace.