Of grace and beauty from afar-for she was quite eclipsed

By the foreign belles, whose praises were on all the flatt'ring lips.

15. They danced away till morning-but many a weary fly,

Forgetful of the risk she ran, just laid her down. to die;

They all were sorely tired, and so very hungry

too

16. Good fairy Tip looked very sad when, by the dawn of day,

Around her, sick and dying there, so many helpless lay:

But she said in mournful whispers, "I need not feel surprise

At the end of all this folly, which meets my sorrowing eyes.

17. "For these are only butterflies-the creatures of a day,

Just made among the flowers gay to dance their

life away,

But when we see immortals, as pilgrims to the

skies,

No wiser than a butterfly, though time like lightning flies,

Spending their days in vanity, their nights in giddy mirth,

As though the soul within them breathed not immortal birth

Ah! then let dying mortals list to the Spirit's call

To butterflies and humming-birds resign the giddy ball."

18. Dreary as looked that grassy mound in the full glare of day,

So empty are those giddy joys which swiftly

fade away,

Dropping o'er all a gloomy veil, like a dark funeral pall

And this is all that lingers near after a midnight ball.

EXERCISE.

H. B. MCKEEVER.

Write words in place of those italicized in the following: 1. Just having sipped a draught of nectar's honey-dew. 2. They were sailing through the sky.

3. The other, too, was occupied.

4. Their gauzy robes were spangled o'er with silver stars. 5. With wings of shining gold.

6. All burnished o'er with golden tints borrowed from sunny climes.

7. They'd consumed the honey-dew.

39.-Bob.

1. A DOZEN years ago, or thereabouts, the workmen employed in tearing down some old frame tenements to make room for a much needed improvement in one of the thoroughfares of New York City, noticed a large black squirrel springing from beam to beam, and running over the floors of the dismantled buildings. He seemed to have been deserted by his owners, and to be fairly bewildered by the confusion around him.

2. They set a common rat-trap for him-caught him; and one of their number took the captive home to his children. There he attracted the at

tention of my grandmother, who had a very warm corner in her heart for all dumb animals, and she persuaded my father to buy the squirrel of the children and bring him home to us. The poor creature had worn his back bare and raw by constant rubbing against the wires of the trap.

3. My father procured a very large cage with a revolving cylinder attached, in which Bob was set at liberty, to his immense satisfaction. How much he enjoyed the snug house and its warm bed, and how much he gloried in the exercise he hourly took in the cylinder, it would be hard to tell. At first he was exceedingly vicious, and no one dared to intrude a finger through the bars, though it held the plumpest filbert ever eaten by a squirrel.

4. But gradually the little fellow became convinced that he had nothing to fear, and began to show signs of great friendliness. He would take your finger in his mouth, and setting his tiny sharp teeth, white as the whitest ivory, would look out of his black eyes with a most mischievously wicked expression, but for all his seeming intention he would hold the finger as gently as if it were his own tongue.

5. About this time we opened the cage and allowed him to range the room, and then began the fun of finding nuts, after he, true to his instinct, had hidden them away. We would find them in mother's work-basket; in one of our book-satchels, where indeed, he often took a cozy nap; inside of

drawers and in the corners of the lounge and stuffed chairs; behind the clock; in slippers and overshoes; indeed, in all imaginable places. Then, too, began the trouble he occasioned by gnawing books and tearing things.

6. I think now, if I should go home to the old house, I might find on the top shelf, among "the children's old books," the first one I ever owned, with a big scallop taken out of it by his sharp teeth. What merry tussles we had over the old rag which Bob would carry to the door of his cage, and then contend with us for its possession! His hair had now grown out again, and a more handsome fellow could not be seen.

7. He was very large, black as the coals in the scuttle, and his tail-ah! Bob, you know you were proud of its length and bushiness. Every day he developed more attachment to his home and affection for the family, though his favorite was my father, who really loved the little creature, and used to apologize for it, by saying, "That he had a warm sympathy for all the black race.'

8. Every night, when father came home and lay down on the lounge to take his evening nap, Bob would search every pocket for the nuts he was sure to find; and would eat them sitting on his master's head, shoulder, arm, or leg, as the fancy took him, and then creep in between his friend's vest and shirt bosom, and snuggle down, a little furry ball, to keep my father company in his nap.