Year: 1874




honey-bee enters a room he bring


pleasant news, which seems to hav


come down to us from the days of o lid


who makes hariadryad despatch be


to warn her careless lover that she pine,


in his absence.


Once, when a child, 1 visited an aun


IN the country, where an apiary ha,


been for years in lovely green en-
closure, under large, overhanging elms


whose graceful branches cast tende
shadow over the Industrious, quie
community. Though scarcely min,
years old, was fond of taking a bool
and stealing away to this secluded spot
where only the birds, the squirrels anC
the bees ever intruded. The latte
liked me. and perhaps the former
more than l can tell Just now for the,
allghted on my shoulders or book a.
they passed to and fro, and | imagined
| stood in beautiful relation to all God,
dear creatures.


There had been a sudden death il
the family, and as there was no one
who seemed to need my companionship
L sought my moss grown stone in the
apiary. Here, all was commotion.
Bees flying about in wild disorder, moi
like swarming bees, but as if all were
IN the air. Some one afterwards tied
black badges to the hives. l was told
that unless this was done at the demise
of member of the family, the bees
would desert their hives Do not be
lneredulous; what power comes from
simple belief, based upon a sympathy
with men in all lesser creations !
Elizabeth Oukes Smith.


TOUCHING AyECDorE OF A SPIDER
MIR. Moggridge in his studies in Natural
History had been in the habit Of i'm
merslng, for preservation, his different
specimens of spiders and ants in bottles
of alcohol. He saw that they struggled
for few minutes but he thought that
sensation was soon extinguished, and
that they were soon free from suffering.
On one occasion he wished to preserve
a large female spider and twenty-four
of her young ones, that he had cap
tured. He put the mother into a bottle
OF alcohol, and saw that after a few
moments she folded up her legs upon
her body and was at rest. He then put
into the bottle the young ones, who, OF
course manifested acute pain. What
was his surprise to see the mother
arouse herself from her lethargy, dart
around to, and gather her young ones
to her bosom, fold her legs over them,
again relapse into insensibility, until
at last death came to her relief, and the
limbs, no longer controlled by this
instinct, released their grasp
and became dead The effect of the
exhibition upon him is lesson to our
common humanity. He has never
since repeated the experiment, but has
applied chloroform before immersion.


Judging from the above, the spider is
superior to the human animal,
in the fact that alcohol does not destroy
her natural affection.


LIVE FOR SOMETHING Thousands of
men breathe, move and live-pass off
the stage of life. and are heard of no
more. Why? They did not particle
of good in this world and none were
blessed by them none could point to
them as the instruments of their re-
iemptiOn not a line they wrote, not a
word they spoke could be recalled and
SO they perished, their light went out
in darkness, and they were not remem-
bered more than the insects of yester-
lay. Will you thus live and die, oh,
man immortal ? Live for something.
Do good, and leave behind you a monu-
nent of virtue that the storms of time
,an never destroy. Write your name
by kindness, love and mercy on the
hearts of the thousands You come in
contact with year by year, and you will
never be forgotten. "Nol your name,
your deeds, will be as legible on the
hearts you left behind as the stars on
The brow of evening. Good deeds will
shine as brightly on earth as the stars
Df heaven.


HUMMING BIRD UMBRELLA.-A writer
.ells us 'In front of window where
worked last summer was a butternut
tree. A humming-bird built her nest
On limb that grew near the window,
and we had an opportunity to watch her
closely, as we could look right into the
nest from the window. One day there
was very heavy shower coming up,
and We thought we would see if she
her young during the storm !;
but when the first drops fell she came
and took in her bill one of two or three
large leaves growing close to the nest.
and laid this leaf over so it completely
the nest then she flew away
On looking at the leaf we found hole
IN it, and in the side of the nest was a
small stick that the leaf was fastened
10 or hooked on. After the storm was
over the old bird came back and un-
hooked the leaf, and the nest was per-
fectly dry"


A POLISH general, very benevolent,
once sent a man on a message, and or
1ered him to ride his favorite horse.
When the messenger returned he would
never ride that horse again, unless he
could take the generals purse along
with it. AT every poor man asking aims
ne met, the horse would stop, nor would
be go on again until he either gave him
or pretended to do so.


The horse showed plainly the kind of
master he had served and, if he had
aot learned himself the Christian lesson
Of pity for the deserving poor, he gave
his new rider pretty strong hint of his
duty in the matter.


INTELLIGENCE OF ASTs.-Each ant in
an ant-hill knows his companions. Mr..
Darwin several times carried ants from
one hill TO another, inhabited apparently
by tens of thousands of ants but the
strangers were invariably detected and
killed. Thinking there might be a
family odor by which they were recog-
nized, he put some ants from a very
large nest into a bottle strongly per-
fumed with assafetida, and restored
them after twenty-four hours. At first
they were threatened by their COM
panions, but soon recognized, and
allowed to pass.


''I WISH 1 could mind God as my
little dog minds me" said little boy,
looking thoughtfully on his shaggy
friend. He always looks so pleased
to mind, and I don't" What painful
truth did this child speak ~


The tallest trees are most in the
power of the winds, and ambitious men