Poor H hacked into that fellow's bony corporation for a good half-hour, to liberate his hook.

I remember I wound up my line then, and kindly suggested we had better try something besides fishing!

But the sun is setting, and let us pick up and string our fish, and start for home.

Now, be careful, boys, how you secure your hooks. I have an ugly scar, which I got by carelessness. I was running by a building, to the river, with my rod and line. The hook was dangling below my fingers. All at once the line caught on a nail, and up went the hook into my hand. Ugh! I never shall forget the cutting of it out, at the doctor's office; and whenever I see a boy, now, careless with a hook, I tell him the story.

"Logic."

"DOES Mr. Freeman keep a horse?"

"Yes."

"And Uncle Solomon, too?" (two.)

"No, Uncle Solomon keeps but one."

"Well, what did I say?"

"You asked me if he kept two horses, did n't you?"

We heard this dialogue, and were reminded of an anecdote, old but good.

A smart collegian sought the paternal roof, to enjoy Thanksgiving; and undertook, while the dinner was cooking, to display his wisdom before his good parents.

"Mother," said he, "I can prove to you that there are three fowls."

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How?" said the good lady, with a condescending smile, glancing at the two on the spit.

"Well, here is one?" "Yes."

"And this is two?" "Yes.'

"Well, two and one make three, fast enough."

His mother said nothing. His father, however, replied, "Perhaps you are right, son; but I'll take the first chicken for my dinner, your mother will the second, and you may dine on the third!"

DEAR Father, while daily and hourly I see
New proofs of your tender affection for me;

It may please you to know how your kindness has won
The return that it calls for the love of a son.

Some fathers are distant, and stern, and severe,
They speak to command, and they govern by fear;
Obedience, indeed, by such means may be won,
But they fail in securing the love of a son.

Your praise, my dear Father, is easy to earn,
When you teach me, I feel it a pleasure to learn;
And when tasks are concluded, and duties are done,
You share in the pastimes and sports of your son.

I am often unthinking and idle, 't is true,
But I freely confess all my follies to you:
You tell me what ways to pursue and to shun,
And you leniently look on the faults of your son.

Relax not your cares, dearest Father, I pray,

I shall need your kind counsels through life's busy way;
Continue the system so wisely begun,

And still be the friend and the guide of your son.

ADOLPHUS was the son of a merchant residing in Paris; James was the child of a farmer who lived in a retired hamlet in the bosom of the mountains. Nevertheless, these two boys of twelve and thirteen, so different in their fortune, education and habits, resembled each other closely in disposition; both had a large share of vanity. They had a lively desire to exalt themselves by humbling others; and I am about to relate to you the history of a few days in their lives, to show you the methods they took to accomplish this; you will see in the sequel what a good lesson they both received, and how completely their pride was humbled.

Durand, the father of James, was a farmer on the estate of M. Valcourt, the father of Adolphus. He was accustomed to go to Paris every year to settle his accounts with his landlord. He once took a fancy to have little James accompany him there. James had never been beyond his mountains, and knew nothing more beautiful,

nothing more grand, than his village, which contained fewer inhabitants than there are lodgers in a single hotel in Paris. Brought up on a farm, fed on potatoes, having never opened a book, you may imagine his astonishment on entering a great city, and being seated, on the day of his arrival, in a vast and elegant house, at the splendid table of M. Valcourt. On seeing all these wonders, the thought which occupied him most was the pleasure which he should have, on his return to his hamlet, in saying to the little peasants, his companions:

"I have seen a house more beautiful than our church; pictures larger than those in the chapel. I have seen domestics whose coats were embroidered with gold and silver. I have been seated at table by the side of a great lady."

But while he was examining everything in the house with an air of surprise and curiosity, Adolphus, who had made acquaintance with him from the very first, was resolving to amuse himself with his ignorance, and seized with eagerness upon every occasion in which he could make him feel it. Thus, one day he made him believe that a servant wearing a gilded coat and hat with feathers was the King of France, and persuaded him to salute him and kiss his hand. On the day of his arrival, when he was admitted to the same table, he made him drink, under pretence that this was customary, of two large bowls of warm water which were served at the end of dinner to rinse the mouth and wash the tips of the fingers. Adolphus made him also eat the large end of the asparagus, and suck the artichokes on the side where the sharpest teeth could not bite them. Finally, Adolphus took pains to display all his city knowledge before the poor peasant. In his presence he pretended to touch his mother's piano and to paint in his father's study. At another time he turned over all the books in the library, assumed airs of importance, ordered the domestics about, and played a thousand tricks to impose on our astonished mountaineer.

One day, when they were both playing alone in a room where there was a parrot, they suddenly heard a hoarse voice imitating the sound of a drum: "Rub-a-dub, rub-a-dub, rub-a-dub!" James, surprised, turned and saw no one. The hoarse voice re-commenced "Rub-a dub, dub, dub!"

"What is that?" said James to Adolphus.

"It is the parrot talking."

"How can that green bird talk?”

"Undoubtedly; you shall see."

At the same instant, by a happy coincidence for Adolphus, the parrot cried, " James, James!”

"He is calling me," said James.

"Oh! how amusing that is! but can he say anything?'

Certainly, he talks like any other person. I will carry on a conversation with him." And here the mischievous Adolphus asked the parrot the only question to which he could reply, "Have you breakfasted, Jaco?"

"You see how he talks; but speak to him yourself; as for me, I hear the bell for breakfast, and must run."

Adolphus ran off, shut the door, and left the two interlocutors together. Then the following conversation took place between James and the parrot.

James. "Have you breakfasted, Jaco?"

James. "That is not it; I asked if you had breakfasted?"
And the parrot continued to repeat, "Rub-a-dub, dub, dub."
James. "Answer me, then, simpleton! Have you breakfasted?"
The Parrot. "Carry-arms!"

James, out of patience, and believing that the malicious bird was doing this from ill-will, attempted to compel him to reply by giving him a tap on the wing; he reached out his hand; the parrot bit his finger, and James cried out. He suspected that Adolphus had deceived him, and that his parrot could not talk any better than the geese in his father's barn-yard, who said quack, quack, quack, and nothing else. Then he tried to go out, but the door was fastened. The breakfast bell had done ringing; everybody was at table; James was hungry and could not get out; he called,

"Adolphus! Adolphus! come and open the door; I am hungry ; I want something to eat."

He continued to call, but no one answered. He grew impatient, and knocked loudly; and when he had wearied himself out with