could; and he had saved us surely-- saved us all from a watery grave.

17. The noble boy fell sick, almost unto death; and I nursed him all through his illness; and when he began to recover, and could sit up and talk, I bowed myself before him on my knees, and humbly asked his pardon for all the wrongs I had done him. He threw his arms around my neck, and told me if I would be kind to him he would lay down his life. for me.

18. I never forgot those words, and from that hour I have never struck a blow on board my ship. I make my sailors feel that they are men--that I so regard them, and that I wish to make them as comfortable and happy as possible. And I have not failed to gain their respect and confidence. I make my crew feel that they have a friend and

superior in the same person. For nine years I have sailed in three different ships with the same crew. A man could not be lured' to leave me, save for an officer's berth. And Jack Withers remained with me for thirteen years. He was my cabin-boy, one of my foremost hands, my second mate, and the last time he sailed with me he refused the command of a new barque because he would not be separated from me. But he is captain now, and one of the best the country ever produced.

19. Such was my dearly bought but now happy experience in the discipline of my ship-and the government of myself.

I. DID you ever think, as you looked at a heap of old rags, that you saw before you the material from which books are made? Yet it is quite true that out of what you would call rubbish, the most beautiful and pure white paper is produced.

2. The most ancient books were the sides of hard rocks, on which people used to cut or paint the history of their kings. Sometimes the letters and words were traced on clay, which was afterwards burnt in the form of bricks or tiles. Not very long ago, when the ruins of the great city of Nineveh were dug out, a great number of these inscriptions were discovered, some of which are supposed to be more than 4,000 years old.

3. But men soon found out that this was very inconvenient, for they had to go to their books, instead of being able to carry them about as we do. So they began to ponder over some improved way of doing things. The result was that they prepared thin slips of wood, or the bark of trees. After a long time they began to use the skins of animals, but these skin books were very costly. You know that parchment is made from the skin of sheep, and this is used even now for some particular sorts of writing, which must be preserved for a long time. The skins were formerly kept in rolls, and were called volumes.

4. But the most important material which was used for writing upon in past ages was the papyrus, a reed that grows on the banks of the Nile and other rivers. The Egyptians used to cut the delicate coats of this reed into pieces of equal length, and when they had been pressed together and dried in the sun they were fit for use. Our word paper is derived from the word papyrus, and in the same way we still speak of the leaves of a book.

5. The Greeks and Romans used wooden tablets covered with wax, on which they wrote with a kind of iron bodkin called a style. It was pointed at one end, and flat at the other, for smoothing the wax and making alterations.

6. The first people who found out how to make paper were the Chinese. At first they beat the fibres or stringy part of vegetables into a pulp, and spread this out in thin sheets; but after a time

they found out that hemp, silk, and cotton rags could be treated in the same way. To this day they make a soft, brittle kind of paper from the pith of a large tree. You may have seen some of this rice paper, as it is called, with butterflies and flowers painted on it.

TOM BOWLING.

1. HERE a sheer hulk lies poor Tom Bowling,
The darling of our crew;

No more he'll hear the tempest howling,
For death has broached1 him to.

His form was of the manliest beauty,
His heart was kind and soft;
Faithful below he did his duty,
But now he's gone aloft.

2. Tom never from his word departed,
His virtues were so rare;

His friends were many and true-hearted,
His Poll was kind and fair;

And then he'd sing so blithe and jolly;
Ah! many's the time and oft!

But mirth has turned to melancholy,
For Tom is gone aloft.

3. Yet shall poor Tom find pleasant weather
When He, who all commands,

Shall give, to call life's crew together,
The word to pipe all hands.

Thus Death, who kings and tars dispatches,
In vain Tom's life has doffed; 2

For tho' his body's under hatches,
aloft.

His soul has gone

'Broachod, broken into, broken up.

DIBDIN.

2 Doffed, to doff is to do off, to remove, take away; as to don is

to do on, replace.