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done to indicate that the sound is apt to be slighted. Thus, long o in both, bōne, möst, is often robbed of its fullness; and long u in tu'tor, stū'pid, dūke, &c., is often perverted into the sound of oo in cool. The force of these marks, and also that of the ac'cent, should be well understood by the pupil.

The figures between marks of parenthesis, after the names of authors, are designed to indicate the dates of birth and death.

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PRACTICE OF PRACTISE, v. t., to do or CON'FLUX, n., a union of currents.

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Pronounce nothing, nŭth'ing; evil, e'vl. Do not say feller for fellow; futer for fu'ture; readin for read'ing; subdoos for sub-dūes'.

1. READING aloud, when rightly practiced, is good exercise for the health. It brings into active play most of the muscles of the trunk, to a degree of which few are aware till their attention is called to it.

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2. The sublimity of wisdom is to do those things living which are to be desired when dying. Death has nothing terrible in it but what life has made so.

3. He is a wise man who is willing to receive instruction from all men. He is a mighty man who subdues his evil inclinations. He is a rich man who is contented with his lot.

4. Lost! Somewhere between sunrise and sunset,. two golden hours, each set with sixty diamond minutes. No reward is offered, for they are lost forever.

5. Be courteous. Remember that bad manners make bad morals. A kind no is often more agreeable than an uncourteous yes.

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6. Present time is all-important. The poorest day that passes over us is the conflux of two eternities. It is made up of currents that come from the remotest past, and flow onward into the remotest future.

7. Reckoning the motion of the earth on its axis at seventeen miles a minute, it follows that, if you take off your hat in the street to bow to a friend, you go a long distance bareheaded without taking cold.

8. "I do not like to say any thing against the person in question," said a very polite man; "but I would merely remark, in the language of the poet, that to him' truth is strange, stranger than fiction.""

9. A lazy fellow once complained in company that he could not find bread for his family. "Neither can I," said an honest laborer; "I have to work for all the bread I get."

10. "Did you knock my hat over my head in earnest, sir?" asked one man of another, in a crowd." Certainly, I did, sir."-"It is well you did, sir; for I do not put up with jokes of that kind."

11. Let no man be too proud to work. Let no man be ashamed of a hard fist or sunburnt face. Let him be ashamed only of ignorance and sloth. Let no man be ashamed of poverty. Let him only be ashamed of dishonesty and idleness.

12. Be slow to promise, and quick to perform. Let not the tongue run before the thought. He keeps his road well who gets rid of bad company. Credit lost is like a broken looking-glass. He is an ill boy who, like a top, goes no longer than he is whipped.

13. A young naval officer, when asked what period of a certain battle was the most dreadful, replied: "The few hushed moments when they sprinkled the deck with sand to drink the human blood as yet un shed."

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Give the y sound to u in tune. Do not say pint for point, winder for window, for. rerd for forward, akyount for ac-count'. Pronounce toward to rhyme with board.

1. As a talker the parrot has some rivals among birds. The magpie, the jay and the raven, may be taught to utter intelligible sentences; but all these, and even the parrot himself, must yield to the starling, who, to the faculty of speech, adds the charm of a wild but melodious song.

2. Anecdotes of the starling are not uncommon. Every body knows the story of Sterne's imprisoned bird, who complained unceasingly, "I can't get out— I can't get out;" and perhaps most of our readers could match that story with another as good.

3. But I once fell in with a starling whose genius soared far above that of the bird of Sterne; and I will give you an account of that memorable interview, in which I shall be careful to set down nothing more than the simple fact. Thus it was.

4. On a day, now many years ago, when I hap pened to require the services of a barber, I stepped into the shop of one in a rather retired street. It was verging toward sunset, and, the shop-window being darkened with wigs, busts, bottled hair-brushes, perfumes and sponges, the contents of the apartment were not clearly visible in the dim light.

5. On my opening the door, a voice called out: "Gentleman wants to be shaved-gentleman wants to be shaved!" -"No," said I, "I want my hair cut."

"Gentleman wants to be shaved!" rang the voice

again.

6. The barber came forward from an inner room, saying, "You're wrong this time, Jacob;" and, drawing up a small blind to let in more light, revealed a starling in a cage, who, I then saw, had been the sole shopkeeper when I entered.

7. While I sat under the scissors, the operator commenced a conversation with the bird. "Come, Jacob, give us a song, now; come, Jacob!" "Come and

kiss me, then," said the bird, in accents almost as plain as those of a child of six or seven years; 66 come and kiss me come and kiss me come and kiss me!"

8. The barber put his lips to the wires of the cage, and the bird thrust his bill between them, and a succession of loud kisses ensued, in which it was not pos sible to distinguish those of the human from those of the feathered biped, until the barber had resumed his task, when the bird continued kissing the air for some minutes.

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9. "Come, that's kissing enough, Jacob; now give us a song. Come, Home, sweet home!'" With that the barber began whistling the air; the starling took it up, and continued it alone to the concluding bar of the second strain, whistling it with perfect accuracy up to that point, and then breaking into its own. wild natural song.

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10. "Ah! Jacob, Jacob! why don't you finish your music? That's the way it is, sir; you can't get them to sing a whole tune; they always go off into their own wild notes before they get to the end."

11. Jacob now began again to insist that I wanted shaving; he would only be convinced to the contrary by more kissing. When he was quieted, I asked his owner how he had succeeded in teaching him so effectually.

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