COME, come to the woods! Come, with garlands of sweet thoughts and posie bright-to dream, beneath the overhanging boughs, of elfin king and sprite; come, where the arching trees their leafy arms are flinging; and little birds are in the air and on the branches singing; and lay you down upon the mead, so soft, and smooth, and green, and listen to the village bells their matin sweetly ringing: list to the thick leaves' murmur as they whisper to the wind, and believe there are no riches like the riches of the mind! Come! And your welcome shall be, what no welcome ere has been; the voice of nature calls you to gaze upon her sheen: and you lie so dreamingly the dewy leaves among, and listen to the whisperings of the fancy-formed song; think, think that there are thousands, who dwell beneath the moon, who, hard at work, no leisure have, on this sunny day in June! See; there among the long green grass, the cricket makes a nest, and the little mole so secretly 'neath the warm turf finds his rest; and the thousand tiny insects that live in sun or shade, each for some special purpose crowd, and sport upon the blade; and every little blossom that rises from the sod, a mute and joyful hymning is offering to its God! Come! And I'll tell you fairy tales, imagination fraught; and sing you songs of wondrous things to fancy's children taught; and ever as you listen to my voice among the trees, and startle at the melody that warbles on the breeze, there shall come upon your memory sweet thoughts of bygone time, and your words shall, all unwittingly, be turnéd into rhyme; and your heart, attuned to melody, shall remember absent friends, as the Future with the Past into blissful Present blends. Come! I have tales to charm your ear, and songs your soul to thrall, and a thousand brilliant fantasies obedient to my call; and, mindful of your comfort, I'll beguile your heart to good, and make you bless the moment when you stroll'd into the wood. Come! Think no more of trouble, lay the heavy burden down; let your thoughts no longer wander to the brick-environed town; you are weary, toil and travel-stained-then sit you down to rest, and your spirit shall mount heavenward, your erring soul be blessed: o'er self and worldly-mindedness there's a victory to be won, when Nature gay makes holiday and revels in the sun! WINDOW GARDENING.-A capital imi- sometimes to guard the plant from the full tation garden may be obtained in the fol- glare of the noon day sun. Round this lowing manner-a manner, be it observed, glass receptacle, which will represent a especially suitable for town houses:-From miniature conservatory or greenhouse, two a window with a sunny aspect let a broad or three moveable shelves should be arledge be built out, or the window-sill and ranged, and on these the young growing the sides may be glazed so as to form a plants are to be placed. On the floor of kind of recess, with a sloping roof the size this window-garden shallow boxes of mould of the window, so contrived that it can be are to be placed, in which creepers and raised or lowered. The whole extends to flowering plants may be easily cultivated. about the height of the lower sash. By Light and air are the two great requisites shutting down the window this recess can of plants; therefore the plan we propose be shut off from the room, which is some- should be followed, with such modifications times necessary, as from the carbonic acid as the nature of the situation of your plantthey evolve, it is rather injurious to keep house will admit. Here geraniums and plants in the room during summer and other flowers may be planted by layers, autumn nights. On the other hand, during runners, or suckers, just as in the consevere weather they should be sheltered by servatory. a few yards of canvas, arranged to fall like As they increase in size, window plants an awning over the plant recess, and ca- require removing into larger plants; and, pable of being drawn up and down like a whenever you see the leaves turning yellow, venetian blind. It will also be necessary you may be sure they are suffering either VOL. III-NEW SERIES. K K insects. from want of earth, air, light, or moisture. Judicious watering is a point of great importance. Let the plant have sufficient, but not too much water-never allow the earth to get quite dry, and be equally careful not to soak them by allowing the pots to stand in saucers of water. By a little care you may have plants growing all the year, summer and winter alike. Of course many marsh plants, such as the forget-me-not and the African lily, should be abundantly supplied with water. Due attention should also be paid to the temperature of your plant - house. Of course it will partake of the temperature of the room, but the degree of warmth may be regulated by the keeping the window open or shut. to keep up or cut off the communication with the room, opening the roof, replacing the canvas cover, and so on. The great points to be attened to are these-Exclude damp, take care there is proper ventilation, and keep your shrubs and flowers free from decayed leaves and In the winter time, the water should be very slightly warmed. Flowering bulbs, and other plants, should be so managed as to secure a good succession of buds and flowers; while climbers can be trained in festoons, or allowed to hang in baskets from the roof and side. You may also improve the look of your window-garden by the cultivation of bulbs in water-glasses. Narcissus, hyacinth, early dwarf tulip, jonquil, the large Dutch, and the common iris, the Persian and dwaf Scotch crocus, and other flowers of like character, are very suitable for these purposes. Suitable glasses, of a dark colour, may be procured at almost any glass shop. Between October and March they may be filled with water, and the bulbs placed in their open mouth. Rain or soft water is best; and it must be allowed to reach through the neck of the glass into the upper part, so that the bottom of the bulb is just touched by the water. Then place the glasses in such a position as will ensure them a sufficiency of light and air. And then, with a little attention, the windowgarden may be made a "thing of beauty," if not exactly a "joy tor ever. [The above, with the illustration, we take from the Boys Handy-Book of Sporis," published by Messrs. Ward and Lock, price 5s. This capi-al volume contains full descriptions of all in-door and ont-door amusements, from Cricket to Touch, and from Chess to Riddles. Nor, although it is ca led a book for boys, are the recreations for gi is omittel, as is evident from our extract. Indeed, we do not remember to have seen so capital and complete a book for all seasons as this “Handy. Book of Spor.s."} Our valued contributor ILLA, discourses pleasantly on the subject of an invalid's room. FLOWERS IN THE SICK-ROOM.-I venture to say a few words on the advantage derivable from the presence of flowers in Having passed the greater part of the last six weeks beside the bed of sickness and suffering, I can speak feelingly of the help and rest afforded me by a very simple companionship there, that of a series of flowers, sometimes brought from the garden, sometimes composed of fresh primroses and violets, and pa'e, spirit like stellaria, and ending in a single, exquisite tea-rose, that drooped from its vase so purely, so gracefully, tha: it was a feast to the eye merely to glance towards it. A Flowers are very beautiful and very welcome during seasons of health. stroll through a well-kept garden, espe cially in the early morning, before the dew has passed away, and when the richness of colouring, and the singular sensation of exuberant life then particularly observable, are at their height; an hour spent in the depths of dingles and green glades, where the sun, shimmering through the birchen boughs overhead, lights up for a moment wild blossoms nestling together amidst the mossy roots of the older trees. are delights that we all can appreciate thoroughly; but when the hour of sicklie on our beds, feeling as though we ness, of pain, of weariness comes, and we should never know again what ease and health are, then it is that the quiet worth of our sweet friends the flowers is most truly recognised; then it is that the languid heart leaps up, the dull eye brightens, the pale lips call back their colour and their smile together to greet the gentle visitants, as the door opens to admit our old out-of-door comrades, who, undeterred by the uncongenial gloom and closeness. come to sympathise with us, to tell us that and that our steps will be gladly hailed we are not forgotten in our former haunts, there when strength is ours again. Illness, looked at even in the most cheerful light, both by patients and nurses, is a wearisome experience. The same room. the same routine, the same diet and the same medicines taken at the same hours, are not by any means enlivening circumstan es; clean, well-aired, cheery, as unlike a sick-room as possible as the chamber of suffering may be kept, yet there is and and weary attention from all these things, must always be a depressing feeling within and rest them gently and peacefully on it; something totally unlike itself is want- some spiritual-looking blossom, so unallied ing to relieve its oppression, to give rise to to all earthly trouble, so suggestive of new thoughts quite unconnected with it or coolness, and freshness, and unworldliness, its occupation, and to supply, as far as that the tired brain and throbbing pulses they can, this very need, flowers, tastefully become half unconsciously soothed, and the arranged and well placed, offer their kidly heavy eyelids droop and droop lower, until, services. It is such a relief, such a positive as pitying sleep closes them fast, she trans luxury, to turn the eye away from the forms our last idea of our beautiful guest grim, bad-taste suggesting row of medicine into that of the image of a guardian angel bottles; from the sundry biscuit papers watching beside us, and warding off all that stand on the table, ready to dispense suffering from our pillow. And well may their well-meant, but painfully unpalatable trustful, hopeful thoughts be suggested by contents; from the oft-conned pattern on our mute friend, either in its own simple the walls, one rose, two green leaves, a form, or in the glorified guise bestowed on sort of proposal for a brown leaf, ending in it by our dreaming fancy-for what is the a badly-formed piece of trellis, a white mission of it and its brethren? rose and a green leaf at top; from the window-curtains hanging in their perpetual folds; from the fire which, though partaking of a family resemblance with the dear old one downstairs, evidently belongs to an ill-conditioned and ill-favoured branch of the original stock; to turn the weary eyes "To minister delight to man, To beautify the earth. To comfort man; to whisper hope, For Who so careth for the flowers, ABOUT PROVERBS. BY THE EDITOR. "PAPA," said my little son to me one day, "What is a Proverb?' ceives by repetition the stamp of publi: credit or authority, and passes as the cur rent coin of conversation." Charlie's blank look at this formidable answer to his simple question slightly amused me; but as he said no more I left him to his own thoughts. taking an interest in subjects generally thought beyond a child's powers. I had therefore, a long talk with him about Proverbs; and this was the substance of our conversation. Now, my son is an inquiring young gentleman of between eight and nine years of age, who will not be put off with a mere general answer. He wants to know the why and the wherefore of things, and is by no means content with the usual The next day, however, he returned tɔ explanations offered to children. Other his Proverbs, and wished to know somefathers also have such sons, I have no thing more about them. I need not say doubt, whose questions they sometimes that I was pleased to discover the child find it hard to reply to. I confess that the question rather puzzled me, simple as it looks. Not that there was any great difficulty in saying, off-hand, what was a Proverb? the difficulty was-how to frame an answer that should be as satis- Proverbs are derived from a great factory to the mind of the child as to that variety of sources: from the habits and of the man. I thought for a moment of natures of animals; from legends, oracles | the clever definition of Erasmus, "Para and historical events; from the fancies mia est celebre dictum scitù quapiam novi- poets, and the observations of wise mez, tate insigne ;" but then I recollected that as seen in the Proverbs of Solomon many dieta might be included in that from the manners and customs comm saying that were not really Proverbs. I to all men in all places; from events c thought also of Lord John Russell's ad- incidents occurring at particular times of mirable definition-"Proverbs are the places; and also from accidental circum wisdom of many and the wit of one;" stances, arising in various countries, and but then I considered the saying too deep among various families and classes of for the mind of a child. At last, how-people. ever, on the question being repeated, I said: "A Proverb, Charlie, is an adage, or wise saying, in which a special meaning is hidden." Many proverbs express a whole truth; as, for instance, "A royal crown is no cure for the headache;" "All is not gold th glitters;" "Prevention is better th cure." Some tell only half a truth, the But that scarcely satisfying him-or, other half being contained in another indeed, myself-I went on to explain that Proverb; as Penny wise and pound Proverbs were short sentences commonly foolish ;" and "Take care of the pence used; maxims in which wit and truth and the pounds will take care of themare mingled; generally-received sentences selves." Other Proverbs require local applied on particular occasions as rules of knowledge to render them intelligible: life or conduct; the unwritten wisdom of that about the Goodwin Sands and Teuthe people; the fruits of experience ex- terden Steeple, for instance. Lord Chan pressed in pithy phrases; "and in fact, cellor Sir Thomas Moore was sent by my dear," I went on to say, finding it im- King Harry the Eighth with a commission possible to answer his question in a single into Kent to find out, if possible, the sentence, " a Proverb is a witty or quaint cause of the Goodwin Sands, and the shelf saying which, on being uttered, is recog- or bar that stopped up Sandwich Haven. nised by its hearers as the expression of a Among the witnesses examined was the truth or part of a truth. As such it re- "oldest inhabitant" of the district, who 1 |