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the rooms so nicely that the widow ex-turn;" and Mr. M. waved his hand to the pressed her evident satisfaction and sur- driver. prise. The children, or rather young ladies, were in raptures with the country. They were tall of their age and very pretty, and their mamma told them that, with their cousins' permission, they should see about the grounds and some of the farms before they settled down to their regular studies.

"I shall be truly happy to escort them," said Raymond, "when my brother is attending to his duties."

"No doubt," said Mr. Millwood. "Poor boy," turning to their mamma, "he never had any sisters. It will be a treat to him, I am sure."

"And will it not be to me ?" exclaimed Lionel.

Mrs. Salisbury was delighted with her nephews, and proposed that all should have a holiday.

"They cannot be out all day; besides, I should like to see about; but I am a poor walker."

On they went till they came in front of a park. The lodge-keeper threw open the gates, and, except the ladies, all knew where they were. They drove through an avenue of fine elms, and the gentleman alighted at the entrance of his mansion, and helped the ladies out of the carriage himself.

"More beauties!" they exclaimed ; they far exceed our late home."

"I am glad to hear it," said their host, who had ordered lunch,

And after strolling over the park, and other parts of the grounds, they all returned home.

Raymond told his brother that the spot which their cousin wished to sketch was the place Mr. Millwood had thought eligible for him to build on. What say you? I could not do anything without your approval."

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Capital, and not far off; and I am still of the same mind now respecting the pic-nic, so let us consult our aunt, and we can all go together; take some provisions in the carriage, and stay as long as we like. If it should be showery, there is a

"I have something in view, my dear madam, that I proposed before your arrival," said Mr. Millwood," a long ride in the country-and we had better avail ourselves of the first fine morn-farm close by." ing."

After breakfast, next morning, they started. The ladies and Mr. M. in an open carriage, and the brothers on horseback. When they had gone several miles, Mrs. S. wished to stop, and have a more particular view of the scenery, exclaiming, "How beautiful!" Clara, her youngest daughter, regretted that she had not her sketch-book.

"Oh! you shall have an opportunity of taking it," said Mr. M., "if I bring you over in the pony carriage myself, when you come to pay me a bachelor's visit. It is midway between my house and Mount Pleasant."

"Could we not have a pic-nic party?" exclaimed the young gentlemen. "Then we shall be all together."

"Well, well, I see how it is; the old man must not poach on other people's property."

"Don't you recollect the holiday aunt proposed to all, sir?" "Drive on

achy, till I tell you to

They went; their relatives thought Raymond could not choose a finer place. The young ladies sketched to their hearts' content. The gentlemen took plans or outlines of the building, and at home filled up their sketch very cleverly. Mr. Millwood thought something should be done at once; for, although young, it would take a long while to finish. The young folks commenced their regular lessons. But at last all was accomplished, and a splendid mansion was Raymond's. Money was not spared; grounds were laid out tastefully, grottoes, hothouses, conservatories, &c., &c., and a beautiful waterfall. Lionel, also made improvements on his grounds, and was truly beloved by his tenants. The schools, too, flourished by the care of the three ladies. The bachelor, though not very old, was united to his distant relative, Mrs. Salisbury. Raymond carried out his idea about matrimony; and, though it was almost formality, inquired of his brother if he had any intentions to propose for Clara. Emily had long been

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THE ROYAL PULL AT THE BELL. THERE is a story told of an anonymous king, the moral of which may be well applied by all sovereigns. The old monarch, when dying, called his son to him, put in his hand the sceptre, and then asked him if he could take advice as easily as he had taken from his father the symbol of authority.

The young heir, grasping the sceptre tightly, and hinting at the excellence of brevity in council, as well as in wit, said, under the circumstances, "he could."

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In the morning he rode over to the house of the mistress of his heart.

"There," he remarked to himself, as he went along in that pace which used to be observed by the pilgrims to Canterbury, and which in England has taken its name from the first two syllables of that city's name-" there I have never found disappointment."

What he did find he never told; but on his return to the palace, when his groom of the chambers looked interrogatively between him and the bell-rope, the monarch simply twisted the end of the latter into a noose, and angrily muttered, as he flung it down again,

"Would to heaven that they were both hanging from it together!"

On the following day he philosophically reviewed his case.

"I will be brief as my breath," answered the abdicating monarch, "and that is short enough. You look upon the world, boy, as a house of pleasure; now, "I have been unreasonable," he said; hear better from me. Woe, my lad," why should I grieve because I have tumbles in pailfulls, and good luck is only distilled in drops."

The son looked down at his now silent sire, and found he was dead.

The new king commanded a splendid funeral, and arranged a grand hunting party for the day after. He laughed at the paternal simile, and, to publish its weakness and his own felicity, he caused to be placed above his palace a large silver-toned bell; a rope passed from it to each room which he occupied.

"I will ring it," said he, "whenever I feel thoroughly happy. I have no doubt that I shall weary my own arm and deafen my people's ears."

For a whole month the bell was silent. "I have had my hand on the rope," said the king, " fifty times, but I felt I was hardly happy enough to proclaim it to my people; but we have got over our first difficulties, and to-morrow-"

On the morrow, as he was boasting of the fidelity and friendship of one of his ministers, he learned that his friend and

been betrayed by a knave, and gilted by a girl with golden hair? I have wide dominions, a full treasury, a mighty army, laughing vineyards, verdant meadows, a people who pay taxes as if they loved them, and God's free air to breathe in. I may be happy yet," added he, advancing to the window-"nay, I am!" and he reached his hand to the rope. He was on the point of ringing at it with good will, when he saw a sight without, and heard a voice within, which made him pause. A messenger was at his feet.

"Oh, sire!" exclaimed the bringer of bad tidings, "thou seest the dust, the fires, and the gleam of arms without. The foe has broken in upon the land, and terror is before and devastation behind him!"

"Now, a curse upon kingship, that brings a wretched monarch evils like these!" cried the king, who wanted to be happy.

The courier hinted something about the miseries of the people.

"By that Lady of Hate, whose church is in Britanny," cried the prince, "thou art right! I thought to pull lustily at the bell, but I will as lustily pull at my sword in the sheath, and see if there be not virtue in that. How came in the foe? and who commands them?"

once more upon the good old king, and to mourn at his departure. He stretched his hands towards them, and asked, “* Have I won your love, children? have I won your love?"

One universal affirmative reply, given from the heart, though given with soft expression, seemed to bestow upon the

The answer to this double query told him that the enemy could not have en-dying monarch new life. He raised himtered had not his despatches been betrayed to the invader; and that the van of the army was under the command of a prince, whose name was no sooner uttered to the king than the latter turned red with fury, and exclaimed,

"He then I shall ring the bell yet. I will have his life, and the lady—”

He said no more, but went out, fought like a man, cleared the land of the foe, hung the traitor with all his orders on him, maimed the young leader of the hostile vanguard past sympathy from Cupid, and returned to his capital in triumph. He had so much to employ him after his return, so much to accomplish for the restoration of the fortunes of his people, so much to meditate upon for future accomplishment, that when at night he lay down upon his couch, weariness upon his brow, but a shade of honest joy upon his cheek, he had fairly forgotten the silver bell in his turret, and the ropes which depended from it. And so he grew grey and infirm, never turn ing from his work till the Inevitable Angel looked smilingly in his face, and began to beckon him away. He was sitting upright in his uneasy chair, pale as death, but still at his ministry, till his eyes grew dim, his head sank on his breast, and there was, without, a sound of wailing.

"What voices are those?" asked he, softly; "what is there yet for me to do?" His chancellor stooped over him as he now lay on the couch, and whispered "Our father is departing from among us, and his children are at the threshold in tears." "Let them in! let them come in!" hoarsely cried the king. "God! do they really love me?"

"If there were a life to be purchased here, O worthy Sire, they would purchase thine with their blood."

The crowd streamed silently in, to look

self on the couch, looked like an inspired saint, and tried to speak, but failed in the attempt. None the less happy, he looked up to God, glanced to the turret where hung the bell, extended his band to the rope, gave one pull, and died, with a smile on his lips, as he rung his own knell.-Dr. Doran's "Monarchs Retired from Business.”

MISERY AND INDIGESTION. — The longer I live the more I am convinced that the apothecary is of more importance than Seneca, and that half the unhappiness in the world proceeds from little stoppages, from a duct choked up, from food pressing in the wrong place, from a vexed duodenum, or an agitated pylorus. The deception, as practised upon human creatures, is curious and entertaining. My friend sups late; he eats some strong soup, then a lobster, then some tart, and he dilutes these excellent varieties with wine. The next day I call upon him. He is going to sell his house in London, and to retire into the country. He is alarmed for his eldest daughter's health. His expenses are hourly increasing, and nothing but a timely retreat can save him from ruin. All this is the lobster: and when over-excited nature has had time to manage this testaceous encumbrance, the daughter recovers, the finances are in good cluded from the mind. In the same order, and every rural idea effectually extoasted cheese; and hard salted meat has manner, old friendships are destroyed by led to suicide. Unpleasant feelings of the body produce correspondent sensations in the mind, and a great scene of wretchedness is sketched out by a morsel of indigestible and misguided food. Of such infinite consequence to happiness is it to study the body.-Sydney Smith.

ANIMALS. Before rain, swallows fly water-fowl dive much; fish will not bite; low; dogs grow sleepy, and eat grass; flies are more troublesome; toads crawl about; moles, ants, and bees are very busy, and eattle are uneasy.

THE HOUSE-FLY.

Of all the insects that buzz and fly, or creep and crawl around us, none are more familiar than the common house fly. It attaches itself in a peculiar manner to our dwellings and neighbourhood, and is said never to be found far away from human habitatious; but no sooner is a settlement made in some distant and hitherto deserted region, or a clearance effected in the heart of some tangled forest, and dwellings erected, than the house-fly, together with the mouse, exhibits by its presence its attachment to human society. Yet familiar to us as it is from our infancy, how little do most of us know of its structure or history, its birth and parentage, without alluding to its education. Beyond the obvious fact of its being a little flying ereature, buzzing annoyingly about our face, tickling our noses, and settling on our sugar, and returning pertinaciously when driven away (from which it is said to have been made by the Romans an emblem of courage), few know, or care to know, any thing more about it. Like the poet of two centuries ago, who derided those who "thought their eyes

tends not beyond the limits of a single season; but, as during this brief space she is believed to have four broods, and as her progeny quickly arrive at maturity, it has been computed that a solitary fly, if suffered to increase unmolested for one season, might, at the end of it, number more than two millions of descendants. Happily for us they are preyed upon by numerous birds and insects; swallows, wasps, and spiders unite to free us from one of the plagues of Egypt. The egg, when hatched, commences life as a maggot. This stage of existence in insects is termed the larva-the well-known gentle, used as a bait by anglers, is the larva of the common blow-fly or blue-bottle; and the larva of the house-fly scarcely differs from it, except in being smaller. The young maggot revels in the decaying vegetable matter, which, through the instinct of the parent fly, surrounds it on all sides, and grows rapidly on this nourishing diet. As eating is at this period its sole occupation, a pair of jaws are its only external organs, excepting rudimentary eyes. It is at this stage of its being that the fly, then a maggot, plays its most important Were given them to study flies," part in the economy of nature, and by they regard it as a waste of time, or per- removing decomposing matter that would version of labour, to investigate the otherwise taint the atmosphere, is greatly structure and habits of so contemptible instrumental in destroying a fruitful a creature. Widely different was the source of fevers and other contagious opinion of the wise king of Israel, who, disorders. In a few days it attains its divinely endowed with powers of mind full growth, the increase of size being in beyond the rest of mankind, included in proportion to the rapid consumption of his vast researches the creeping things of its pabulum. It is stated that the larva the earth. Believing that it was correctly of some flesh-flies, which are nearly resaid, that whatever was not beneath the lated to the house fly, in twenty-four Creator to make, it is not beneath us to hours increase their weight two hundred examine, I would pen a few lines on this fold. The voracity needful to support familiar, and yet little known, attaché of such a growth make the assertion of our race. Like other insects, its existence Linnæus less incredible that "three is divided into four stages, commencing blow-flies [including, of course, their with the egg. The mother-fly selects descendants] will devour a dead horse some heap of decayed vegetables as a fit as quickly as a lion." The maggot having nursery for her offspring, and therein arrived at its full dimensions, and dedeposits her eggs to the number of eighty voured a sufficient share of the surroundor thereabouts. They are said to be ing food, gives up eating for a while, arranged with great neatness, and are and enters on the third stage of its life as hatched in a few days. The fly's life ex- a pupa or crysalis. Every schoolboy with

angling propensities, knows how soon the gentles in his tin-box cease to move and become dark red in colour, in which state they are useless for bait. While in this torpid condition, the organs of a flying insect are being secretly developed, and in a few days the perfect fly emerges. At its exit it is wet and weak, and the gauzy wings are crumpled and useless; but in a little time these members are spread out and dried, and our buzzing friend enters on his new existence. The

second, but, when alarmed, is said te equal thirty or thirty-five feet in th same time, or a mile in three minutesa wonderful velocity when we considthe minute size of the creature, for, were a fly enlarged to the bulk of a race-horse and its speed increased in proportion, i would "traverse the globe with the rajā dity of lightning!" GORGONIA

MIRRORS.-We have evidence that the ancients were as desirous of obtaining a

view of their own faces as are we moderns There is a passage in the 20th chapter of Exodus which Beckman takes as a proct that mirrors, made of polished brass, were used by the females of those days. Mose ordered certain brass mirrors, which were brought to him, to be made into washing basins, or lavers, for the priests. Praxiteles, in the time of Pompey, is said to have made the first mirror of solid silver. branch of manufacture at Rome, the deAt one period silver mirrors were a distinct

outward appearance of the fly is too well known to need description, nor do its habits present anything very remarkable. Its food consists of liquids, or such matters as it can reduce to the liquid state; and here it may be well to clear its character from a very common, but undeserved accusation. Some persons suffer much from the bite of flies in the autumn months, and, without hesitation, the house-fly bears the blame. The truth is that an insect of somewhat similar ap-mand for them having become so considerpearance, though really belonging to a different genus, is the real culprit. The house-fly has no weapon capable of penetrating our skin; its proboscis is a soft, Aeshy organ, adapted to suck up liquids, and which may easily be seen by any one who will take the trouble to watch a fly when feeding. The fly, whose bite is so annoying, carries its wings more diverging than the house-fly, and its proboscis is a hard round piercer, which, when not in use, instead of being retracted into the mouth like that of the house-fly, points forward from the under side of the head, somewhat like the bowsprit of a ship. This weapon is never applied to a lump of sugar or any sweet liquid, but is lessly plunged into our skins, and causes the annoyance which is charged erroneously on the house-fly. From the little attention generally paid to insects, the blood-sucking fly has been confounded with the domestic species, and has never, I believe, received any English name; but its classical cognomen is stomoxys irritans, while the house-fly bears the name of musca domestica. Without entering on its anatomy, there is little more to remark, unless perhaps to notice the extreme swiftness of its fight. This is commonly estimated at five feet in a

able as to make such a branch of trade profitable. Brass and silver were by no means the only metals employed for mirrors. Steel, copper, and gold were also used for that purpose; but the two latter are obviously inferior, from their colour, to silver An ancient mirror, found at Brundusiun was analysed by a German chemist, ani tin. Another was found to show indicafound to consist of a mixture of copper and tions of copper, antimony, and lead. The use of mirrors, made of some one or more of the metals we have now mentioned, was common in Europe down to the reign of Louis XII., whose queen had one. Stone. as well as metal, has been made available for the manufacture of mirrors. Mirrors ruth-were sometimes made of obsidian, a kind of vitrified lava, which was susceptible of used a polished emerald as a mirror, by receiving a polish. The Emperor Nero which he could witness the combats of the gladiators; some translators, however, consider the original passage to speak of the emerald as a lens through which light passed, instead of a mirror from which light was reflected. When the Spaniards conquered South America, they found that the natives employed mirrors made of polished being a vitrified lava. Among these were black stone, which had the appearance of mirrors of a character which is well known in our day, that of convex and concave mirrors.

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