Germany stopped at a hotel, where he saw this very interesting sight :

The landlord, after dinner, placed on the floor a large dish of soup, and then gave a shrill whistle. At once, there came into the room a large dog, a fine cat, an old raven, and a very large rat with a bell hanging at his neck.

All four animals went to the dish and fed together in the greatest peace; after which the dog, cat, and rat lay down before the fire, while the raven hopped about the room.

The landlord told the gentleman that the rat was the most useful of the four animals. The noise he made with the bell had driven the mice, and all the other rats away from the house.

In Siam, the people keep tame rats, which walk about the house and are petted like dogs. They are caught young, fed well, and, growing very large, they take the place of our cats, and keep the house quite free from their own kind.

"Put no faith in tale-bearers."

A driver of a stage, moving some bundles of hay in his barn to feed his horses, found a poor, miserable-looking little rat crouched up in a corner.

As the rat happened to be of a spotted color, the man did not kill him. He took him to his home, where he soon became very tame, and quite fond of the children.

The children named their new pet Ikey. In the evening Ikey would stretch himself at full length on the rug before the fire, and at night, when the fire was out, he would creep into his master's bed.

In the morning, when the driver was ready to start away in his stage, he would say, "Come along, Ikey!" and the rat would at once jump into his master's overcoat pocket, and go with him.

Sometimes Ikey was placed in the box of the stage, where his business was to guard his master's dinner. If any one tried to touch it, the rat would fly out of the straw at him.

There was one dish only which Ikey was not able to guard: that was plum pudding. He liked it, too well; and though he kept off all others, he himself ate as much of it as he could.

A few years ago, Ikey was alive and well, though he had reached a good old age. He had lost his teeth, and was fed by the children as if he were a baby, and not a white-haired old rat.

2.

A saddler, in the course of his trade, made use of a number of straps, which he first soaked well in oil. These straps one after another disappeared in a most strange manner.

For a time, he feared that his shopboy was not honest. One day, however, he found out that

stole his straps.

was a rat which

In order to catch the thief, he placed a sieve so that, when next the rat came for more oiled leather, the sieve would fall down over him. So, at last, the rat was caught.

The saddler took a large stick, went to raise the sieve and kill the thief. The sieve was lifted, but the rat, instead of trying to run away, sat still and looked up imploringly into the saddler's face, as if he would say, "Spare my life this once, and I won't steal and eat any more of your straps !"

The saddler did spare the rat. In front of the hole out of which he used to come, the man placed every day a dish of food, which the rat came and ate.

The rat grew so tame, that he played about the shop like a kitten, and sometimes sat on the bench watching the saddler at his work.

The straps were no longer stolen.

PROVERBS.

Scorn to do a mean action.

The fairest rose will wither in a day.
Plain dealing is a jewel.

"WIDE AWAKES" IN THE SPICE-BOXES.

The time is Saturday morning. Of course, there is no school. The place is a kitchen. Mamma is making mincepies, and the "Wide Awakes" are all around her, like bees around a flower.

Little Tom is on top of the table. Charley stands upon a chair close to it, while the rest of the children are just as near to mamma's elbows as they can possibly get.

Etta's little pink fingers have, as usual, been in mischief. They have just opened a spice-box-and what a sneezing time It happens to be a box of

follows!

pepper.

Poor mamma is almost in despair. She half wishes that school kept on Saturdays. She gives a great outward sweep with both of her arms every now and