For boys are the stuff men are made of, The boy who will do all the evil he can Makes the man we may well be afraid of.

The boy who delights to learn all that is good,

And does it as far as he learns it,

Will make such a man as gains honor

of God,

And blessings of man as he earns it.

Then what kind of a man are you going to be,

A blessing or curse to your fellows? The day is approaching when many will

see;

But can you not, even now, tell us?

THE GATE WITHOUT A LATCH.

There was a farmer who had a little gate, which opened from his yard into a field. This little gate needed a latch, and therefore could not be fastened.

When the farmer passed through the

gate, he was very careful to shut it after him; but other people were not always so mindful.

Even with all his care, the wind would often blow it open again, after he had closed it.

So the gate was often swinging backwards and forwards in the wind, or standing wide open.

In this way the poultry were always getting out, and the sheep and lambs were always getting in.

It took up much of the children's time to run after the chickens and drive them back into the yard, and to send the sheep and the lambs back into the field.

The farmer's wife was always telling him that he ought to get a latch for the gate.

He would answer that it would cost ten cents, and the children might as well be driving the sheep and the poultry in and out of the yard and the field, as to be doing nothing.

So the gate went without a latch.

One day a fat pig got out of its pen, and, pushing open the gate, ran into the field, and made its way into a thick wood. The pig was soon missed, and a hue-and-cry was raised after it.

The farmer was in the act of tying up a horse in the stable; but he left it to run after the pig.

His wife was ironing some clothes in the kitchen; and she left her work, to follow her husband.

The daughter was stirring some soup over the fire; and she left it; to run after her mother.

The farmer's sons and his man entered into the chase after the pig; and away they all went, men and women, pellmell, to the wood.

But the man, making more haste than good speed, sprained his ankle in jumping over a fence; so the farmer and his sons had to give up chasing the pig, to carry the man back to the house.

The good woman and her daughter also returned to help the poor man who was hurt.

When they got back to the house, they found that the soup had boiled over, that the dinner was spoiled, and that two shirts which had been hanging before the fire, were scorched.

The farmer scolded his wife and the girl, for being so careless as not to take the shirts and the soup from the fire before they left the kitchen.

He then went to his stable, where he found that the horse, which he had left loose, had kicked a fine colt and broken its leg.

The servant was kept in the house for two weeks by the hurt to his ankle.

Thus, besides the pain which the farmer's man had to suffer, the farmer lost two weeks' work from his servant, a fine colt, a fat pig, and his two best shirts; all for the want of a ten-cent latch.

PROVERBS.

A small leak will sink a great ship.

A stitch in time saves nine.

Never put off till to-morrow what may be done

to-day.