Edwin was one day looking at a large building which they were putting up just opposite to his father's house. He watched the workmen from day to day as they carried up the bricks and mortar, and then placed them in their proper order.

His father said to him, "Edwin, you seem to be very much taken up with the bricklayers; pray what may you be thinking about? Have you any notion of learning the trade ?"

"No," said Edwin, smiling, "but I was just thinking what a little thing a brick is, and yet that that great house is built by laying one brick on another."

"Very true, my boy; never forget it. Just so is it in all great works. All your learning is only one little lesson added to another. If a man could walk all round the world, it would be by putting one foot before the other. Your whole life will be made up of one little moment after another. Drop added to drop makes the ocean."

The

"Learn from this not to despise little things. Learn also not to be discouraged by great labours. greatest labour becomes easy, if divided into parts. You could not jump over a mountain, but step by step takes you to the other side. Do not fear, therefore, to attempt great things. Always remember that the whole of that great building is only one brick upon another.' Lamp of Love.

What is that spot of green light under the hedge? See, there is another, and another! Ah, they move! How fast they run about! Is it fire? it is like wildfire; they are like little stars upon the ground. Take one of them in your hand; it will not burn you.

How it moves about in my hand! my hand has fire in it. What is it?

Bring it into the house; bring it to the candle.
Ah, it is a little worm; it hardly shines at all now.
It is called a glow-worm.

Do not you know the song of the fairies?

And when the sun does hide his head,

The glow-worm lights us home to bed.

In some countries there are insects which fly about in the summer evenings, and give a great deal more light than the glow-worm; you may see to read by two or three of them together. They are called fireflies. Mrs. Barbauld.

In the dark blue sky you keep,
Yet often through my window peep;
For you never shut your eye
Till the sun is in the sky.

As your bright but tiny spark
Lights the traveller in the dark,
Though I know not what you are,
Twinkle, twinkle, little star.

Jane Taylor.

A young mouse lived in a cupboard where sweetmeats were kept: she dined every day on biscuit, marmalade, and fine sugar. Never any little mouse had lived so well. She had often ventured to peep at the family while they sat at supper; nay, she had sometimes stolen down on the carpet, and picked up the crumbs, and nobody had ever hurt her. She would

have been quite happy, but that she was sometimes frightened by the cat, and then she ran trembling to the wainscot. One day she came running to her mother in great joy. "Mother!" said she, "the good people of this family have built me a house to live in; it is in the cupboard. I am sure it is for me, for it is just big enough. The bottom is of wood, and it is covered all over with wires; and I dare say they have made it on purpose to screen me from that terrible cat, which ran after me so often: there is an entrance just big enough for me, but puss cannot follow; and they have been so good as to put into it some toasted cheese, which smells so very nicely, that I should have run in directly and taken possession, but I thought I would tell you first, that we might go in together, and both lodge there to-night, for it will hold us both."

"My dear child," said the old mouse, "it is most happy that you did not go in, for this house is called a trap, and you would never have come out again, except to have been devoured, or put to death in some way or other. Though man has not so fierce a look as a cat, he is as much our enemy, and has still more cunning." Evenings at Home.

A little boy and girl were once seated on a flowery bank, and talking proudly about their dress." See,"

said the boy, "what a beautiful new hat I have got; what a fine blue jacket and trousers: and what a nice pair of shoes! It is not every one who is dressed so finely as I am!"

'Indeed, sir," said the little girl, "I think I am dressed finer than you; for I have on a silk hat and pelisse, and a fine feather in my hat-I know that my dress cost a great deal of money."

"Not so much as mine," said the boy, "I know." "Hold your peace," said a caterpillar, crawling near in the hedge; "you have neither of you any reason to be so proud of your clothes, for they are only second-hand, and have all been worn by some creature or other, of which you think but meanly, before they were put upon you. Why, that silk hat first wrapped up such a worm as I am!"

There, miss, what do you say to that?" said the boy.

"And the feather," exclaimed a bird perched upon a tree, "was stolen from, or cast off by one of my race." "What do you say to that, miss?" repeated the boy, "Well, my clothes were neither worn by birds nor

worms."

True," said a sheep grazing close by, "but they were worn on the back of some of my family before they were yours; and, as for your hat, I know that the beavers have supplied the fur for that article; and my friends the calves and oxen in that field were killed, not merely to get their flesh to eat, but also to get their skins to make your shoes."

See the folly of being proud of our clothes, since we are indebted to the meanest creatures for them. And even then we could not use them, if God did not give us the wisdom to contrive the best way of making them fit to wear, and the means of procuring them for our comfort.

Cobbin.