A LION, faint and weary with the heat, lay down to sleep below a broad, shady oak. As it chanced, there were many mice about, and some of them ran over his head, and waked him. Angry at their breaking his fine sleep, he laid his paw on one of them, and would

have killed it, but the mouse cried out, "O lion, it is not worthy of so great a beast as you to kill such a poor little thing as I." On hearing this, the lion was half vexed at himself for being angry, and let the

mouse go.

Not long after, this very lion was caught in a great, strong net by some hunters, and the news soon spread, till it reached the mouse. Away she ran in a moment to the lion, which lay helpless, waiting for the hunters to come and kill him. "Don't be afraid," said the mouse, "I will help you," and with that she began to nibble through the cords with her sharp teeth; and after a time had made a hole so big that the lion got out, and ran off into the woods.

There is no one who may not be able to do you a great service or a great hurt some time, so take care to make friends of all.

Like an army defeated,

The snow hath retreated,

And now doth fare ill

On the top of the bare hill;

The plough-boy is whooping anon, anon.
There's joy in the mountains;

There's life in the fountains;
Small clouds are sailing,

Blue sky prevailing;

The rain is over and gone!

WORDSWORTH.

3.

-Things to remember.

NEVER ask others to do what you can do yourself. Copy good boys or girls, not bad. Never take anything that is not your own. Keep a mile from a

Tell no tales. Count

lie. Never do a mean thing.
ten before you let yourself get angry.
everything that lives.

Be kind to

Always try to do your best, because it pleases the good God.

Let every one see what a man or woman you can be. If you don't want to hear the bell don't pull the rope. A small hole sinks a big ship.

WHAT do you think of a great tree, as high as an elm, that needs only to have a cut made in its bark, in spring, to run with sap so sweet that they boil it down to sugar! It is the maple.

The berries of the wax-myrtle, when boiled, make beautiful wax, which is used for candles.

The cow-tree needs only to have a hole made in it, and out flows sweet and wholesome milk.

The nettle-tree stings you severely, if you touch it ever so softly, and raises the skin even of horses into great blisters, if they chance to rub against it.

Some of the "Mammoth " pines grow as high as the cross on St. Paul's, and would hold a school of two hundred children, and a dozen teachers, if the trunk were hollow.

The branches of the banyan-tree shoot down into the earth again, and become new trees, so that one tree grows, after a long time, into a small wood, large enough to shelter a regiment of horse soldiers.

Gutta percha means the gum of the percha-tree. You know how many ways they make use of it.

The varnish tree grows in Japan. When pierced, its juice is a very fine varnish indeed. The bamboo cane