THE PENNY POST BOX. Surely they will be disposed to reproach their mother for having failed in her duty in not teaching them to practise industry when they were young. Besides, if proper pains are taken to teach children, though they may be awkward at first, they will soon improve, and, in time, will become really helpful, and more than requite the labour of teaching them. The Penny Post Box. THE BANK OF HEAVEN. J. W. B. has sent us a printed copy of some verses which he thinks suitable for the Pioneer. We give as many of them as we can find room for, a little altered I have a never-failing Bank, A more than golden store; No earthly bank is half so rich, How can I then be poor? But ah! before the day is gone I've felt as poor as ever. Should all the banks of Britain break, 'Tis when my stock is spent and gone, Mine is a never failing Bank, And I without a groat, I'm glad to hasten to my Bank, And beg a little note. Sometimes my Banker smiling says, Why live so meanly and so poor, The Bank containeth plenty; And go again to-morrow. And never was rejected; Sometimes my Banker gives me more Than ask'd for or expected. Sometimes I've felt a little proud, I've managed things so clever; I always get my cash. But forged notes will be refused, That is not well accepted. To make it plain what 'tis I mean, The Leper had a sore complaint, We read of one young man indeed, But yon poor wretched dying thief Hung by the Saviour's side; He cried, "Dear Lord, remember me" He got his cash and died! FACTS, HINTS, GEMS, AND POETRY. Facts, Hints, Gems, and Poetry. Facts. SAVINGS BANKS. IT is a well-known and very painful fact that many of our working men and women seem to have no idea of saving anything for a "rainy day." Their wages are spent week by week as fast as they are earned, and sometimes they are pledged beforehand. And many seem to have forgotten that "Many littles make a mickle." Saving littles is to them a hard lesson to learn, and especially if they are their own bankers. Hence the formation of Savings Banks, of which there are now about 600 in this country, and many $6 'Peuny Saving Banks" for the very poor and for children. These banks pay interest for the money put in; but the security has not always bee good, and so these banks have in some places got into a bad name. Government has long been trying to make them more secure, and now they have proposed a plan. It is this. There are, spread over all the country, 2,500 money order post offices. It is proposed to make these into offices for savings also, giving government security for the money put in. This will be a great benefit to the working population, if they will only have the good sense to make use of it. ints. NOTHING 18 MORE EASY to some people than to do mischief. If they can do nothing else well, they can do that cleverly. JESTING is not convenient, and None are often very mischievous. more unwilling to receive a jest than those who are most ready to give one. TAKE COUNSEL of thine own conscience, for unless thou hast already become deaf to its admonitions, it will be a faithful monitor. THE LOWROAD to servility and meanness is idleness. But the highroad to self-respect and independence is industry. MANY A YOUNG MAN has been ruined by having a fortune left him; but he who works for one himself knows best how to keep it. QUACKS LIVE UPON FOOLS.-They calculate upon always finding one in a hundred, and sometimes more; and so they get fat on the folly of others. TRUTH AND BEAUTY are twins. Truth is beauty, and beauty is truth. You cannot separate them. Falsehood and ugliness are also insepa rable twins. THE PROUD MAN who oppresses the humble, is on the way to be humbled himself, for what a man sows he must expect to reap. BAD CHILDREN may make bad parents, but bad parents are almost sure to make bad children. Which are most to blame? REAL FRIENDSHIP, like the English Oak, is a plant of slow but sure growth, outliving storms or sunshine, and striking its roots deeper when the winds blow hardest. FACTS, HINTS, GEMS, AND POETRY. Gems. IT IS MORE EASY for some to be patrons of religion before men, than penitent for sin before God. Do RIGHT, as in the sight of God, and leave the consequences with him. He will manage them. un GRATITUDE TO GOD is like a microscope it can discover thousands of blessings where an thankful eye cannot see any. SIN, says an old writer, first puts hell into the soul, and then the soul into hell. NOTHING WORTH HAVING was ever Poetic Selections. NEVER CONTENT. "He heapeth up riches and knoweth not who shall gather them." (At Twenty.) Now I am grown to be a man, I'll be no longer poor; Five hundred dollars I have saved- No matter; I shall be content When I've a little more. (At Forty.) Well, I can count a thousand nowThat's better than before; got by sin; and nothing worth keep- And I may well be satisfied ing was ever lost by holiness. IF A MAN TRADES with the devil in the wares of sin, he is sure to be cheated, and will have all to pay himself at last. HE WHO COMMITS SMALL SINS, Will soon learn to commit great ones. Keep off the edge of the precipice. REPENTANCE is a leap into the life-boat of salvation. But if a man will not so leap he must sink. WORLDLY JOY often ends in deep sorrow; but spiritual sorrow always ends in high joy. GOD HAS PROMISED pardon on repentance, but he has not promised that we shall live till we do repent. SINCERE REFENTANCE can scarcely see the cross of Christ for tears, but faith wipes them all away, and then with joy the believer exclaims, "He loved me, and gave himself for me!" THE LOVE OF CHRIST to man in dying for him was such a display of grace and mercy as no angel could have conceived. It was a wonder even in heaven. HOW MUCH CHRIST LOVED US we shall never fully know even in hea ven itself. That love was infinite. We shall always be knowing more of it, but shall never be able to measure all its heights and depths, and breadths and lengths; for it passeth knowledge. When I've a little more. (At Fifty,) Some fifty thousand-pretty well- When I've a little more. ALWAYS CONTENT. "I have learned in whatsoever state I am to be content." I AM not rich or great, And yet I am content; For house and raiment God provides, I might forget my God; If God should give me more, But should he not bestow On me a plenteous store, Content while here below, Content till Christ, my Lord, shall come THE CHILDREN'S CORNER. The Children's Corner. A MOTHER'S LAST LESSON. "WILL you please teach me my verse, mother, and then kiss me, and bid me good night ?" said little Roger Lane, as he opened the door and peeped cautiously into the chamber of his sick mother. Mrs. Lane was very ill; indeed her attendants believed her to be dying. She sat propped up with pillows, and struggling for breath; her lips were white; her eyes were growing dull and glazed; and her purple blood was settling under the nails of the thin cold fingers. She was a widow, and little Roger was her only-her darling child. Every night he had been in the habit of coming into her room, and sitting on her lap, or kneeling by her side, whilst she repeated passages from God's holy word, or related to him stories of the wise and good men spoken of in its pages. She had been in delicate health for many years, but never too ill to hear little Roger's verses and prayers. "Hush! hush!" said a friend who was watching beside her couch. "Your dear mother is too ill to hear you to-night!" As she said this, she came forward, and laid her hand gently upon his arm, as if she would lead him from the room. Roger began to sob as if his little heart would break. "I cannot go to bed without saying my prayers; indeed, I cannot." The ear of the dying mother caught the sound. Although she had been insensible to everything transpiring around her, the sobs of her child roused her from her stupor, and turning to her friend, she desired her to bring her little son, and lay him in her bosom. Her request was granted, and the child's rosy cheek and golden head nestled beside the pale cold face of his dying mother. Alas, poor fellow how little did he realize then tho irreparable loss which he soon was to sustain ! "Roger, my dear child," said the dying mother, "repeat this verse after me, and never, never forget it: When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up.'" The child repeated it two or three times distinctly, and said his little prayer. Then he kissed his dying mother, and went quietly to his little couch. The next morning he sought his mother as usual, but she was stiff and cold-a corpse wrapped in the winding-sheet, and ready for the grave. This was her last lesson. He has never forgotten it--he probably never will. He has grown up to be a man-a good man, and now occupies a post of honour and usefulness. I never could look upon him without thinking about the faith so beautifully exhibited by his dying mother. It was not misplaced; the Lord fulfilled his own word of promise in this as in many other similar cases, when he said, "Leave thy fatherless children, I will preserve them alive." DREADFUL WRECK OF A STEAMER. THE British Islands being surrounded with sea waters, those who dwell on the coasts, or at our ports, often witness sad disasters. About ten years ago one of these distressing spectacles was witnessed by many of the inhabitants of Aberdeen, in Scotland. A gentleman thus describes the scene. It was about five o'clock in the afternoon. The "Duke of Sutherland" steamer, with goods and passengers from London, had just hove in sight off the Girdleness, and, as the flag was not hoisted at the point of the pier, her commander found it expedient to make a short circuit off the harbour mouth. The sea was running very " cross at the time, and the vessel appeared to roll much, and to ship a good deal of water, which we often saw issuing in white streams through the scuppers and over the covering boards. About half-past five the signal of enough water on the bar was hoisted, and presently the steamer was observed to be heading in for the harbour. Rising majestically on the crests of the wave as she came along, we expected a noble scene as she would enter the narrow harbour mouth, and steer slowly but steadily up to her destination, and consequently we quickened our pace until we reached the flag station, having met the harbour-master walking up the pier, and apparently anticipating no danger. It now rained very hard, and blew so fiercely that the two or three persons that remained at the flag station could scarce keep on their hats. Among these persons I observed two gentlemen who evidently had more than ordinary interest in the steamer, from the anxiety they were evincing for her safety, as she appeared to be getting out of the fair way of the harbour, owing probably to the opposing power of the waves. As the ship approached the pier head, and was about to enter, a single wave carried her so far to leeward, that, with the succeeding one, she struck upon the pier, and after one or two thumps her bow stuck fast upon the rocks, and the sea began to move her stern to leeward into the deep water. Previous to her striking, I observed that the engines were reversed, with the view of backing out. By this time our numbers on the point had increased to ten persons, and in spite of the high sea that was sweeping clean over it, several unsuccessful attempts were made to seize a rope, which the seamen on the |