on the ground to try to get rid of them, and then jumped up and rushed away, half-wild with pain.

In Canada, also, where there used to be a great many bears, something very like this once took place. A bear stealing into a settler's house, found a great iron pot of soup, with the lid off, on the hearth. As the smell was very nice, he soon thought he would like to taste the soup, so he put his nose into the pot, and, of course, burned it in a moment. This made him get so angry that, like a foolish fellow, he flew at the pot, lifted it up with his paws to crush it to death, as he thought, against his breast; but, instead of that, he emptied the whole over himself, and scalded himself so that he roared and growled at such a rate that the neighbours heard him, and came and shot him before he had time to get into the woods again.

Boys and girls in a passion are often, I fear, as foolish as the bears.

DICTATION.-The bear climbing the fence was like a boy being where he should not be, and his knocking over the hive in revenge for being stung was just like what boys in a passion do. So with the other bear in Canada, how foolish to try to crush a pot of scalding soup to death! Both bears instantly got the worse for their angry folly. Many a boy could tell the same story of himself-how he roared, and rushed away forthwith, on doing something foolish when angry.

QUESTIONS.-Can you tell me any country where bears live? What is it of which the first story shows bears are very fond? When the bear was stung, what did he do? What followed? What made the bear act so foolishly? What did the other bear do? Was it wise to get so angry What came of it?

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JOHN, THE SOAP-BOILER.-Hagedorn.

grumble

happiest exchange fortune

JOHN, the soap-boiler, had learned many songs, and sang them with a light heart all day at his work. He often had not very much to eat, yet he was as happy as a king, and the sound of his clear voice rang all round. When men heard it they would ask, "Who is it that is always singing in that way?"—and they would be told, "It is the soap-boiler."

There lived next this cheery fellow a rich, idle, fat man, who used to spend half the night feasting, and then turned the bright morning into night, by making it his sleeping time. He could scarcely shut his eyes, however, before John would break in on his rest by his lively morning songs. No wonder the rich idle man was angry. "The carrion crow fly away with your songs, you hateful creature," he would cry out; "I only wish that sleep were as cheap here as oysters are!"

sang, and got "How are you,

He soon found out who it was who John to come to him at noon one day. my stout fellow? How do you get on? Every one speaks well of your soap; how much does it fetch you a year ?"

"IN A YEAR, my dear sir? I never counted that; I don't reckon that way. The one day gives what the

B

next day uses. It is the same all the year round, so you may count what I get a year; there are three hundred and sixty-five days in one."

"That's all right; but could you not tell me what a day brings you, for the most part ? " "You are too close with me, sir. another more, as it happens.

One brings less, I have nothing to

grumble at, except that there are so many feast days, when I must be idle. I'm sure that the man who made so many must have been rich like not have needed to work for his living."

you; he could

DICTATION. John was a hardworking soap-boiler, but he was always cheery. The rich man was not half so happy, and the carrion crow was liker to fly away with him than with John's songs. He ought to have grumbled at himself and at his oysters, not at John, about his not sleeping.

QUESTIONS.-What was John ? What did he say to the rich man about his earnings? Was he happy? Was the rich man happy? Why not? What about their going to bed and rising?

mornings
promised

PART II:

happiest

treasure

scolded exchange

The rich man was very glad to hear all this, and paid John a great sum for nothing but that he should sing no more in the mornings, and break in on his sleep as he did. John promised he would be quiet, and ran off home, in high spirits, with his money, hiding it, for fear of any thief seeing it. He counted, stroked, kissed it, and thought himself the happiest man in the world.

To keep his new treasure safe from any thief, he watched night and day over the well-locked box in which he put it. If his little dog chanced to stir in the night, or if the cat moved, he would spring out of bed in terror, thinking he was robbed; till, at last, after he had often beaten and scolded them both, he put them both away. He saw at last, the more he guarded it, that care comes with money: he saw all his peace, all his joys, coldly leave him. Nothing that he ate tasted well; he did not care for what he drank, and he sighed instead of sang.

At last his old happy days rose in his thoughts again, and he ran to his neighbour and said,—“ My dear sir, give me something better than to watch money instead of singing! Take your gold again, and leave me my light heart. Let who will envy your fortune, I won't exchange my joys for yours. I had a light heart and a light song, instead of money and the clink of it. What I used to be I shall be again,-plain John, the soap-boiler."

DICTATION.-Money does not bring the happiest mornings or days. It depends upon how we use it. John made it his treasure and thought of it all the time, and made a very poor exchange by having it instead of his light heart. If you have enough be contented, and never exchange peace for money.

QUESTIONS.-What trade was John? Was he rich? Could he tell how much he was worth a year? What did he do in the mornings? When he got the money was he happier? What happened to the cat and the dog? What did he do at last with the money?

AN under-huntsman, who lived in Poland, sent his son, a boy of fourteen, one evening to a village a little way off. As the little fellow was coming home again, and had got within three hundred paces of his father's home, he saw something sitting on the road, which he took at first for a dog. The moon threw a pale light on the way, the snow glistened, and it was bitterly cold. The boy went a few steps farther forward, and saw that it was a wolf. He had heard it often said that, if you were chased by a bear, the best thing you could do was to throw yourself on the earth and pretend to be dead. In his terror he thought of this, and threw himself flat on the ground. The beast presently rose and came nearer and nearer, with slow, cautious steps, stood still beside him, and sniffed all over him to find out what he was. The boy did not move a limb, and the wolf went round and round him, then stood still at his feet, and began to smell him, and to poke him here and there with its nose. It stepped upon his clothes every minute, and pulled at pieces of them. Little by little it got up nearer and nearer his head, and came to his neck,—the first bare flesh,-licked it, sniffed over it, and took hold of his necktie with its lips, the water running out of its lips as it did so. Every lick was rougher, and the sniffing was greedier