he bade them wind these around him, that not a gnat should be able to reach him with its sting; and they did as he commanded.

But one little gnat lighted on the inside of the robes: it crept into the king's ear, and stung him there. The wound burned like fire; the poison rose to his brain. He tore off the silken coverings, and dashed them from him; then, rending his clothes, he danced naked and mad before the rude wild soldiers; while they, in their turn, jeered at the mad and wicked king, who had thought of fighting with Jove, and who yet had been overcome by one single little gnat.-Allered from Christian Andersen.

THE LEMMING.

THE Lemming is a small animal, peculiar to Sweden and Norway, and the cause of as much mischief to the Scandinavian farmer, as the locust to all southern vegetation. It is thus described: :

That very singular creature, the Lemming, about which so many endless conjectures are formed (though in other countries it is, I believe, unknown), is a small animal, almost the size of a rat, and is supposed to inhabit the long chain of mountains, called the Lapland Alps, running between Sweden and Norway. In length, it is five and a half inches; its ears are round and small; it has long black whiskers; the belly is of a whitish yellow; the back and sides are tawny, variegated with black; the tail is half an

inch in length; the feet are five-toed; the upper lip is divided, and in each jaw there are two teeth.

Their appearance is sudden and uncertain, sometimes not being seen for twenty years, and at other times, observed in some parts generally every three or four. When, however, they commence their migrations, it is in such innumerable numbers, that the country is literally covered with them, marching in these bodies, always, as it is said, in a straight direction, and never suffering themselves to be diverted from their course by any opposing obstacles, even crossing rivers on the floating bodies of the foremost, which form a bridge for the passage of the main body of the column, in the line of march.

I confess that I never heard any satisfactory opinion respecting the causes of these extraordinary migrations, which generally happen about once in four or five years, and not a Lemming is even seen between them. This, I think, a little attention will prove not to be the case, as, during the subsequent winter, I saw numerous marks of them in the snow, on the mountains of Quatoon, a small island where I resided. Their appearance, however, is always partial, or the country would be overrun. They are supposed always to come from the mountains, and it is probable that they choose the highest grounds from a natural instinct, as in the lower situations their burrows would be liable to continual inundations from the melting of the snow.

The universal opinion of the lower orders respecting them is, that they fall from the

clouds; and many old men have affirmed that they have seen them drop. The superstition of the country people leads them to suppose that the appearance of these swarms forebodes evil. This must be when they make their appearance in the more cultivated parts, since total destruction to the crops and vegetation must necessarily follow.

At the little island of Carlsöe every blade of grass was literally alive with them; they swarmed on the sea-shore, and were running about the small garden-patch, in front of the parsonage: the out-houses were full of them. It was some years since they had been seen there before."Travels in the North Cape."

THE DANGER OF ADDING SIN TO SIN.

"MANY there are who go on sinning because they have begun to sin. There are persons who know well that the happiest of all conditions is to be at peace with God. They feel that by sinning away their innocence they have lost their true happiness. They are quite conscious that if they could get back to the state from which they have fallen they should be happier-not merely that it would be better for them hereafter, but that they should be happier at this moment than they are. They feel that they are degraded, they look back with regret to the time when their consciences were undefiled by the stain of wilful sin. But yet they go on sinning. Why? Partly because they have got the habit of sinning: it comes naturally to them, since they have so long used themselves to it; and partly because they have become careless and indifferent about themselves, as if they could not be much worse off than they are. Not that they are in despair. They have a sort of undefined hope, all the while, that some day it will be better with them.

They have hope enough to keep them quiet, but not enough to encourage them to exertion. They are sufficiently conscious of their fall to make them reckless, but not enough so to rouse them. They look back with regret, as I said, to their childish innocence, but the door of return to it is shut against them; they could not regain it by any efforts. By the way'that they came there is no return for them, so they think they may as well remain, for the present, where they are, until something shall occur to raise them up again. Lower indeed they are than they were, and they know it; but since they cannot at once step back again, they try to reconcile themselves to their new position. The fault is past and gone,' they say, and cannot be undone; now let us alone that we may take our fill of such pleasures as our present condition affords us.'

"I do not say that all such persons put their thoughts into this shape. I do not say that they even know why they act as they do; but I am quite sure that some such feelings as those I have expressed keep many men quiet and settled in an indifferent, careless, and worldly course of life. And I am almost sure that some of you to whom I speak are either knowingly or unknowingly kept where you are by such feelings. It seems to you a matter of course to do wrong; you fancy it will not make much difference whether you add a few more unlawful pleasures to those you have tasted already. You do not feel as if you were responsible for what you do, as you would have been if you had not already sinned.

"Take care, my brethren, what you think. Take care how you act upon such thoughts as these, lest you be finally lost before you are aware of it. Do not sin again because you have sinned once. Remember that for every sin you will have to answer-for the second as well as for the first; for the tenth; for the tenth thousandth; and the more you have to account for, the worse it will be for you. Do not for a moment imagine it will be no worse for you to do wrong again, because you have done wrong often. As well might a man suppose that a dose of poison would do him no harm, because he had already injured his health by taking what was un

wholesome. As well might a drowning man put weights upon his feet, as a sinner add sins to sins because he has sinned already. The last sin which a man commits will be that which will sink him finally into the bottomless pit. Do not imagine then that you are free to do as you will, because you are not religious as you ought to be. Suffer not Satan so miserably to blind you. For, first of all, further sin will not profit. you. If you seek for pleasure in that way, you will get nothing but vanity. The oftener you sin, the less pleasure you will find in sinning. If the rewards of iniquity were pleasant to you at first, they will be less so every day; they will pall upon you and weary you. Restlessness and dissatisfaction will urge you onward in the path of sin; and your whole life will be as that of one always seeking satisfaction, but never finding it. The appetite for sin will become as a gnawing hunger never satisfied-a burning thirst never quenched. Then sickness will come, and then, perhaps, old age, and then death, and after death, judgment. The vain pleasures of sinful indulgences can never profit you; and why? Because you were made for something better. You are responsible yet, and you must continue to be responsible; you cannot act as if it mattered not-if ye do wickedly, ye shall be consumed, both ye and your king.' You are exposed to further and severer punishment by going on in sin. That further punishment may be the shutting of the door of repentance against you finally, so that you never can again find peace with God."-From Sermons by the Rev. W. Jackson.

SCOTTISH SHEPHERDS' DOGS.

IN the great Martinmas snow-storm of 1807, a flock of 400 sheep, which had been turned out in the evening before the snow began to fall, were all drifted over before morning, and when after an anxious night, the family began their search