then was glad to lie down on Aunt Sarah's nice, comfortable lounge till dinner time. "Here is your medicine, Alfred," said Aunt Sarah, setting down before him a cup of delicious cream. "You needn't make a face; it is only cream, and and you can put in a spoonful of berries if you like it better. People are just beginning to find out that cream is better than cod-liver oil for a medicine, and it's easier to take." So Alfred thought, as he scooped up the last spoonful, and rather wished there was another cupful. "I think almost anything will agree with me to-day, aunty; I haven't been so hungry for three months." "Let me see the palm of your hand," said Uncle James, with a very wise medical look. "It isn't quite blistered yet," said Alfred, laughing as he held it out. "A very good beginning, my boy, and your cheeks are beginning to pink up a little. You will find that Uncle James beats all your city doctors." And so father and mother thought when their invalid boy came back to them in the fall, sunburnt and hearty, with a most unfashionably good appetite and "shocking red hands," which mother counseled him to keep in tight kids until the tan wore off a little; yet on the whole she was too rejoiced to be greatly distressed at the marks of the cure the sun and exercise had left. If you have a boy suffering from nothing to do, just try the same experiment with him; and if you are troubled yourself with a hundred nameless chronic ills which make your life wretched to yourself and others, just try the cure of a blister on the palm, and see if it does not work like a charm.—Merry's Museum. A LONG LIFE. He liveth long who liveth well! He liveth longest who can tell Of living most for heavenly gain. He liveth long who liveth well! He liveth longest who can tell Of true things truly done each day. Fill up each hour with what will last, Is the ripe fruit of life below. FAULTS.-There is no fault so small that it will disappear of itself. You must make a business of pulling it up by the roots and throwing it away. ONE BRICK LAID WRONG. Not long ago some workmen were engaged in building a large brick tower, which was to be carried up very high. The master builder was very particular in charging the masous to lay every brick with the greatest care, especially in the lower courses or rows, which had to bear the weight of the rest of the building. However, one of the workmen did not mind what had been told him. In laying a corner, he carelessly left one of the bricks a little crooked, out of the line, or, as the masons call it, "not plumb." Well, you may say, "It was only one single brick in a great pile of them. What difference does it make if that was not exactly straight? You will see directly. The work went on. Nobody noticed that there was one brick wrong. But as each new course of bricks was kept in a line with those already laid, the tower was not put up exactly straight, and the higher they built it the more insecure it became. One day, when the tower had been carried up about fifty feet, a tremendous crash was heard. The building had fallen to the ground, burying the workmen in the ruins! All the previous work was lost; the materials were wasted; and, worse than this, valuable lives were sacrificed-and all because one brick had been laid wrong at the start. The workman who carelessly laid that brick wrong little thought what a dangerous thing he was doing, and what terrible harm would result from his neglect. My dear young friends, you are now building up your character. In the habits you now form you are laying the foundation of that character. One bad habit, one brick laid wrong now, may ruin your character by-and-by. Remember what you are doing, and see that every brick is kept straight.-The Young Reaper. FARMERS' BOYS. In the wide world there are no more important things than farmers' boys. They are not so important for what they are as for what they will be. At present they are, too often, of but little consequence. But farmers' boys have always been, and we presume always will be, the material out of which the noblest men are made. They have health and strength; they have bone and muscle; they have heart and will; they have nerve and patience; they have ambition and endurance; and these are the materials that make men. Not buckrams and broadcloth, and patent leather and beaver fur, and kid gloves and watch seals, are the materials of which men are made. It takes better stuff to make a man. It is not fat and flesh, and swagger and self-conceit; nor yet smartness, nor flippancy, nor foppery, nor fastness. These make fools, not men; not men such as the world wants, nor such as it will honor and bless. Not artistically curled hair, nor a cane, nor a pipe, nor a cigar, nor a quid of tobacco, nor an oath, nor a glass of brandy, nor a dog and gun, nor a pack of cards, nor a novel, nor a vulgar book of love and murder, nor a tale of adventures, that makes a man, or has anything to do with making a man. Farmers' boys ought to keep clear of all these idle, foolish things. They should be employed with nobler objects. They have yet to be men of the clear grit-honest, intelligent, industrious men.-Herald of Health. INWARD TREASURES. "A thing of beauty is a joy forever." This is philosophy as well as poetry. Persons of keen observation and active brain, and vivid perception of excellence and beauty in Art and in Nature, enjoy as much when the beauty and excellence have passed into the inner chambers of imagery-sometimes more, even-than when the senses first took them in. The late venerable Dr. Willard, of Deerfield, long after he was blind, enjoyed the lovely scenery of the Connecticut River; it would pass through the soul's chambers just as bright and just as green as when the eye saw it, and furnished as intense enjoyment and delight. This is the reason why minds well enriched have placid enjoyment in themselves, while those which are empty collapse and become peevish and imbecile. What strong motives there are, then, for the young, when the senses are keen and the memory is retentive, to lay up the material for thought. "ARE YOU CONTENTED ?"-An eccentric wealthy gentleman stuck up a board in a field upon his estate upon which was painted the following: "I will give this field to any man who is contented." "Then what do you want with my field?" said the old gentleman. The applicant did not stop to reply! STRAY FACTS. Antimony (used in medicine and in making type) has been discovered near Quebec. Rock salt, hard as marble and quarried like it, is brought as ballast in ships from Russia, at $20 a ton. The fumes of burning coffee will disinfect a room of bad odors. Put a little pulverized or broken on a hot shovel or stove, but not red hot. Tea and coffee are successfully cultivated in California. Ireland produced in 1863, from 214,000 acres, 60,000 tons of flax, worth $100,000,000. A herd of nine neat cattle taken to La Plata, South America, in 1855, has increased to 15,000,000, now mostly wild. Sulphate of copper is found in France to be an excellent preservative of wood or timber. A French physician finds that chloroform suitably mixed with the bitterest medicines neutralizes their taste. The berries of the ink plant of Peru produce a juice which forms an excellent and indelible ink. Prof. Whitney, of California, says the highest mountain in the United States is Mt. Shasta, 14,440 feet, and that the highest in North America is Mt. Popocatapetl, 17,783 feet. The discoveries of Speke and Grant, the English, and of Von Decker, the German traveler, confirm the old tradition that the Nile takes its rise in lofty mountains, near the equator, whose summits are always covered with snow. The highest of these, Kilimanjaro, rises to a hight of 20,000 feet, and the snow line is at 16,000 feet. ENIGMAS. I possess water which is not liquid; fire from whence proceeds no heat; and, although my body is perfectly colorless, the substance of which it is composed is as hard as a rock. Sometimes I am found hiding' among the delicate petals of a rose; at others firmly attached to a cross. I seldom quit the ear of court dames, or easily escape from rich men's hands, and yet I am somtimes forced to serve the humblest artisan. A fruit I am, though somewhat rare; I am a stone, and tried by fire; Transpose me then, if 'tis your pleasure, Why is a schoolmistress like the letter C ? Why are potatoes and corn like certain sinners of old? What word contains all the vowels, and in their proper order? Why is a man who does not bet as bad as one who does?-Kentucky School and Family Visitor. The following, which we find in the Illinois Teacher, will puzzle our young friends more than the foregoing enigmas. Who will tell what it means: Y DRYCH.-Newyddiadur Cenedlaethol at Wasanaeth Cenedl y Cymry ya v Talaethau Undig. Cyhoeddedig bob dydd Sadwrn, dros y Perchenog, gan T. Y. Griffiths, Utica, N. Y. Telerau: I dderbynwyr unigol yn unrhyw le o fewn terfynan y Talaethau Tuǝdig a'r Tiriogaethau, $2.00 y flyyddn yn mlaen llaw. Gellir dechreu y tanygsrifiad gydag unrhyw Rifyn yn nghorff y flwyddyn. We shall be glad of suitable contributions for this Department, from those who know how to cater for the young. |
