the stile, to try his bravery, no sooner heard him coming,

'Whistling aloud to keep his courage up,'

than they prepared to attack him. This was a very wrong course on their part, for many bad consequences have occurred from one young person foolishly trying to frighten another; however, Hinds had drawn the prank upon himself by his silly boasting."

"Go on, uncle; please to go on."

6

"No sooner had Hinds crossed the lane and mounted the stile, than one called out in a gruff voice, Knock him down!' while the other let off a popgun, crying aloud, 'Your money! your money! Hinds, throwing down his umbrella, ran for his life; and as soon as he reached the school, spread the report that he had been attacked by three or four fellows, who had fired off a pistol in his face. He said that he should not have minded one or two of them, but three or four armed men were more than he could manage."

"What a boaster! and what a coward! He deserved to be frightened, that he did."

"Hinds was in the very middle of his fearful story when his schoolfellows, arriving with his umbrella, made it clear to every one that he had magnified two boys into four armed men, and a wooden popgun into a loaded pistol."

"How every one would laugh at him!

Well, I do hope that I shall never be a
braggart."
"I heartily hope so too. The world is
before you; and if God of his goodness should
preserve your faculties of body and mind, you
will do well to devote them unreservedly to
his glory. Learn to think, feel, act, and con-
verse aright; seek a blessing from above on
all your undertakings. And whatsoever ye do
in word or deed, do all in the name of the
Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the
Father by him,' Col. iii. 17.

'Oh! be thy wealth an upright heart,
Thy strength the sufferer's stay,
Thine early choice the better part,
Which cannot fade away;

Thy zeal for Christ a quenchless fire,
Thy friends the men of peace,

Thy heritage an angel's lyre

When earthly changes cease.""

Vulgarisms, cockneyisms, bad grammar, wrong pronunciation, and indecent language-Pronouncing w for v, and v for w-Introducing and leaving out the letter h improperly in conversation-A useful rule-Examples of interesting descriptions in Holy Scripture.

"IN learning to converse, Edmund, you should be aware that there are many trifling things in conversation which mark the difference between people well brought up and others who are not. These things are very numerous." "Please to mention some of them, uncle, that I may be on my guard."

"Willingly. All vulgarisms, cockneyisms, bad grammar, and improper pronunciation should be carefully avoided, and indecent language is a brand on the brow of any one. I have slightly alluded to vulgarisms before, and will now only say that the poet Cowper censures them in these words:

"The man who calls you 'Tom' or 'Jack,'
And proves by thumping on your back
His sense of your great merit,

Is such a friend that one had need
Be very much his friend indeed
To pardon, or to bear it.'

Do not, Edmund, call your comrades Dick, Bill, and Joe, nor accost them with a 'How are you, old fellow?""

"You put this in a way that I shall be sure to remember it."

66

Cockneyisms, or phrases of a peculiar kind used in London, are now but little heard; but I know a few at the present time who, having risen in life without rising in their education and manners, still pronounce the letter w as though it were v, and v as if it were w. It sounds very odd to the ear when any one says, 'I I vill call on you ven I pass through the willage;' or, 'It is wain for me to wex myself any longer about that vindmill.""

"I never heard any one talk in that way." "Many people pronounce covetous as if it were spelt covetchus, and tremendous as +hough it were tremendious; and hundreds

pronounce the letter h where it should not be heard, while others leave it out altogether. He that talks of Henglishmen and Hirishmen, and of hanimals that heat hartichokes,' gives me many more h's than I want; and he that tells me of an 'ansome 'ouse, an 'appy 'omestead, and an 'ard-'earted 'ypocrite,' withholds from me the h's he ought to give."

"They are both of them wrong; but how can I remember when the h should be pronounced and when it should not?"

"You will be much assisted in doing this by committing to memory the following short sentence, constructed for the very purpose of which we are now speaking: 'An honest and honourable heir may remain in an odd humour for an hour together.' The words honest, honourable, heir, humour, and hour, with those of a similar kind, such as honestly, honoured, heiress, humoursome, and hourly, are, I think, all, or nearly all, in the English language in which the h is certainly not sounded. The h is now often aspirated in the words humble and hospital, and the word hostler is spelt ostler."

"I must learn that sentence perfectly, that is certain."

"In reading the Holy Scriptures, such words as beloved, deceived, rebuked, and reproved, are often pronounced at full length; but in other cases they are usually pronounced belov'd, deceiv'd, rebuk'd, and reprov'd."