to the widow, when he had taken all their stock of baskets, and given an order for a large additional supply, "you have, indeed," said she, "for by your kind help and encouragement, my two sons have really been enabled to convert their bundles of osiers into bags of gold."

"And so it will generally happen," observed the merchant, "that the honest endeavours of the industrious, although their best efforts may fail for a time, will, at length, by God's blessing, be crowned with success."-From the German.

LESSON XIX.

MERCURY.-VENUS.

MERCURY is that planet whose orbit is nearest the sun by the word orbit we mean its path, or way; thus, if I fasten a ball to the end of a piece of string, and whirl it round, the circle the ball makes, in passing round my hand, is its orbit.

In moving round the sun, Mercury is thirty-seven millions of miles distant from that luminary, and he moves with the amazing velocity of one hundred and ten thousand miles an hour, that being nearly two thousand miles a minute-a velocity far beyond our comprehension.

Mercury is about sixteen times smaller than the earth, and he turns round upon his axis once in twenty-four hours, therefore, the length of his day is about the same as ours, and as he performs his journey round the sun in about three months, it follows, that his year is only the fourth of the length of ours.

This planet is seldom seen with the naked eye, and

when seen, only for two hours before the rising of the sun, and two hours after his setting; the reason is, he moves in an orbit so near the sun, that he is usually hidden in the powerful rays of that great luminary.

The atmosphere of Mercury is not so light and thin as that of the earth; this appears so ordered by an Allwise Providence, that the inhabitants may be screened from the excessive heat of the sun, which will be seven times greater than that which we experience.

VENUS, to us the most beautiful of all the planets, comes next in order to Mercury, and, with the exception of the sun and moon, is the most splendid of all the heavenly bodies.

Venus is smaller than the earth, and moves in an orbit seventy millions of miles from the sun; she accomplishes her journey in a little more than seven months, travelling at the rate of eighty thousand miles an hour.

She is called the Morning Star, when she rises a little before the sun, and the Evening Star, when she sets a little after him, but, in either case, she can never be seen longer than about three hours at one time.

This planet is a dark body like the earth, but her mountains are much more lofty, for the height of the loftiest has been ascertained to be not less than nineteen miles, which is nearly four times the height of mountain on our globe.

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When seen through a telescope, she does not always appear round like a globe, on the contrary, she appa rently increases and decreases, in some degree like the moon, as more or less of her enlightened side is turned towards the earth, and dark spots are sometimes seen on her disc or face.

By telescope we mean an optical instrument, through

which objects appear much larger than they do to the naked eye; Doctor Herschel constructed one which had a magnifying power of six thousand times, and the Earl of Ross has one of still greater power, which cost nearly twenty thousand pounds.

If the planet Venus be peopled, the sun will appear to the inhabitants twice as large as he does to us, and the earth will appear to them much the same as Venus does to the inhabitants here.

The following figure represents the comparative sizes of the planets.rw si ob of 20dday blu

LESSON XX.

CUCKOO.-THE ROBIN.

A nightingale, that all day long
Had cheer'd the village with his song,
Nor yet at eve his note suspended,
Nor yet when eventide was ended,
Began to feel, as well he might,-
The keen demands of appetite;

When looking eagerly around,
He spied, far off, upon the ground,
A something shining in the dark,
And knew the glow-worm by his spark,
So, stooping down from hawthorn top,
He thought to put him in his crop.
The worm, aware of his intent,
Harang'd him thus, quite eloquent,-
"Did you admire my lamp," quoth he,
"As much as I your minstrelsy,
You would abhor to do me wrong,
As much as I to spoil your song;
For 'twas the self same power divine
Taught you to sing, and me to shine;
That you with music, I with light,
Might beautify and cheer the night."
The songster heard his short oration,
And, warbling out his approbation,
Releas'd him as my story tells,
And found a supper somewhere else.

THE MORAL.

From this short fable, youth may learn
Their real interest to discern;

That brother should not strive with brother,

And worry and oppress each other,

But, joined in unity and peace,
Their mutual happiness increase;
Well pleas'd another's faults to hide,
And in his virtues feel a pride.

Cowper.

Hail, beauteous stranger of the wood,

Attendant on the Spring!

Now heav'n repairs thy rural seat.

And woods thy welcome sing.

Soon as the daisy decks the green,
Thy certain voice we hear;
Hast thou a star to guide thy path,
Or mark the rolling year?
Delightful visitant! with thee,

I hail the time of flowers,

When heav'n is fill'd with music sweet
Of birds among the bowers.

The school boy, wand'ring in the wood,
To pull the flowers so gay,
Starts, thy curious voice to hear,
And imitates thy lay.

Soon as the pea puts forth her bloom,
Thou fly'st the vocal vale;
An annual guest in other lands,
Another spring to hail.

Sweet bird; thy bower is ever green,
Thy sky is ever clear;
Thou hast no sorrow in thy song,

No winter in thy year!

Oh, could I fly, I'd fly with thee;
We'd make, with social wing,
Our annual visit o'er the globe,
Companions of the Spring.

Logan.

Little bird, with bosom red,
Welcome to my humble shed;
Daily near my table steal,
While I take my scanty meal;
Doubt not, little though there be
But I'll cast a crumb to thee;
Well rewarded if I spy