STRANGE FRIENDS.

In London, you might have seen, lately, a cage about five feet square; and in it there lived a cat, a rat, a mouse, a hawk, a rabbit, a guinea-pig, an owl, a pig-eon, a star-ling, and a spar-row.

Now, though these little creatures would naturally quarrel and destroy one another, yet they all lived together in peace, without being

afraid of each other, or wishing to hurt each other.

The rabbit and the pigeon would play together for a bit of hay to make up their nests; the sparrow sometimes perch-ed on the head of the cat, and sometimes on that of the owl; and the mouse played about without any fear of puss. The person who took care of these animals had made them so tame, by using them to each other, and by giving them always enough to eat.

May not children learn a pretty lesson from this, and live at peace with all their com-panions, like the animals in the cage? If the cat and the rat can live together, and play together in kindness, shall not boys and girls, brothers and sisters? If the pigeon and the owl can be friends, should children quarrel with each other?

How much happier were these birds in the cage than if they had quarrelled with one an

o.ner! and how much happier will children be who are kind, gentle, and peaceable, than those who are sur-ly and cross!

THH BOY AND THE GIANT.

A giant once cried with a loud voice, and said: "I do defy your army:

that he may fight with me."

give me a man

But there was no man in all the army to fight with him.

Then a boy went to the king, and said; "Let not the heart of any one fail because of this man, for I will fight him." And the king said to the boy; "Go, and the Lord be with thee." So the boy took five smooth stones from the brook, and he went forth with his sling in his hand.

When the large man saw him, he was very angry to think that a boy should go out to fight with him, and he said "Come to me, and I

will give thy flesh to the fowls of the air and the beasts of the field." But the boy said to him: "Thou comest to me with a sword and spear; but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of Hosts. This day he will deliver thee into my hands, and I will smite thee, and take thy head from thee."

Then the boy took a stone, and threw it with his sling, and it hit the man in the forehead, so that he fell upon the earth, and was dead; and all the people who came to destroy the country went to their homes.

THE BIRTH DAY PARTY.

A few years ago, two little boys went to pass the afternoon and evening at the house of one of their playmates, who had a party on his birthday. Their parents told them to come home at eight o'clock in the evening.

It was a fine day. A large party of boys came to the house of their friend. The house and barns were in the midst of a large grove of beach and oak trees. And it was a delightful place for all kinds of play. They made the air ring with their pleasant sports; and joy for the time seemed to fill every heart.

In the evening they were playing blind man's buff in the parlor; when the clock struck eight, the boys said they must go home. The lady of the house told them they had better stay, and eat an apple and a few nuts before they went. They said, "No; we must go."

When they got home, their parents met them with a smile; and the thought that they had done right, and had pleased their parents, gave them more joy than they would have had, if they had eaten apples and nuts, after the time that their parents told them to come home.