LESSON CLXXXIII.

THE COM-PLAINTS OF THE POOR.

(Continued.)

"TWAS bit-ter keen, in-deed, he said,
But at home no fire had he,
And there-fore he had come a-broad
To ask for char-i-ty.

We met a young bare-foot-ed child,
And she begg'd loud and bold;
I ask'd her what she did abroad,
When the wind it blew so cold.

She said her fa-ther was at home,
And he lay sick in bed,
And there-fore was it she was sent
A-broad to beg for bread.

LESSON CLXXXIV.

THE COM-PLAINTS OF THE POOR...

(Concluded.)

We saw a wo-man sit-ting down

Up-on a stone to rest,

She had a ba-by at her back,

And an-oth-er at her breast.

I ask'd her why she loi-ter'd there,
When the wind it was so chill;

She turn'd her head, and bade the child,
That scream'd be-hind, be still.

She told us that her hus-band serv-ed,

A sol-dier, far a-way,

And there-fore to her par-ish she

Was beg-ging back her way.

I turn'd me to the rich man then,

For si-lent-ly stood he;

"You ask'd me why the poor com-plain,

And these have an-swer'd thee."

Єom-plaints',

There'fore,

Hus'band,

Si'lent-ly.

WHEN Our Lord and Sa-viour Je-sus Christ was on earth, he went from place to place, teach-ing the peo-ple, and ex-hort-ing them to repent, and to turn from their e-vil ways. Fre-quent-ly, in or-der to make his mean-ing clear to the peo-ple, he spoke to them in a para-ble; that is, he told them a tale, by which they might learn what to do and what to leave un-done; and oft-en the peo-ple who would have un-der-stood no oth-er way caught our Lord's mean-ing by means of the par-a-bles he told them. In this way he taught a law-yer the mean-ing of the com-mand, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy-self." This law-yer had come to our Lord, and said to him, Mas-ter, what shall I do to in-her-it e-ter-nal life?

Je-sus said un-to him, What is writ-ten in the law? How readest thou?

And he an-swer-ing said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neigh-bour as thy-self.

Je-sus said un-to him, Thou hast an-swer-ed right. This do, and thou shalt live.

But the law-yer, will-ing to jus-ti-fy him-self, said un-to Je-sus, And who is my neigh-bour?

Sa-mari-tan, Para-bles, Un-der-stood', Neighbour.

AND Je-sus an-swer-ing said, A cer-tain man went down from Je-ru-sa-lem to Jer-i-cho, and fell a-mong thieves, who strip-ped him of his rai-ment, and wound-ed him, and de-part-ed, leav-ing him half-dead.

And by chance there came down a cer-tain priest that when he saw him, he pass-ed by on the oth-er side.

way; and

Je-ru'să-lem,

Jer'i-ehō,

Raiment,

Priest.

And like-wise a Le-vite, when he was at the place, came and look-ed on him, and pass-ed by on the oth-er side.

But a cer-tain Sa-mar-i-tan, as he jour-ney-ed, came where he was; and when he saw him, he had com-pas-sion on him, and went to him, and bound up his wounds, pour-ing in oil and wine; and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him.

And on the mor-row, when he de-part-ed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said un-to him, Take care of him, and what-so-ev-er thou spend-est more, when I come a-gain I will re-pay thee.

Which of these three, think-est thou, was neigh-bour un-to him that fell a-mong the thieves? And he said, He that show-ed mer-cy up-on him.

Then said Je-sus un-to him, Go, and do thou like-wise.

LESSON CLXXXVII.

MA-HOC-A-NY,

You have all seen the wood call-ed ma-hog-a-ny. There is scarce-ly a large or ev-en a mid-dle siz-ed house in Eng-land in which some ar-ti-cles of the fur-ni-ture-ta-bles, chairs, book-shelves, or sideboards are not made of this beau-ti-ful ma-te-ri-al. And yet ma-hog-a-ny has not been in use a-mong us ver-y long. Two hundred years a-go, when Ol-i-ver Crom-well was pro-tect-or of England, no ma-hog-a-ny piece of fur-ni-ture was to be found here. It was not un-til a-bout a hun-dred and eight-y years a-go that the first logs of ma-hog-a-ny wood came to our coun-try. It hap-pen-ed in this way. A gen-tle-man nam-ed Gib-bon, liv-ing in Lon-don, had a broth-er, who com-mand-ed a ship sail-ing to and from the West In-dies. Some-times a ship re-turns from a voy-age with-out any car-go on board. In these cas-es it is nec-es-sa-ry to put some-thing hea-vy in-to the ship, such as stones or grav-el, to pre-vent the ship be-ing blown o-ver; just as boys put a strip of lead on the keel of their toy ships. In the ship which Mr. Gib-bon's broth-er command-ed, some logs of wood had been used for bal-last, and when the ship ar-riv-ed these logs were pre-sent-ed to Mr. Gib-bon.

Le'vite,

Ma-hog'a-ny,

Beau'ti-ful, Fur'ni-ture.

LESSON CLXXXVIII.

MA-HOC-A-NY.
(Continued.)

MR. GIB-BON tried to use the logs of wood in some build-ings he was at that time e-rect-ing. But the car-pen-ter de-clar-ed the wood was much too hard to be of any serv-ice, and that it on-ly blunt-ed his tools. Aft-er a time Mrs. Gib-bon want-ed to have a box made, and ap-plied to the car-pen-ter a-gain. With much dif-fi-cul-ty she in-duc-ed him to try a-gain. A small box was made, and sent to the pol-ish-er's to be fin-ish-ed. When it came back ev-er-y one who saw it ad-mir-ed the beau-ti-ful co-lour of the wood. Peo-ple soon wish-ed to have ar-ti-cles made of ma-hog-a-ny, and a large quanti-ty was speed-i-ly brought to Eng-land. At first it was pro-cur-ed chief-ly from the is-land of Ja-mai-ca; but in the course of years all the ma-hog-a-ny trees in that is-land were cut down, and still more wood was want-ed. It is now brought from the larg-er West In-dia is-lands, and from the coast of South A-mer-i-ca.

LESSON CLXXXIX.

MA-HOG-A-NY.
(Concluded.)

THE ma-hog-a-ny tree at-tains a great size. The trunk fre-quent-ly meas-ures four feet in thick-ness. In Hon-du-ras a great ma-ny peo-ple are em-ploy-ed in cut-ting down ma-hog-a-ny trees. This work is per-form-ed by ne-groes, who go a-bout in bands or gangs of from ten to fif-ty. They are head-ed by a man who is call-ed the hunts-man, be-cause his duty is to trav-erse the thick and ex-ten-sive for-ests, to hunt out the best trees. When he has found one a stage is e-rect-ed round it, like the scaf-folds on which work-men stand to build hous-es. The tree is cut down at a-bout twelve feet from the ground. It must then be brought to the wa-ter's edge, to be put on board the ship which is to car-ry it to Eng-land. This is some-times a work of great dif-fi-cul-ty. When the tree is near a riv-er, the work-men are very glad to throw the trunk in-to the wa-ter and let it float down to-wards the sea, and thus to save themselves the toil of drag-ging it for miles through the thick wood.

Car'pen-ter, In'dia, Hunts'man, Seaffolds, England.