domestic life, and plant no sting in the bosoms of those who love you most dearly, then dare to resist this tempter whatever form he may assume, whatever disguise he may wear!

2. If the highest in station in the land should seek to draw you off from this high position; yea, if she who seems to you the fairest and purest of her sex, commends this poisoned chalice to your lips, then, in all the confidence of rectitude and intelligent principle, refuse the offer, and prove yourself truly brave as free.

3. Around us intemperance is working out the ruin of hundreds of the young and the noble. In the wineparty and the club-room, it begins to throw around multitudes the silken net of its enchantment; in restaurants and elegant saloons these cords are trans muted into chains of brass; and ere they or their friends are aware, they have lost the confidence of employers, they are marked as men to be shunned by an eagle-eyed public; they are fast descending to the gross sensuality of the doomed and lost inebriate.

4. If any of you have begun to form this terrible habit, and feel a thirst for this poisonous stimulus; if you find growing the fondness for this fatal indulgence, and your feet at stated times seeking the haunts of intemperance, and you begin to comfort yourself with the deceptive argument that you are only a moderate drinker, to you I say, with the deepest solemnity, "turn! TURN! TURN!"

5. Mad swimmer! already thou art in the frightful vortex; round and round it has borne thee, till intoxicated with the pleasure, thou seest not how the circle narrows and stealthily moves thee nearer the liquid sides of the foaming abyss.

QUESTIONS.-1. What are the motives to resist the wine cup presented in the first paragraph? 2. How are we to act when it is commended to us by persons of high station, or by one whom we most esteem? 3. In what places does intemperance begin to throw around us the "silken net of its enchantment?" 4. By what gradual steps does one sink, who yields to the temptation? 5. What admonition is given in the last paragraph?

LESSON LXXV.

SPELL AND DEFINE.-1. PASS' ING, exceeding; extremely. 2. As PIR' ED, aimed at. 3. GILD' ED, overlaid with gold; splendid. 4. SED' EN TA RY, sitting still; motionless. 5. AN' GLER, fisherman. 6. VERDICT, decision of a jury. MAR' VEL, Wonder.

THE COLD WATER MAN.

1. There was an honest fisherman,
I knew him passing well,—
Who lived hard by a little pond,
Within a little dell.

2. A grave and quiet man was he,
Who loved his hook and rod,-
So even ran his line of life,

His neighbors thought it odd.

3. For science and for books, he said
He never had a wish,-

No school to him was worth a fig,
Except a school of fish.

4. He ne'er aspired to rank or wealth,
Nor cared about a name,-

JOHN G. SAXE

For though much famed for fish was he,
He never fished for fame!

5. Let others bend their necks at sight
Of Fashion's gilded wheels,-

He ne'er had learned the art to "bob"
For any thing but eels.

6. A cunning fisherman was he,
His angles all were right;
The smallest nibble at his bait
Was sure to prove a “bite!”

7 All day this fisherman would sit
Upon an ancient log,

And gaze into the water,
Some sedentary frog;

like

圃

8. With all the seeming innocence
And that unconscious look,
That other people often wear
When they intend to "hook!"

9. To charm the fish he never spoke,-
Although his voice was fine,
He found the most convenient way
Was just to drop a line!

10 And many a gudgeon of the pond,
If they could speak to-day,

Would own, with grief, this angler had
A mighty taking way.

11. Alas! one day this fisherman
Had taken too much grog,
And being but a landsman, too,
He couldn't "keep the log"!

12. 'Twas all in vain with might and main
He strove to reach the shore-

Down-down he went, to feed the fish
He'd baited oft before!

13. The jury gave their verdict, that
'Twas nothing else but gin,

Had caused the fisherman to be,
So sadly taken in;

14. Though one stood out upon a whim,
And said the angler's slaughter,
To be exact about the fact,
Was clearly, gin-and-water!

15. The moral of this mournful tale,
To all is plain and clear,-

That drinking habits bring a man
Too often to his bier;

16. And he who scorns to "take the pledge,"

And keep the promise fast,

May be, in spite of fate, a stiff
Cold-water man at last.

QUESTIONS.-1. In what does much of the wit of this piece eonsist? Ans. In playing upon words, which have double meanings 2. What is the moral, as given in the last two stanzas?

LESSON LXXVI.

SPELL AND DEFINE.-1. TEEM' ING, bringing forth; fertile. 2. ProNEERS', those that go ahead to clear away obstructions. 3. CAP' TURED, took; made captive. 4. WROUGHT, worked. 5. HER' MIT, solitary. 6. So' CIAL, pertaining to society. 7. SUS TAIN' ED, upheld; supported. 8 VERD' URE, greenness; grass; herbage. 9. HALT' ING, stopping.

Avoid saying blas for blasts, sriek for shriek, earthen sky for earth and sky, &c.

FIFTY YEARS AGO.

W. D. GALLAGHER.

1. A song for the early times out west,
And our green old forest home,
Whose pleasant memories freshly yet
Across the bosom come:

A song for the free and gladsome life
In those early days we led,

With a teeming soil beneath our feet,
And a smiling heaven o'erhead!

(=) Oh, the waves of life danced merrily,
Ánd had a joyous flow,

In the days when we were pioneers,
Fifty years ago!

2. The hunt, the shot, the glorious chase,
The captured elk or deer;

The camp, the big bright fire, and then
The rich and wholesome cheer;

The sweet, sound sleep, at dead of night,
By our camp-fire blazing high—
Unbroken by the wolf's long howl,
And the panther springing by.
Oh, merrily passed the time, despite
Our wily Indian foe,

In the days when we were pioneers,
Fifty years ago!

3. We shunned not labor; when 'twas due
We wrought with right good will;
And for the home we won for them,
Our children bless us still.

We lived not hermit lives; but oft
In social converse met;

And fires of love were kindled then,
That burn on warmly yet.

Oh, pleasantly the stream of life
Pursued its constant flow,

In the days when we were pioneers,
Fifty years ago!

4. We felt that we were fellow-men;
We felt we were a band

Sustained here in the wilderness,
By Heaven's upholding hand.

(s) And when the solemn Sabbath came,
We gathered in the wood,

And lifted up our hearts in
To God, the only Good.

prayer

Our temples then were earth and sky;
None others did we know,

In the days when we were pioneers,
Fifty years ago.

5. Our forest life was rough and rude,
And dangers closed us round,
But here, amid the green old trees,
Freedom we sought and found.
Oft through our dwellings wintry blasts
Would rush with shriek and moan;
We cared not-though they were but frail,
We felt they were our own!

Oh, free and manly lives we led,

Mid verdure or mid snow,

In the days when we were pioneers,
Fifty years ago.

6. But now our course of life is short; And as, from day to day,

We're walking on with halting step,

(p.) And fainting by the way,

Another land, more bright than this,
To our dim sight appears,

And on our way to it we'll soon
Again be pioneers!