helping one of her sisters, if she was needed, and was always ready to comply cheerfully and promptly with the directions she received, even when the duty happened to be not exactly a pleasant one. Persons who never care to please any one but themselves are never happy. Elizabeth would seldom make any offer to oblige her brothers and sisters, and I am sorry to add, that she sometimes seemed to care very little about even her mother's wishes. She was very apt to look ill-humoured, and to comply very reluctantly when she was told to do any thing that she did not like to do, or that would oblige her to give up her play. Elizabeth was an undutiful daughter, and a disobliging, unaccommodating sister. This is rather an unamiable character for a little girl to possess. We hope you will not be like her, but rather take Lucy Nevers for a pattern.-Every Day Duty. A FIRE. A FIRE's a good, companionable friend, FRANKNESS. THERE are some persons who are never willing to acknowledge that they have done wrong. Whenever they are blamed for any thing, they will be sure to have some excuse or palliation to offer, or they will continue to turn the attention to the share which somebody else had in the wrong. Catherine Benson was just such a girl. "Why, what a confused place you have made of this room, children," her mother said, as she entered the parlour one day. 66 Why, Mary took down every one of those books," vociferated Catherine; "I didn't touch one of themand Emily tore up that paper into little bits, and threw it upon the floor-I couldn't help it; I told her not to do so." "Well, I should wish you to gather up all these books and papers, and put them in their proper place: you know I have always told you to keep things in order." "Well, Mary has been cutting papers too; they are more than half hers," replies Catherine, instead of stooping at once to pick them up. Now, such a disposition as Catherine showed here, is far from being the right one. Catherine had a hand in putting things in disorder, and her own blame was all that she had any concern with. It was nothing to her what her sisters had been doing; she ought to have acknowledged her own fault, and obeyed her mother's directions immediately, instead of stopping to make excuses, or to tell what the others had done. It is very mean and ill-natured to wish to bring others into difficulty, or to expose their faults, when it will answer no good purpose. It is very absurd, too, for any one to suppose that she is the less to blame herself, in any case, because somebody else has also been to blame. Suppose that a man who was brought to trial in a court of justice, for the crime of stealing, should say in self-defence-" Why, to be sure, I have been guilty of stealing, but then, such a person stole too-he stole just as much as I did." This would be foolish enough, and yet nothing is more common than for boys and girls, when they are reproved for any misconduct, to begin to tell what some of their brothers and sisters or companions had done. It is always a bad sign for persons, and especially for young persons, to be very forward to defend themselves when they are reproved. It is better to bear a little more censure than we really deserve, than to shield ourselves when we know we are to blame. Nothing is gained by making excuses. Catherine, for example, was often supposed to be more to blame than she really was, for she was so backward about acknowledging her faults, that her friends could never rely implicitly upon her statement of the matter when she had been guilty of any misconduct. They always suspected her of making the best of her own story, or of withholding the part most important to be known. She never was heard to say directly or frankly, "I was very negligent," or, "I think I showed an improper spirit:" but it was always, "why I couldn't help it-I am sure I was not to blame;" or she would bring to view the share of the blame that belonged to another. Now, nothing was gained by this. No person was more willing to overlook her faults on account of her being so ready to excuse and defend herself. On the contrary, her friends, in many cases, supposed her more to blame than she really was, and they were far less ready to make allowances for her, than if she had been willing to be convinced of her faults, and to make efforts to correct them. These were very unamiable traits in the character of Catherine. They made her disliked by her companions, and they gave her parents and teachers a great deal of pain and trouble. How much better it is to see boys and girls frank, and ingenuous, and candid-ready to be convinced of their faults, and to yield their opinions when they see them to be wrong, instead of trying to cover them up, or to find excuses for them. This is the spirit which every young person ought to show.-Every Day Duty. THE HOLLY TREE. O READER! hast thou ever stood to see The eye that contemplates it well perceives Ordered by an intelligence so wise As might confound the Atheist's sophistries. No grazing cattle, through their prickly round, But as they grow where nothing is to fear, And in this wisdom of the holly tree Can emblems see Wherewith, perchance, to make a pleasant rhyme, Thus, though abroad, perchance, I might appear To those who on my leisure would intrude, Gentle at home amid my friends I'd be All vain asperities, I, day by day, Would wear away; Till the smooth temper of my age should be The holly leaves their fadeless hues display But when the bare and wintry woods we see, So serious should my youth appear among So would I seem, amid the young More grave than they; and gay, That in my age as cheerful I might be As the green winter of the holly tree.-Southey. THE COFFEE TREE. COFFEE is the seed contained in a berry, the produce of a moderate-sized tree, called the Coffeo Arabica. This tree grows erect with a single stem, to the height of from eight to twelve feet, and has long, undivided, slender branches, bending downwards; these are furnished with evergreen leaves, not unlike those of the bay-tree. The blossoms are white, sitting on short foot-stalks, and resembling the flower of the jasmine. The fruit which succeeds is a red berry, resembling a cherry, and having a pale, insipid, and somewhat glutinous pulp, enclosing two hard oval seeds, each about the size of an ordinary pea. One side of the seed is convex, while the other is flat, and has a little straight furrow inscribed through its longest dimension; while growing, the flat sides of the seeds are towards each other. E ་ The trees begin bearing when they are two years old; in their third year they are in full bearing The aspect of a coffee plantation during the period of flowering, which does not last longer than one or two days, is very interesting. In one night the blossoms expand themselves so profusely as to present the same appearance which has sometimes been witnessed in our own climate, when a casual snow-storm at the close of autumn, has loaded the trees while still furnished with their full complement of foliage. The seeds are known to be ripe, when the berries assume a dark red colour, and if not then gathered will drop from the trees. The planters in Arabia do not pluck the fruit, but place cloths for its reception, beneath the trees, which they shake, and the ripened berries drop readily. These are afterwards spread upon mats and exposed to the sun's rays until perfectly dry, when the husk is broken with large heavy rollers of wood or stone. The coffee thus cleared of its husk is again dried thoroughly in the sun, that it may not be liable to heat when packed for shipment. The use of coffee as an alimentary infusion was known in Arabia at an early period. It was first introduced by Megalleddin, Mufti of Aden, in Arabia Felix, who had become acquainted with it in Persia, and had recourse to it medicinally when he returned to his own country. The progress which it made was by no means rapid at first, and it was not until the year 1554, that coffee was publicly sold at Constantinople. Coffee houses date their origin in London from the year 1652; the first was opened by one Pasqua, a Greek, who was brought over by a Turkey merchant named Edwards. The roasting of coffee is a process which requires some nicety: if burned, much of the fine aromatic flavour will be destroyed, and a disagreeable bitter taste substituted. The roasting is now usually performed in a cylindrical vessel, which is continually turned upon its axis over the |