cherish and applaud in the very worst of her acquaintance. She opens every book with a desire to be entertained or instructed, and therefore seldom misses what she looks for.

Walk with her, though it be but on a heath or a common, and she will discover numberless beauties, unobserved before, in the hills, the dales, the brooms, brakes, and variegated flowers of weeds and poppies. She enjoys every change of weather, and of season, as bringing with it some advantages of health or convenience. In conversation you never hear her repeating her own grievances, or those of her neighbours; or, what is worst of all, their faults and imperfections. If any thing of the latter kind is mentioned in her hearing, she has the address to turn it into entertainment, by changing the most odious railing into a pleasant raillery. Thus Mary, like the bee, gathers honey from every weed; while Jane, like the spider, sucks poison from the fairest flowers. The consequence is, that of two tempers, once very nearly allied, the one is for ever sour and dissatisfied, the other always pleased and cheerful: the one spreads a universal gloom; the other a continual sunshine.-Moore.

SIMPLE NATURE.

I HATE the face, however fair,
That carries an affected air:

The lisping tone, the shape constrained,
The studied look, the passion feigned,
Are fopperies which only tend

To injure what they strive to mend.
With what superior grace enchants
The face which nature's pencil paints!
Where eyes, unexercised in art,
Glow with the meaning of the heart!
Where freedom and good humour sit,
And easy gaiety and wit!

Though perfect beauty be not there,
The master lines, the finished air,
We catch from every look delight,
And grow enamoured at the sight:
For beauty though we all approve,
Excites our pity more than love.-Gay.

ADVICE IN CASE OF FIRE.

WHEN a female discovers her dress to be on fire, she runs screaming about the room, and, if no one is there to assist her, she opens the room door, and rushes to the head of the stairs for assistance. By this action of the lighted clothes, and of the air, the greatest rapidity and fierceness are given to the fire, and the face, neck, and arms, become almost instantly enveloped in flames. Now, when a female finds her clothes on fire, she ought instantly to drop on the floor at full length; and if she can do so on a hearth-rug or loose carpet, and wrap it round her, the fire will be immediately extinguished. If there be not these things at hand, she should turn over till the part on fire be undermost, and then press her clothes to the floor with her hands. If her clothes are on fire all round, she must turn over and over again. The portion of dress underneath her person, by pressure, will be extinguished, and the portion above it will burn feebly and harmlessly, compared to what it does when the sufferer is running about. If there be any one in the room, drop down as before, the assistant must then throw a carpet, rug, woollen shawl, or cloak, or man's coat, or the like, over her, and press it closely, until the flame be extinguished.

BAD MANAGEMENT.

"THERE are the beds to be made and the breakfast things to be washed, and the pudding and the potatoes to be boiled for dinner." A bad manager receives those directions from her mistress, and to work she goes, with bustle enough perhaps, as if she would accomplish it all long before dinner time. She makes the beds, and comes down to wash the breakfast things-"Oh dear, oh dear, was ever any thing so provoking-not a drop of water in the kettle, and the fire just out." Then the sticks and the bellows go to work, (by the way, I never knew any but a bad manager who found it necessary often to use the bellows) at length the water boils, and the clock strikes― "Why, what o'clock is that?-my pudding ought to be in, and it is not made, nor any water set on for it; well, I

must use this, and do the tea-things afterwards." The pudding is made, and put in, half an hour later than it should be then to work again, to heat water for the teathings; it boils-but she must now put the potatoes on, or they will not be half done by dinner time. The potatoes are put on, and the water poured out; but now the family are assembled for dinner, and the cloth must be laid; and the potatoes are all but raw, and the pudding but half boiled-and the water cold, and the tea-things not washed up-and the mistress displeased, and the house thrown into confusion. It never seems to occur to a bad manager, that there are some things, which if once set agoing, go on by themselves. If she had but supplied the fire with coals, it would have drawn up-and set on the kettle, the water would have boiled for the tea-things, while she made the beds; and the fire would have been at liberty for the pudding water to be set on, and all the mischief would have been prevented.-Cottage Comforts.

HOW OLD ART THOU?

COUNT not the days that have idly flown,
The years that were vainly spent ;

Nor speak of the hours thou must blush to own
When thy spirit stands before the throne
To account for the talents lent.

But number the hours redeem'd from sin,
The moments employed for heaven;
Oh few and evil thy days have been,
Thy life a toilsome but worthless scene,
For a nobler purpose given.

Will the shade go back on thy dial-plate?
Will thy sun stand still on his way?
Both hasten on: and thy spirit's fate
Rests on the point of life's little date;
Then live while 'tis called to-day.
Life's waning hours, like the sybil's page,
As they lessen, in value rise:

Oh rouse thee and live! nor deem man's age
Stands in the length of his pilgrimage,

But in days that are truly wise.—Anon.

SUPERSTITION.

It is astonishing to observe what an inclination prevails amongst some persons when they meet with any extraordinary appearance in the natural world, the real cause of which they cannot understand, to ascribe its existence to a supernatural influence; to Satan, for instance, or to those fancied beings called fairies. Any one who endeavours to remove these superstitious opinions, by explaining the real causes of such things, does good service to those who make such mistakes.

Satan's Footsteps.-There is a singular appearance often observed in spring, which has excited many a superstitious terror in the minds of simple country people, and which, in reality, is very striking. It is the print of footsteps across the grass of the fields, as though they had been footsteps of fire. The grass is burned black in the footprints, presenting a startling contrast with the vivid green of that around. Ignorant people have, consequently, concluded these to be the traces of the nocturnal perambulations of Satan, whereas they are those of some one of themselves, who had crossed the fields while the night frost was on the grass, which at this season is very tender, and is as effectually destroyed by the pressure of a foot in its frosty brittleness, as by fire, and with much the same appearance.

Fairy Rings.-Those singular appearances in the grass called Fairy Rings, are never more conspicuous than during the autumn months. Even when all other grass is brown, they exhibit a well-defined and bright green circle. The production of these remarkable circles, and the property which they possess, of every year becoming larger, have, of late years, been the subject of various theories. They have been attributed to lightning; they have been attributed to fungi (that is, mushroom, toadstools, and such things,) which every year grow upon the outer margin of the circle, and then perishing, cause, by the remains, a fresh circle of vivid green to appear, somewhat wider, of course, than the former one. They have also been attributed to insects. The least plausible theory is that of lightning; the most plausible that of fungi.

Insects are a consequence of the fungi, rather than a cause of the circle; for where there are fungi, there will be insects to devour them, Fungi are also always found more or less about them. I have seen them of so large a species that in their growth they totally destroyed the grass beneath them, dividing the green ring into two, and leaving one of bare rich mould between them. The origin of these circles, too, which hitherto has escaped the eyes of the Naturalist, but which is nothing more than a small mushroom-bed, made by the dung of cattle lying undisturbed in the grass till it becomes completely incorporated with the soil beneath, favours, more than all, the theory of the fungi. Every one knows that where this occurs, a tuft of rank grass springs up, in the centre of which a crop of fungi sometimes appears, and again perishes. There, then, is the nucleus of a fairy ring. The next year the tuft is found to have left a green spot, of perhaps a foot and a half in diameter, which has already parted in the centre. This expansion goes on from year to year; the area of the circle is occupied by common grass, and successive crops of fungi give a vivid greenness to the ring which bounds it. That only a few tufts are converted into fairy rings may be owing to their not being sufficiently enriched to become mushroom beds; but that all fairy rings which exist, have this origin, will be found to admit of little doubt.-HowITT.

The Death-Watch is a small insect which makes a noise' resembling the beating of a watch, and this noise seems to be a call to others that are distant. There are two kinds of this insect; one of them is a small beetle nearly a quarter of an inch long, of a dark brown colour, spotted, and decorated with pellucid wings; the other is a small greyish insect, which, when viewed with the naked eye, appears like a louse. The former only beats seven or eight strokes at a time, and quicker; the latter beats for hours without intermission, and its strokes are more leisurely, and like the beat of a watch. The part with which both these insects beat is the crown of the head, which is covered with a shell or hard substance like a helmet. The grossly ignorant of some countries have long taken this ticking noise for a presage of death in