270 



KIDD'S OWN JOURNAL. 



he dwelt upon it with all the interest of a 

 stranger. 



It -was indeed beautiful ! There was a be- 

 witching loveliness floating over the features. 

 The figure and air had a peculiar grace and 

 freedom ; but the eye showed the genius of 

 the master. It was a large lustrous eye, 

 moistened "without weeping, and lifted up, as 

 if to the face of a lover, with a look of in- 

 describable tenderness. The deception was 

 wonderful. It seemed every moment as if 

 the moisture would gather into & tear, and 

 roll down her cheek. There was a strange 

 freshness in its impression upon Duncan, it 

 seemed to have the very look that had some- 

 times beamed upon him in the twilight. He 

 turned from it and looked at Helen. Her 

 eyes met his with the same — the self same 

 expression of the picture. A murmur of 

 pleased recognition stole from the crowd 

 whose attention was attracted. Duncan 

 burst into tears — and awoke. He had been 

 dreaming on his easel ! 



" Do you believe in dreams, Helen?" said 

 Duncan, as he led her into the studio the 

 next day to look at the finished picture. 



THE PREVAILING WLKDS. 



With regard to the prevailing wixds of 

 our native country, the following account has 

 been published in the Transactions of the Royal 

 Society. " At London — 



Winds. Da vs. 



South-west 112 



North-east ..:... 58 



North-west 50 



West 53 



South-east 32 



East 26 



South 18 



North 16 



The same register shows that the south-west 

 wind blows more upon an average in each month 

 of the year than any other, particularly in July 

 and August ; that the north-east prevails during 

 January, March, April, May, and June, and is 

 most unfrequent in February, July, September, 

 and December ; the north-west occurring more 

 frequently from November to March, and less so 

 in September and October than in any other 

 months. In the fifth volume of the Statistical 

 Account of Scotland, there is a table of seven 

 years' close observation made by Dr. Meek, near 

 Glasgow, the average of which is stated as fol- 

 lows : — 



Winds. Days. 



South-west 17-4 



North-west 40 



North-east 104 



South-east 47 



In Ireland the prevailing winds are the west 

 and south-west." 



This is ?io? a very recent " minute" of the winds 

 in London and its vicinity. We know now little 

 of any but north and east winds ! 



EDUCATION OF THE JUVENILE POOE. 

 ENGLAND AND GERMANY. 



NO PERSON CAN BE IGNORANT of the fright- 

 ful condition of the lower orders in England, 

 with respect to education. Children are 

 born of ignorant parents, and most of them 

 die even more ignorant than those who gave 

 them birth. Beyond smoking, drinking, 

 lying, swearing, and thieving, they know 

 positively nothing. Nor do they improve ; 

 they degenerate. 



One of the first things which strikes a 

 foreigner on passing through the streets of 

 the metropolis, and of the great manufac- 

 turing towns of England, is the quantities of 

 children running wild in the poorer localities, 

 ragged, dirty, untrained, uncontrolled, as if 

 they were a species of vermin, rather than 

 beings amenable to the laws, and living 

 within the pale of a Christian community. 

 This is so strange a sight, that, to a German 

 who has not been in England, it is impossible 

 to conceive the state of the juvenile poor of 

 our towns. 



" If any one," says Mr. Kay, " will take 

 his stand in the streets of a Swiss or German 

 town, either before the schools open in a 

 morning, or when the children are returning 

 from the school play- grounds in the middle 

 of the day, or after the schools and their 

 play-grounds are closed in the evening, he 

 will see all the children of the town, rich and 

 poor together, on their way to and from their 

 homes, clean, neatly and comfortably dressed, 

 happy, healthy, and orderly in appearance, 

 and with their bags of books in their hands. 

 If he will go into the same streets during 

 school hours, he will find no children what- 

 ever, except it may be a little creature too 

 young for school, or boys of fifteen or six- 

 teen, who have finished their course, and are 

 now engaged in their regular employment. 

 If he will visit the schools, he will find dry, 

 clean, well-built and well-ventilated buildings, 

 situated in carefully selected sites, each 

 divided into from four to twelve class- rooms, 

 surrounded by dry and roomy play-yards for 

 exercise, and full of children of all classes, 

 comfortably dressed, clean, healthy, and 

 intelligent in appearance, and under the care 

 of educated men, who have been very care- 

 fully trained for their profession." Under 

 such a system, we shall not be surprised if 

 we find a state of things which is utterly 

 impossible at present in England. The schools 

 and teachers are so excellent, " and the chil- 

 dren of the poorer classes of these countries 

 are so much more civilised than with us, that 

 even in the capitals themselves I have often 

 seen the children of the German nobles and 

 gentry sitting at the same desks with the 

 children of the poorest classes ; and in the 

 primary schools, in the country villages, it is 



