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What is this tremendous noise, 
What can be the matter ? 
Willie’s coming up the stairs 
With unusual clatter. 
Now he bursts into the room, 
Noisy as a rocket: 
“Auntie, I am five years old — 
And I’ve got a pocket 1” 
Eyes as round and bright as stars; 
Cheeks like apples glowing; 
Heart that this new treasure fills 
Quite to overflowing. 
“Jack may have his squeaking boots: 
Kate may have her locket; 
I’ve got something better yet— 
I have got a pocket!” 
All too fresh the joy to make 
Emptiness a sorrow; 
Little hand is plump enough 
To fill it till—to-morrow. 
And, ere many days were o’er. 
Strangest things did stock it: 
Nothing ever came amiss 
To this wondrous pocket. 
Leather, marbles, bits of striDg, 
Licorice-sticks and candy, 
Stones, a ball, his pennies too: 
It was always handy. 
And, when Willie’s snug in bed, 
Should you chance to knock it, 
Sundry treasures rattle out 
From this crowded pocket. 
Sometimes Johnny’s borrowed knife 
Found a place within it; 
He forgot that he had said, 
“I want it just a minute.” 
Once the closet-key was lost; 
No one could unlock it; 
Where do you suppose it was? 
Down in Willie’s pocket!' 1 
—The Nursery. 
Four Monarehs.—During the occupation of Paris 
by the allied troops in 1815, three military gentlemen 
were walking one morning in the Jardin des Plantes, 
when its beauties were quite scientifically pointed out 
and described to them by an oddly dressed and singu¬ 
lar looking personage, whom they supposed to be one 
of the under gardeners. He dwelt with peculiar 
emphasis on the beauties of the Indian trees—the lotus, 
the palm, the banyan tree, &c.; and after concluding 
Ills botanical survey, he turned to his audience and 
politely requested the strangers’ names. 
“ I am the Emperor of Russia,” said one of the 
party. 
. “ Indeed ! Ah, and this gentleman ?” 
“ He is the Emperor of Austria,” was the answer. 
“ Oh ! Must I also understand,” pursued the sin¬ 
gular querist, “that this gentleman is an Emperor, 
too ?” 
“ No,” replied Frederick William, smiling (who 
then saw Paris for the first time), “lam simply the 
King of Prussia. But,” continued his Majesty (with 
a touch of that grave humor which is characteristic of 
his race), “ will you be so good as to tell us in return 
the name of our distinguished cicerone, to whom we are 
at present so much indebted ?” 
“ Monsieur, my brother,” replied the eccentric botan¬ 
ist, drawing himself up and laying his hand on his 
heart, “ Messieurs, - my brothers, I am the Grand 
Mogul!” 
Alexander of Russia, who frequently told the story, 
afterwards, used to add that the Great Mogul, who was 
simply a harmless lunatic, once a distinguished botan¬ 
ist, was probably the happiest monarch of the four. 
Hebrew Roots and Persimmons. —Is there any¬ 
thing in the study of Hebrew roots as a specialty 
in life that affects the person so engaged? We 
recall the idiosyncrasy of the Rev. Prof. Packard, 
of the Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church 
in Virginia. He had just come from New England, 
and had never before seen the Persimmon grow. Those 
acquainted with this singular fruit know w T ell that it 
attains a light orange color some time before it is ripe, 
and that at this time it is astringent to a great degree. 
The doctor was taking a walk, and the glowing Per¬ 
simmons looked very tempting; so he thought he must 
for the first time taste the fruit. Its effect upon the 
good man’s mouth was very astonishing, and he became 
convinced that he had been eating the apples of Sodom, 
or some other very poisonous thing. At this moment 
two other professors of the seminary fell in with the 
good man, and were made quite solicitous by his 
grimaces, which seemed to indicate that he had been 
swallowing by accident some of his own formidable 
roots. One ventured to ask— 
“ Doctor, what have you been taking ?” 
With manifest effort to untwist his badly puckered 
mouth, the professor ejaculated— 
“Do-o-on’t speak to me, but let me go home and 
die in the bosom of my family !” 
It is painful to reflect that the incident was often 
made the occasion of merriment among the young 
theologues, and it is even said that one of them asked 
the president of the faculty for permission to go home. 
When further questioned why he wanted to go home, 
he said he had a bad pucker in Ins mouth and stomach, 
and besides didn’t feel well, and would like to be 
allowed to go home and die in the bosom of his 
family. 
Of the complete discomfiture which befell the gravity 
of the president it is not possible to tell. 
Unwashed Prince. —One day the Crown Prince 
of Germany heard an uproar in his nursery. He 
stepped in to inquire, and the nurse said, “Prince 
Henry refuses to be washed.” “ What, my son, will 
you not be washed and made clean?” “No, I won’t 
be washed,” he petulantly responded, “ I don’t like 
to be washed. Let me be!” “Well,” said Fritz, 
“if that is his choice, let him be. He need not 
be washed!” Away he bounded with great glee at 
having conquered the nurse, and getting his own 
way. By and by the nurse and .Prince Henry took 
a ride through the Thier garden and streets of Ber¬ 
lin. He soon noticed that the sentries stationed all 
over the city, did not give them the customary salute. 
“Why don’t the soldiers present arms, nurse?” “I 
can not tell,” she said, “ we are dressed correctly, are 
in the royal carriage, and I can not guess why they 
refuse us the honors.” At eventide his papa asked 
Prince Henry if he had enjoyed Iris ride to-day? 
“No, papa, not a bit.” “ Not a bit ? What can the 
matter be?” “Why, papa, not a soldier recognized 
or saluted us in driving all round the city, and we had 
on uniform, and rode in the royal carriage.” “Ah!” 
he says to the lad, “ soldiers did not salute you, eh ? 
Well, you must understand, my boy, that no Prussian 
soldier will present arms to an unwashed prince!” 
Teaching Boys a Trade. —Why is it that there 
is such a repugnance on the part of parents to 
putting their sons to a trade? A skilled mechanic 
is an independent man. Go where he will his 
craft will bring him support. He has literally his 
fortune in his own hands. He need ask favors of 
none. Yet ambitious parents—ambitious that their 
sons should “rise in the world,” as they say—are 
more willing that they should study for a profes¬ 
sion, with the chances of even moderate success 
heavily against them, or running the risk of spending 
their manhood in the ignoble task of retailing dry 
goods, or of toiling laboriously at the accountant’s 
desk, than learn a trade which would bring them 
manly strength, health, and independence. In point 
of fact, the method they choose is the one least likely 
to achieve the advancement aimed at; for the supply 
of candidates for positions as “errand boys,” dry goods 
clerks, and kindred occupations, is notoriously over¬ 
stocked ; while on the other hand, the demand for 
really skilled mechanics of every description, is as 
notoriously beyond the supply. The crying need of 
this country to-day is for skilled labor; and that father 
who neglects to provide his son with a useful trade, 
and to see that he thoroughly masters it, does him a 
grievous wrong, and runs the risk of helping, by so 
much, to increase the stock of idle and dependent, if 
not vicious, members of society. It is stated in the 
report of the Prison Association, lately issued, that of 
fourteen thousand five hundred and ninety-six prison¬ 
ers, confined in the penitentiaries of thirty States, in 
1867, seventy-seven per cent., or over ten thousand of 
the number, had never learned a trade. The fact con¬ 
veys a lesson of profound interest to those who have 
in charge the training of boys, and girls too, for the 
active duties of life. 
Cheerful People.—God bless the cheerful peo¬ 
ple—man, woman, or child, old or young, illiterate or 
educated, handsome or homely. Over and above every 
other social trait stands cheerfulness. What the sun 
is to nature—what God is to the stricken heart which 
knows how to lean upon Him—are cheerful persons in 
the house and by the wayside. They go unobtrusively, 
unconsciously, about their silent mission, brightening up 
society around them with the happiness beaming from 
their faces. We love to sit near them; we love the 
nature of their eye, the tone of their voice. Little 
children find them out. oh! so quickly, amid the 
densest crowd, and, passing by the knitted brow and 
compressed lip, glide near, and laying a confiding little 
hand on their knee, lift their clear young eyes to those 
loving faces. 
Pleasures of Reading.—Of all amusements that 
can possibly be imagined for a working man, after 
daily. toil, or in the intervals, there is nothing like 
reading. It calls for no bodily exertion, of which the 
man has had enough—perhaps too much. It relieves 
his home of dulness and sameness. Nay, it accom¬ 
panies him to his next day’s work, and gives him 
something to think of besides the mere mechanical 
drudgery of his every-day occupation—something he 
can enjoy while absent, and look forward to with 
pleasure. 
Sold.—A Troy family having a false grate in one of 
the rooms of the house placed some red paper behind fit 
to give the effect of a fire. One of the coldest days last 
winter the dog belonging to the household came in 
from out of doors, and seeing the paper in the grate 
deliberately walked up to it and laid down before it, 
curling up in the best way to receive the glowing heat 
as it came from the fire. He remained motionless for 
a few minutes; feeling no warmth he raised his head 
and looked over Ms shoulder at the grate; still feeling- 
no heat he arose and carefully applied his nose to the 
grate and smelt of it. It was as cold as ice. With a 
look of the most supreme disgust, his tail curled down 
between his legs, every hair on his body saying, “ I’m 
sold,” the dog trotted out of the room, not even deign¬ 
ing to cast a look at the party in the room who had 
watched his actions and laughed heartily at Ms misfor¬ 
tunes. 
